Huddle/Week of 9-1-19

Onelifechurch   -   September 1, 2019

Refresher

Sunday’s message focused on helping bring up the Next Generation, specifically, what it means to model, equip, and hand over authority to them. To do this, Dan highlighted the relationships in the Old Testament between Moses (who helped free the nation of Israel from generations of slavery in Egypt) and Joshua (his future successor), as well as the relationship between Jonathon (son of Saul, the first King of Israel) and David (think David and Goliath, future king of Israel).

Intro

Dan used the example of teaching his two older boys to drive to illustrate modeling behavior to the Next Generation. To open, share a memory of your experience of learning to drive. If you learned from parents, what were they like during the process? If you aren’t a driver yet, think about your parents, if you were to model your driving based on their driving, what kind of driver would you turn out to be – a great driver or crazy driver?

Read Exodus 33:7-11

Leader note: This text makes it a point to say that Moses spoke to God like it was face-to-face. Joshua watched all of this unfold from the inside of the tent. Dan made the point that Scripture doesn’t seem to suggest that Joshua saw God during Moses’s prayer time or heard God during Moses’s prayer time. He simply observed.

  1. What in verse 11 provides an example of modeling behavior to the next generation?
  2. Why do you think the Biblical writer makes the point that Joshua would not leave the inside of the tent?

Read Numbers 27:18-22 – As Moses grows older and begins to consider his own death, he asks God to raise up another leader so that the community of Israel would be protected.

  1. In verse 20, God tells Moses to, “Give him some of your authority” What does it look like today to “give someone in the next generation some of your authority? How do you do that?
  2. God tells Moses to give his authority to Joshua – the same person that we read about in Exodus 33. Do you think there is a connection between why Joshua was chosen and what we see him doing in Exodus 33:11? If so, how can that connection translate to our relationships with the next generation?
  3. Think back on your life… Do you remember a time when someone called something out of you? Entrusted you with authority? Someone who helped resource you so that you could go to go to the next level?

Jesus Models, Equips, and Gives us authority

What we see in the relationships between Moses and Joshua as well as David and Jonathon were brought to perfection with the arrival of Jesus. In Jesus’s life, we have the perfect model of life to the full. Then, in the Gospels, Jesus promises to fully equip us with the Holy Spirit and then in Matthew 28:16-20, he sends us out with authority.

  1. Jesus promised that he would equip us with the Holy Spirit. To try and understand that a little better, here are a few questions that might spark a way to help describe that experience. How would you answer if someone far from God, who didn’t have a concept of the Holy Spirit asked…
    What does it mean that you have been equipped with the Holy Spirit? What does that actually look like on a regular basis? Are you aware of it?
    Is it something you just experience every once in a while or a general condition of your being?
    How does that come out in your life?
    Can you give me an example of a time when you recognized that the Holy Spirit was active or evident in your life?

Practice

  1. One of the ways Dan illustrated both modeling and equipping was in his conversations at the dinner table. He set up a weekly practice of asking…Where did you see God work this week? Or…Where or in what circumstance was God’s presence most evident to you this week?
    Take time to answer that question in your group now and then try to incorporate that question in a conversation one time this week.
  2. Engaging the Next Generation
    First Steps – If you do not know anyone from the Next Generation, a good first step would be to intentionally introduce yourself. Ask where they are from, what their favorite thing about Evansville is, where they work or go to school, etc.
  3. Next Steps – you already have an established relationship with someone in the Next Generation, make it a point to speak a work of encouragement to them this week, give them some authority by calling out what you see in them, or, invite them to grab some coffee and just get to know them a little more.