Huddle/Week of 9-29-19

Zach Below   -   September 29, 2019

September 29 Huddle

DATES TO REMEMBER

  • Daniel Fast starts September 30—It’s not too late to join in. Check out the One Life App for more details.
  • Centered Series starts October 20th—Start thinking about who you can bring with you!

 

 INTRO

  1. What are your earliest memories of prayer? Do you remember doing it at bed as a child? Seeing your parents pray?

 

  1. What was dinner like at home when you grew up? Was it around a table? In front of the TV? Mainly fast food?

 

SCRIPTURE ACTIVITY—DWELLING IN THE WORD

Today we are talking about prayer and fasting, and this exercise is one way we can combine the practice of prayer, scripture reading, and shared wisdom of the community.

 

The purpose is to prayerfully listen to the text, hear the Word of God, and ask God to reveal Himself through Scripture.

Make sure and read the complete process before beginning step #1

 

A Little Background on Colossians

Leader Note: Colossians is a letter writer by Paul to a church in the town of Colossae (in modern day Turkey). Paul didn’t plant the church in Colossae. Epaphras, a young protégé of Paul’s, planted the church at Colossae. Paul is writing while in prison (under house arrest) in Rome. It seems as is Epaphras is with Paul at the time of the writing. Epaphras stays with Paul for an unknown time and Paul sends two disciples named Tychius and Onesimus to deliver the letter, along with the letter to the church of Ephesus, and the letter to Philemon. Colossians was written around 60 AD.

 

 Dwelling in the Word Exercise:

* Make sure to explain the full process to the group before step #1.

  1. Have someone read Colossians 1:1-14 (If this is your groups 1st time doing the exercise, you may need to read it twice)
  2. Listen to the text. What did you hear? Focus on one thing. May have been a word that jumped out, a phrase that stuck, an idea that formed.
  3. Spend 30-seconds in prayer filled reflection. Asking God why He revealed this to you in this particular moment.
  4. Break off into pairs and share your reflections (If your group is too new, and would be uncomfortable breaking down into smaller groups, skip #5 and just share as a group.)
    1. Promote interaction between people that don’t know each other. Also, encourage active listening.
  5. Come back together as a large group. Each person will advocate for their partner, sharing what they heard [you will want them to be aware this is going to happen so that they listen].
    1. Do not go around the circle. Have someone start and build on the opening.

 

Dwelling in the Word Debrief Questions (Leaders ask after people have shared or interject throughout the sharing)

  1. Were there any common or obvious themes emerge among multiple people?
  2. What do you think God was wanting our community to hear in this exercise?
  3. Ask–Did anything that someone else said hit you especially hard?

Leader Close Exercise in Prayer—thanking God for revealing Himself to the community, repeat the agreed upon themes/learning, ask that it transforms our faith community.

 

 Fasting Discussion

  1. When you hear the word “fasting” what do you think of? What emotion does it illicit in you?

 

  1. Occasionally, you will hear people (or maybe you yourself) speaking negatively about fasting. Where do you think that negativity comes from? What are the dangers of fasting?

 

  1. In the message Sunday, Bret made the point that one of the difficult things about understanding fasting is that when we look at scripture, we generally see fasting only as modeled behavior…that is to say, there is no chapter or verse that says, “here is exactly what fasting is about” or “here is exactly what you do when you fast.”

 

With that in mind, what do you think are some positive reasons to fast? Think in terms of possible spiritual reasons, cognitive/emotional reasons, or culture reasons. (example of cultural reason…fasting rebels against an instant gratification culture)

 

  1. The definition of fasting used on Sunday was… “Fasting is freely denying myself something fundamentally good, to gain what is fundamentally best.”

What is that definition getting at? What does it mean?

If working from this definition, does fasting have to be food? What other ways could you fast?

 

GROUP ACTIVITY (If time)

  • Either break down into groups of 2-3, or as a larger group, do a quick search (could probably do on google) on where scripture uses the word “fast/fasting.”
  • Are there any that stand out as insightful?
  • Are there any that stand out as confusing matters more?
  • Are there any that help you better understand the nature of fasting?

 

Practice

  1. Even if you are unable to participate in the fast, sign up on the One Life App to receive pray notifications during the next 21 days. These once/day notifications will remind you to pray.

 

 

Prayer

  • Close in prayer