Here's How (Part 4): Here's How To Be Brave

TO START

This week, our Discipleship Minister, Matt, invited us into the fourth  part of a series called Here’s How, a series that invites us to live out our mission to Live Love together through our 7 core behaviors. This week, we leaned into one of the seven ways we practice living love: being brave.

  • How have you seen the practice of being brave  in action in your life? What did it look like? How did it make you feel? (Encourage your group to share how they’ve seen it in this group if they have an example) . 

TO DISCUSS

At the beginning of Matt’s message. He invited us to consider fear as it relates to being brave and simply the reality that we need to name what we fear.

  • So what are you most afraid of in your life? What keeps you up at night? What do you fear? 

In order to get to the heart of the posture of bravery  that God enables in us.  Read Joshua 1:1-11

  • Do you struggle with God’s call for you to be brave and courageous? If so, what keeps you from being brave? And do you have people like Joshua in your life who help you to be more courageous?

In the sermon Matt quotes Andy Stanley who speaks about the connection between fearlessness & boldness as we follow Jesus… He says, “A big myth is that bold leadership is reserved for fearless people. That’s absolutely not the case…All the fearless people are dead. Everybody has fear, your fear isn’t going to go away until you’re dead…so bold leadership isn’t about having no fear.” 

  •  In your life and in your experience with church, do you feel like you’ve been raised to believe that fear is something to be ashamed of or to believe that fear is something that is normal? 

  • What do you believe is the relationship between fear and bravery in the context of following Jesus? 

Additionally, Matt points us to the fact that bravery flows out of our divine proximity to God & that bravery sets the stage for others to become brave too. 

  • Have you experienced a moment where your ability to be brave because of proximity to God led you to a breakthrough moment? What was it? How did it make you feel? 

TO CLOSE

As a group, pray for the Holy Spirit to enliven y’all to how God is calling them to be brave on an individual and collective level. Invite your group to share one small courageous act that could take this week. And then close with this prayer: 

God, we believe that you are the One who makes us brave,

Fear whispers to us from the news,

It calls us from our bank accounts, 

It creeps into our marriages, 

Yet given the life-giving power and presence of You, 

God, we have every reason to be brave. 

Amen. 

Matt DeLano