Wells & Wineskins (Part 1): Intro
Description: We believe the words used to describe Jesus in the Gospels as "filled & led" is the specific invitation God is placing before the Round Rock Church of Christ. In our new series, "Wells & Wineskins" we are unpacking what it looks like to cultivate a desire to be filled by God in the midst of a schedule & society that siphons this desire.
READ: John 4:5-15
QUESTIONS:
(1) Jesus speaks of a heavenly reality through an earthly medium of water. What other stories does God use water to bring about new realities? (Rephrase: What stories in the Old Testament might Jesus have had in the back of his mind when referring to water?)
(2) This moment with Jesus & the woman from Samaria happens in a setting where great and not-so-great moments of faith have happened in the past. The woman at the well struggles to understand Jesus due to the region's past. What great & not-so-great moments of the past do you find yourself hopeful about or nervous about our church reliving that distracts you from what Jesus might be doing in the present?
(3) Jesus tells the woman at the well, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." What practices, discussions, or topics of faith have become dry or unsatisfying to you?
(4) Jesus promises a temporal/foretaste satisfaction of drinking in life with him. Are there any areas of your life & faith that you sense the foretaste/kingdom coming to earth is happening?
(5) When you do not find Jesus compelling, interesting, or convincing, what do you personally tend to fill your life with that on the surface feels more satisfying?
BLESSING PRAYER:
To close small group, we invite you to practice blessing prayer together. This past week, we taught group leaders a model of blessing prayer. Blessing prayer is the practice of bringing God’s heart and head down to someone in a moment of prayer. The model has three steps 1) Listen: take time to slow down and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us through words, images, Scriptures, etc. (seek God’s desires for this person) 2) Name: point to God’s character (name who God is) and then secondly, name the way God views that person or his people as a whole. 3) Bless: bless what God has done and is doing and ask for God to reveal anything He would like for you to boldly share over that person. One way to decide how this might look is maybe just to ask if there is anyone who would volunteer to receive blessing prayer and then just spend the last 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, whatever makes sense, praying over them.