FH Strong – Week 8
Icebreaker:
- Share a personal story where you had to deal with severe pain in your life: whether physical or emotional.
- Why does pain and suffering cause us to question our faith?
- What is the difference between how you felt about the situation while going thru it and how you think about it now?
- Looking back, how did the experience of suffering make you stronger?
Review:
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- John 16:33
- First 3 Steps to be FH Strong
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- Step 1: Choose Courage
- Step 2: Sharpen your Character
- Step 3: Rely on God’s Power
- Step 4: Focus your life on what really matters
- Step 5: Choose to live a life of Biblically-based freedom
- Step 6: Endure through hardships and adversity
Main Point:
- Step 7: Don’t abandon your faith when adversity strikes
Going deeper:
- In light of this week’s sermon, what is new information, challenged, or stood out to you?
Read aloud 1 Peter 1: 3-12
- What circumstances do you think the original recipients faced that would cause Peter to write like this?
- What kind of work is each person (Father, Son, and Spirit) doing in our lives?
- What basis does Peter give his readers for having a living hope?
- What qualities of a Christian last forever?
- What words, phrases or ideas would you list under “already available” to a Christian? What ones would you list under “not yet but glad they are coming? How do the ones on the “not yet” support the “already” list? Are some on both lists? Why?
- What does this passage ask us to believe, and what does this passage ask us to do because of these beliefs?
Application:
- Imagining your faith as a mountain climb, what situations in your life now would be faith cliff hangers, easy trails, thirsty moments, great views or just walking up the path?
- What would you pull out of your 1 Peter pack in these situations?
- The prophets struggled to know more. What aspects of your faith are you struggling to know more?
- Under what fiery circumstances and situations has your faith become more genuine through refinement (melting it down to it’s essentials)?
