Week 4 Sermon Questions For Groups

A Better Way: Your best days are now.

Introduction:

Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we have been afforded an opportunity to live an incredibly abundant life here on earth. Our God is nearer, more tangible, and has a greater ability to make His presence known than we’ve yet realized. He longs to make His children more in tune and aware of the depths of His love, guidance, empowerment, and nearness. He longs for our days here on earth to be marked by unveiled communion with Him.

Bottom line: If we follow a fully present Jesus, we should be living a fully present life.

Something To Talk About:

Your best days are now: As Christians, it is important to be present in the moment. Because it’s really important to be present in the moment. Why aren’t we fully present in the moment? Maybe because we are focused on something that happened a long time ago and we are trying to figure it all out and undo it. The Lord doesn’t want you to play a victim role or blame others. He doesn’t want you to wallow in past failures or become enslaved to bitterness and regret.
Or we’re all freaked out about what’s gonna happen in the future. The only way we can be present in the moment is to actually surrender the past you can’t change and trust God with a future that you can’t control. The only way to fully be present in the moment is to let go of a past that you can’t change no matter what you do and trust that God has it. Or to surrender your future and trust that God is good, that He cares, that He’s already there and because He redeems the past and because He’s good in the future, you can be fully engaged with the person or that which is before you in the present.
Today is a gift from God and we should celebrate every moment. At any moment on Sundays, we gather together in the presence of God. This is the most important moment we are experiencing God right now with God’s people. David said in Psalm 118:24: ”This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” We’ve got today, this is the day. And because this is God’s day, we are going to be glad and rejoice in it.
The most important moment is right now, the most important person is the one right in front of you. The reality is some of the most powerful moments are often the smallest moments. The most meaningful often aren’t always the mountaintop but the conversation you have with someone that you love.
Forget about the uncertainty of tomorrow. Don’t waste time asking what may happen and, rather, focus on the rock-solid promises found in God’s Word, the Bible. Remember when you cross the threshold of tomorrow, God will be there to welcome you and walk with you. Live for today and with the rising of the sun cry out, “Lord, walk with me today; I’m yours and you are mine! Thank you for your promises. Let’s take on every moment of the day together.”

Discussion Questions:

“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow’s a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present”(cartoonist Bill Keane) Agree or disagree and why?
What are some criteria you could use to make decisions for today?
How do you train yourself to stay in the present moment? How do you know you are present in the moment?
Do we tend to overlook God as a source of wisdom for today?
Do you truly believe that your best days are now? Why or why not?
Was there a time when you weren’t living in the moment. What did you learn about the importance of being fully present after that moment passed?
Do you typically have a harder time surrendering the past you can’t change or trusting God with a future you can’t control? Why is that?
Take time each day this week to practice being fully present. As you slow down and soak in the moments happening around you, what would be different in your life if you were present in the moment? If you viewed this day as your best day?
What part of this message will stay with you? Why? What are the personal implications (for you)?
What are the communal implications for the church?

Take one thing home with you:

We need to live a purpose-driven life, not a time-driven life. Because what is truly important is not how much time we have but what we do with the time we have. A. W. Tozer wrote: “Time is a resource that is non-renewable and non-transferable. You cannot store it, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up or give it up. You can’t hoard it up or save it for a rainy day…”

Theologian Jonathan Edwards understood Paul’s charge to make the best use of our time. He wrote “Resolved: Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can. Resolved: to live with all my might while I do live. Resolved, to ask myself at the end of every day, week, did I make wise use of my time”?