LIFE GROUP GUIDE The Revolution Has Begun #11

---

LIFE GROUP GUIDE The Revolution Has Begun #11: “At Home with God”

Tips for Leaders This week we discuss how Christian husbands, wives and children are to live in order to please Jesus. Some in our groups may well be surprised that this is what God says to us in the Bible, and it could be the case that some won’t initially like it. As such, do be open to questions and discussion. However, continually go back to what our passage says in these discussions, so that if there is any disagreement, people are disagreeing with God’s Word and not with you! As always, one of the very best ways to prepare is to meditate on these verses, loving them and putting them into practice in your own life. Passage: Ephesians 5:21-6:4 Big idea: “Husbands, wives and children are to live a life worthy of the calling they have received in different ways.” CONNECT UP AND IN: give God an opportunity to speak to you through his Word 1) Read Ephesians 5:22-33. Divide people into two groups. Ask one group to answer the following questions for husbands, and the other group to answer the following questions for wives. Once you’re done with the following questions, please share your findings with one another. [Leaders note: You can choose whether to split into men/women or another way. If you split men and women it could be really valuable to ask the women to answer for husbands and men to answer for wives.] a) List the specific ways in which Paul says a Christian wife/husband is to serve their spouse. b) How is this controversial in our culture? Is there anything that we find hard? Anything that we don’t understand? c) How is this grounded in the way that Jesus and the church interact as bridegroom and bride? d) If husbands and wives lived like this as believers in Jesus, how would this impact our marriages, church and people we know that don’t yet know Jesus? 2) Marriage is a glorious gift from God. However, as with all good gifts, it can be turned into an idol. In Glynn Harrison’s excellent A Better Story, he speaks to single people in the first quote, and to married people in the second quote: "...your faithful abstinence from sex outside marriage is just as powerful a statement of the unbreakable link between covenant and intimacy as that offered by marriage itself." "Too many of us, including parents, pay lip service to the importance of the single life, while harbouring heart-level idolatries of marriage." In what ways does our culture, both inside the church and out, idolise marriage? How do these quotes encourage and challenge us to apply Ephesians 5:22-33, whether we are married or not? 3) Please read Ephesians 6:1-4. Getting back into your two groups, ask one group to answer the following questions for parents and the other to answer for children. Once you’re done with the following questions, please share your findings with one another. a) List the specific ways in which Paul says a Christian is to serve their parents/children.

b) How is this controversial in our culture? Is there anything that we find hard? Anything that we don’t understand? c) How is this grounded in the way that Jesus interacted with his own Father? d) What is the significance of this being “the first commandment that comes with a promise”? e) If parents and children lived like this, how would this impact our marriages, church and people we know that don’t yet know Jesus? 4) We need God’s power in order to live out Ephesians 5:21-6:4. Ask God in prayer to help us live this out and pray for one another to be filled with the Holy Spirit. CONNECT OUT: discuss the implications for your interactions with the world around you 1) Read 1 Peter 3:1-2. These verses tell us that wives submitting to their husbands that aren’t Christians can be evangelistically fruitful. If there are people married to those that aren’t yet Christians in your Life Group, pray for them that their spouses would come to know Jesus through their behaviour. 2) We live in a gender-divided culture, where abuse, divorce and family break-up is everywhere. Pray that as we live out our marital roles in a way worthy of the calling we have received, that opportunities would emerge with those that aren’t Christians and that they would turn to Jesus and be saved.