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MISSION POSSIBLE: Transform, Part 1

Deep Dive Weekly Small Group Study 8

Text:  Romans 12:1-2, Ephesians 4:17-24

Message: “Mission Possible: Transform Pt. 1”

Week of November 2, 2009

QUICK REFLECT:                Looking back on this week’s message, was there anything that particularly caught your attention, challenged or confused you?

OPENING:           What is the difference between being conformed and transformed?

THOUGHTS:           “I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.  Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.  I don’t want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant.  I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth.  I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.  I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.” By Tim Hansel, author.

 

What does Hansel mean by suggesting someone would only want $3.00 worth of God?

 

What does having a partial or limited interest in God do to your relationship with God?

 

What are the ways your relationship with God is on “your terms”?

 

Do you want ecstasy instead of transformation?

 

That’s  what HE Said:      Read: John 3:1-21

What is the context in which Jesus shares this teaching?

 

Who is Nicodemus?  Why is he seeking Jesus?

 

What does Jesus mean by “you must be born again”?

How does “born again” relate to our transformation process?

Read: Romans 12:1-2

 

Do you “copy the behaviors and customs of this world”?  What is to prevent it from happening?

 

What forces are influencing and shaping you?

 

What are you doing to make sure you’re being transformed instead of conformed?

 

The root meaning of transformed (in the Greek) is “changed thinking”.  What are you doing to change your thinking?  Review Ephesians 4:17-24.  How many places do you see where the passage talks about thinking?

 

How well are you doing with “saturating your mind with the scriptures”?

 

Are you putting on your “new nature”? (v. 24)

 

Reread the last sentence of Romans 12:2.  Why is knowing “God’s will for you,” important?

Share Prayer Concerns

Have each person offer a one sentence, “Jesus, change my . . .”

Close with the Lord’s Prayer.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.  Amen.