What you do matters, but who you are matters more. It’s easy to get keep our eyes on the best results, largest profits, and the most followers and miss the foundation of true influence and leadership – character. Instead of focusing on the right kind of outcomes, we should be attentive to being the right kind of people!  This week, we begin our series by seeing how Jesus viewed God’s good gift of power and how we can follow his lead by practicing humble influence!

Group Discussion Guide 

To see the Leader Guide for this week, click here.

Introduction

Spend a few minutes discussing how your summer went! Take some time to catch up or get to know the people in your group.  

After your time of connecting, begin your meeting with prayer.  

Key Verse for the Week

*Read this verse, then encourage the practice of memorization through the week. 

Philippians 4:5 

“Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.”  

**When practiced consistently, memorizing Bible verses can be an important spiritual practice that centers your mind around the truth that God has given us. 

Opening Thought  

We live in a fast-paced world where the main focus is doing whatever it takes to accomplish the goals we set in life. While there is nothing inherently wrong with working hard and wanting to accomplish our goals—this can very easily become a struggle when that is our primary focus. This can be problematic because not only can we begin to idolize these goals we are striving for, but we can begin to care less about those around us while striving to accomplish them. If we aren’t careful in how we strive to accomplish our goal, we can miss out completely on demonstrating of God’s love and mercy to those around us. This leads us to our Big Idea for the week

Big Idea For The Week
We can be a positive influence by staying focused on our character. 

Connect

• What does being a “positive influence” to others mean to you? 
• What do you believe good character in a person looks like? How can that affect your influence on others? 
• If comfortable, share a time when you accomplished a goal under poor leadership. Was this a positive or negative result, in your opinion? Why did that stand out to you?  
• When were you in an influential role where you could have demonstrated better character? 

Unpack 

Go around your group and have someone read each of the following verses, then discuss the connected questions. 

Read

1 Peter 2:12 

Discuss

• What do you think this verse means when it says to “live properly”? Why should we live like this? 
• Why does it matter if others see us live this way?  

• Why is it important that people who do not believe in God or follow Jesus see us live this way? 

The next section of verses we’ll be reading from was written by Peter, one of the original 12 disciples. In this section, Peter is writing a letter to the Christians of scattered churches throughout Asia Minor (most of modern-day Turkey) to remind them that God has given them promises and knowledge of how to live a godly life. Pay attention to how the audience of the letter is called to respond to these promises of God.  

Read

2 Peter 1:5-7 

Discuss

• How are these verses different than how our culture responds to leadership/influence? 
• Why do you think the author of these verses gave these instructions to his audience?  

Read

Romans 12:1 

Discuss

• What does it mean to be a living sacrifice in your life? How can we use our influence to do this in our relationship to God and others? 

Apply 

Based on the verses we just read, there are some things that we can do in response. Take a moment to discuss these questions as a group to decide what your personal action steps for the week can be: 

• What is an area of your life where you need to evaluate either your motivations to lead or the type of leader you are? 
• How can you stay focused on being a positive influence in the busy-ness of the world and life?  
• What is one area this week you are going to focus on being a living sacrifice? 
• How can this group support you and keep you accountable in your action steps this week? 

Closing 

This week we talked about the challenge of leading in a way that is glorifying to God. Whether it is leading in our home or in the workplace, it is so easy to become results focused—rather than character focused. It is easy to get distracted from the way we lead, and simply focus on our goal. What we see from the life of Jesus is that we should instead, live a life of sacrifice and humility as we use our influence and leadership of others. Remember these things as you practice your action steps this week and discuss how it went with your group next week!  

Prayer and Verses 

Ask for prayer requests, conclude your time with prayer, then share the Key Verse and Daily Bible Reading with the group. 

Daily Bible Reading

Use the S.O.A.K. method to reflect on the verses below. 

Scripture: Read the verses several times. Reading out loud can be helpful as well. 
Observation: What can you see about the scripture you read? 
Application: What is God wanting you to believe, do, or feel, based on what you have read? 
Kneel in Prayer: This is a chance to talk to God about what you have read and ask him for help in living out what you’ve learned. 

• Day 1: James 1:12 
• Day 2: Proverbs 22:1 
• Day 3: Proverbs 16:24 
• Day 4: Ephesians 6:10-12 
• Day 5: Colossians 3:12-15 
• Day 6: Proverbs 11:3