What’s the best way to navigate the journey of faith? How do we best go about constructing our faith for the first time, or reconstructing some well-worn area of belief that needs revisiting? During our new four-week series Faith Under Construction, we’ll focus on what it takes to tackle the challenge of putting together a faith that lasts. We’ll begin by putting our focus on the foundation: Jesus himself, as our guide and best example.

Group Discussion Guide

To see the leader guide for this week CLICK HERE

Introduction

Spend a few minutes discussing with your group how their Easter holiday went. What were the highs and lows of their last week?

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

Key Verse

Colossians 3:17 
“And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”

Opening

Our faith, when built well and founded on the teachings of Jesus, should be solid in the face of difficulties or storms that may appear in our lives. Unfortunately, many of us may have chosen to build some parts of our faith on our own or by listening to people or traditions that may not be completely founded on Jesus and his teachings. What might look okay at first, may be much more brittle than we realize and, if left unchecked, could become unstable and fall apart, leaving our faith in pieces that we don’t know what to do with. Building our faith well is essential, which means sometimes we need to refine and remove things from what we believe that are either untrue or misaligned when compared to what Jesus taught.

Big idea for the week: We can lay a strong foundation for our faith.

Connect

• What were some things you believed when you were younger that you later learned were not true?
• What did you learn growing up that turned out to not be healthy for you?
• Was there anything relating to your faith that you later learned was not true or healthy for you?
• What makes a person wise or an expert at something? Who do you view as a wise person or expert to listen to concerning how to live life?

Unpack

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

READ

• Mark 8:34
• Galatians 5:25

DISCUSS

• What areas of your life do you have difficulty letting Jesus be your guide when it comes to growth?
• What is the main reason you would have difficulty trusting that the Lord will guide you well in all aspects of your life?

READ

• Luke 6:46-49
• Psalms 37:23-24

DISCUSS

• Which one do you believe is more important to the life of a Christian: knowing or obeying the teachings of Jesus? How well do you live out this belief in the way you orient your time and priorities each day?
• How can you choose to build your faith wisely upon the teachings of Jesus in a practical way?

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 in order to determine what your personal action steps for the week can be:

• What is one area in your life you can let Jesus be your guide in from now on?
• What is one practice of Jesus’ teachings you can choose to follow this week?
• What is the best way for your group to help you be diligent in these action steps over the course of the next week and beyond?

Closing

Just like constructing a building, part of growing in our faith well requires that we take an honest look at ourselves and make sure that we are standing on strong ground. Sometimes this means we need to make the difficult decision of breaking our faith down to the most basic beliefs so we can start from the ground up. We must do this wisely, however, and complete the construction, even if it takes a while. Together, with Jesus as our guide, we can make our faith stronger than it has ever been, as we build ourselves up in a healthy way.

Daily Bible Reading

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

Scripture: Read the verses several times out loud.
Observation: As you read the scripture what do you observe.
Application: What is God wanting you to believe, do or feel based on what you have read?
Pray: 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: Psalms 34:8
• Day 2: Matthew 5
• Day 3: Matthew 6
• Day 4: Matthew 7
• Day 5: Proverbs 4:27
• Day 6: John 15:8