A Study In Luke - End of Week 1

INTRODUCTION
The following is a guide to help facilitate discussion between you and the person you’re studying with or with your Connect Group. Feel free to add, subtract, or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.

OPEN QUESTIONS
Describe to others in your group how you imagine Jesus.  What does he look like?  What’s he wearing when you spend time with Him? What color are his eyes?  What’s it like to listen to the sound of His voice, or how would you imagine it to be like if you feel you’ve never heard it?

HEAD

1. Read Luke 5 together and share any wisdom, insights, or thoughts that come to you from the reading.
2. Why do you think these professional fishermen were so quick to let this person take over their boats?
3. The miracle of the fish wasn’t just enough to feed them, the catch nearly broke their nets.  How does God’s abundance play into this story and do you find yourself more often leaning into the God of abundance, or a life of scarcity?  How does that show in your life?
4. Why do you think people so often disobeyed Jesus’ instructions to not tell anyone about their healing?  Why do you think Jesus gave that instruction?
5. In verse 16, it says Jesus often withdrew, sometimes even in the moments where he was gaining momentum.  What lessons can we learn about Jesus’ rhythms of life that we can apply to our own?
6. Jesus called such a diverse group of people to be his companions (fishermen, zealots, tax collectors, etc…). How should his choices inform the kinds of communities we seek to create?

HEART

1. What is something you feel you have learned recently in your walk with Jesus?  Something he has, or is, teaching you?
2. Has Jesus ever redirected your life (aka - from fishermen to fishers of men)?  If so, how and what was that experience like for you?
3. Praise God for friends that are willing to do whatever it takes to get their loved one to Jesus.  In what ways can we as a church community live in a similar way for our brothers and sisters in the communities around us?
4. Which would you have Jesus do for you, forgive your sins or heal a physical, mental, or emotional ailment?  Explain your answer. (good news is that he does both in the story of hte paralytic)
5. Matthew Levi would have been the last choice of almost anyone living in that time, to be a disciple.  He had betrayed his own people.  What do you learn from Jesus’ willingness to choose him, and how can we seek to be more like Jesus in who we include?

HANDS
Luke chapter 5 ends with Jesus talking about fasting, and though fasting in Scripture often relates to food, it can also mean removing something from your life for a time in order to allow more time to focus on God.  What most gets in the way of your walk with Jesus?  Is it technology (texts, social media, etc…)?  Is it work? Is it your need to be up on the latest news?  What if this week, for three days, you set those things aside and used that same time to sit at the feet of Jesus; to worship; to journal; to listen?

LIVING WORDS FOR YOUR WEEK
“Be still and know that I am God.”
Psalm 46:10 NLT