It's Complicated(S1) : WK 1 - GROUP GUIDE

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
As we begin this series, spend some time talking to each other about what kinds of things make life so complicated? Our faith or lack thereof? Our sin? Our differences?  In recent memory, what is something that you’ve faced and found complicated?

HEAD

1. Read Psalm 23 and 1 Samuel 17:34-37 together and share any wisdom, insights, or thoughts that come to you from the reading.
2. In Psalm 23:1, what do you think it means to have all that you need, or lack nothing, if the Lord is your shepherd?  Put it in your own words?
3. Psalm 23:4 is all about protection even in the most difficult of times.  
4. Knowing David was a man who chased after God’s own heart, a musician, poet, and warrior, how do you think he spent his down time as a shepherd?
5. What do you think gave David such confidence to know that if he could kill a bear or a lion, surely he could defeat Goliath?

HEART

1. If Psalm 23 has been a meaningful passage to you in the past, share why?

6. Jesus also uses the terminology of being a shepherd.  What is endearing to you about this picture of the Lord as our shepherd?
7. What differences do you see between David’s life as a shepherd, and the way David describes God in Psalm?  What similarities?
8. David used violence to protect his sheep, and ultimately used violence to protect God’s people and prove who was the one true God.  What do you think about the use of violence?  Is it ever ok?  How would you reconcile your comment with Jesus’ “turn the other cheek,” “pray for your enemies,” and “those who live by the sword die by the sword”?
9. In this week’s guide, we talked about the difference between David’s courage, and the response we often give, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief?” Do you think God praises one of these and looks down upon the other? Explain.
10. Inside each of us lies at least two different people; the people we want to be, strive to be, and the people we are.  How do we continue to strive to be the people we want to be, on the days when the people we are seems to win out?

HANDS
Try to commit Psalm 23 to memory, maybe by writing it down and keeping it by your bedside stand so that each morning, when you awake, you recite its words as your own prayer.  Do this for a week, taking time each day to meditate (or spend some extra time) on one of the passages.  At the end of the week, review and see if this is a practice you’d like to continue.

LIVING WORDS FOR YOUR WEEK
“11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.  14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.”
John 10:11, 14-16 NLT