Faith Forward: Gifts

Selected Scriptures

Connect:

• Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.

Prayer:

Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.

Review:

This message series looks at six essential moves found in Scripture — moves that lead to a flourishing life. There’s a reason why some people experience joy, purpose, and spiritual momentum…while others feel stuck, confused, and disconnected. At ZCC, we call these our “6Gs” which are Grace, Growth, Group, Gifts, Generosity, Go. This week, we looked at using our Gifts to serve others and build up the Body of Christ…

The Grand Tour of the message: Thinking back on what you heard this Sunday…

o What did you learn about God?

o What did you learn about people?

o What did you learn about yourself?

o What do you want to commit to putting into practice?

Reflection:

Personal Experience:

• We all have things that we bought that we have never actually used. Give your group a minute to think of “that thing” they have but never used, and then go around the group and each share

  • What you bought,

  • What you were thinking when you bought it…

  • …and if you think you’ll ever use it :)

• Reflective Discussion (Remember to look at the context of the verses as you are reading!):

  • Brainstorm as a group about all the reasons you can think of that people who have gifts from God do not “open” the gift and put it to use for God’s purposes. Try to list at least 15 or more distinct reasons!

  • Now let’s reflect on that from Scripture. Read the following passages and discuss why some of the gifts that God gives His people never get put into use for His Church/ His Kingdom (Exodus 4:1-12, Jer 1:4-10, Matt 25:14-30, 1 Cor 12:14-21, 2 Tim 1:6-7, Gal 6:7-10)

  • Scott shared that when we use our gift, we activate our purpose, strengthen our faith and advance our mission. Read Eph 4:12-13, Romans 12:4-8 and discuss those 3 ideas using the following questiosn to catalyze discussion:

    • What does it mean to use a gift “in accordance with your faith”?

    • If we have “different gifts according to the grace given us” does that mean that people who appear to have lots of talents have lots more grace than others… or is there more to it than that?

    • Why is faith such an intrinsic part of exercising our God-given gifts for HIs purposes?

  • Read 1 Cor 12:27-13:6. What is it about “Love” that governs the exercise of God’s gifts to each of us?

Application: 

Do you know what your gifts are? Head over to our Spiritual Gifts Test page and find out!

Prayer:

Spend some time in prayer offering ourself to the Lord for His purposes through you, knowing that God’s purposes for you extend far, far beyond what you experience or what you can see!

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Get more resources to go deeper through Commentaries and Bible Study helps HERE