Proof of Life: Fully Confident

1 John 5:13-21

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 series, Proof of Life, is looking at how we KNOW that we are saved, born of the Spirit, alive in Christ… and what that looks like in our daily walk! This week we looked at the confidence we have in our life in Christ Jesus…

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:

• Talk about a time when you were HIGHLY confident of your ability, knowledge or character in a specific situation… and you fell dramatically on your face! It turns out, your ideas about yourself met a reality you were not expecting, and that confidence was misplaced. Compare your source of confidence before and after that event.

  Group Discussion:

• Read 1 John 5:13-15

  • How do the things we have studied over the past few weeks help us know we have eternal life if we believe in the Son of God, Jesus? Let’s talk about that:

    • What is “belief” in the sense John uses it here? (Jon 1:12, Heb 11:1,6, James 1:6, Rom 8:13-16)

    • What is the connection between our faith in Jesus and our confidence that we are saved? (Rom 5:1-2, Titus 3:5-7, Eh 2:8-9, 1 Peter 1:3-5).

    • Is it possible to believe that Jesus is God, but refuse to acknowledge Him as our Lord? James 2:19, Luke 6:46, Matt 7:21, 1 John 2:3-4).

  • John says, “…if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us…[and] we know that we have what we asked of Him”.

    • Sooooo… can I ask God to make me rich beyond my wildest dreams, make [that person] fall in love with me, or help me pass a test I never studied for? Why or why not?

    • What does it mean to “ask according to His will?” God wants me happy, right? If those things make me happy, what’s the problem here? (James 4:1-5, Rom 8:26-27)

    • How do we discern if we are in alignment with God’s will when we pray? (Ps 139:23-24, Phil 2:13, Eph 5:10, Gal 5: 22-23, John 16:13)

• Read 1 John 5:16-17

  • Prayer is an act of love when we see someone controlled by the sin nature. How would we pray for them? Be specific.

  • What should we do when we see a brother or sister in Christ commit a sin? is there anything beyond “pray for them”? (Gal 6:1, James 5:19-20, Matt 18:15-17, 2 tim 2:24-26, Jude v22-23)

  • John talks about sin that leads to death and says NOT to pray about that! Maybe this is a reference to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Matt 12:31,31; Mark 3:29, Luke 12:10), or perhaps unforgiveness (Matt 6:14-15, Mark 11:26) or simply rejection of Jesus as the Christ (Hebrews 6:4-6 and 10:26, John 1:12-13 and 3:16-18). There were also times in the early church where God dealt with people severely (Acts 5:1-11, 1 Cor 11:23-32). What do you think John is talking about here?

  Read 1 John 5:18-21

  • How does God keep believers safe from the evil one?

  • What are idols in our day and age, and how do we “keep ourselves” from them?

Application: 

Our confidence that we are saved is a confidence born of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to us. Are there areas of our lives where we are quenching the Voice and work of the Holy Spirit that need to be surrendered to His Lordship?

Prayer:

Spend some time praying together that God will show us clearly in our hearts the reality and the joy of our salvation!

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