Through a different lens.
A small group Study on grief.
Week 1,
You can just hurt, or you can hurt with hope. Both hurt with a sense of death, but one brings life out of death.
On Sunday Ps. Rob started a sermon series on grief.
The series is based on a book by Levi Lusko ‘Through the eyes of a Lion,’ about his journey of losing his 5-year-old daughter Lenya to an asthma attack just before Christmas in 2012. Levi’s purpose for the book is to empower people to grieve with hope in Jesus.
Billy Graham said that “What oxygen is to the lungs, hope is to our survival in this world.”
Levi in the books writes hope as being; “a confident expectation. A joyful anticipation. An active, dynamic, energizing enthusiasm. When you have hope, gale-forced winds can blow and tsunami waves can smash into the hull of your life, but you are buoyed by the belief that the best is yet to come, that brighter days are ahead. Hope quietly tells your heart that all is not lost, even as storms rage. Our hope is a living hope because Jesus lives forever.”
Grief hurts. However, we can just hurt, or we can hurt with hope.
Discussion
What stood out to you in Ps. Robs message on Sunday?
Read Hebrews 6:9, 19 and John 16:7. What is the hope we have and how are our souls anchored to it?
Hurting with hope still hurts. However, the hope reminds and encourages us that despite the hurt God is with us and working on good things for us (Romans 8:28). How can we encourage ourselves with His hope when we are hurting?
Share a time you where you received hope from positioning yourself in an atmosphere of expectant faith.
What lens do we default to when it comes to death? Everything we have lost, or an eternal lens? How can we recalibrate our lens to see death through an eternal lens?
Link leaders please note. For some people, this subject might be raw and bring up emotions. While this might happen don’t avoid the conversation and the protentional discussion that could come up. Rather take note if something is triggered in someone and follow up on it. If necessary, let either Hannah Stevenson or Ps. Rob know, and we will follow them up.
Prayer Focus
Spend time praying for one another, celebrating what is to come after this life.
Week 2,
Turn up the groan.
This week Ps. Rob shared how he believes all of us are groaning for eternity. In fact, Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that God has placed eternity in the hearts of man.
Perhaps this is why when a loved one passes, it feels like a piece of us is missing, like something has been stolen from us. Because deep down inside something within us knows that we were created to live forever. This is the groaning. This is the eternal echo beckoning within us.
The founder and director of Eternal Perspectives Ministries Randy Alcorn said; “You have been made for a person and a place. That person is Jesus, and the place is heaven. Until you’re tapped into that knowledge your heart will be restless.”
In other words, you’ll keep groaning with intensity, longing for something else, longing for eternity.
Discussion
What stood out to you in Ps. Robs message on Sunday?
On Sunday Ps. Rob shared what he thought Heaven might look like to him (exploring every inch of God’s creation, riding horses flat out, and asking God endless questions). While none of us will know until we get there. What do you think heaven will look like, what will you do when you get there?
Ps. Rob said that death isn’t just a departure; it is an arrival. How does that change your perspective of death, eternity, heaven & hell?
During the message Rob talked about our pain being a microphone, giving us opportunities to share hope with others. Share a time when your pain/grief was used as a microphone to share hope with someone.
While God wants us to enjoy life while we are on earth, he also wants us to live in the light of eternity. Meaning, how we live today will echo throughout eternity, and we will be rewarded in heaven accordingly. How can you recalibrate your internal compass to direct your focus to living now in the light of eternity, knowing that at any moment our lights could go out?
Prayer Focus
Spend time praying for one another, celebrating what is to come after this life.