Philadelphia

Ice Breakers

Have you ever had an experience in life where you wondered if it was God speaking, but weren’t sure?  Tell us about it.
Have you seen or experienced God around you recently?  Share your God story.

Discuss

Philadelphia was built near fault lines that created instability in the region from time to time.

  • What natural disasters or phenomenon are built in to the location where you live?
  • How have those disrupted your life?
  • What’s your general attitude during disruptive, unstable times your life?

Application

The followers of Jesus in Philadelphia received nothing but encouragement in their letter because of everything being stacked against them.  But Jesus still encouraged them to continue holding tightly to Him.

  • When life blows up, what do you have to hold on to?
  • How does your identity – how you perceive yourself – play into handling adversity?
  • Tell about a difficult situation, a life-quake, in which you either trusted in Jesus and it turned out well, or you ran to other things and you wish you had hung onto Jesus more.

Scripture

Read together Ephesians 6:10-18.
Paul’s encouragement in facing life-quakes is to “stand firm” by putting on body armor for protection and picking up a couple of weapons along the way.  Paul defines each piece of equipment with a spiritual equivalent.

  • What does each piece of armor represent?  What does that mean?
  • How would these be helpful in standing firm and trusting in Jesus?
  • Which piece(s) of equipment do you feel like you’re lacking?
  • If you picked that piece up in your life, how do you feel like it would help you in facing your life-quakes?

Next Steps

Based on the Ephesians 6 passage, what are some next steps you should take?

  • How would you actually take up some of these pieces of equipment in your life?
  • What could you stop doing or start doing this week to make that happen?