Red Letters – Fork Christian Church

Merciful

September 4, 2022

Dig In Questions

In light of this week’s message, we encourage you to consider these questions and dig in a little deeper with your personal study, with your family, or with your small group.

1. Does showing mercy come naturally to you? Why or Why not? What life experiences or life choices have shaped your answer?

2. Have you ever been shown a lack of mercy? What was your response?

3. How have you either intentionally or unintentionally withheld mercy from someone else? (Challenge: Go to them and apologize!)

4. Read Luke 10:25-37. Are there currently people you intentionally withhold mercy from? How can you move from being one who passes by on the other side to being one who actually shows mercy?

5. How can the world be a better place if we choose to show mercy in our homes, at our work, in our schools, with our friends and with strangers?

6. Read Ephesians 2:1-6 and Titus 3:3-7. How has receiving and recognizing God’s mercy in your life changed you? What are some ways that you can reflect Jesus’ mercy more clearly?

Character of Christ: Relational

August 28, 2022

Dig In Questions

In light of this week’s message, we encourage you to consider these questions and dig in a little deeper with your personal study, with your family, or with your small group.

1. Have you ever fallen head over heels in love? Ever fallen out of love? What were some of the common reasons why you fell in love, or why you no longer remained in love?

2. Why do you believe that yourself or others fall out of love with Jesus?

3. Read Jeremiah 2:2,5,13. Many times people consider God in the Old Testament as unloving and judgmental. What do these passages express about the desires of God?

4. In this Red Letters series, we have been highlighting the characteristics of Jesus, and how it looks to be Christ-like in our words and actions. Read Rev. 2:2-5. What happened in these passages, and what can we learn about a relationship with Jesus?

5. Have you recently fallen away from your “first love” feelings and actions toward Jesus? What do you do that stirs your affections for Jesus? What do you do that robs your affections for Jesus? What can you do this week to get back to your first love feelings and actions with Jesus?

Character of Christ: Interruptible

August 21, 2022

Dig In Questions

In light of this week’s message, we encourage you to consider these questions and dig in a little deeper with your personal study, with your family, or with your small group.

1. How busy are you on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest amount)?

2. Which of these following statistics do you identify most with?

75% of Parents are too busy to read to children (if you have any).

33% of American adults claim to live with extreme stress.

50% of American adults often lie awake due to stress.

121 emails per day is the average amount of emails for an American office worker.

Americans check their phone once every 12 minutes on average, or over 80 times a day, for a total of 5 hours a day.

12% claim to have no close friends, and are too busy to invest in pursuing them.

3. Read Mark 5:21-41. How was Jesus busy, yet, “interrupted?” How did he respond?

4. Jesus lived a life on a constant journey from town to town. He was very busy. Yet, during his day-to-day travel, he was frequently interrupted by people in need. Time after time, Jesus stopped and loved whoever was in his path. For Jesus, every “disruption” was seen as “destiny.” What would it look like for you to see people in your path as destiny and not a disruption?

5. Is there someone right now you had originally seen as a disruption that you now see as destiny? How could God be using you to impact their life?

Character of Christ: Intentional

August 14, 2022

Dig In Questions

In light of this week’s message, we encourage you to consider these questions and dig in a little deeper with your personal study, with your family, or with your small group.

1. Do you consider yourself more spontaneous or more intentional in life? Why do you think that is?

2. Do you think Jesus was more spontaneous or more intentional in His life? Why do you think that is?

3. In this Red Letter series, we learned how one of the character traits so powerful about Jesus is that he is intentional. Read John 4:1-26, 39-42. What is one thing that stood out to you in this story?

4. Jesus amazingly showed a great intentional evangelistic plan. He intentionally:

Sought- Went out of His way (Samarian woman)

Shared Similarities- Found common ground (water)

Shown Sin- Called out (many husbands/adultery)

Shared Salvation- The Gospel (I am the Messiah)

Have you ever intentionally shared the Gospel with someone like Jesus? If so, how did it go? If not, what has stopped you?

5. Who (individual or group of people) has God placed in your life that you have been intentionally ignoring vs. intentionally engaging? What would it look like for you to live intentionally like Jesus, and go out of your way to engage, find common ground, share truth in love, and ultimately share the hope you have found in Jesus? Are you willing to live intentionally like Jesus?

Character of Christ: Invitational

August 7, 2022

Dig In Questions

In light of this week’s message, we encourage you to consider these questions and dig in a little deeper with your personal study, with your family, or with your small group.

1. First, say the first name of someone you personally know that is not currently a Christian. Next, what would you think they would say if you asked them, “Why do you believe you exist?” Try to be as specific as possible. How would they respond if you followed up with a question, “What if there was something even more that you are here for?”

2. In the message, we saw the illustration of the rope and the tape as a perspective of the timeline of your existence. How did that illustration make you feel about what you are focused on?

3. In this Red Letter series, we learned how one of the character traits so powerful about Jesus is that he is invitational. Read, Matthew 4:18-20. For Peter (Simon) and his brother Andrew, how did this invitation “to something more” change their life?

4. The invitation in Matthew 4:19 was to, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” This was a three-part wholistic invitation involving our head, heart, and hands.

a. Head. We all have a choice to make in “Follow me.” This is a head choice to who we are following. Are you choosing to follow Jesus? If so, how? If not, why not?

b. Heart. When we choose to follow Jesus, he promises to change our hearts. (Ezekiel 36:26) If you have chosen to follow Jesus, how has your heart been changed by God?

c. Hands. When we choose to follow Jesus, he changes our hearts. When our hearts are changed, it changes our actions (hands) in being “fishers of men.” A great way to see if you are following Jesus and being changed by Jesus is to see if you are helping others to Jesus. Who are you walking with to help them know and follow Jesus?

5. Read Matthew 28:18-20. What is this an invitation to do? Who is one person you love in your life that God is leading you to “Go…Make…Baptize… and Teach?”

Character of Christ: Approachable

July 31, 2022

Dig In Questions

In light of this week’s message, we encourage you to consider these questions and dig in a little deeper with your personal study, with your family, or with your small group.

1) What are your top character/personality traits? (ie. honesty, adaptiveness, drivenness, determination, persistence, compassion, empathy, patience, courage, etc.) Go here for a list of examples: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-personality-traits.html

2) What/who do you believe has most influenced those behavior traits?

3) Read John 3:16. What is the power of belief in this passage? Read John 14:12. What is the power of belief in this passage? Why do you believe we have memorized John 3:16 but not John 14:12? How should this type of belief change your behavior (works)?

4) In this Red Letters series we are highlighting the characteristics of Jesus, and how it looks to be Christ-like in our words and actions. These first characteristics we are highlighting are the approachability, availability, and awareness of Jesus. Read Matthew 19:13-15 and share your thoughts on how Jesus showed these characteristics.

5) What, specifically, would change if you were willing to be like Christ in being approachable, available, and aware of the overlooked and forgotten people around you? Who is one person you need to make yourself (more) available for to love and bless?