Content for a Class Discussion
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As a church family, get together to discuss a few of these questions, based on Don’s passage on Sunday. Maybe you could gather your family around the dinner table to have this conversation.
The Life Group is not meeting May-August. We kept the last group meeting questions below so you can see what the discussion is like.
DON on 2023-04-23 – LIFE GROUP QUESTIONS for 2023-04-26
On April 23, Dr. Don Solomon is teaching from the greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. This week he is in Matthew 6:5-13 teaching on Prayer. [ Catch the Video ]
LIFE GROUP DISCUSSION: (Matthew 6:5-13) The Lord’s Prayer
- Did you grow up in a home where religious matters were open, or they were a private matter, or maybe unseen by you until much later?
- How where you taught prayers as a child? What was the earliest prayers you remember?
- What images or thoughts come to mind when you hear the word “prayer”?
- What role did prayer play in your family’s life when you were growing up?
- Where do you go when you need to pray?
- For what do you often find yourself praying?
- According to Jesus, what wrong motivation prompts some individuals to pray? (6:5)
- What name did Jesus call people who pray for show? Why? (6:5)
- Why are people blind to their own hypocrisy?
- What might be examples that go far beyond the topic of prayer?
- Where do hypocrites prefer to do their praying? (6:5)
- What’s up with “Synagogues and street corners”?
- When you pray in front of a group, how can you concentrate fully on what you are saying to God rather than how your prayers sound to others?
- Why do many Christians feel uncomfortable praying out loud?
- What type of reward will religious showmanship bring? (6:5) What might that look like today?
- How did Jesus command His followers to pray? (6:6)
- Where did Jesus suggest we talk to God? (6:6) Where does this leave public prayer? What is the value of public prayer?
- What type of reward will humility in prayer bring? (6:6) What secret reward might God give?
- What did Jesus have to say about repetitive or long, winded prayers? (6:7)
- How does this sort of “by rote” prayer compare to what Don has taught about worship-based prayer or transforming prayer?
- Why do we often use special language or words when talking to God?
- What common or overused phrases do you hear frequently repeated in people’s prayers?
- How do you keep from judging them as, at best showy, or at worst insincere?
- What insights or facts about God are revealed in this passage? (6:6, 8, 9)
- If someone had an awful earthly father, how might this contaminate their view of God as Father?
- If God knows what we need before we ask, why then should we pray?
- To whom did Jesus tell us to pray? (6:9)
- Is it okay to address prayer to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit?
- How does John 14:6 play into our theology of prayer?
- What should be our attitude toward God? (6:9)
- What should be our attitude toward God’s kingdom and will? (6:10)
- Do we really want God’s will in our life?
- If not, perhaps we fear He will ask us to do something we just don’t want to do?
- How is this attitude a statement that we feel God is not looking out for the best in us?
- What should be our attitude toward life’s necessities? (6:11) How do we determine wants versus needs?
- What should be our attitude toward those who have wronged us? (6:12)
- What should be our attitude toward temptation? (6:13)
- How does this model prayer combine the glory of God with our human frailty?
- What spiritual disciplines are valued in our faith community?
- In praying, what do you find to be your greatest challenge?
- In your spiritual life, what do you need to start doing?