Passion

It’s the gift that no one wants. No, I’m not talking about the socks and underwear that you use to get for Christmas as a kid before the “good” presents were revealed. I’m not talking about the “dad tie” your kids got you for Father’s Day that kind of embarrasses you to wear. And I’m not even talking about the barely edible breakfast your kid’s made and presented to you for breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day last year. I’m talking about pain.

It’s no secret that we live in a world today that tries to avoid pain at all cost. Just take any trip to your local CVS or Walgreens and you will find entire aisles devoted to relieving any twinge of pain we might be having. Have a headache? Pop a Tylenol. Experiencing a little uncomfortable indigestion? Grab a Tums. Have a little swollenness in your left ankle? Take an Advil. And while on many days I’m thankful I have access to these incredibly helpful medicines in my life, I do wonder if the aisles devoted to all this resource might also be telling us something about ourselves and the world we live in. Is it possible that we’ve gotten really good that numbing and avoiding pain in our lives? And what might we be missing out on if that is true?

What we might be missing out on is passion. Today when we think about passion we often simply relate it to just another way to talk about the things that excite us. And while this might be helpful in some ways it also undermines true passion in other ones. See, passion is more than an “intense feeling”. In fact, hundreds of years ago what passion actually referred to was intense pain. We call the last week of Jesus’ life where He was tortured and killed the Passion of Christ. Even the word itself comes from the Latin word for suffering.

The truth is our greatest passions are often birthed out of our greatest pain. And true passion is what motivates us to keep moving even in the midst of pain. Unfortunately today we’ve dropped the pain piece and in the end the things we most often say we are passionate about are just simply things like golf and gardening.

This week we continue our journey through the book of Acts. In the last few week’s we’ve focused on the life of Paul as we’ve watched the life and impact of a man who God used to change the world and asked how God might use us to do the same. Already we have seen how Paul was a man who interpreted his story and lived in his gifting. This week we will see him as a man of passion—pursuing God’s purpose through the pain of his life. It’s this life that demands an answer to this question in our own lives–What are you passionate about?

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 SEE IT // BE IT

(WEEKLY COMMUNITY GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE)

DATE: March 19, 2017 // Title: Passion //

Scripture: Acts 19:17-38

ARRIVAL / SOCIAL TIME 15-20 minutes
Spend the first 15 minutes or so of your time together catching up and socializing with one another. Also find time to catch up together on how the assignments from last week turned out.

SERMON REVIEW 5-10 minutes

This week we continued our study through the book of Acts. We journeyed once again alongside the life of Paul to see the kinds of things that made him such a force of impact in his world. Already we have seen how Paul was a man who interpreted his story and lived into his gifting. Today, as we looked at Paul’s emotional speech to the Ephesians elders, we saw how Paul was also a man of passion. This passion was birthed from conviction in the midst of pain and became contagious to those around him; the passion combined with his story and gifting to give him a sense of calling. As we seek to become the kinds of people who make an impact in our own world, it is necessary for us to think about how our own story, gifting, and passion will need to be combined as well. In this way, we stop being inoculated with the gospel and instead become people who have the gospel seep out in all we do and say

THE MAIN THOUGHT  Keep this in mind as you facilitate discussion

Passion is more than excitement. It’s conviction that becomes contagious because it withstands the test of pain.

SEE IT – Questions 10-15 minutes
Picture  (What is the story saying?):What one thing stuck out to you from this week’s sermon? How would you describe Paul’s passion as he talked to the Ephesian elders? What do passion and pain have to do with one another? How was Paul’s passion birthed in Paul’s pain? How was this passion contagious to those around him? How have you seen pain create both great Christians and great atheists?

Mirror (Where am I in the story?): What are you passionate about? How do you distinguish between your passions and your interests? How have you confused passion and excitement in your life? What pain in your life has produced passion in you? How has your passion been contagious to those around you?

Window  (How does the story change how I see those around me?): What would it look like for you to live in a constant state of surrender with God? What does this surrender look like in the midst of pain? How might your life and even your pain be used to change your world?

BE IT – Practice
Change UP // Stories of Passion

Have each person in your group write down on a piece of paper the name of one person that they would say has most exemplified living a passionate life. Have them fold those pieces of paper up and place them in a bowl at the center of the table. Pull out each paper one by one and ask the person who wrote on the paper to tell why they wrote that person’s name down.

Change IN //  Sharing Your Passion

This week, on the Narrative Funnel worksheet, we asked you to list your interest, passions, and burdens- as well as text 12 people who were to list three things they would say you are passionate about in your life. Use the tools we gave you this week to talk through what you learned about your passion and how your passions might be connected with your gifting and story.

Change OUT // Passing On Your Passion

Encourage everyone in your group to think about their lives three years into the future. As they do, have them identify what it might look like for them to pass on their passion where they live, work, and play. Have each person pick one place they live, work, or play and write one paragraph of how that place would look different if their passion was passed on to that place. Invite the group to share their paragraphs as they are willing.

CLOSING PRAYER 5 minutes
Take a few minutes to gather any prayer requests and pray for each other to SEE IT and BE IT this week.