Pain

March 13, 2016

Goals for this Week’s Study:

  • Review Sunday Morning’s Sermon.
  • Reach out to members in your group who may need additional support in dealing with hurt or pain.
  • Encourage people in your group who haven’t been baptized to sign up for baptism this Sunday!

Getting Started:

  • Open your group with a prayer.

Share Stories:

  1. Has anyone ever broken a bone or needed stitches or surgery?
  2. Did it leave a scar?
  3. While we may still have scars, hopefully we’ve healed from the wounds.
  4. Wounds in our heart are different. Far worse than physical wounds are the hurts we suffer as a result of abuse, abandonment, criticism, prejudice, and the many other ways people hurt one another.

Opening Questions:

  1. How does anger/pain/bitterness distort your perception? (Glasses illustration)
  2. Has unmanaged anger affected your relationship?
  3. Pastor Daniel said that “hurting people hurt people.”
  4. Have you seen that to be true in your own life?
  5. How can we help each other when we are in pain/hurting?

Eph. 4:26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

  • Why does anger/pain/bitterness cause us to say things that we wish we didn’t say?
  • Anyone ever said something they wish they could take back?

James 1:19 Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

  • How can thinking before we speak help us deal with anger?

Eph. 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

  1. Why is it so hard to be kind those who have hurt you?
  2. Why is it so hard to be compassionate to those who have hurt you?
  3. Why is it so hard to forgive those who have hurt you?

Application:

The only way to get rid of anger that is caused by bitterness that is caused by pain is to forgive the person who has hurt you.

  1. Who do you need to forgive?
  2. Forgiveness is giving up your right to get even...no matter what has been done to you.
  3. You are saying “I surrender my right to hurt you back.”

Forgiveness is not for them, it’s for you!

Eph. 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Eph. 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Final Thoughts:

  1. Jesus has given us the power to forgive others because He has forgiven us.
  2. Bitterness will keep you from experiencing the “Better Life” that Jesus has planned for you. (John 10:10)
  3. Is there anything else from Pastor’s Daniel message that spoke to you? Make sure to be open to praying with those who need strength to forgive. Feel free to point them back to the Red Room, or give them the church office number, (606) 780-0084, to call if you feel they need to set up a counseling session

Close in Prayer

Adam Eldridge