Overcoming Your Past
Before We Get Started
Ask how everyone’s week has been! What was the best thing that happened to you last week?
What was one thing you could use prayer in from last week?
- Open your group with prayer! Pray for any requests and for the discussion you’re about to have, that God reveals a next step for everyone to take this week!
Getting Started
Ice Breaker: If you could go back and re-live a moment from your past, what would it be and why?
Scripture:
- “ I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33
- “I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.” – Philippians 3:5-16
- “You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it.” – Galatians 1:13
- “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.” – 1 Corinthians 13:12
Sermon Notes: Take time to let everyone share some of the notes they took or anything that stood out to them from the message. Use this time to get everyone in your group talking (a good tip for this situation would be to go around the room and have everyone share one thing that stuck out to them from Pastor Daniel’s sermon)! Keep in mind, not everyone may feel comfortable speaking, so try your best to help assist them in any way you can!
Study Questions
1. When looking back at your past, do you feel you have more of a “good past” or a “not so good past”?
2. Is there something in your life that you feel like your past has “held you back” from or has "blinded you" from? Explain.
3. Who were the three people Pastor Daniel referenced in the Bible with a messed up past? (Moses, Rahab, and Jonah) How does seeing what God was able to accomplish through them make you feel about what He can do through you?
4. Pastor Daniel shared 4 ways to overcome our past! What were they? (Forget the past, Look forward to the future, Press on to the end, Hold on to the progress)
5. Out of these 4 points, which do you feel stood out most to you? Why?
6. Read Philippians 3:13-14. What are some ways that we can “forget” or “let go” of our past?
7. What “progress” have you experienced in your life that you feel like you can hold on to this week?
Pray for your Group!
Pray for confidence and strength for your members as they continue to hold on to the progress God has allowed them to experience this week!