AUGUST 28

IMPACT

As you walk by faith, God guides you to make a difference in the lives of others. Serving, loving, and pointing them to the Source of Love creates a ripple effect throughout generations. Rather than the number of places you’ve seen or shows you’ve watched or widgets you’ve sold, in the end what matters most are the lives impacted through our life of faith.

Work through the following questions and scriptures on your own, and get together with your running partner, life group, or friends and family to talk through what you are learning. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Who are the people who have made the greatest impact in your life and in your faith? What made them so impactful?

2. What stood out to you from the message? 

3. Have you ever experienced the “prompting in your heart” to do something or not do something? Did you listen? If so, what happened? 

4. Read Hebrews 11:13-16, 39-40.

◦  Make some observations about this passage (What does the text say):

▪ Who is talking?

▪ What is the circumstance?

▪ Any repeated phrases?

▪ What surprised you?

▪ What stood out to you?

◦ Make some interpretations (What does the passage mean)

▪ What questions do you have?

▪ Summarize the passage in 1-3 sentences – what are the main points?

▪ What do you learn about the nature and character of God as you read this?

▪ What do you learn about yourself and your choices?

◦ Now make some applications (what’s my response)

▪ How do you respond to what you are reading?

▪ How does this apply to your life?

▪ What is the central truth that you could put into practice from this?

▪ Who could you share this with for the sake of encouragement?

5. Read Matthew 22:36-40. Do you consider simply loving others around you a way you impact the world? In what ways have you seen God use your love for others to make an eternal impact? In what   ways might He be prompting you to do that today? How will you take that next step? 

KEY SCRIPTURE

Hebrews 11:13-16  All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:39-40  These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Matthew 22:36-40  Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  

TAKE A NEXT STEP

1. List some names of people God is prompting you to move toward in love. Spend 10 minutes praying for these names, imagining God’s love for them and dreaming of ways to show that love to them.

2. Do you want to grow in sharing the Gospel (the Good News of Jesus!) with others? Consider walking through the “Outreach” Spiritual Outcome with a friend or a spiritual running partner who desires to grow in the same way. http://www.gatewaychurch.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Outreach-Outcome-writable-final.pdf