Before the Session
Facilitator: In advance of the session
- Have the Bible Background Video ready to view.
- Review today’s scripture text and the session activities to help better facilitate the discussion.
- Encourage your group to listen to the Faithelement podcast ahead of the next session (Share the link via email or social media)
Context (From the Current Session Page)
Start by showing the group the Water is Life website page on clean water, and discuss the six initiatives listed there (the straw; filters; drilling; pumps; excavation and protection; and future technology). Ask:
- What do you have to go through in order to have access to proper water?
- Which of these methods of providing clean water to you find most compelling, and why?
- Which would you be most likely to be able promote and why?
- Outside of water, air, and food, what do you think people need most to be able to live and why?
Content (From the Mind Session Page)
Read John 7:37-39, then watch the Bible Background Video.
Then ask:
- Why do you think water is significant to the Feast of Tabernacles, and why might Jesus choose to use this image?
- What is Jesus saying about our source of life and strength?
- Jesus quotes scripture here, but he seems to draw from several verses, like Isaiah 55:1-5 and Isaiah 44:1-4. Who is speaking in these passages, and who is being spoken to?
- What does it seem Jesus is saying about himself and why might this be upsetting to the Jewish people?
- What does a person have to do to get this living water that Jesus was talking about?
- By what means does the Spirit produce this kind of living water in a person?
- Looking at the larger passage of John 7:11-44, what are the people thinking about Jesus, and how does this short speech affect his popularity?
- Why do you think Jesus would say something so divisive at a time when the religious leaders wanted to kill him and other people were so unsure of his identity and authority?
Closure (from the Media Session page)
Play the Not a tame lion movie clip (please bear in mind that the sound is very low on this video clip) and ask:
- If you were describing your faith, would you describe it as living and powerful or tame?
- What are a few ways you can be good this week but not so tame?
- What should empower you to be powerful and less tame?
- What rivers of water is God placing in front of you to empower you this week?
- How might you be like a river for other people who may need the water of the Spirit?
Listen together to The River music video, then close in prayer.