ICEBREAKERS
Make sure to start off with prayer. Then choose one or more questions to open up with.
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? Why?
- What was your best subject in school when you were growing up? What was your worst?
Message Review
Main points and scriptures from this week's message.
The message of this song is centered in the reality that life is certain to take you down, pull you down, drag you down, BUT doesn’t have the power to hold you down.
I did a little research in scripture and discovered that the phrase "rise up" appears 67 times, here is one of them:
Isaiah 60:1 (NLV)
Rise up and shine, for your light has come. The shining-greatness of the Lord has risen upon you.
He doesn’t just say Rise Up, he says Rise Up and SHINE! The temptation we often have is to rise up in anger or in revenge with selfish motives for self gratification. When we do this we create an endless cycle of pain from person to person…one generation to the next. Gods plan is that his people, his church…would RISE UP and SHINE!
The recent events in America have filled us with anguish, sorrow, and confusion. The thing is that hate is not just a black and white issue, a political issue, or even just an American issue. This is a heart issue. And only God can heal the heart! Only God can change the heart!
Times like these are opportunities for God's people to be used by God to sow love, peach, and unity. Not strife and division. Let's not be people who curse the darkness, instead let's light a candle and rise up and shine.
Ezra 10:4 (NIV)
Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.
I’VE PICKED A FEW LINES FROM THE LYRICS OF THIS SONG TO TALK ABOUT:
Point 1: You can’t find the fighter, but I see it in you so we gonna walk it out.
At a personal level, sometimes it takes someone else (just like the line of this song) to speak to the “rise up potential” in you and to say “maybe you cant find your fight BUT I see it in you, so “WE” gonna walk it out. In other words, I’m not leaving your side, WE Gonna do this together!!
Ecclesiastes 4:9–11 (NIV)
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
Everyone falls down but not everyone has someone to help them up.
Point 2: So we gonna walk it out and move mountains.
One thing I’ve learned about faith is that its rewards are only realized as you walk it out.
Genesis 13:17 (NASB)
Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.
In this verse God is inviting Abraham to walk through the land that he has not yet possessed or laid claim to. To drive through the neighborhood he would want to live in, to dream of the kind of family’s we want to be., the kind of church we want to be, the kind of people we want to be!!
Point 3: I’ll rise up high like the waves . . . I’ll rise up unafraid . . . in spite of the ache . . . And I’ll do it a thousand times again.
2 Corinthians 4:8–9 (NIV)
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Paul is saying in this scripture that he is determined, no matter the challenges at hand, to continue to rise up, again and again.
Can we as God's people have that same determination to continue to rise up and give the world hope and light even in times of darkness? I think we can.
Message Discussion Questions
The following questions will help guide your discussions and give your group some opportunities to open up and share.
- Tell about a time when it was hard to rise up. A time when you wanted to quit.
- What kind of emotions have been brought on within you in light of the recent tragic events? How have you dealt with those emotions?
- Has God ever changed your heart? What did that look like?
- Have you ever let a grudge creep into your life?
- How do you plan to rise up and shine in a dark world? Give at least one very practical way you are going to do that.
- Do you have people around you to help you "walk it out?" People that will help you get back up when you fall down.
- Envision and describe a world where God's people, God's church, is in unity and shining in society. Using words, paint the picture of what that world looks like compared to this one we live in now.
Live It Out
Encourage your group to start doing. Commit to a step, and live it out this week.
- Using social media or you influence in your world, post or intentionally talk about the power of unity and coming together as a people or as a nation.
- If you do not have accountability or mentors in your world make a list of people you could ask to be support for you and schedule a time to meet with them.
- Pray! In your daily prayers include prayers for our nation, our leaders, the broken-hearted, and direction for Church Pastors and Leaders on how to sow seeds of peace, unity, and healing.
Closing Thoughts
- Finish group with prayer requests and praise reports.
- More resources always available here: Small Group Resources