« Back to Beyond the Message

How to use it: After watching/listening to this week’s message, from February 12, 2023, use the questions to go deeper into the message, with your group…or on your own. The questions will introduce you to the topic, reflect content from the sermon, go ‘Beyond the Message’, & get you thinking about practical applications for your life.

1. Describe a “gap” you have experienced – or currently are experiencing – in life (i.e. relational, physical, spiritual, emotional). How did you feel in the midst of it?
   

2. Read 1 Thess 2:17-20. The phrase “torn away” is sometimes translated “orphaned.”

   a. How do you think it would feel to be orphaned? What does this tell us about the nature of the “gap” Paul and the Thessalonians are facing?

   b. What do you think Paul was expressing when he says, “Satan stopped us”?

   c. Pastor Mark suggested one of Satan’s tactics is to make us feel “orphaned.” How can we avoid being defeated by this tactic? Consider v.19.
   

3. Read 1 Thess 3:1-5. What words does Paul use to describe Timothy and his role?

   a. Read 1 Timothy 4:9-16. How do you think the Thessalonians would have received Timothy (instead of Paul) and in what ways could he have strengthened and encouraged them?

   b. Can you think of a time when someone strengthened (“buttressed”) you during a trial? Who was it? What did they do?
   

4. Read 1 Thess 3:6-10. This is the only place where Paul uses the term “good news” for anything other than the Gospel. What three things cause him “joy?”
   

5. Read the three appeals Paul makes in 1 Thess 3:11-13 (“May the Lord...”) and reflect upon how the fulfillment of these could help us when we find ourselves in a “gap.” Close in prayer as a group, keeping these in mind.