Piecing It Together: God’s Plan for Marriage | Leaving
How to use it: After watching/listening to this week’s message, from March 5, 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.
What is the best relationship or marriage advice you have ever been given?
How would you define the phrase “intimate relationship” (think bigger than just physical)? What is the most intimate relationship you have ever had?
Read Genesis 2:24 and 1 Corinthians 13:13 and identify the three key phrases in each. How can we relate leaving with faith (trust), weaving with hope, and cleaving with love?
Recall Pastor Mark’s explanation of the spheres of influence we all have in our lives.
a. Have each person in your group think of different people, responsibilities, habits, or activites, and describe how near or far they are platted from the centre. What is significant about those closest to the centre?
b. It was stated that there is only room at the centre for one, most intimate relationship (apart from God who is present in all). Thinking about the different stages in your life, who or what was closest to you at different times? When a change took place, what life events precipitated the re-organizing of this central loyalty?
c. Consider Jesus’ teaching in Matt 6:33 about making God and his Kingdom work our highest priority. Why is that so critical in our relationships with God? How can we apply the same principle to our most intimate relationship/ marriage?
Recall the definitions of “privacy, priority, and power.” What role do these play in enabling us to build and protect trust in our relationship with God and our most intimate relationship with another person?
End your time praying for one another, asking God to reveal if there is anything you need to “leave” in order to establish, build, or protect your relationship with Him and others.