Discussion Questions

  1. OPTIONAL QUESTION: Last week we talked about accountability. Did you take some time to nurture the habit of accountability this week? How did that go? If not, what are the roadblocks to living this out? 
  2. Part of the Christian life is about self-denial, which is the opposite of our "ME-ME-ME" culture. What are some ways we see Jesus practice self-denial in the Bible, and what can we learn from how he lived?
  3. We all have many spiritual gifts from God. What are some of the gifts God has given you, and how can you use them to serve Him? (Think both inside-the-box and outside-the-box!)
  4. When we use our gifts, we experience the joy of God's purpose in our lives. When in life have you had a moment where you experienced joy in seeing God use you?
  5. One conclusion from the sermon is that everything and anything can be used by God for mission and ministry. What are some new ways that you can live out mission and ministry in our everyday lives?
  6. Read Romans 12:1-8
  7. What does this passage tell me about God?
  8. What does this passage tell me about people?
  9. If I believe today's teaching and Scripture is true and from God, what changes would I have to make in my life?
  10. Who can I talk to more about this or share this with?
  11. Spend time sharing prayer requests as a group, and close your time in prayer together.
This week Ryan continued our sermon series "Spiritual Habits for Ordinary People" by taking a closer look at the habits of serving others through mission and ministry. Our habits and actions reflect what we love - if we love something, our life will reflect that. For example, people who love sports will watch games, spend money on jerseys, talk about games with their friends, and experience joy in victory or sadness in defeat. All of these are habits that reflects their love for sports, but it also shapes them to love sports more as they become more invested in their team. So we asked ourselves this key question: Do our everyday habits reflect our love for Jesus and shape us to love Jesus even more?

We took a look at Romans 12, where we are called by Scripture to offer our bodies to God as a holy living sacrifice. The Message translation of the Bible put it this way: "Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering." In this, we see that part of the calling to follow Jesus is to enter into a life of self-denial, which is the opposite of our "ME ME ME" individualistic culture that is all about me. If we embrace this life of self-denial, we realize that our priorities should be to place God first, others second, and ourselves third.

Romans 12 continues to list different spiritual gifts, which shows that God has made all of us differently and we all have gifts that can be used by God. But we were challenged to think more outside-the-box about gifts. For example, a love of sports can be a gift if we use it to connect and build relationships with other sports fans, and once those relationships are established we can guide them towards Jesus. When we embrace serving and using our gifts to serve God, we begin tasting the joy of God's purpose in our life, and God can use that to transform us from the inside out.

We left with a challenge to ask ourselves these questions: God, how do you want me to spend my life? God, how can I give you my schedule, my actions, my spending, and my relationships? How can I create habits that make me stop saying ME ME ME, and instead transform me into a person with a heart and eyes for those around me? God, how can I give myself, all of me, completely as an offering to you?

Scripture

  • Romans 12:1-8 (NLT): And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. 3  Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. 4  Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5  so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. 6  In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7  If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8  If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

  • Romans 12:1-2 (The Message): So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

  • Proverbs 4:23 (NIV): Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

  • Romans 8:3 (NLT): The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

  • 1 Corinthians 10:24 (NIV): No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

  • Matthew 16:24-26 (NIV): Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

  • Acts 20:35 (NIV): In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

Big Ideas


  • The habits of sports fans demonstrate their love for sports and shape them to love sports more... Do our habits demonstrate our love for Jesus and shape us to love Jesus more? - Ryan Bogert

  • When we as Christians offer ourselves as a sacrifice to God, which is presented as the correct Christian response to Jesus sacrificing himself for us, then it changes how we look at the world. When we do this, we realize that everything we do, with everyone we meet, everything is mission and ministry. - Ryan Bogert

  • 1 Corinthians 10:24 says 'No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.' This is the opposite of what our culture teaches. We live in a "ME-ME-ME!" individualistic, self-focused culture, where pretty much all we do is ultimately to serve ourselves, and everyone else just needs to mind their own business. In our American culture, our biggest idol is often ourselves. - Ryan Bogert

  • Mission and ministry is simply coming to God and saying it’s not about me: it’s about you. Here I am. Use me. I sacrifice myself to you. And it’s also about everyone else, because God commands us to look after the interests of others before ourselves. God first, others second, me third. - Ryan Bogert

  • All of us have gifts from God. But I think as Christians we need to think more outside-the-box about our gifts. For example, I love sports. I see that as a gift in how God has made me, and I want to use that for ministry. My love for sports became this bridge that connected me to this twelve year old kid who was new at our youth group and helped get him involved in church. So sports can be a gift from God, a gift that we can use to build relationships and community with others. And once those relationships are established, we can help guide people to Jesus. - Ryan Bogert

  • We were made to use our gifts, and when we do that to serve God, we start tasting the joy of God’s purpose in our lives. - Ryan Bogert

  • "Habits are the invisible architecture of daily life. We repeat about 40 percent of our behavior almost daily, so our habits shape our existence, and our future. If we change our habits, we change our lives." - Author Gretchen Rubin

  • So what might God have in store for you? If you are willing to challenge yourself, to take a leap of faith and try serving in a new way, how might God use that to transform you? We grow the most as human beings when we try something new, and God can use it to change you in ways you can’t even imagine. - Ryan Bogert

  • "Let your constant practice be to offer yourself to God, that he may do with you what He pleases." - Theologian Alphonsus Liguori