This Advent season, The Vine is engaging a series called EMBODIED ADVENT. In this sermon, Mark continues our theme and discusses the embodied experience of emotions. Exploring Simeon and Mary’s experiences in Luke 2, we see that beholding our emotions and longings before God creates a capacity to behold our Savior. 

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Discussion Questions: 
1. To begin, how was your experience with the daily prompts? Did any come naturally for you, or problematic? 
2. Would you consider yourself an emotional person? As you review your life, how would you depict your relationship with emotions?
3. What significance is it that Jesus experienced all the emotions natural to the human experience, and did so without sinning?
4. Read Luke 2: 22-35. What do you imagine the experience of waiting produced in Simeon?
5. When you consider Simeon’s words to Mary (vv34-35), how did these words come true? Why might  Simeon speak these over Mary?
6. Why did God create us as emotional beings? What is the good in being emotional? 
7. How can we honor our emotions without having them fully control us? 

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EMBODIED ADVENT- The Emotions Of Advent

Welcome to week three in this Hebrews study! In this message, Mark shares from chapter six, about a connection between Abraham and Jesus, the power of patience, and how we can have an anchor for the soul.

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REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. Read Hebrews 6:11-12. How do faith and patience interact?
2. We heard a difficult question in this sermon- "what do you do when God is late?" What is your honest response?
3. Read Hebrews 6:16-20. (FYI- Melchizedek is a mysterious priest who blessed Abraham in Genesis 14.) What are the words of hope you find in these verses?
4. Discuss the imagery of Jesus being an anchor to our soul. What significance do you find with that word picture?
5. Mark shared two reasons why we don’t experience Jesus as the anchor of our souls. We don’t drop the anchors deep enough, and the rope isn’t tied to our souls. Discuss these two conditions, and which you relate to.

HEBREWS- An Anchor For The Soul

In this fourth sermon in the Hebrews series, Mark shares from Hebrews 10, discusses how Jesus fulfills the sacrificial system and invites us into a new covenant and hope. This sermon also explores what atonement theories are and why they are important.

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REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Recall the sacrificial system that was in place before Jesus. If that was your religious practice, how would you view God and yourself?
2. Discuss Hebrews 10:11-14. What do you notice? What is promised in verse 14?
3. In this sermon Mark said, "how you see the cross is how you see God.” How do you respond to that idea?
4. What is something from the sermon that is staying with you- either as encouraging, confusing, or curious-making? 
5. Mark shared the fuel for empty religion is religious performance, sin management, and shame. For the new covenant, it is gratitude and the hope of becoming. Discuss this and share how you have experienced this. 
6. Discuss the concept that a "a Christian mystery is not something unknowable, but something infinitely knowable.” How can this inspire devotion?

HEBREWS A Better Covenant

This week, Fabs unpacks Hebrews 11, digging into the concept of faith, and how it enables us to keep going on the path God has set for us.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. What is something from the sermon that is staying with you- either as encouraging, confusing, or curious-making?
2. Discuss Hebrews 11:8-16. What do you notice? In v. 9-10, what do you notice about how Abraham's faith played out?
3. In this sermon, we talked about faith as banking, instead of simply a sensation.  How did this sit with you?
5. In Hebrews, the writer highlights two things about faith: by faith we see God do unimaginable things, and by faith, we are able to endure and keep going through unimaginable things.  Which one of these things speaks to you where you are currently?
6. What comes up for you when you imagine God is still at work among us in the way God worked in the Old Testament? 
7. Fabs shared this perspective: faith isn't to keep us out of the dark.  It is FOR the dark.  What different views have you had of faith, and how have they helped or hindered your connection with God?

Hebrews - Faith That Keeps You Going

In our last sermon on the book of Hebrews, we explore the truths that help us continue to follow Jesus together.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. What is something from the sermon that is staying with you- either as encouraging, confusing, or curious-making?
2. Discuss Hebrews 13:8-16.  What do you notice?  How does this inform what it might look like to follow Jesus? 
3.  What stands out to you from Hebrews 12:18-24 about the differences in these two experiences of God?  Which parts of each description resonates with you? 
5. What are some things that you experience or invest in that you think are a part of the eternal and unshakeable kingdom of God? 
6. We talked about the "pressure of the ordinary" that keeps us from following Jesus.  In what ways do you experience this in your own life?  
7. What does it look like in your life to follow Jesus and run the path set out for you?

Hebrews - Jesus is Better & Jesus is God

The Vine is beginning a new series exploring the meaning and power in the different names of God. Today, Mark begins by discussing the name YHWH. 

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REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. Consider the quote from AW Tozer- "We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God." How do you see this pull in your life? 
2. Read the conversation between Moses and God in Exodus 3:1-14. What stands out to you today?
3. Consider the different possible translations of the name YHWH. What is the meaning and power in all the different tenses of this name?
4. Read the end to Jesus' prayer in John 17:25-26. What do we see of YHWH in Jesus' words? 
5. As some in the Hebrew tradition believe YHWH is also the sound of a breath, what meaning would it be to enact breath prayers in your life?

Names Of God- YHWH

As we continue our series on the different names of God, Christy Rome shares on the name El Shaddai.

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REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. If you had to choose a new name, what would yours be?
2. How did Christy define the name El Shaddai? And what do you make of the dual nature of this name?
3. Read Genesis 17:1-8. What do you notice happening in this story? What would this name mean to Abram?
4. What do you make of this truth- as we see God's true name, we often receive a new name.
5. Where in your life do you need to call upon El Shaddai?

NAMES OF GOD- El Shaddai

Welcome to week 3 in our Names of God series. This week, Mark shares from Exodus 17 where we find the character of God on trial, a unique battle scene, and a new name for God- God my Banner. 

Reflection Questions:
1. What is your favorite flag or banner?
2. Mark talked about a trauma-informed view of the Hebrew nation. How does that understanding shape your view of this community, their struggles and their journey?
3. Read Exodus 17:1-7. What is happening beneath the surface? What do you notice about God?
4. Read Exodus 17:8-16. God seems to be absent from this scene, but Moses ends up giving God the glory for this victory. Where is God during this battle?
5. Mark shared that idolatry exists when we lift any banner to the same height as Christ's banner. How do we know when we have done this? 
6. Where are you in this battle scene today? On the field, the hillside, lifting someone’s arms or in worship at the altar?

NAMES OF GOD- God My Banner

NAMES OF GOD - Father

This week Mary shares what it means that God is our good father.

1. How can thinking about God’s love for us as parental love affect our understanding of his relationship to us (and ours to him)?
2. If you’re a parent, how does that experience affect your view of God as a parent?
3. Have you ever felt as though you’ve experienced God’s discipline?
4. Matthew 6 talks about relying on the provision of our Heavenly Father and his unlimited resources for his children. What might that mean for you right now?
5. What would it look like to see God as the provider and healer of your soul?
6. How has your relationship with your own father affected your view of God the Father?

NAMES OF GOD - Father

In this sermon, Mark shares from Judges 6. In this story, we explore the experience of a man name Gideon and the name he gave God- The Lord is Peace.

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REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. Review Judges 6 and 7. What do you notice?
2. What the different ways we see the thematic act of sifting in this story?
3. Why is this "God's signature move"?
4. Where are you feeling sifted today?
5. Why is it in the spiritual life that vulnerability is the gateway to true power?

Names of God: The Lord Is Peace

Today we are looking at the “Good Shepherd” name of God that Jesus gives himself in John 10:11. Vine member Katie Fike shares four ways that Jesus is a good shepherd as well as what our response is to this Good Shepherd: listening to and knowing Jesus’ voice and following where he leads. 

1. Read John 10:11-15. What do you think of when you hear the phrase “the good shepherd”?
2. Which of the four ways that Jesus is a good shepherd stuck out to you, resonated with you, or surprised you?
3. What do you think gets in the way of you listening to and knowing Jesus’ voice? What are some ways you can overcome those obstacles?
4. What does “life to the full” (John 10:10) mean to you? Where do you feel you are experiencing the abundant life that Jesus offers in your life today - and where are you not experiencing it?
5. Read Psalm 23. Reflect on how much your Good Shepherd knows you and cares for you.

EMBODIED ADVENT- The Emotions Of Advent

The Vine Austin

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