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Something Needs to Change Simulcast

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“Does your life match what you profess to believe? If not, what needs to change?”

When David Platt took a trip to the Himalayan mountains, the staggering hardship he witnessed transformed the trajectory of his life. Now he’s inviting you on a similar mind-wrestling, life-altering trek through the Himalayas. On October 1, we’re releasing a Bible study that will help lead you to ask questions you might prefer to ignore. But can you? For Christians, ignorance of profound human need is not an option. Neither is indifference. It’s time to explore what it means to follow Jesus in a world of urgent physical and spiritual needs.

And you can start this exploration now with this free opportunity to join in for a simulcast with David Platt!

On Wednesday, September 18 at 6:00 PM CT / 7:00 PM ET, watch the live simulcast of the event taking place at McLean Bible Church in Washington D.C. David will share what the Lord has been working in his heart amid a world of such urgent physical and spiritual need and will interview people making a difference through their surrender to the Lord. 

What’s helped lead to this simulcast? David has been asking the why questions:

  • If the gospel is true and God really is good, then where is God amid extreme poverty and pain?
  • Where are the peace and protection of God for the oppressed and exploited in the world?
  • Is hell really a place and does it actually last forever?
  • If so, then why are so many people born into what seems like an earthly hell, only to move to an eternal one? How can that be fair?

Now, we all can ask the what now questions: 

  • Are we going to choose comfort, or are we going to choose the cross? 
  • Are we going to settle for maintenance, or are we going to sacrifice for mission? 
  • Will our lives be marked by indecisive minds or an undivided hearst? 

Don’t miss the simulcast for the change to be inspired, convicted, and encouraged as we dig into such concepts, seeking the Lord for our practical next steps of what needs to change.

Find out more about the simulcast and sign up to stay informed. If you’re in the D.C. area, you can attend the event in person for free.

And what’s even more? You can sample the Bible study that digs deeper into the gospel and difference-making lives in a world of urgent spiritual and physical needs by downloading two free sessions of the Bible study. 

 

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 117: Student Groups

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On this episode of Group Answers, Chris and Brian talk with Karen Daniel about student groups.

Karen Daniel is a publishing team leader in LifeWay Students.

Suggested resource: Within Reach by Ben Trueblood

Questions:

  • What is unique about student groups?
  • What kind of questions are you asking as you develop a Bible study for teens?
  • Why do you think some churches struggle to have consistent student groups?
  • What are a couple of studies that have worked really well with students, and what made them different?

Quotes:

  • Any student minister has four to six years to reach a group of students.
  • Students are very eager to learn, and they are at a point in their lives where they are asking themselves, “What does God want me to do?”
  • We want to meet students where they are, and we want to resource student ministers so they’ve got everything that they need to develop their strategy.
  • The conversation around identity is going to be different for girls than it is for guys.
  • From Within Reach: Of the students who say no adults from their church invested in their lives while they were in high school, 88% dropped out of church after high school. Of those who say one or two adults invested in them, 72% dropped out after high school. Of those who say three or more adults invested in them, 58% dropped out after high school.

This Episode’s Sponsor: You’ve probably heard about the movie OVERCOMER. But you may not know there are a few books and Bible studies inspired by the film. One is called Defined by Alex Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick, which is a book and Bible study based on insights from the Book of Ephesians. You can find these books and Bible studies at LifeWay.com/Overcomer.

 

The Group Answers Podcast is a weekly show designed to resource, train, and encourage small group leaders. Each episode considers current trends and resources as well as timeless truths and methods of discipleship. It is hosted by Brian Daniel, a Bible study and discipleship expert in LifeWay’s Groups Ministry, and Chris Surratt, the small group and discipleship specialist at LifeWay and author of Leading Small Groups.

Group Answers Podcast

Group Answers Episode 116: Louie Giglio

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On this episode of Group Answers, Brian and Brandon talk to Pastor Louie Giglio about his new book and Bible study, Not Forsaken.

For more than 20 years, Louie and Shelley Giglio have shepherded the largest group of young people around the world through the Passion movement, a spiritual awakening that is changing the world. The movement grows stronger every year at the Giglio-led Passion Conference, a gathering tens-of-thousands of collegiate young people aged 18 to 25, who come together to learn, worship, and focus on what matters most. The author of multiple bestselling books including “Goliath Must Fall” and the forthcoming “Not Forsaken,” Louie is a pastor and acclaimed public speaker known for tackling life’s biggest questions with precision, warmth, and practicality – an approach that has also shaped his leadership of the Passion Conferences, Passion City Church, sixstepsrecords, the Passion Global Institute, and other branches of the Passion Movement’s inspired outreach. Louie and Shelley make their home in Atlanta, Georgia, where as teachers, mentors, and trusted allies, the Giglios lift the next generation of leaders up through all facets of Passion, equipping them with empathy, truth, and a hunger for justice. For more information, please visit LouieGiglio.com.

Questions:

• In “Not Forsaken,” you invite readers to understand the character of God in a life-changing way: as a perfect Father who wants you to live under the waterfall of His blessing. Can you tell us more about our Heavenly Father versus or earthly fathers?

• You mention that this message isn’t just for those who have “daddy issues” or a “father wound.” How can those who had positive relationships with their earthly dads benefit from this Bible study?

• You wrote “Not Forsaken” based on your own experiences with pain and healing. Can you share more about that and, if applicable, how community played a role?

• You’ve been around students for a sustained period of time and have seen the generations come and go. First, what should the current generation of church leaders know about the incoming generation church leaders? And second, what do you think group leaders should know about Millennials and Gen Z?

• Louie you’ve been in ministry for quite some time, significant time both as a pastor but also with Passion which has become a worldwide movement. What have you learned about community, its impact on us, its redemptive capacity, and how it is best expressed and perpetuated.

The Group Answers Podcast is a weekly show designed to resource, train, and encourage small group leaders. Each episode considers current trends and resources as well as timeless truths and methods of discipleship. It is hosted by Brian Daniel, a Bible study and discipleship expert in LifeWay’s Groups Ministry, and Chris Surratt, the small group and discipleship specialist at LifeWay and author of Leading Small Groups.

Church Leadership

How Can Smallgroup.com Help Us Kick-Off Our Fall Groups?

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by Tyler Quillet

As summer winds down and more groups begin to pick back up, it often leaves pastors and group leaders wondering what topic to study or what resources to use for their group time. I’d like to share with you a little bit about Smallgroup.com, both what it is and how you can use it, and also some specific series that we think will be a great kick-off to your fall!

First, what is Smallgroup.com? Smallgroup.com is an online Bible study resource. It contains an ever-growing customizable library of over 2,300 text and video-enhanced studies from all 66 books of the Bible.

With a membership to smallgroup.com, you can: 

  • Search a topic or passage to find the study you are looking for.
  • You can create a whole class or series based on any topic or text you’d like and make it your own.
  • Right there within smallgroup.com, you can further customize any existing study with your specific teaching points, language, illustrations, church information and logo.
  • You can align the content to your pastor’s sermon series in minutes.
  • If you can’t find what you’re looking for, you can “request a study” as part of your subscription. The Custom Bible Study team at LifeWay will write it for you and upload it to the site.

Of particular interest to many group leaders is the ever-growing selection of popular video-enhanced studies from teachers like Priscilla Shirer, J.D. Greear, Beth Moore, David Platt, Matt Chandler, Lisa Harper, and many more. Through a membership to smallgroup.com, you can log in and stream these videos through any web-enabled device or through your Roku®, Amazon Fire®, or Apple TV® apps.

Smallgroup.com offers three subscription plans to suit every need:

  • Basic is $199/year and includes unlimited access to the entire Bible study library, the “Write your own” Bible study feature, downloadable study guides to share with group members, and streaming videos. This is perfect for a single group or a pastor!
  • Plus is $399/year and includes all the features of Basic plus the ability to email study guides and videos to an unlimited number of people, a groups management feature, smallgroup.com access for an unlimited number of group leaders, and 20% off all contracts with CustomBibleStudy.com. Every group in your church has access to just the right study for them!
  • Premium is $3,999/year. This subscription includes all of the above features, plus a fully custom experience year-round with your very own dedicated small group specialist. That means you’d have the services of someone on the Custom Bible Study team at LifeWay to whom you would send sermon outlines or study requests. Your dedicated specialist would then build or write your requested studies for you in your smallgroup.com account within five business days. Your specialist would also be available to manage your groups, leaders, and members and create discipleship pathways. This subscription plan offers 30% off all contracts with CustomBibleStudy.com.

If you are interested in checking out Smallgroup.com, but aren’t sure if you are ready to commit, go ahead and try our 30-day free trial. Just click the button on the front page and begin to explore all that Smallgroup.com has to offer you, your group leaders, and your entire church!

Let’s look at 4 newer series on Smallgroup.com to help us kick-off the fall:

Imago Dei 

This 6-session (Video-Enhanced) series examines the image of God biblically within the grand narrative of Scripture, relationally as it applies to ourselves and others, and missionally in our service to others and in our obedience to the Great Commission.

As You Go 

This series covers six passages in the book of Acts to explore what it means to live in a missional fashion.

Devoted  

This 6-session series sees that healthy churches and healthy Christians are marked by their focus on God, each other, and witnessing to the lost. We are all called to this same focus.

Love as Our Witness  

This 6-session series through 1 John explores our love for God and others in response to His great love for us.

With over 2,300 small group study guides and hundreds of series and video-enhanced studies, we are confident that you will find what you are looking for as you seek to point your groups to Jesus! We are praying for you as you enter into your fall groups!

Tyler Quillet is the Discipleship Strategist for the Custom Bible Study team at LifeWay Christian Resources. He lives in the Nashville, TN, area with his incredible wife, Cathie, and two boys, Cylas and Bowen. Tyler also speaks, writes, and coaches alongside Cathie as they pour into and love on the infertile community through Cathie’s “The Missing Peace Project”. Tyler previously spent 15 years as a pastor and is passionate about serving churches and pouring into church leaders in a variety of ways. 

 

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Leading Inter-Generational Small Groups Toward Transformation 

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by Jared Musgrove 

We adults have a lot to learn. One of the fantastic opportunities we have as small group leaders is to lean into the normal phases of adult transformation. Because isn’t that what we are all hoping and praying and working toward in a small group? To see lives transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. No matter the person’s age or life stage. 

There are so many opportunities for leading an inter-generational small group. At the forefront, such a group looks a lot more like the body of Christ with varied ages and stages and backgrounds and ethnicities and ranges of walks with God in the living room. Together. For the gospel. That’s the immediate opportunity and your strategy can be to call this out at the start of your first night of group. And again on the second night and on into the second year. For however long the Lord has you together, never let your inter-generational group members lose the wonder of Christian unity across the ranges of our lives and experiences with Him. 

Transformation in childhood is so different than what we as adults of all ages experience. Adult transformations tend to come not just from a new idea or knowledge, but a life lived, directed by truth. Know your Bible. And don’t forget to live your Bible. In the company of spiritual friends. 

Small group is an essential environment for this type of adult transformation via life-on-life disciplemaking. 

Here’s what we can know and pray and work toward in our inter-generational groups: Every adult, regardless of age, transforms via three core elements that correspond with our Christian faith and the Bible’s story: 

 

A new idea encountered (John 3:18, Romans 12:1, Phil. 4:8) 

This is Jesus with the crowds, perhaps even the 70 who regularly walked with Him. This is a sermon about that affected someone in the group. Or maybe a confession from a group member that signals to another that there is a way that seems right to man but in the end leads to destruction. Maybe a group member shares about a population in your city who need help. You were never before aware of these things. 

Encountering can also offer a solution to the problem. Freedom, emancipation, is the main theme of this beginning transformation by the renewing of the adult mind, regardless of age (Romans 12:1-2). This is where the Philippians 4:8 command to think on “whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable… excellent” begins. 

This is where the gospel begins to take root. Where you “know” that your old self was crucified, you believe that if you’ve died with him then you will live with him, you know that death no longer has dominion over him (Romans 6:6-11, 14-23). You know that you know. You are strengthened in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith (Ephesians 3:16). 

 But it cannot end there. No adult truly thinks or transforms alone. 

 

Community as core (Ephesians 4:1ff) 

This is Jesus with the 12 disciples. At times even just with Peter, James, and John. This is the small group where honest questions are asked and answered forthrightly, wrestling and verbal processing can be done out loud and in a safe environment, admonishments occur based in personal love and concern for God’s design; the small group is where knowledge of God, self, and friends begins to form and transform the persons in the group. 

This small group space is critical to how adults, of any age, conform more into the image of Christ. When you have an inter-generational group, recognize that we are all learning, forming, and transforming along this path. The community is key. The soul is the center of the action. The people in your group, regardless of age, are relational creatures. Ephesians 4-6 help use see is that there is no significant transformation in a person apart from another person or persons. Each man or woman in that small group is in danger of being tossed to and fro, but when we speak the truth to each other in love we grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. 

But you can’t walk it alone. You have to step out. 

Transformed action taken (James 1:19-25; 2:14, 26) 

In your walk with God there is always the encounter, the community, and then the action taken. This is the journey outward, but it can and must not leave the learning or the community behind. You take it with you into the work, in to sharing faith. This is the step of the path where you are not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, blessed in your action (James 1:25). 

This is Jesus sending His disciples to the crowds and the nations. This is the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) on display in the group’s life together. This is sharing the gospel, together. It may be serving shut-ins or a local nursing home. It may be blessing first-year teachers at your local schools. It may be street evangelism at your local shops. It is your journey outward, together. And it must occur. We know that faith — and community — without works is dead. 

So regardless the age range in your group, there’s work to do together. We are all on a pathway to further transform and become more like Christ today than yesterday. That’s the constant commonality in an intergenerational group. There’s always opportunity for growth in the gospel. It never gets old. 

Jared Steven Musgrove serves as Groups Pastor and elder at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Oklahoma, a Master of Divinity in preaching from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry in leadership from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the husband of Jenny and the father of two sons, Jordan and Joshua. You can follow him on Twitter @jsmusgrove 
Church Leadership

Finding Your Identity

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How would you describe yourself? What defines your identity?

Following the epic account of the first six days of creation, Genesis 2 zooms in for a close-up of the first man and woman as they opened their eyes to behold the miracle of life. The Lord God, who had just spoken light, planets, and every living and nonliving thing into existence, now changed the rhythm. It was no longer “God said, ‘Let there be …’”

The LORD God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed

the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

GENESIS 2:7

The LORD God made the rib he had taken from

the man into a woman and brought her to the man.

GENESIS 2:22

In the intimate account of their creation, God breathed life into man’s nostrils and personally shaped the man and woman from earth and bone. The personal relationship between God and humanity became unmistakably clear. You aren’t just one more part of the natural order:

God created man in his own image;

he created him in the image of God;

he created them male and female.

GENESIS 1:27

The image of God doesn’t designate just a physical resemblance. The word image literally means “icon.” Men and women represent God and relate to Him in a way that’s different from all other created beings. All human beings from Adam and Eve onward are created to know and relate to God. Each person is a unique and beloved creation of God. Look at what Ephesians says later in the Bible:

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

EPHESIANS 2:10

You possess a soul that enables you to know God in a way that’s different from animals, plants, mountains, and all other created things. Your soul gives you a capacity to enter a personal relationship with your Father. Wrapped up in your identity is your responsibility to represent God and demonstrate His rule and reign over all creation (see Gen. 1:28). You’ve been created for a purpose. You can trust that whatever God’s plan is for your life, you’re perfectly suited for the work.

Now you probably want to know what you’re supposed to do. What’s God’s plan for your life? The truth is that God first wants you to know who He created you to be. When you know who you are, you’ll know how to act. Without understanding your identity, you aimlessly fumble around no matter what you do.

Identity is everything. Who you are matters. In fact, it matters every day. And who God is defines your identity. Who you are is determined by whose you are:

I have called you by your name; you are mine.

ISAIAH 43:1

Before your mind starts racing toward all the things you need to do, pause and thank God for everything He has already done. Conclude your time of personal study by declaring that you’re His and that therefore you trust in His plan for your life.

The content above has been excerpted for the Defined Bible Study by Alex and Stephen Kendrick. Find out more about the Defined Bible Study, inspired by the featured film OVERCOMER, here. For additional resources by the Kendrick brothers, visit lifeway.com/overcomerresources.

 

Church Leadership

Life + Love: An Online Bible Study

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We are so excited to announce our next online Bible study starting this fall! 

Beginning Tuesday, September 17th, we will be studying Life + Love: Navigating Singleness, Dating, Engagement, & Marriage  by Ben Stuart. 

About the Study:

In a society where everyone is supposedly more connected, why do people feel so lonely? Even as marriage rates decline, recent studies find the overwhelming majority of single adults still hope to get married. But how can you navigate life and love in this disconnected culture?  Life + Love Bible Study will help you chart a course through four relational stages: singleness, dating, engagement, and marriage. Learn to embrace God’s design and live out His purpose for each stage of your life. 

We are excited to bring this study into Facebook in the form of a Facebook Group! We believe this will greatly benefit our attendees and allow everyone to connect around this study. 

Click here to read a sample, order the Bible study, or to find out more.

To participate in the study:

  1. Head over to our Facebook Group and sign up! You will be asked to accept the rules of engagement of the group as well to provide a valid email address. This will let us know how many people are participating in the study and we will provide you with a reminder each week when we post the next session.
  2. Purchase a copy of the Life + Love Bible Study Book here. Please note that while a Bible Study Book is not required, we do recommend one to enhance your experience going through this Online Bible study. 
  3. Join the conversation by participating in the comments inside of the Facebook group. Be sure to turn on your notifications so you can keep up with the discussion! 

Once you sign up for the study, you will receive an email each week with a link to the session so you can participate! If you have notifications on for this group, you will also receive a notification when we post the next session. 

We hope to see you in our Facebook Group!

 

Church Leadership

Two Ways to Craft Effective Small Group Questions

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Developing good question sets may be the hardest action taken on by a Bible study leader. Question sets are designed to move people through the learning process. For every question included in the set, ten or more should have been left on the table. In the creation of a set of seven questions, one should not be surprised to find that they created one hundred different questions in pursuit of the seven. 

Lots of systems exist for creating question sets, but let me share two that I have found helpful and the steps that are needed. 

Approach 1: The Inductive Chart

Step 1. Read the Bible passage, and list people/places/things/words.

Step 2. Use Bible study resources to define and describe the items listed in Step 1. Star key discoveries that speak into the overall understanding of the passage or give deeper insight.

Step 3. Read the passage again, and list the actions taken or directed in the passage. Include actions taken by God in the passage.

Step 4. Identify principles and personal actions. Use the actions taken or directed as a starting point, seeking to place them into a question. Here is an example from Matthew 2, where the angels delivered God’s message to the shepherds: How does God deliver His message today? What role do I (we) have in delivering God’s message? What message do I (we) have to deliver? How can I (we) deliver that message? As principles are identified, look for ways the actions are tied to the principle(s).

Step 5. Organize question sets. Look for paths from the action questions back to the items in the text that feed into that question. Create question sets that move people through the discovery process to the action question(s). For example: What was the message delivered by the angels? moves to What message are we to deliver today? and How do the two compare? 

Approach 2: The Big Idea

Step 1. Read the Bible text, identifying the main points. 

Step 2. Using the main point, write your own summary statement of the main truth or principle discovered in that section. (Example: God desires for everyone to come to repentance.) The main points should be subsets of your summary statement. 

Step 3. Generate questions borne from the summary statement. (Example: What is repentance? What other passages support this idea? What does God do about those who refuse to repent? What keeps a person from repenting? From what are we to repent? Have I repented? Have you repented?)

Step 4. Convert the open-ended questions to close-ended questions. (Example: What keeps a person from repenting? might become Does a person’s pride keep them from repenting?) Convert the close-ended questions to open-ended questions. (Example: Have I repented? might become Tell about how you came to understand your need to repent and how you did that.)

Step 5. Organize the questions into logical sets. For example, before a person can determine if he or she has repented, he or she needs to know from what and how.

Step 6. Cull and refine the questions, focusing on the sets that get to the core of the Bible text and that lead to concrete action. Most people find it helpful to work backward, identifying the final question in the set and then taking a step back, looking for the question that moves the group forward. 

Both of these approaches take time and practice. The end result shows. The person who claims that creating questions is easy and can be done quickly is trying to sell you something he or she knows little about or that reflects minimal thought, especially if we are talking about an intentional question set that moves people to purposeful action. 

Dwayne McCrary is a project team leader for ongoing adult Bible study resources at LifeWay, including the adult Explore the Bible resources. He also teaches an adult group and preschool group every Sunday in the church he attends, and serves as an adjunct at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. 
Church Leadership

Help Your Group See Jesus in the Entire Bible

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What’s more important than the Gospel? Nothing.

As Christians, we recognize the importance of finding God’s redemptive plan throughout the Word of God. We desire to live with this plan in mind, being ambassadors of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). We seek to take up our crosses daily to follow Christ while remembering His finished work on the cross even as God is still working in believers’ lives today (Matthew 16:24).

But how do we maintain a focus on Christ even in difficult passages of the Bible? Can we see Christ connections throughout all of scripture? Can we see Old Testament connections even in the New Testament?

Thankfully, we can. 

And we can help you lead your groups to dig into these discoveries as well. 

Gospel Foundations is a seven volume, year-long journey through the storyline of scripture, seeing how Christ is hero from beginning to end. Each of the individual volumes has seven sessions and can be done individually. 

But there’s more.

We’ve chosen many of the graphs that detail how we can see Jesus in various portions of the Bible and put them in a “Gospel Guide” for easy reference. Along with sample content from the studies, wallpaper, sermon outlines, video previews, and more, you can access this all for free here.

Because Jesus is that important.

 

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Friday Feature: Not Forsaken

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You Are Known

Meet Brandon. He’s a well-liked art major at a state university, where he works hard, makes good grades, and is active in his campus ministry. If you saw him, you’d think he’s got it all together and possesses all the blessings a student could ever want. But there’s a hidden problem. Brandon comes from a broken home. He never knew his parents as a couple, and he was raised by his grandparents. His childhood years were spent splitting weekends between his mom and his dad. And although no major conflict ever occurred, the relationship between Brandon and his dad has always been distant. He doesn’t see his dad more than once a year, and phone calls are sparsely shared. Now a young man entering adulthood, Brandon calls his dad, longing for a deeper relationship. But the conversations never go beyond sports, politics, and the weather. Brandon can’t understand why a father wouldn’t want to know his son. Introspective and defeated, he muses, I’m doing so many great things in my life. If only he would get to know me.

Brandon has grown from being a boy to a man, but he still has a deep longing to be known by his dad, not on the surface level but at the heart level.

Among your family and friends, who knows you best—the real you?

Just as human beings yearn for approval and worth, we also long to be known—and to be deeply known. And when we don’t feel that we’re known by our parents, we’re left feeling isolated or abandoned. Those feelings can then lead to a whole host of responses. We might erect relational walls, refusing to let others in. Or we can go to the other extreme by sharing to a fault without a filter. We were created to know and be known by others, especially our parents.

What’s one detail you wish your dad knew about you?

What stands out most about the way your dad pursued you?

Maybe you’re reading these questions, but you don’t have an earthly dad. Perhaps you never knew him, or maybe he’s no longer living. That’s not an easy station in life for anyone. I don’t want to be callous or to ignore real hurt or absence. But I want to help you process your thoughts too. So here’s a question for you:

What have you most longed for from a dad?

Some of these questions might be difficult, but don’t let the difficulty push you away. Instead, allow them to expose the need in your heart so that you’re prepared to receive the answer to that need. We’re going to learn today that your longing to be known can be satisfied by God. Whether you have a blessed or an estranged relationship with your dad, you’re perfectly known by your Heavenly Father. And it’s a deeper knowledge than even the best dad on earth could ever give.

God Knows Everything

Psalm 139 is one of the most personal passages of Scripture in all the Bible. In it we see the depth of God’s knowledge of, presence in, and design for our lives. Each way God is involved in our lives is illustrated through a display of who He is.

READ PSALM 139:1-6. Record the significant details God knows about you.

God is omniscient. Simply put, that means God knows everything—including everything about you! He knows your actions, your ways, your comings and goings, and even all of your words—before they’re audibly spoken. Your Heavenly Father knows your deepest thoughts, highest aspirations, and wildest dreams. He’s intimately acquainted with all of your victories, struggles, fears, and doubts. The psalmist David was overwhelmed in response to God’s deep, personal knowledge of his life.

Why is it good that God knows us personally, truly, and deeply?

God Is Present Everywhere

God isn’t defined by space and time. He’s literally present everywhere. That means God is omnipresent. He not only knows everything about you, but He’s also with you wherever you go.

READ PSALM 139:7-12.

Many of us know what it means for our dad to have missed an important event or to have been at work when we needed him most. Some people experience these absences as isolated events in the midst of an otherwise blessed existence. Others know these as the norm. The psalmist David proclaimed the good news that your Heavenly Father never misses an important date. He never fails to show up. And He will never leave you or forsake you (see Heb. 13:5).

According to Psalm 139:7-12, why should it comfort you to know that God is always with you?

God Is All-Powerful

In addition to being all-knowing and ever-present, God is all-powerful. He’s omnipotent. You can see His power on full display in the next section of Psalm 139, illustrated in the intricate ways He created you.

READ PSALM 139:13-16. Reflect on the way God intricately and personally designed your body and your life. Record any words or phrases from these verses that you find especially meaningful.

You may have inherited your grandfather’s nose or your mother’s laugh, but your Heavenly Father ultimately designed, created, and gave the gift of life to you. This means no one knows you like your Creator. No matter the joys or sorrows you’ve experienced with your earthly father, your Heavenly Father knows you, accompanies you, and fashions you as no other father can.

Precious Promise

Next David reflected on the continual, vast thoughts of God toward His children.

READ PSALM 139:17-18.

Here’s the liberating truth to grasp and hold on to as you go through life: your Heavenly Father knows you. He’s with you always. And He will never abandon you or let you down. Just as you’re known by God, He also wants to be known. Jesus said knowing God is the ultimate meaning of life:

This is eternal life: that they know

you, the only true God, and Jesus

Christ, whom you have sent. 

JOHN 17:3

Simply going to heaven when we die isn’t the goal of the Christian life. Jesus tells us that the ultimate end to which all of existence points is for us to know God. All of your life—from the time you give your life to Jesus and continuing throughout eternity—should be characterized by a deepening knowledge of and love for your Heavenly Father.

Prayer

Father, You’re all-knowing, all-powerful,

and present everywhere. I marvel at Your

works, and I’m humbled by the vast sum

of Your precious thoughts toward me.

Give me grace to be satisfied by Your

presence in my life now and forever.

This content is excerpted from Louie Giglio’s Not Forsaken Bible study. To find out more about this resource, please visit lifeway.com/notforsaken.

 

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