Week 1: Eyes For the Harvest
LOOKING BACK
Family Time (15 mins)
LOOKING UP
Worship (~10-15 mins) [Leader: ahead of time, get some sticky notes/small pieces of paper and pens. While people are writing, you can optionally play an instrumental worship songs.]
Remember God’s Faithfulness: Part of worship is looking back at how God has shown up in our lives and the way we see Him show us His character!
Let's take a few minutes to reflect on how we've seen God show up in our lives lately. You can write down, "God is..." and complete with a characteristic (ex: faithful, caring, knows me, etc.). If you can, write a note or phrase about how you've seen that characteristic in your own life.
After giving everyone a few minutes to write, either in a large group, or in small groups, have people share what they wrote, then have a few people pray prayers of thankfulness for the attributes we've experienced.
Bible Study (30 mins)
Context: In John chapter 4, Jesus is traveling through the area of Samaria which was home to a group of people (called the Samaritans) that the Jews despised. However, following Jesus’ conversation with a divorced woman at the town well, and her subsequent testimony to her neighbors, many in the town become believers in Jesus’ message. Our passage is the conversation Jesus has with his disciples while the Samaritan woman is telling her neighbors about meeting Jesus.
Have two people read the passage out loud.
John 4.31-38 (NIV)
“Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.””
Questions:
LOOKING FORWARD (10 mins)
In smaller groups, discuss the following:
Announcements (5 mins)
Elder Care Support (Feb. 4): Beginning in February, on the 1st Sunday of every other month, we are gathering as a Gospel-centered peer-support group for those caring for elderly or terminally-ill family members. Please register at epicentre.org/events.
Family Time (15 mins)
- Vision: Invite someone in your lifegroup to share what your Lifegroup’s vision means to them.
- Connection Question: what's something that brought you joy this week?
- Announcements (see bottom of this doc)
- Check-Ins, answers to prayer, a testimony to share.
LOOKING UP
Worship (~10-15 mins) [Leader: ahead of time, get some sticky notes/small pieces of paper and pens. While people are writing, you can optionally play an instrumental worship songs.]
Remember God’s Faithfulness: Part of worship is looking back at how God has shown up in our lives and the way we see Him show us His character!
Let's take a few minutes to reflect on how we've seen God show up in our lives lately. You can write down, "God is..." and complete with a characteristic (ex: faithful, caring, knows me, etc.). If you can, write a note or phrase about how you've seen that characteristic in your own life.
After giving everyone a few minutes to write, either in a large group, or in small groups, have people share what they wrote, then have a few people pray prayers of thankfulness for the attributes we've experienced.
Bible Study (30 mins)
Context: In John chapter 4, Jesus is traveling through the area of Samaria which was home to a group of people (called the Samaritans) that the Jews despised. However, following Jesus’ conversation with a divorced woman at the town well, and her subsequent testimony to her neighbors, many in the town become believers in Jesus’ message. Our passage is the conversation Jesus has with his disciples while the Samaritan woman is telling her neighbors about meeting Jesus.
Have two people read the passage out loud.
John 4.31-38 (NIV)
“Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.””
Questions:
- What stands out to you from this passage? Why?
- What does this passage reveal about Jesus?
- What does this passage reveal about people (e.g. the disciples, the Samaritans, others)?
- Share a situation where you have ‘reaped’ from what someone else has ‘sown’ (or vice versa)? How might this passage make sense to you in light of that?
LOOKING FORWARD (10 mins)
In smaller groups, discuss the following:
- What do you think Jesus means when he speaks about ‘fields’ and ‘harvest’, ‘sower’ and ‘reaper’?
- How does this speak to us today?
- How do we step into this story? Are we meant to be the ‘sowers’, reapers’, ‘fields’, ‘harvest’? Or something else?
- “Open your eyes and look at the fields” - let this inform your prayers.
- Take some time to pray for God to open your eyes so that you can see the fields and the harvest that is around you. Ask God to lead you to the harvest.
Announcements (5 mins)
Elder Care Support (Feb. 4): Beginning in February, on the 1st Sunday of every other month, we are gathering as a Gospel-centered peer-support group for those caring for elderly or terminally-ill family members. Please register at epicentre.org/events.