September 6th, 2020 - Online Worship Gathering
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Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
Check out these verses on unity and peace: Matthew 5:9, John 13:35, John 14:27, John 17:21, Romans 14:19, 2Corinthians 13:11, Ephesians 4:3, Philippians 2:2-4, and Hebrews 12:14. Why were unity and peace such a big deal to Jesus and the early church?
Have you ever been in an environment where you didn’t feel like you could be your “real” self; that you had to fake it? What made it feel that way?
Read John 16:33. Jesus acknowledges we will have trouble. Why would it be important to Jesus that we, also, acknowledge our troubles (that we would be our “real” self)?
In John 16:33, Jesus also acknowledges He has overcome the world and offers us peace! Why is it important to acknowledge not just our problems, but the victory and peace, too?
For some of us (especially this year, it seems), it’s easier to get caught up in the troubles. Where are you seeing Jesus’s victory and peace around you? How could you demonstrate that victory and peace to the world around you, even more?
August 30th, 2020 - Online Worship Gathering
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Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
Read Matthew 11:28-30. What makes you feel burdened? What weighs you down and wears you out?
What is the truth (teaching) of Jesus that pushes back against your burdens? What words of God can you turn to when you’re feeling weighed down? If you’re not sure, ask some Jesus followers who could point you in the right direction.
Why do rules and religion often keep people away from Jesus? How could Jesus followers be more compassionate to people in that position, without abandoning the truth?
Read Matthew 11:28 again. Jesus is inviting people into relationship with Him… do you find it hard to share that invitation with people who don’t know Him yet? Why or why not?
How have you experienced Jesus to be “humble and gentle at heart” in your life? Why is that important?
August 23rd, 2020 - Online Worship Gathering
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Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
Is the freedom that Jesus’ offers really better than the security of religion or the release of our broken desires?
In what ways do you struggle to live free as God’s child?
Why is slavery sometimes more appealing than freedom in Jesus?
How have you experienced the Spirit guide and direct you to live in freedom?
In what ways have you resisted the Spirit’s guidance or his assurance of the freedom you have in your identity as God’s child?
August 16th, 2020 - Online Worship Gathering
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. What decisions and outcomes have you been prone to worrying about? Do you have control over those?
2. Do you consider yourself a worrier? If so, what do you think causes you to do so? If not, what steps do you take to not worry, and can you share those steps with others?
3. Read Matthew 6:31-34. Jesus seems to say that our worries interfere with our focus on the Kingdom of God. How do you see worry get between a person and what God wants to do in and through their life?
4. Read Luke 14:28-30. In this passage about the cost of following Him, Jesus assumes that planning for the future is the right thing to do. So, when is it okay to worry about the future, and when is it not? Or, is there a difference between planning and worrying?
5. Read Philippians 4:6-9. Where do you see the Kingdom of God (the work, power, or territory of God) coming alive around you? Testify to others of the good you see!
6. What can you do to spend more time fixing your thoughts on those things than the controversies and worries of the world?
August 9th, 2020 - Online Worship Gathering
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. When you think of “justice” what do you think of? What kind of emotions or experiences come to mind?
2. When you think of “grace” and “mercy” what do you think of? What kind of emotions or experiences come to mind?
3. Can you recall a time God called you or led you to go through something you didn’t want to go through? What did you learn about yourself through that experience? What did you learn about God?
4. In Jonah 4, the prophet tells Nineveh they will be “overturned.” What he meant for destruction, God meant for good. What has God overturned in your life? What has he transformed in your story?
5. How might God be calling you, in this time, to reach out to others with grace and mercy? Does anyone specific come to mind? Or a change in your attitude or approach?
6. The Bible is full of humor and hilarious stories (Jonah’s melodrama, a talking donkey, Peter’s big mouth, etc.)! What story or scripture passage amuses you or makes you laugh?
August 2nd, 2020 - Online Worship Gathering
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Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
How do you respond to the idea of ‘peacemaking’ as ‘bringing wholeness’? What annoys you? Intrigues you?
How do you see the need for peace, for wholeness, or shalom, around you?
What makes trying to bring wholeness to broken relationships and situations difficult? What is hardest for you?
How do you see God bring peace, wholeness, rightness, goodness - shalom - through Jesus? How would this have been unexpected to God’s people in Jesus’ day? How is it unexpected in our own culture?
To bring peace, what are the truths and promises that you need to hold on to?
July 26th, 2020 - Online Worship Gathering
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. As you look at the circumstances of your life, whether good or bad, where do you go to find hope? What people, words, or reflections help you to choose hope?
2. In Romans 14:20, Paul calls on believers to not “tear apart the work of God over what you eat.” What things do you see tearing apart the “work of God” in our day? What can you do to prevent that, or to contribute to stitching things back together?
3. It is good for all of us to have people who build us up in our relationship with Jesus. Who is someone in your life who builds up your relationship with Jesus (you might call them a mentor, friend, elder, family, or coach)? If you don’t have a person like that, who could you seek out to be that person?
4. Who is someone you are actively choosing to “[build] up in the Lord”? If you don’t have one, who is someone you could start investing in?
Here is a list of 55 of the prophecies Jesus fulfilled in his life, death, and resurrection: https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog-and-stories/old-testament-prophecies.html. How do you react to these prophecies, and why do you feel that way? See Romans 15:4 for Paul’s reaction. If Paul’s reaction is different than yours, why do you think he reacted that way
July 19th - Online Worship Gathering
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. Who is someone you can think of who shines the light of Jesus? What is it, specifically, you admire about them and would like to emulate?
2. What labels have you worn in your life? What makes it hard for you to let Jesus shine brighter than those labels? Or, what makes it easy for you?
3. Read Philippians 1:29. Why is it a privilege to trust in Jesus? In what ways is it a “privilege” to suffer for him?
4. As you read Philippians 2:3-8, what attribute of the “attitude of Christ” do you need allow Holy Spirit to work on in you (humility, interest in others, laying down privileges, etc.)?
July 12th - Online Worship Gathering
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
We hope you are able to gather with a couple other people, or phone a friend, to check in on each other and go through these questions. We need community for encouragement and accountability. You can take the first step! You can sit with someone or reach out by phone, whatever feels safe for you. We pray you are blessed and encouraged by your conversation.
1. Do you think you tend to be a peacekeeper or a peacemaker? What makes you say that?
2. Read Colossians 3:12-13. Which of those characteristics do you see the most of in your own life? What helps you live that one? On the other hand, which one do you need more of in your life? Why?
3. Read Colossians 3:14-15. What things do you have to be thankful for? Let’s praise God with a whole list of them!
4. Read Colossians 3:16-17. What are the things you do to let “the message about Christ” fill your life? What things do you do to connect with God on a personal level?
5. When you think about people who represent Jesus well with their words and actions, who do you think of? Consider writing them a note or giving them a call to let them know they encourage and inspire you!
July 5th - Online Worship Gathering
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
June 28th - Online Worship Gathering
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. Read Philippians 1:3-5. Who are some believers (from the past or present) who bring a smile to your face when you think about them?
2. Read Philippians 1:6. What good work is God doing in you right now?
3. Read Philippians 1:7-8. How might imprisonment for Paul or hard times for you be a witness of the truth of the Good News?
4. Read Philippians 1:9-11. Paul prays some specific things for the Philippian believers. What things does he pray? What does he want for them to understand?
5. What is the blessing of Philippians 1:11? How do our lives bring glory and praise to God?
6. Spend some time in prayer for people in your life. Pray specifically, like Paul does.
June 21st - Father's Day - Online Worship Gathering
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Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. Read Luke 15:11-32. What are the similarities in the 3 parables of lostness?
2. In the parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32), which son do you relate to the most? Why?
3. Verse 17 is an expression of hitting rock bottom. Have you been there? Have you been in that place of being at the end of yourself with all your resources exhausted? How did you respond? How did you “come to your senses?”
4. Read Luke 15:20-32 again with a focus on the father. What can we learn about God as a Father in this parable?
5. God the Father is perfect, but our earthly fathers always fall short. There are things about our relationship with our earthly fathers that might be painful, things we extend grace and forgiveness for. Some of us have had to get healing for a “father wound.” What about your relationship with your dad has skewed your perception of God as a Father? What do you still need to forgive?
6. What about your father has helped you? What about your dad can you be thankful for?
7. Look up these verses and be encouraged about God as a Father:
Psalm 27:10; 68:4-6
Isaiah 9:6
Matthew 5:44-48
Matthew 6:3-15
John 5:17-23
John 10:25-30
John 14:6-7
June 14th - Online Worship Gathering
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
June 7th - Online Worship Gathering
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. Look carefully at Ephesians 5:21. What is the big reason we are called to submit to one another? What is the motive?
2. What makes it difficult to yield to some else’s wants and needs instead of your own?
3. Submission often requires a choice to “yield” even when there is missing information and we don’t completely understand. Sometimes that means embracing some level of mystery. We don’t always understand what God is doing in the moment. Sometimes, however, God reveals His plan to us through submission, like the revealing of a secret. Consider these verses and talk about how God often reveals His heart and His plan as we make the choice to submit to His leading in our lives. Ephesians 1:9-11, 3:1-9, 5:31-33, and 6:19. What does God reveal about His desires, His heart, and His plan? How does our submission to other people align with His purposes?
4. Think about Ephesians 5:31-32. In what ways is marriage a picture of the church?
5. Read Ephesians 5:33. How do you understand the distinction between Love and Respect?
6. What is said in these verses about submission? James 4:7; 1 Peter 2:13, Hebrews 13:15-17; Romans 13:1-7.
7. Read Ephesians 6:1-4. What motives should we teach and model to our kids for obeying their parents? Why should they obey? What does obedience look like?
8. In what ways do the principles of Ephesians 6:5-9 apply to employees, workers, employers, bosses, managers, and supervisors?
May 31st - Online Worship Gathering
Let’s engage in worship, prayer and scripture together as we discuss some guiding principles to employ during this time.
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
We hope you are able to gather with a couple other people, or phone a friend, to check in on each other and go through these questions. We need community for encouragement and accountability. You can take the first step! You can sit with someone or reach out by phone, whatever feels safe for you. We pray you are blessed and encouraged by your conversation.
1. Share about a time you were part of a really great experience with other Christ followers. Then, share about a time when the experience was really… not good. What made the difference? How could you be that difference for someone else?
2. Read through Acts 2:42-47. What piece of that church experience excites you? What part would be the hardest for you?
3. The Acts 2 church sacrificed for one another. What are some ways you could build up your fellow believers by sacrificing for them?
4. In Acts 1:8, Jesus told His disciples they would be empowered to reach everyone - their city, their region, their enemies, and the rest of the world. Which of those 4 groups is easiest for you to want to connect with? Which is the hardest? Why?
5. How would our community change if everyone in it really believed God is with them and for them? What are ways you could be a part of making that dream a reality?
May 24th - Online Worship Gathering
Let’s engage in worship, prayer and scripture together as we discuss some guiding principles to employ during this time.
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. Read Ephesians 5:1-20. What words describe a life lived apart from God?
2. Describe the message of light and hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
3. John Stumbo recently said, “Every crisis creates a new opportunity to lead---with our ideas, our perspectives, and our demeanor.” What opportunities have you had? What does this unique moment in time give us the creativity or the courage for to further extend the love of Jesus?
4. Think about and talk about this quote from Missionary Robert Jaffray in an address given during the Great Depression: “Do you ask, ‘In view of the terrible economic depression of today dare we go forward in these new fields and commence new work?’ Yea, rather may we ask this: ‘Dare we in the face of the command of the Lord Jesus and in the face of encouraging miracles He is working on your behalf, hesitate for one moment?’”
5. Look up Colossians 3:16. How does it accent Ephesians 5:19? How can you let your life sing?
May 17th - Online Worship Gathering
Let’s engage in worship, prayer and scripture together as we discuss some guiding principles to employ during this time.
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. How is your communion with God? Try reading through the gospel of John in the next weeks and refresh your love for Jesus.
2. What is God teaching you through our current circumstances? What is He speaking into your life? How well are you listening? When we are on the other side of the Covid-19 pandemic, what do you dare not forget about what God is teaching you right now?
3. Are you growing in your hunger for the Bible and listening for God’s voice there? What verses in the Bible are meaningful for you right now?
May 10th - Online Worship Gathering
Let’s engage in worship, prayer and scripture together as we discuss some guiding principles to employ during this time.
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. How is your communion with God? Try reading through the gospel of John in the next weeks and refresh your love for Jesus.
2. What is God teaching you through our current circumstances? What is He speaking into your life? How well are you listening? When we are on the other side of the Covid-19 pandemic, what do you dare not forget about what God is teaching you right now?
3. Are you growing in your hunger for the Bible and listening for God’s voice there? What verses in the Bible are meaningful for you right now?
May 3rd - Online Worship Gathering
Let’s engage in worship, prayer and scripture together as we discuss some guiding principles to employ during this time.
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. If you or someone you know could use some help getting pulled out of the darkness: josh@easthillsalliance.org / puredesire.org / hotline: (800) 562-6025
2. Take an encouragement challenge: Either (1) for every time you blame someone else for something, even if you’re correct, say three encouraging things to others or (2) make it a goal to say something encouraging to every person you know and see each day.
3. Why do you think Paul pulled out the “Lord’s authority” for his command in Ephesians 4:17. Why was that command that important to him, for these people he loved?
4. What things are you tempted to take control of that aren’t yours to control? Why do you think that is? What is one thing you could put back in God’s control, to practice recognizing His control?
5. Read Ephesians 4:31-32. Which of the items on the “get rid” list in verse 31 is the biggest struggle for you? One of the things we know is that we all do what we do, even bad things, because it helps us in some way (dominate, control, feel safer, feel justified, etc.). What do you think is the benefit for you of the are you struggle with the most?
5. Which of the Christ-like elements in verse 32 are you going to be intentional about this week? How do you think that will benefit you or the people around you?
April 26th - Online Worship Gathering
Let’s engage in worship, prayer and scripture together as we discuss some guiding principles to employ during this time.
Are you new to East Hills or The Grove? Or, do you have a comment or prayer request? Communicate with us by using the online welcome Card below!
Table Conversations for Digging Deeper
1. Read Ephesians 4:1-16. How would you describe the life God calls us to live?
2. This passage tells us that we each have a special gift of grace. Can you identify your own gift? Read these passages on spiritual gifts, knowing that the lists are probably not exhaustive. Make a list of gifts and giftings that show up in: 1 Corinthians 12:1-10; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Romans 12:6-8; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Peter 4:9-10; Exodus 31:3 (craftsmanship); 1 Timothy 2:1-2 (Prayer/intercession); Psalm 150:3-5 (Creative Communication). What gifts are of interest to you? Ask others what gifts they think they see in you.
3. Read 4:11-12. God’s gift to the church is people, and that includes you. What are we supposed to do with gifts?
4. Read 1 Corinthians 12:20 – 13:3. What does love have to do with it?
5. The purpose of a gift is to grow to maturity in Christ and build the body. In what way(s) is your giftedness helping to do that?
6. In what ways can you use your gifts to reach others for Christ?