Weekly Discussion Guide

1. Open with prayer. (2-5 min)
2. Read Ephesians 2.
3. Discuss these questions with your group. (20-45 min)

MY STORY | Starting Place
Give examples of when you showed mercy to someone, and when you received mercy.

How did those two experiences impact your relationships with the people involved?

DIGGING DEEPER | Practical Biblical Application
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

How are nice, good-hearted, even compassionate people who have not be reconciled with God actually be following Satan’s example of Jesus-rejecting self-absorption?

How can that even be?

In what sense were you spiritually dead before experiencing saving faith?

GROWING TOGETHER | Spiritual Friendship
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7)

Describe a time when you loved someone where there was no reciprocation—perhaps, even, only hostility in return.

How do you now realize that God never gave up on you?

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

How did you come to discover the purpose for which God has created you?

If you’re not sure what your God-ordained purpose is, who can help you to discover that? How could you help someone to discover that?

MOVING OUTWARD | Faith in Action
What are the deeply-satisfying “good works,” the kingdom-advancing assignments, for which God has equipped you?

What’s one thing you can do this week to move closer to fulfilling those tasks? Who can help you?