Hide-N-Seek Small Group Questions

(FPC Grand Junction, Fall 2008)

 Printable Version

Week #1 (pre-September 21)

Hide-N-Seek (Read Luke 15:1-10; Luke 19:1-10)

1.  Share your favorite Hide-N-Seek story and/or hiding place when you were a kid.

2.  Do you have a friend/family member who you just can’t hide anything from?

3.  Can you think of a few reasons why people might hide from God and others?

4.  What is it about others that makes it hard to be honest?

5.  What are some of the views that people have about God that make them want to hide?

6.  Read Luke 15:1-10.  What view of God does this give you? 

7.  Read Luke 19:1-10.  In what ways do you think Zacchaeus hid from God and others?

8.  How does Jesus model the heart of God for us with Zacchaeus?

9.  ON YOUR OWN:  What do you need to open up to God about?

Week #2 (pre-September 28)

Adam and Eve (Read Genesis 1:26-3:24) 

            “Hiding From Our Shame”

1.  What would it feel like to be free and walk with God like Adam and Eve?

2.  Read Genesis 2:15-17.  Why do you think God set things up this way?

3.  What would some equivalents of the ‘fruit’ (apple) be in our culture?

4.  How does the Devil try and twist things around today?

(“Did God really say?” or “Is it really that bad?”)

5.  Why might Adam and Eve covered up (3:7) and hidden from God (3:8)?

6.  How is it that we cover up or hide our real selves? 

7.  Why do Adam and Eve blame each other and the Devil?  Why/when do we blame?

8.  ON YOUR OWN:  Is there something that you’re ashamed about? 

            Can you talk to God about it?  Can you talk to someone else?

9.  BEGIN TO MEMORIZE PSALM 139

            If you add 3 verses each week you can pray the whole Psalm by end of series

Psalm 139 (This is the version we will use in worship.)

 1 O Lord, you have examined my heart
      and know everything about me.
 2 You know when I sit down or stand up.
      You know my every thought when far away.
 3 You chart the path ahead of me
      and tell me where to stop and rest.
      Every moment You know where I am.
 4 You know what I am going to say
      even before I say it, Lord.
 5 You both precede and follow me.
      You place your hand of blessing on my head.
 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
      too great for me to know!

 7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
      I can never get away from your presence!
 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
      if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there.
 9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
      if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
 10 even there your hand will guide me,
      and your strength will support me.
 11 I could ask the darkness to hide me
      and the light around me to become night—
 12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
   To you the night shines as bright as day.
      Darkness and light are both alike to you.

 13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
      and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
      Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it.
 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
      as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
 16 You saw me before I was born.
      Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
   Every moment was laid out
      before a single day had passed.

 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
      They are innumerable!
 18 I can’t even count them;
      they outnumber the grains of sand!
   And when I wake up in the morning,
      you are still with me!

 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
      test me and know my thoughts.
 24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
      and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Week #3 (pre-October 5)

Jacob and Esau  (Read Genesis 25:19-33:20) 

            “Hiding From Our Family Stuff”

1.  Do you know any twins?  What are they like?  Is/was there a rivalry between them?

2.  On a scale of 1-10 (10 is high) how dysfunctional is Jacob and Esau’s family?  Why?

3.  Did you ever try and play your parents against each other?  How did you do that?

            Growing up, were you closer with your mom or dad?  In what way?

4.  Were you competitive with your brother(s)/sister(s)?  In what way?

5.  In what ways do you hide (close yourself off) from your family? 

6.  What don’t you share with your family?  Why not?

7.  ON YOUR OWN:  Is there something in your past you’re running from?

8.  ON YOUR OWN:  Have you ever wrestled with God over something? 

                                    Do you need to right now?  

Week #4 (pre-October 12)

Jonah (Read Jonah 1-4) 

            “Hiding From God’s Call”

1.  Have you ever been asked to do something and immediately blown it off?

            What was it and why did you choose not to do it?

2.  Has God ever tried to get your attention?  How so?

3.  How might God get you to a place He wants you to be? 

            Attitude He wants you to have?  Frame of mind He wants you to be in?

4.  Where is your Nineveh (the place you really don’t want to be and/or the

            people you really don’t like)?

5.  Have you ever thought about what God might be calling you to do with your life?

            What might that be?

6.  Who might God be calling you to share His love with?

7.  ON YOUR OWN:  Talk to God about what it is you’re running from right now.

Week #5 (pre-October 19)

David (Read 2 Samuel 11 & 12)  

            “Hiding From The Truth About Ourselves”

1.  What kind of trouble have you gotten into just sitting around with nothing to do?

2.  What are some of the things you look at, that aren’t helping build strong character?

3.  Growing up, did you ever get caught in a lie and try to cover it up?

4.  Read Psalm 139:23-24.

5   Do you think you have any ‘blind spots’ that God needs to show you? 

What might they be?

6.  Do you have a friend that can be brutally honest with you?  Who is your Nathan?

7.  ON YOUR OWN:  How will you go about finding a Nathan if you don’t have one?

Week #6 (pre-October 26)

Elijah (Read 1 Kings 18 & 19)  

            “Hiding From Our Fears”

1.  As you were growing up, was there someone you would have called your enemy? 

2.  Have you ever run away from someone and hid in fear?  What happened?

3.  Do you have any phobias?

4.  Has God ever provided what you or someone else has needed at just the right time?

5.  Do you tend to listen and look for God in the dramatic moments or the quiet ones?

6.  Do you feel peace when you are still and slow down, or do you feel fear? 

7.  ON YOUR OWN:  What are you afraid of?  Why?

Week #7 (pre-November 2)

Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30 or Luke 19:11-27)

            “Hiding What God Has Given Us”

1.  Take five minutes and make a list of all the gifts, talents, resources God’s given you?

            (Have everyone do this on paper and then make a group list.)

2.  Which gifts are you using the most (“making the most of”)?

3.  In what ways do we hide (“bury”) what God has entrusted to us?

4.  What’s one way you could better invest what God has given you?  

5.  Who do you know that has developed their talents and gifts well? 

6.  What is one thing you can do differently to be a better ‘steward’?

7.  ON YOUR OWN:  What risk might you need to take this week?  With whom?

Week #8 (pre-November 9)

Annanias and Sapphira (Read Acts 5:1-11)

            “Hiding Our Wealth”

1.  As a group make a list of all the things you spend your money on.

2.  In what ways do you give some of your resources to God?

3.  What makes it hard to give “all that you have,” or even some of your money, to God?

4.  Read Acts 4:32-37.  How and why did the early Church share everything?

5.  Compare that with your own life and the typical American Christian/church. 

            How do they compare?

6.  What does God think about the way we “share” in our churches today?

7.  ON YOUR OWN:  What’s one way you could keep less money and share more?

Week #9 (pre-November 16)

Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)   

            “Hiding From Our Father”

1.  Did you ever run away from home?

2.  Do you relate more to the younger son or older brother?  Why?

3.  Do you know anyone who would throw a party for you after messing up so badly?

4.  What does this story say to you about God?

5.  In what way might you hide less and join God in helping seek out others?

6.  ON YOUR OWN: Have you been “found” by God?  Still far away?  On way home?