Northside Christian Church

1. Is it just me…?

2. Submission Competition

3. Covenant Carries Love

Opening Questions (Pick whichever work for your group):
1. Were you able to do either of the last week’s courage or craft? If you did, how did the experience go?

2. What’s a movie someone swore was amazing… and you spent the whole time thinking, “Am I missing something?”

Digging Deeper:
These questions are designed to help you reflect on and discuss the message with others. There are three passages this week, you may benefit from reading over them and starting with the one you think will be most relevant to your group, then covering the others if there is time. Remember, You don’t have to cover every question—focus on the ones that spark the most meaningful conversation for you. Or simply let them serve as a springboard for talking through the ideas from the message that stood out to you.

The Doubled Sided Box
Read Philippians 1:6

1. When has someone else's box of expectations landed on you, and when did you discover your hopes had become a weight on someone you love? What, if anything, has ever made the box lighter?

2. The claim at the center of the series: the traits required to follow Jesus faithfully are the same traits required to build a marriage. Married or not, which of these qualities do you think God is currently growing in you most: patience, humility, forgiveness, honesty, or selflessness?

A Submission Competition
Read Ephesians 5:21-33

Before we go further, notice something about where this passage begins. Many of us are tempted to start at verse 22, as if "wives, submit" opens a new topic. But in the Greek manuscripts, verse 22 doesn't even have its own verb. It has to borrow one from verse 21, "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."

Here's an English example of how that works. Imagine a gym teacher who says, "Everybody, run five laps. Seniors, ten." That second sentence means nothing by itself. Ten what? Only when you hear both sentences together does it become clear: the seniors are doing the same thing everybody else was just told to do, applied to their particular situation. That is exactly the dynamic between verses 21 and 22. Whatever verse 22 asks of wives, it is a specific application of what verse 21 already asked of everyone.

3. Sunday insisted on two anchors: the passage begins with "submit to one another out of reverence for Christ" (v. 21) and ends with "this mystery... refers to Christ and the church" (v. 32). In the oldest manuscripts, verse 22 borrows its verb from verse 21; the wives verse and the one-another verse share a spine. How does reading the middle through those two bookends change what you have heard (or feared) this passage says?

4. What is one thing that stands out to you from this passage?

Calling Someone Who Cares
Read 1 Peter 5:6-7

5. This passage connects humility with giving our anxieties to God. How do you think these two things are connected? Calling Someone Who Cares

6. What’s something you’ve learned you can’t expect another person to give you, something you ultimately have to find in God?

Courage & Craft:

For married couples: Set aside a date night sometime in the next two weeks to talk honestly about what’s “in your box”—the hopes and expectations you may be placing on each other. Then, look for simple ways this week to show your spouse kindness and gratitude, especially for the things you may have started taking for granted.

For singles: Take some time on your own or with friends to think about what’s “in your box”—the expectations you may be tempted to place on a future relationship. Then identify one way you can move toward greater wholeness now, apart from being in a relationship.