19 Jun 16
Series
Discipleship -
The Life of Being an Apprentice
Diligently Seeking God: Pt 1
“Bee” about the Kingdom!
This
is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a
one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching in this series
is discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go
deeper and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in
community.
Diligently
Seeking God: This speaks of passion, intellect and priorities.
"But seek first his kingdom
and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Matthew 6:33
Read: Matthew 6:25-33
“The queen signal acts principally as a primer
pheromone, inducing several physiological and behavioural modifications in the
worker bees of the colony that result in maintenance of colony homeostasis
through establishment of social hierarchy and preservation of the queen’s
reproductive supremacy. More specifically, the effects of the queen signal are
maintenance of worker cohesion, suppression of queen rearing, inhibition of
worker reproduction, and stimulation of worker activities: cleaning, building,
guarding, foraging, and brood feeding.”
In
other words:
1.
the
scent of the queen modifies the THINKING and BEHAVIOUR of the bees
2.
the
bees’ priority is the preservation of the queen
3.
the
queen signal BINDS THE WORKER BEES TOGETHER IN COMMUNITY and, working together,
they make sure there is no other queen that will come in and take over
4.
AND
it also creates in the bees a desire to build, clean, guard & to feed.
Let’s
spend some time discussing how each of these points can teach us something
about how the Kingdom of God works itself out in a community context.
1) The scent of the queen changes their THINKING and
BEHAVIOUR - bees are biologically made to find and respond to the queen.
And
when this happens, they are wired for one priority and one priority only: to
pursue and preserve the queen. Not to make a hive, not to make honey… but to
preserve the queen.
When
Christ tell his disciples to “[…] seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things will be added to you…”, the question for us,
then, is this: as apprentices in Kingdom Living (our family trade), do we understand
that we are not just talking about a spiritual concept here, but that we are
physically and biologically made to respond to the Kingdom? Discuss as a group.
J.C.
Ryle, an Anglican bishop, wrote this: “The smallest insect that crawls is a
nobler being than you are. It fills its place in creation and glorifies its
Maker with all its power, and you do not. You do not honour God with heart, and
will, and intellect, and member which are all His.” Q. Do you agree with this
statement? Why or why not? What gets in the way of us honouring God with all
our heart, will and intellect? Again, be specific and be practical.
What
if you were to LIVE in the reality that all that really needs doing (food and
clothing) has been taken care of by Christ’s sacrifice? How would that
change the way that you lived? Be practical here. What stresses or cares would
you have to let go of? Share with the group so they can check in, pray and keep
you accountable to living in the Kingdom of God.
2) Bees know what is important,
they know their priority – the queen. Our priority, according to Matthew 6, is
to pursue the kingdom.
Read Matthew 6: 27-30.
What
if you were to LIVE in the reality that all that really needs doing (food and
clothing) has been taken care of by Christ’s sacrifice. How would that change
the way that you lived? Be practical here. What stresses or cares would you
have to let go of? Share with the group so they can check in, pray and keep you
accountable to living in the Kingdom of God.
3)
The queen
signal BINDS THE WORKER BEES TOGETHER IN COMMUNITY, and working together they
make sure there is no other queen that will come in and take over.
In
other words, bees can only execute on
their priority with other bees –THEY NEED EACH OTHER. IN COMMUNITY. And so it
is with seeking the Kingdom – this can only happen with, and in, COMMUNITY. It
needs to happen in community.
Q.
Discuss practical ways in which community is needed to pursue the Kingdom.
Perhaps talking about encouragement, exhortation, and spurring on to
righteousness would be helpful.
4) The “queen signal” creates in the bees a desire
to build, clean, guard and feed.
In
other words, it changes their entire behaviour so that preservation of this
particular queen bee and this particular colony shapes all that they do.
Those
words, “feed”, “clean”, “guard”, and “build”, have such important implications
for us as we talk about apprenticing in Kingdom living – as we diligently seek
God together.
1)
Feeding
2)
Cleaning
3)
Guarding
4)
Building
Q.
Discuss each of these words, brainstorming some scriptures that can help us be
a community that feeds, cleans, guards and build – as we seek the Kingdom of
God. Also discuss how this will change the way that you are together as a
group.
Choose
one word from #4 and pray about digging deep on it personally and share with
the group for accountability.
Prayer - Thank
God for His Kingdom and ask Him to show you how to live in it.
-
spend
some time together in prayer asking God what it means for your group to “seek
the Kingdom” together
“Bee”
about the Kingdom!
Amanda
Van Halteren
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