Being With Jesus

In one paragraph

Joy Bhatt, a Tribe board member returning after a year of grief following the loss of her father, taught on what it means to be with Jesus and why that time spent with him directly shapes our capacity to receive new things from God. The message built on the ongoing wineskins conversation Brian has been leading, using Matthew 12 and 2 Chronicles 20 to show what a new wineskin looks like in...

Read together

1. Matthew 12:1-14 main text for the series on wineskins, two Sabbath stories involving the disciples eating grain and healing a crippled hand
2. 2 Chronicles 20:1-24 read aloud by congregation members, used to illustrate new wineskin capacity through Jehoshaphat facing enemy armies
3. Matthew 25 parable of the talents, used to argue that even a small amount of time given to God is faithful and honored
4. Isaiah (implied by closing prayer) speaker says scripture tells us the word never returns void and does what it sets out to accomplish

Talk about it

1. Joy described the difference between the disciples and the Pharisees as coming down to time spent with Jesus. What does that look like practically in your own life, and where do you notice the gap between knowing about Jesus and actually knowing him?
2. Joy used the friendship with Rachel to illustrate how intimacy is built through accumulated time and shared history. Who in your life knows you at that depth, and how does that picture shape the way you think about your relationship with God?
3. Joy said our capacity to recognize when God is moving in a new way is directly proportional to how much time we spend with him. Can you think of a moment, either in your own life or from the second Chronicles passage, where that capacity showed up or was missing?
4. The Hebrew word shema means listen and obey as two sides of the same coin. Joy said you cannot just hear without acting on it. Where is there something you already sense God asking you to do that you have been hearing but not yet obeying?
5. Joy asked everyone to identify a specific pocket of time, even just one talent's worth, that could be given back to God. What came up for you during that quiet moment at the end, and what would it take to actually protect that time this week?