REALLIFE STUDY GROUP

“Shake Up/Stir Up!”

ICEBREAKER: What is your favorite flavor of milkshake and where is your favorite place to get one?

CONFESSION: I trust my God to sustain me, maintain me, and restrain me from allowing panic to overwhelm! I am a mover and a shaker for God; I am a salt shaker for the kingdom! I will stir up the ambers on the altar of my heart and be fervent toward God in the times of shaking!

DEFINITION:

Shake: Irritate, unsettle, provoke, stir up

Stir: Awaken, raise up, alarm, cause to be glad, shake up

OUTLINE:

Wake Up America!!!

We have been lulled into an apathetic stupor where good is bad and bad is good, right is wrong and wrong is right, and up is down and down appears to be up.

The colors of the day are no longer black and white, but many shades of grey:

It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe something

It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you do something

It doesn’t matter what you say as long as you say something

We have spiritual vertigo and our instruments are leading us off course and astray.

We are flying upside down and low to the ground and we think we are high above the danger.

We are ignoring the warning signs as we are driving at maximum velocity directly toward eminent disaster.

We are digging ourselves deeper into a dark hole of despair and insurmountable debt and our strategy is to keep borrowing our way out of debt as the clock ticks faster and faster like a run away train traveling into the abyss of financial ruin and fiscal irresponsibility.

We have sold our souls to the gods of unbridled passion, avarice and lust for power.

Patriotism, faith in Jesus Christ and servitude have been replaced by doctrines of humanism, atheism, if not polytheism and hedonism.

We have entered such a deep slumber and have hit the snooze button so many times that we are not simply dreaming but we have entered a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream that has turned into a myriad of nightmares.

We are living like a criminal who knows there is a warrant out for his arrest, but acting as though it’s business as usual as we arrogantly walk down public streets with no regard for the laws of God, men, or even common sense.

We have no strategy while we bicker over who is the most qualified to lead. People are fighting over who gets to drive the train while every system on the train is broken and the brakes no longer work anyway as the train speeds down the track of life in the wrong direction.

We have lost our way and our spiritual compass is off due to the hidden magnets of sin that we are carrying in the pockets of our soul. As James says, “we are drawn away of our own lust and enticed.”

It’s as if the ship is sinking and the captain is watching the love boat on TV.

While the scene is bleak and the prognosis is upsetting, the problem is not too big for our God.

Israel was in a similar predicament and the cure was the same: “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and heal their land!!!”

Shaken Up & Stirred Up People....

· Produce good works

· Love

· Pray

· Give

· Fast

· Serve

· Study

· Obey

· Fight the fight of faith

What is being shaken in our generation?

· Shake up in the church

· Shake up in the marketplace

· Shake up in the world of academia

· Shake up in the sports world

· Shake up in the music industry

· Shake up in Hollywood

· Shake up in the medical field

· Shake up in the political arena

· Shake up in the community

· Shake up in the home

TEXT: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4; Hebrews 12:26-29

STUDY GROUP QUESTIONS:

1. Name one reason these are shaky times.

2. What does it mean to be shaken in your mind? Name someone in the Bible this could describe.

3. What are some things that world shakers and salt shakers do to stay stirred up?

4. Why should we pray?

5. If God is shaking things and strengthening what remains, what should remain and what belief, attitudes, lifestyles or ideas is God shaking in our society right now?

6. Of the different mountains or domains of influence which are you burdened to pray for?

PRAISE REPORTS & PRAYER REQUESTS:

ACTION POINT: This week I will ask God to help me trust Him through all the shaking and help me learn what I need to learn!