ANNOUNCEMENTS TO SHARE WITH YOUR GROUP Thank you SO MUCH for all you did to make our Thanksgiving outreach such a success.

I think it was our best one ever! We couldn’t do it without you. A Christmas To Remember is coming on December 15th. You will have a family

assigned to you from the families you visited at Thanksgiving. Graham will be sending you those instructions this week. Next week is the last week of Connect Groups for this semester. Thanks again for

EVERYTHING you do to help us take everyone one step closer to becoming a true disciple of Jesus.

Our next CG leader meeting will be January 12th at 4:30p.

OPENERThe Christmas Season is here! Share your best Christmas memory tonight…

CONNECT TO REACH and MULTIPLY…Let’s take the next step tonight with some very important training on what to say to people when you have a Gospel conversation. REMEMBER: Please don’t skip this!

As you know, we’re praying for every Connect Group to win one person to Christ this year

Each group has shared names of people we’re praying for and each week we’ve talked about how that’s going

Many people in this area have been exposed to church and even the Gospel. They have been baptized, prayed a prayer, or grew up in church. Those things don’t make them a Christian. Many believe they are a Christian and are really lost cultural Christians. How do you share with them effectively?

SERIES/TOPIC: 1 PeterTHE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 3rd

SERIES/TOPIC: Connect to MULTIPLY

THE WEEK OF August 25th

CONNECTGROUPS

SERIES/TOPIC: Doing the Right Thing

THE WEEK OF December 1st

CONNECTGROUPS

We’ve been unpacking some common Cultural Christian beliefs and how to engage them.

We’ve discussed - “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth” and “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.”

Tonight we’ll talk about the next one – “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.”

Cultural Christians believe life is about personal fulfillment – most people do – it’s the result of humanistic culture

Cultural Christians think that faith isn’t about the Gospel – it’s really about the betterment of oneself, or sentimentality, or a mechanism to cope with the problems of the world.

Faith becomes a means to this end of feeling good about yourself God is the genie in the bottle helping us achieve our personal ambitions Remember God promises us a lot of things (like He’ll always be with us –

Matthew 28:20, never abandon us (Deuteronomy 31:6), He will carry us through to completion of our salvation (Philippians 1:6), use everything around us to make us more like Jesus (Romans 8:28-29) – but He doesn’t promise health, wealth, and prosperity

Sometimes life is hard Believing that He does promise health, wealth, and prosperity all the time

and really cause problems when things aren’t going well for us – it could make us doubt Him because we believe something that isn’t true

God is not a means to end – He is the end Sharing these truths with a Cultural Christian can begin to open their eyes

to real truth and pave the way for a true Gospel conversation

KEY DISCUSSION – Ruth 4 Chapters 3 and 4 reveal the character of Boaz Why’s character important? What does it show? What are some things you’ve observed that seem to reveal a person’s

character, good or bad? What are some commonalities of good character? How does our character reflect our relationship with God? How did Boaz’s Character come through? How do we see God’s Blessing in Ruth 4:13-22?

FURTHER DISCUSSION

Character Wins!

How do we see Purity in Boaz in Ruth 3:11? Any other clues to this in Boaz’s life in the book of Ruth? Do you agree with Tim’s statement, “Purity is an investment in

your future – it’s seeing past a moment to a lifetime” Why or Why not?

How is Honesty reflected in Boaz’ character in Ruth 3:13-14 and 4:11?

Why is Honesty a Window into the Soul? How does Honesty reveal a desire to do the right thing? How does Boaz show Generosity in Ruth 3:15? Why is Generosity an important Character Quality for a believer?

(See Leviticus 25:35-37, Deuteronomy 15:7-8, Psalm 41:1-3, Proverbs 11:24-25, Matthew 15:34-46, and 1 John 3:17)

How do we see Patience in Boaz (and in Ruth) in Ruth 3:18? What does Patience illustrate about a person’s view of God? Where does Patience come from? (Galatians 5:22-23) How is the character quality of Morality obvious in Boaz’ life?

(Ruth 4:1-2) What is morality? (Who gets to decide right from wrong and what

does it mean to agree or disagree with that source?) Do you agree with Tim’s statement – “Character doesn’t

differentiate between small and large things – character is who we are regardless.” Why or Why Not?

How does Boaz taking Ruth as his wife show Love? (4:13a) Why is love such an important character quality? (see 1 John 4:7-

8)

God’s Blessing

How does God bless Boaz and Ruth’s obedience and character? How does that overflow to others around (i.e. Naomi)? How does this story give us confidence to trust in God? How does the last verse in the book of Ruth compare to the first

verse in the book of Ruth?

CONCLUSION What does the book of Ruth teach us about God’s Character? How has Ruth and Boaz’s story challenged you to live out God’s heart in

your relationships with others? How did God speak to you through this book?

What steps will you take to obey God more because of this study?

PRAYER TIMEShare prayer requests as a group tonight and send them to graham@cpclex.org as soon as you finish so they can be shared with the other connect groups, This will help us be unified and pray together for the things God is doing in our lives and in our church, Pray by gender tonight.