The curious case of the two identical houses

Ready for Impact (10 minutes)

Catch up on how things have been since the last time your Impact Group met. Allow anyone new to introduce themselves. Then ask group members:

• Talk about the worst storm you’ve ever been in. What was it like, and where did you seek refuge?

Ask for a volunteer to read Matthew 7:24-27 to the group, praying a short prayer that – however much they’ve come to know Jesus, they’d get to know him better as a result of your time together.

Watch

If you’re not gathered in person, the leader should project the video for the group through sharing their screen. If you’re using Zoom, make sure you have optimized your screen share for video.

Impacted by the Word (15 minutes)

Suggested questions to help your discussion.:

• According to Jesus, what makes a person wise?
• What do Jesus’ words tell us about his view of his own teaching?
• Both builders in the parable experience storms. What does this suggest to us?
• The storm comes from every direction: floods from below, rain from above, wind around the house. How have you weathered these kinds of storms in your life?
• What foundations do you see people looking for in life’s storms?
• What do you think makes Jesus a different foundation to build upon than any other?

Impacting Our Hearts (10 minutes)

Take time to allow group members to personally process. You might find these further questions helpful:

• If you could identify one area of ‘shifting sand’ in your life, what would it be?
• Jesus calls us to hear his words and to put them into practice. How will you respond in the light of what we have heard from Jesus today?

You might also like to share any requests for personal prayer at this point. Let any who doesn’t want to pray out loud stay quiet, but encourage spoken prayer from others.

Impacting the University (15 minutes)

A key part of our impacting the university is showing how Jesus can see us through when everything else gives way.

Regardless of whether group members would yet describe themselves as Christian, spend time chatting about how you might finish these introductory sentences in conversation:

• “When I was suffering in that way, the one thing that got me through was…”
• “To be honest, that’s why I’m fascinated by Christianity. What really appeals is…”
• “Yeah, that’s what I love about Jesus. He’s constantly…”
• “Actually my church is really different from that. When a crisis happened, they…”
• “We thought about that in my CU Impact Group. There’s a story where…”

How might you be able to point others to the dependability of Jesus in the week ahead? Perhaps you could share examples in your Impact Group’s WhatsApp group.

Wrap-up

You may have people in your Impact Group who are less familiar with Jesus and his teaching. They may have never give much thought to the foundation on which they’re building.

• Let them know how much you’ve enjoyed having them, and encourage them to keep coming to your Impact Group!
• Invite them to explore Uncover, a set of sessions in John’s Gospel, allowing them to investigate Jesus for themselves. Make it easy for those who’d like to do so to let you know and to opt in. (You can find hints on using Uncover online here).
• Next week we will be looking at Jesus’ cautionary story of becoming debt free. Who could you invite to join you? These friends don’t need to be followers of Jesus and may really appreciate being invited.
• Find out who’s in your university city this week. Who’d be up for going for a walk together?

Confirm the time that you’ll meet next week, and ask someone to close your time together in prayer.