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Series Resources

sermon-based study guide

This guide is designed to guide a group discussion around the weekend sermon. You can also use this as an individual, but we highly recommend finding a friend and inviting them to discuss with you. Menlo Church has Life Groups meeting in-person and online using these guides. We’d love to help you find a group.
What you will find in this guide: A discussion guide for groups and individuals. If you are using this as an individual be sure to engage with each question in a journal or simply in your mind as you prayerfully consider what you heard in the sermon and seek to discover what God is inviting you to know and do.

Study Guide: Jonah

Connect

  • Is there a person or group of people you find difficult to love?
  • Is there a person, place or thing that brings you comfort?

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Engage

Read Jonah 1

  • Phil mentioned several characters in this story (the Jewish people, the professional sailors, the Ninevites and Jonah). Which character(s) do you feel the most connection with and why?
  • Why did Jonah run away from his call to Nineveh?
  • Have you had an experience when you distanced yourself from a call on your life?
  • What connection do you see between Jonah and Jesus? How are they similar and different?

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Apply

  • Is there a comfort you are struggling to let go of? What is a step you could take to let go of it?
  • Who is someone you consider undeserving of love or forgiveness? How can you be praying for them?
  • Is there something God is calling you to? Share with your group and pray for courage to pursue it.
  • Jonah’s story highlights the ways in which humans can judge others undeserving of love while forgetting we are undeserving of God’s love. What is a way you can remind yourself this week of your need for God’s unconditional love?

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Prayer

Spend time sharing your prayer needs together. Share anything that resonated with you from the discussion that you’d like prayer to apply.

Dear Lord,

May we be fully aware of our need for your love. May we understand that none of us deserve God’s love (not even me) and that God still gives it freely. Help us to love others with this in mind. Help us extend your love to others, especially to those who we deem undeserving. Give us courage to pursue what you have called us to as your Church and in the places we have each have influence. Let us not conform to the world but transform us to do your good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

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Going Deeper

The Rest of the Story Resources: Go to this website to see all the resources for this series including a guide for lectio divina. https://menlo.church/the-rest-of-the-story

Menlo Midweek Podcast: Tune in every Wednesday for a conversation with the previous week’s speaker. It’s a deeper dive into the message and an engaging time to learn, reflect, grow—and have fun.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/menlo-church-sermon-podcast/id129950807

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