URGENT – IF YOU HAVE NOT FINALIZED YOUR ROSTER FOR SPRING QUARTER, PLEASE DO SO IMMEDIATELY. Login to your profile and look for the “CONFIRM YOUR ROSTER” button.  If you need assistance, please call or email your Life Group Coordinator or Life Group Pastor. Find the contacts here: lifegroups.northcoastchurch.com/staff. You can also let us know of any changes to your group or indicate “NO CHANGES” when you submit your attendance.  

LIFE GROUP FEEDBACK FORMS FOR NEW GROUPS – During Winter Quarter, we typically ask only the new groups to give feedback on their last night of the quarter. If your group is new this quarter, look for an email from Life Groups regarding completing the forms. If anyone is having trouble finding their survey link, they can access the survey from here – https://lifegroups.northcoastchurch.com/feedback/ You can also use this link if you are not a new group, but would like your group give you feedback.  

REMEMBER TO GET COMMUNION SUPPLIES FOR THIS MEETING 

SPRING QUARTER DATES:                              

• Spring Sign-ups:  March 16 – March 24
• Spring Quarter:  March 24 – May 25

GOALS FOR THE MEETING:  

• Finalize Group Plans for Spring 
• Discuss the Study Questions & Take Communion 
• Pray together 

New Leaders & Hosts: Do you know someone who would be great at leading or hosting a Life Group? If so, please let your Life Group Pastor know.   

White Water Vacation Adventure for Leaders & Hosts (and friends in their Life Group)! June 22-26 Back by popular demand! Join us for an adventure of a lifetime whitewater rafting down the Klamath River! Led by Life Group Pastor Dave Enns and his wife Koreena, along with Kameron & Emily Drawhorn on staff at the San Marcos / Escondido campus. And this year we’ve added the opportunity to invite anyone in your Life Group. Enjoy nature, community, and a time to be refreshed and encouraged spiritually!  REGISTRATION NOW OPEN  – lifegroups.northcoastchurch.com/whitewater/

MEETING NOTES 

ATTENDANCE Submit your group’s attendance online at northcoastchurch.com/attendance. If you’re not sure how to post attendance, you can check out the guide here: lifegroups.northcoastchurch.com/how-to-post-attendance 

This week is your last meeting of the Winter Quarter. We hope you’ve found your time over these past eight weeks to be spiritually and relationally encouraging. The questions have been shortened to allow you time to take Communion. We’ll take a two-week break, then the Spring Quarter begins the week of March 24 and runs through May 25. Please be sure to confirm your plans for the Spring Quarter with your leader.

Starting Your Group this week – Remind your group you’re taking the next two weeks off and confirm any changes in who will be returning and the day we come back together to start meeting. You can add the Quick Review question that is typically here if you’d like.

*Optional Idea for last meeting – Because we are taking Communion and celebrating what Jesus has done, you may want add an extra special dessert item or something in celebrating Jesus.

1. This weekend’s message started with a surprising heading: “A recipe for Christian failure.” What was your first response when you heard it?

Good question to have everyone answer. Possible answers – Surprised, totally made sense, makes me nervous, was helpful, other?

Additional Questions:

• Have you ever found yourself trying to be better over and over again, to realize then you need to let God work in you and not just put in your own effort, then begin to see a change or growth?
• Does this mean we never work at putting into action the points Chris talked about? How does Philippians 2:14-16 help us understand the balance of this?

2. This quote reaffirms much of what we heard this weekend about understanding God’s love for us. Can you think of any examples in your own life of how you’ve seen this occur?

Everyone will not have an answer to this.

“The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him. As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.” – Brother Lawrence

Additional Question & Verses – Have you ever felt that knowing God better makes you more fearful?

We too often live in the idea that God’s leaning toward disappointment because of our sin resulting in our shame or feeling of guilt. Rather, His intent is to do all He can to bring us into a relationship with Him. He loves us so much that He sent His son Jesus to bear the burden of our sins. See Hebrews 4:14-16 in moving toward God and knowing Him better.   

3. The great news we heard this weekend is that our commitment to follow Jesus does not start with what we can do for God but rather what He has done for us. Psalm 103 is literally a reminder list of how much God loves us! It flips our perspective from focusing on our guilt and shame to the incredible love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness God offers us through Jesus.

Before you start reading it, take a moment to ask God to speak to you as you read through the verses. Underline anything that speaks to you about how much God loves you and what He has done for us. Then, go back and circle your top two or three and be ready to share with your group.

Psalm 103 expands our understanding of what God’s love in action means and all He does to be in a relationship with us. You can use this question to begin to set up Communion and the point of the message from this weekend that our relationship with God starts with understanding what He has done for us. You can read this psalm together as a group and then have everyone share their answer, or if tight on time, just have them share their answer and then move into the next section reading those verses together. If you have a large group, you could divide into smaller groups for this section and then come back together and move into the Communion section. 

Additional Question: Does this add to your understanding and ability to practice the presence of God and starting with what God has done, and not just what you need to do?

Psalm 103 New International Version (NIV)

¹ Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

⁷ He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
⁸ The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³ As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
¹⁴ for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
¹⁵ The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
¹⁶ the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
¹⁸ with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

¹⁹ The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.

²⁰ Praise the Lord, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
²¹ Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
²² Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

An authentic faith puts its hope and trust in who Jesus is and what He’s done for us. Yet our busyness, challenges, and selfish distractions can cause us to forget this. As you read the verses below, jot down the highlights of what Jesus has accomplished for you.

You can begin to set up your time of Communion here. Ask for what people jotted down as their highlight. Move to the next sub question below. Need a few more details in leading your group in Communion: Listen to leader audio for more details.

Romans 5:1-2, 6-8 New International Version (NIV)

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Can you think of any ways your Life Group has helped you practice the presence of God and remember what Jesus has done for you?

If you have time, ask the group this question. Answers may be how being in the Life Group helps you be in the Word, hearing from others, able to process issues, and going back to what God has done for them and taught them.  

This week in your Life Group, you will be taking Communion to remember what Jesus has done for us. Communion is the very symbol and reminder of our need for God and all that He has done for us— forgiveness, a costly sacrifice through His son Jesus, a new life, and a new relationship with our almighty God.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 New International Version (NIV)

²³ For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, ²⁴ and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁵ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” ²⁶ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

 1. Introduce Communion by sharing with your group that today we gather to remember and celebrate what Jesus has done for us. Even God calling us to remember Him shows His understanding of us and how we forget.

Pass out bread and juice or put it on a table in the middle of the group so they can easily access it.

2. Read these Scriptures together and set up Communion:

1 Peter 1:3-5 New International Version

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  

Option: Video / Worship Celebration – This is a powerful video. Watch it or play just the audio of the song about Jesus’s death and resurrection. (pre-view)  Sunday is Coming – Phil Wickham  (make sure you pre-view and know how to play it)

How to set up video / song – It is amazing what Jesus has done for us. He did not only die but rose again and to give us victory and freedom. To remind us of this and prepare to take communion let’s watch this video.

                           Other Music / Worship Options

• • • No Longer Slaves

• • • North Coast Worship Songs

3. Take Communion together and give thanks for what God has done for us: Move into prayer time, thanking Jesus for His commitment to love us and how He is working in our lives. One option is you can use what was shared in Psalm 103 to guide your time giving thanks for what God has done for us.

Close your time together, remind your group about the break, and that groups will start back up again on the week of March.

Lyrics for Sunday is Coming:

A great light dawns in Galilee
Some say mad man
Some say King
Wonder working rebel priest
Jesus Christ the Nazarene

He knew well what it would take
To free us all from sin and grave
A perfect man would have to die
And only He could pay that price

Friday’s good ’cause Sunday is coming
Don’t lose hope ’cause Sunday is coming
Devil, you’re done, you better start running
Friday’s good ’cause Sunday is coming

So He let those soldiers take Him in
As His friend betrayed Him with a kiss
There before the mocking crowd
Like a lamb to the slaughter didn’t make a sound
Then He carried that cross to Calvary
And He shed His blood to set us free
As the nails went in and the sky went dark
The redemption of the world was on His heart

Friday’s good ’cause Sunday is coming
Don’t lose hope ’cause Sunday is coming
Devil, you’re done, you better start running
Friday’s good ’cause Sunday is coming

Then He breathed His last
And bowed His head
The Son of God and man was dead
With bloody hands
Tears on their face
They laid Him down
Inside that grave

But that wasn’t the end
That wasn’t the end
That wasn’t the end
Let me tell you what happened next

The women came before the dawn
To find that stone already gone
When they looked inside, the angel said
“Why you looking for the living among the dead?”

He’s alive
He’s alive
Hallelujah, He’s alive
Give Him praise
Lift Him high
Hallelujah, He’s alive

He’s alive
He’s alive
Hallelujah, He’s alive
Give Him praise
Lift Him high
Hallelujah, He’s alive
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Don’t lose hope ’cause Sunday’s coming
Hallelujah, hallelujah

Now Jesus reigns
Upon the throne
All Heaven sings
To Him alone
We watch and wait
Like a bride for a groom
Oh, church arise
He’s coming soon