19 Jun 16
Discipleship - The Life of Being an Apprentice
Diligently Seeking God: Pt 1
“Bee” about the Kingdom!
This is a useful tool for small group discussion, personal reflection or in a one-on-one conversation. We believe that if the Sunday teaching in this series is discussed outside the morning services, it will be an opportunity to go deeper and build community because God's Word needs to be discussed in community.
Diligently Seeking God: This speaks of passion, intellect and priorities.
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33
Read: Matthew 6:25-33
“The queen signal acts principally as a primer pheromone, inducing several physiological and behavioural modifications in the worker bees of the colony that result in maintenance of colony homeostasis through establishment of social hierarchy and preservation of the queen’s reproductive supremacy. More specifically, the effects of the queen signal are maintenance of worker cohesion, suppression of queen rearing, inhibition of worker reproduction, and stimulation of worker activities: cleaning, building, guarding, foraging, and brood feeding.”
In other words:
1. the scent of the queen modifies the THINKING and BEHAVIOUR of the bees
2. the bees’ priority is the preservation of the queen
3. the queen signal BINDS THE WORKER BEES TOGETHER IN COMMUNITY and, working together, they make sure there is no other queen that will come in and take over
4. AND it also creates in the bees a desire to build, clean, guard & to feed.
Let’s spend some time discussing how each of these points can teach us something about how the Kingdom of God works itself out in a community context.
1) The scent of the queen changes their THINKING and BEHAVIOUR - bees are biologically made to find and respond to the queen.
And when this happens, they are wired for one priority and one priority only: to pursue and preserve the queen. Not to make a hive, not to make honey… but to preserve the queen.
When Christ tell his disciples to “[…] seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you…”, the question for us, then, is this: as apprentices in Kingdom Living (our family trade), do we understand that we are not just talking about a spiritual concept here, but that we are physically and biologically made to respond to the Kingdom? Discuss as a group.
J.C. Ryle, an Anglican bishop, wrote this: “The smallest insect that crawls is a nobler being than you are. It fills its place in creation and glorifies its Maker with all its power, and you do not. You do not honour God with heart, and will, and intellect, and member which are all His.” Q. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? What gets in the way of us honouring God with all our heart, will and intellect? Again, be specific and be practical.
What if you were to LIVE in the reality that all that really needs doing (food and clothing) has been taken care of by Christ’s sacrifice? How would that change the way that you lived? Be practical here. What stresses or cares would you have to let go of? Share with the group so they can check in, pray and keep you accountable to living in the Kingdom of God.
2) Bees know what is important, they know their priority – the queen. Our priority, according to Matthew 6, is to pursue the kingdom.
Read Matthew 6: 27-30.
What if you were to LIVE in the reality that all that really needs doing (food and clothing) has been taken care of by Christ’s sacrifice. How would that change the way that you lived? Be practical here. What stresses or cares would you have to let go of? Share with the group so they can check in, pray and keep you accountable to living in the Kingdom of God.
3) The queen signal BINDS THE WORKER BEES TOGETHER IN COMMUNITY, and working together they make sure there is no other queen that will come in and take over.
In other words, bees can only execute on their priority with other bees –THEY NEED EACH OTHER. IN COMMUNITY. And so it is with seeking the Kingdom – this can only happen with, and in, COMMUNITY. It needs to happen in community.
Q. Discuss practical ways in which community is needed to pursue the Kingdom. Perhaps talking about encouragement, exhortation, and spurring on to righteousness would be helpful.
4) The “queen signal” creates in the bees a desire to build, clean, guard and feed.
In other words, it changes their entire behaviour so that preservation of this particular queen bee and this particular colony shapes all that they do.
Those words, “feed”, “clean”, “guard”, and “build”, have such important implications for us as we talk about apprenticing in Kingdom living – as we diligently seek God together.
Q. Discuss each of these words, brainstorming some scriptures that can help us be a community that feeds, cleans, guards and build – as we seek the Kingdom of God. Also discuss how this will change the way that you are together as a group.
Choose one word from #4 and pray about digging deep on it personally and share with the group for accountability.
Prayer - Thank God for His Kingdom and ask Him to show you how to live in it.
- spend some time together in prayer asking God what it means for your group to “seek the Kingdom” together
“Bee” about the Kingdom!
Amanda Van Halteren