/ How to Cope with Your Circumstances
Sorrow
Luke 4:18, Other Scripture
Pastor Bob Parisot
January 21, 2018

Luke 4:18 (NKJV)
18 "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

In this study I hope to give you some ideas and helps on how to deal with sorrow. At the beginning of this message series I told you that there are six things that you and I will deal with in life and they are Shock, Sorrow, Struggle, Surrender, Restoration, and Engagement. I also said that that everyone of us will face bad news or tough times, some currently are and some will face them sometime in the future. First we talked about shock, now I want to talk about sorrow. There are different levels of sorrow depending on the severity of the loss in your life. You might not feel as much sorrow from the loss of a job as you would from a death of a loved one. There will be different levels of sorrow depending on what the circumstances are and how attached you are to something or someone.

This message and this series is something I want you to take and use because this message you are going to need sometime in your life. I want to prepare you in advance on how to handle great loss and help you cope with whatever it is in your life that you will face. No matter how difficult life may get, I want you to be able to get through your troubles so that it doesn’t devastate your life. You can get through anything if you will follow what I say here. I want to share with you five things that will help you in sorrow and how to get through your crisis of life.

  1. Loss is inevitable, but grief is a choice .

a. There is not life without Change .

b. There is not change without Loss .

c. There is no loss without Pain .

  1. Grieving is Healthy .
  1. Unhealthy Grieving
  1. Repression -
  1. Suppression -

If you hold on to those hurts and loses and don’t learn to grieve it in a way that is healthy, you will eventually live an unhealthy life style. Let me put it this way:

a. If you don’t learn to let it out in a healthy way,
b. You will act it out in un-healthy ways

2. Many doctors have determined that many of the health problems that people have today are:

a. Unresolved Greif

b. Unresolved Regrets

c. Unresolved Resentment

3. God Grieves with Me .

4. Grief is not meant to be handled alone .

Sermon Discussion Guide Leader Notes

Suggestions for This Weeks Small Group Study

  • Illustrate by personal testimony or story of someone you know who let temptation lead them to sin
  • Discuss Ideas on what can be done not to let temptation lead to Sin
  • Accountability partner
  • Prayer
  • Read God’s Word
  • Just say no
  • Pay attention to your conscience, if it feels wrong it probably is, run away

Suggestions for This Weeks Small Group Study

 Pray for God for to give you insight and understanding of the topic and scripture. Ask for God’s wisdom, that the Holy Spirit will be the teacher and that you will be God’s spokesperson and representative to lead a group to a greater understanding and a willingness to commit to His commands and Word. To become more Christ like and be ambassadors for Christ. Prayer should be your primary source of preparation for leading your group.

 Plan on how you want your group to respond and commit to obedience to God’s Word in the next 60-90 days. What is your groups strong areas, what are their weakness? Consider how you can challenge the members to live a more balanced Christian life. Consider God’s purpose for their life and the life of the church. Consider the five purposes of the Church: Evangelism, Discipleship, Ministry, Fellowship, Worship? Encourage the group into further commitment in their life and the life of the church.

Ponder your progress At the end of each session and the end of the series, reflect on what went well and what didn’t. Re-evaluation of the group and progress is essential for future growth. Consider how effective the study has been to move people into a more intimate relationship with God and to one another. Consider how you have been doing in leading your group, discussion, challenge, encouragement. Were you able to keep the group on track? Are there any changes that should be made?

Using this Sermon Discussion Guide

 A closer look discussion guide is a tool to aid you in the needs of your group. It is designed to help you complete the discussion within 30-45 minutes. As the discussion leader, you should preview and evaluate the questions and scripture prior to your meeting and to meet the need of your group. Decide beforehand what is most important to focus on to keep to the allotted time.

 Adapt the study to meet the need of your group. If your group is more mature, consider diving deeper in scripture that is listed on the sheet. Remember this is only a guide to assist you.

 Personal application is essential for growth in the life of a believer, and how the principles should and can be applied is critical. Discuss with your group how whet they have learned should and can be applied. Ask how they have applied the truths to their life at the beginning of the next session. Is it important to help people meet their goal. Ask general questions like, “How are you doing since last week?” “How can the group help you?” Encourage each group member to be accountable to the group and to each other for personal progress and maturity.

 Your goal as a leader is to bring the group into a stimulating discussion where all can be engaged and to encourage discussion, especially those who are more quite. Don’t force or coerce anyone into speaking if they are uncomfortable in doing so, encouragement is best by asking engaging questions. Create accountability in your group, and group the is personally involved in others lives in care and love.