Uncapped · Week 2
Choosing a King
Something is already on the throne, and it is already charging you
For leadersBefore you startLeader note, central theme, and the suggested activity
Leader Note
Saturday service is back, and I (Nick) am pumped to have it back. My family went last year and we really enjoyed it.
Worth knowing that Saturday night has a different speaker than Sunday. That changes how people in your group heard this one, because each speaker brings their own stories and those stories land differently. The heart and the outline are the same. Anthony taught Saturday, Chris taught Sunday.
We do our best in the questions to find where the two overlap. This year we also started pulling clips from the message on YouTube, so you can see where a question came from if you are ever unsure. They help if you were at Saturday, and they help if you lead later in the week and want a tangible callback.
As always, make these questions your own. You know your group better than I do. I tend to write with my own group in mind, and I am sure Christian does too.
One more thing about the questions. We give six most weeks. The first is always one everybody can answer, and the last is the application question. You do not have to do all six. If a question is working and people are growing in it, stay there. Do not let getting through the list interrupt something good. If you are short on time, protect the last question, since that is the one about application.
A heads up on the word idol
When people hear the word idol they brace for a lecture and stop listening. Nothing anyone names should be a bad thing. Career, family, control, comfort and responsibility are all good, and that is exactly what makes this hard to see. Say that out loud early and the room will stay with you.
Central Theme
You are already serving a king, and it is already costing you.
The question is not whether you will pay. Every king makes demands, and the one you are serving now has been billing you for years. The question is whether you can trust the one King who paid before he ever asked.
Suggested activity
Experience Plans
The tool your group uses to name one step forward, and the night you introduce it
Message Review
Watch the messageChoosing a King · YouTubeLast week we landed on a question. Not what do I have to do, but what am I capable of for the kingdom. Jesus says in to seek first his kingdom, and first means first. So something is already sitting in that seat. Every king asks for something, which is why Jesus tells people in to sit down and count the cost before they build. Whatever is on your throne is already charging you. We have just never added it up.
Then we went to Genesis 22, where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham lived surrounded by gods who worked exactly that way. You brought the sacrifice and hoped the god came through. Then God stopped him, and there in the thicket was a ram. Abraham named the place The Lord Will Provide. This God does not take. He provides the sacrifice himself, and says he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. You will not outgive him. Whatever he asks you to lay down, he got there first.
Discussion Questions
Pick the questions that fit your group tonight. You do not have to cover them all. How the questions work.
King for a Day
The word king is going to come up all night. Let’s start with a harmless version of it.
You are king or queen for one day and can pass one completely ridiculous law. What is it?
Clip 2:54 The message asks what wins when your time and energy are in conflict. It makes a good bridge out of the icebreaker and into the night.
Alternative questions
Who or what do you obey without ever arguing? Your calendar, your dog, a group chat, the weather app.
Growing up, what was a rule in your house that nobody ever agreed to out loud but everyone obeyed?
When a Good Thing Starts Asking
Nothing ends up on the throne by being bad. It started as something you cared about, and somewhere along the line it became something you answer to.
Describe something good in your life that quietly started asking more of you than it should.
Clip 10:03 Whatever is sitting in that seat is already asking you to sacrifice.
Valuing It or Crowning It
It’s easy to hear “don’t make that an idol” and think it means stop caring about it. But the message wasn’t saying good things are bad. It was saying good things placed in the ultimate seat stop being good.
How do you actually tell the difference between valuing something and making it king?
Clip 4:49 All of us have a king, and kings don’t tolerate other kings.
The Lord Will Provide
Read together.
says Abraham named the place “The Lord Will Provide” and the text adds “and to this day it is said, on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” That name became a testimony passed down through generations.
What’s a moment in your own life where you’ve been able to look back and say “the Lord provided?”
Clip 15:56 This covers the ram in the thicket and Abraham naming the place.
What You’re Afraid He’ll Do
Abraham walked up that mountain assuming God was like every other god he’d heard of, the kind that takes. We’ve never really let go of that assumption, and it’s still the reason we hold things back.
When God has asked you for something, what were you afraid he was going to do with it?
Clip 18:36 The message moves from the lie that God takes straight into the God who provides. These are the strongest two minutes in the talk.
The Thing You’re Most Afraid to Surrender
The message closed with an invitation to actually count the cost. Not to avoid the sacrifice, but to bring it to the one king who has already shown he provides. Your relationship with him doesn’t begin with your sacrifice. It begins with his.
Name the thing you’re most afraid to surrender to God. What would it look like to bring that specific thing to him in prayer this week and tell him you’re willing?
Clip 26:03 This is the closing call to count the cost and choose.
Prayer Focus
If there's time, start by sharing prayer requests. If you're short on time, start a text thread to collect them.
- For clarity. Ask God to show each person what is actually sitting in that seat right now. Nobody can hand over a king they have not named.
- For courage. Counting the cost out loud takes nerve, especially when the king in question is something the room would call good. Pray people say the true thing rather than the safe one.
- For trust. The fear underneath all of this is that God takes. Ask him to answer that with something specific, a time he provided that somebody in the room can still point to.
- For surrender. Take the thing each person named in the last question and pray it back by name. Keep it unhurried and leave some quiet in it.
For leadersAfter groupNext steps this week
- Go last on the final question again. Nobody names the thing they are most afraid to hand over until someone else does it first.
- Write down what each person named. That list is your week, same as last week.
- Check in midweek with whoever went quiet during question five. The fear question costs people more than the others.
- Anybody who named something heavy is worth a text before Sunday, not just a prayer in the room.
- Two weeks in is where a group either becomes a group or stays a dinner. If somebody has missed both weeks, call them.
Announcements
Each one is written to paste into your group text. Copy brings the full link with it.
Equip studies start this Sunday, September 27. Classes run from curious about God, to digging into Scripture, to building rhythms that actually hold up here. If tonight got you thinking about what is actually running your life, that is exactly what these are for. All of them are at hobokengrace.com/events/growth
Next Week
Next week we stay on the cost, but Jesus does the talking. He tells two short stories about people who stop and do the math before they start, one about a man building a tower and one about a king deciding whether to march into a war he might not win. It sounds at first like he is talking people out of following him. He is not. He just refuses to let anyone sign up without knowing what they are signing up for. Come ready to add it up.