Max Lucado - Glory Days Bible Study Guide: Living Your Promised Land Life Now

Glory Days Study Guide

Copyright 2015 by Max Lucado

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Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois. All rights reserved.

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Cover design: Micah Kandros

Interior design: Matthew Van Zomeren

ISBN: 978-0-7180-3597-6

ISBN: 978-0-7180-3602-7 (eBook)

First Printing July 2015

CONTENTS

The quotations interspersed throughout this study guide and the introductory comments are excerpts from the book Glory Days and the video curriculum of the same name by Max Lucado. All other resources including the small group questions, session introductions, and between-sessions materials have been written by Kevin and Sherry Harney.

Have you ever felt beat up, outcast, disheartened, or dejected? If you have, you are in good company. The Israelites, Gods chosen people, felt like this for forty long years as they wandered in the desert. But then, after four decades of discouragement, hope was on the horizon. God raised up a new leader named Joshua. The peoples time in the wilderness furnace was coming to an end. The land of milk and honey was beckoning. The Glory Days were there for the taking.

They still are for us today. In these six sessions, we will discuss how God brings us out of the difficulties of our past. How we must let go of our cant do attitude if we want to claim our Promised Land. How we can bring down strongholds and enter into our Glory Days. We will also discuss how God wants us to pray boldly, how we must always choose to believe that he fulfills his promises, and how he promises to not only be with us through the trials of this life but also fight on our behalf.

Expect to be challenged. After all, the enemy wont go down without a fight. But expect great progress. Life is different on the west side of the Jordan. Breakthroughs outnumber breakdowns. Gods promises outweigh personal problems. Victory becomes dare we imagine a way of life.

Isnt it time for you to change your mailing address from wilderness wandering to Promised Land living? Your Glory Days await you. I invite you to let these words, this holy declaration, settle deep into your heart as you walk forward into Gods will for your life:

These days are Glory Days.

My past is past,

my future is bright,

Gods promises are true and his Word is sure.

With God as my helper,

I will be all he wants me to be,

do all he wants me to do,

and receive all he wants me to receive.

These are the Glory Days.

I invite you to walk with me from the desert into the Promised Land filled with the presence, power, and glory of the Living God.

The Promised Land hope, life, passionate faith, fertile relationships. Should these be the exception or the rule? The book of Joshua helps us see the wilderness is not our true home and the Promised Land awaits all those who are ready to enter. Glory Days are just around the corner, just across the river, close enough to touch. So prepare yourself and step forward. Your Glory Days await you.

Introduction

Do we ask too much of God? Do we desire more than we should? Is God weary of our longings and dreams? In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis responds to these questions this way:

It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

As the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness, they looked back on their time in Egypt with selective memory. Although they had been in slavery, beaten, and oppressed... at least theyd had basic food. After God delivered them from Egypt with a powerful hand, parted the Red Sea, and rained heavenly bread from the sky, they looked over their shoulder and cried, We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic (Numbers 11:5).

The Israelites stood in the wilderness with the Promised Land ahead of them and Egypt behind them. But instead of dreaming of the Glory Days that awaited in a land flowing with milk and honey, they remembered the cucumbers and onions of Egypt.

It is time to march, run, skip, and press forward. No matter how good things might seem in the rearview mirror, what lies ahead can be better. It is time to dream big, to ask of God with boldness, and to believe that our Glory Days are ahead of us.

We must always choose to believe God fulfills his promises.

Talk About It

Welcome to the first session of Glory Days: Living Your Promised Land Life Now. If you or any of your fellow group members do not know one another, take some time to introduce yourselves. Then, to get things started, discuss one of the following questions:

C. S. Lewis says we can become like children who are content making mud pies in a slum when God offers a holiday by the sea. What are some of the small things we can become entangled in and enamored with that keep us from experiencing the fullness God wants to offer?

or

What are some of the good, big, and beautiful things we can receive from God if we open ourselves to the greatness of his love and the wonder of his generosity?

Our Promised Land is not real estate but a real state of the heart and mind.

Video Teaching Notes

As you watch the video teaching segment for session one, use the following outline to record anything that stands out to you.

The Great American Immigration period: millions of people boarded boats bound for the hopeful shores of America, a land that spoke of a new hope and new beginning

The journey of the Israelites: the highlights and the lowlights

The seven years of conquest represented a fresh start and a new season for the Israelites... and we need a fresh start and a new season as well.

The book of Joshua dares us to believe the best days of our lives are ahead of us that God has a Promised Land for us to take.

The Promised Land was the third stop on the Hebrew peoples iconic itinerary: first there was Egypt, then the wilderness, and finally Canaan.

Each stop represented a state of mind: the Israelites were enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt, slaves to fear in the wilderness, and finally people of promise in Canaan.