📖 Where Are You?
Life Group Leader Guide
📌 LEADER'S BULLETIN
Leader Heart Check
Before you open your door this week, pause and remember whose you are and where He's called you to stand. You don't need to have it all figured out to lead well; you just need to be present, willing, and honest before God. He has placed you exactly where you are for a reason, and your faithfulness in this small, ordinary group is building something eternal.
Attendance Reminder
Please log your group's attendance in the Church App by Sunday. Your faithfulness in tracking helps us stay connected as a church family.
📢 CHURCHWIDE EVENTS
Please share the following with your group this week:
Prophetic Service — September 6, National City location
Restoring Hope Marriage Conference — September 25–26, National City location
Legacy Marriage Class — Starting September 28, National City location
Young Adults Retreat — October 29–31, Julian, CA
For full details and registration, visit: www.heartrevchurch.com/events
🔑 CONNECTION KEY (Leader Briefing)
Core Theme: God has three specific places He wants every believer to walk in: His presence, godly influence, and lasting impact, and each one builds on the one before it.
Key Discussion Goals:
Help group members identify which of the three places (presence, influence, impact) they currently feel closest to and which feels most distant
Walk through Joseph's story together and draw honest parallels to seasons of testing in members' own lives
Encourage members to name one area where they've been using influence to serve themselves rather than serve others
Create space for members to think beyond this season of life and consider the legacy they're building
Leader Tip: This week's content moves through a real emotional arc, from intimacy with God to betrayal, false accusation, and eventual promotion, so let the group sit in the tension rather than rushing to the resolution. Some members may connect deeply with Joseph's pit or prison seasons if they're currently walking through something unresolved; give them room to share without forcing a tidy conclusion. Watch for members who tend to intellectualize the story instead of applying it personally, and gently redirect with questions that ask "where are you" rather than "what happened to Joseph." Keep the tone hopeful. The point isn't that suffering is good, it's that God's presence never left.
Key Phrase: "Grace: what rises shall never fall."
3 Places God Wants Us To Flourish.
1. The Place Of Presence
Before God ever calls us to influence or legacy, He calls us into His presence. Zion represents the place God chose to dwell, and Scripture consistently ties nearness to Him with joy, rest, direction, and even the resolution of our deepest problems. Peter and John were recognized not because of their credentials but because they had been with Jesus, a reminder that time spent in God's presence marks a person in ways training never could. Presence also calls us to consecration; it's not a casual space, it's holy ground that requires clean hands and a pure heart. When Moses asked to see God's glory and when Peter wanted to build shelters on the mountain of transfiguration, both moments reveal how presence changes people who encounter it honestly.
Reflection Questions:
When was the last time you sensed you were genuinely in God's presence, not just going through religious motions?
What does "consecration" practically look like in your everyday life right now?
Peter and John were marked simply by having been with Jesus. What is marking you these days?
What tends to crowd out your time in God's presence during a busy week?
2. The Place Of Influence
Influence is meant to be stewarded for the good of others, not hoarded for personal gain. Jeremiah told the exiles to seek the peace and prosperity of the very city that had displaced them, and Joseph's entire story is a masterclass in that principle. He had favor from the start, yet favor didn't exempt him from the pit, false accusation, or prison; it simply meant God's presence stayed with him through every unjust turn. Joseph could have used his rising influence in Potiphar's house or in prison to serve himself, but instead he kept serving faithfully in obscurity until God positioned him to save an entire nation, including the very brothers who betrayed him. True influence is proven not in the moment of promotion but in the seasons no one applauds.
Reflection Questions:
Joseph served faithfully long before anyone recognized his gift. Where in your life are you being asked to serve well without recognition?
The sermon says "favor and trauma speak the same language." How have you seen God's favor and real hardship coexist in your own story?
What is the difference between having influence and using influence to serve yourself?
Like Joseph with his brothers, is there someone you need to extend grace to instead of holding a grudge?
3. The Place Of Impact [Where I Leave A Legacy]
Legacy is the final destination of a life lived in God's presence and stewarded influence. The woman who poured out costly oil on Jesus gave something she could never get back, and He declared that her act of sacrifice would be remembered wherever the gospel was preached. David refused to offer God a sacrifice that cost him nothing, insisting on paying full price for the threshing floor. Both stories point to the same truth: what we're willing to sacrifice determines the height of the legacy we leave. Impact isn't an accident that happens at the end of life, it's the natural result of a life that consistently chose presence and faithful influence along the way.
Reflection Questions:
What is one thing you're currently unwilling to sacrifice that might be standing between you and greater impact?
The woman's act of worship was costly and public. What would costly worship look like for you this season?
What kind of legacy do you want your "children's children" to inherit from watching your life?
David refused to offer God something that cost him nothing. Where might you be offering God leftovers instead of your best?
🛠Practical Application
The Challenge
This week, identify one relationship or responsibility where you've been coasting on your own strength, and intentionally invite God's presence into it before you act.
Audit / Reflection
Ask yourself honestly: in the last month, has my influence, at work, at home, or online, been used more to serve myself or to serve others?
Prayer Focus
Pray as a group for a fresh hunger for God's presence, for wisdom to steward whatever influence He's given each person well, and for the courage to make the costly choices that build a lasting legacy.
📣 Weekly Declaration
I choose to pursue the presence of God above every other pursuit in my life. I will steward whatever influence I've been given to serve others, not myself. I trust that the seasons no one sees are shaping the impact I will one day carry. I refuse to offer God what costs me nothing, and I will not shrink back from sacrifice. My life will leave a legacy that outlasts me. Amen.
