Who Are You Looking For?
Life Group Leader Guide
Sermon Date: April 5, 2026
📌 LEADER'S BULLETIN
Leader Heart Check
You are leading people who may be carrying grief they can't quite name — hopes that died, expectations of God that didn't go the way they planned. This week, you get to be the person who gently redirects the room from assumption and observation toward genuine encounter. Trust the Holy Spirit to meet your group in this conversation. You don't have to have all the answers — just create space for people to honestly ask, "Who am I really looking for?"
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 PROMOTIONS
Share these upcoming opportunities with your group this week:
Baptism Sunday — April 19 | National City location. If anyone in your group is ready to take this step, encourage them — this is a powerful moment of public declaration.
Emmaus Journey — May 4 (English) | May 5 (Spanish) National City location. A transformative experience for anyone looking to go deeper in their walk with God.
Academy 1.0 — May 4 (English) | May 5 (Spanish) National City location. A great next step for anyone who wants to build a stronger foundation in their faith.
Events & registration: www.heartrevchurch.com/events
🔑 CONNECTION KEY (Leader Briefing)
Core Theme: The resurrection invites us past emotional reaction and safe observation into genuine, life-changing belief — but only if we're willing to go all the way in.
Key Discussion Goals:
Help group members identify which of the three resurrection responses they most naturally default to — assuming, observing, or believing
Create honest conversation around grief, dashed hopes, and the expectations people have carried about who Jesus is supposed to be
Challenge the group to move from intellectual acknowledgment of Jesus to personal encounter with Him
Invite reflection on what it would look like to "go inside the tomb" — to fully surrender to what the resurrection means for their everyday life
Leader Tip: This message will surface real emotion for some people. The illustration about grieving a hoped-for vision — a dream that didn't come true — is something almost everyone in the room will connect with personally, whether it's a relationship, a career, a prayer that wasn't answered the way they expected. Hold that space carefully before pushing toward application. Let people sit with the question "Who are you looking for?" before rushing to the resolution. The goal isn't to fix grief — it's to redirect it toward the risen Jesus.
Key Phrase: "Folded meant: It's not over. I'm not done. I'll be back."
📖 Sermon Points
3 Responses To The Resurrection.
1. One Saw And Assumed
Scriptures:
John 20:1 [NIV]
John 20:15b [NIV]
Nehemiah 6:8 [NIV]
Job 14:7-9 [NKJV]
Luke 24:21 [NKJV]
Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb before dawn — grief-stricken, emotionally overwhelmed — and the moment she saw the stone rolled away, her heart made a conclusion before her mind could catch up. Emotional pain has a way of doing that. It filters every new piece of information through the lens of loss, and what we end up with are assumptions, false agreements, and sometimes even accusations directed at the wrong person entirely. Mary mistook the risen Jesus for a gardener — not because she was faithless, but because her grief had written a script she was still reading from. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, she had been hoping for a version of Jesus that matched her expectations, and His death had shattered that vision. Even Job understood this — that what looks dead is not necessarily finished, and that the scent of water alone can cause a stump to bud again.
Reflection Questions:
Think about a time when your emotional state led you to a wrong conclusion about God or about a situation. What did that cost you?
In what areas of your life are you still grieving a version of Jesus that didn't show up the way you expected?
How do we learn to pause between what we see and what we conclude — especially in seasons of loss or disappointment?
What does it look like to bring your assumptions to God honestly, the way Mary did, rather than shutting down or walking away?
2. One Saw And Observed
Scriptures:
John 20:4-5 [NIV]
Romans 14:17 [NKJV]
Luke 19:3-4 [NIV]
James 2:19 [NIV]
The other disciple ran harder and faster than Peter — and then stopped at the entrance. He looked in. He saw the evidence. And he waited. There's something worth honoring in observation: Zacchaeus climbed a tree just to get a better look at Jesus, and that desire to see is not nothing. But there is a version of observation that becomes a permanent address — where curiosity never graduates into commitment. This disciple saw the linen, processed what it might mean, and quietly calculated the cost of going further. Observation without entry is the posture of someone who believes the facts about Jesus but hasn't yet let those facts become a life. Even the demons believe and shudder — but belief that stops at the threshold changes nothing.
Reflection Questions:
Where in your spiritual life have you been content to observe from a distance rather than fully step in?
What has held you at the entrance — fear, past hurt, uncertainty, comfort? What would it take to go further?
How do you tell the difference between healthy, curious observation of your faith and a pattern of avoiding full commitment?
What does it look like in your daily life when the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit rather than just something you know about intellectually?
3. One Saw And Believed
Scriptures:
John 20:6-8 [NIV]
Peter didn't calculate — he walked straight in. And when the other disciple finally followed, the detail that changed everything was not the empty tomb itself, but the folded cloth. In the culture of the day, a folded napkin left at a table carried a clear message from a master to a servant: I'm coming back. I'm not finished. The linen that had wrapped Jesus' body wasn't discarded — it was arranged. Intentional. Communicative. And when the disciple saw it, he believed. This is the response the resurrection is always calling us toward — not just to note the evidence, not just to feel the emotion, but to step inside, take in the details, and let them produce faith. The empty tomb was not the end of the story. The folded cloth was a promise still in motion.
Reflection Questions:
What details of the resurrection story — things you may have heard many times — are you seeing with fresh eyes today?
Peter went in without hesitation. Where in your life is God asking you to stop calculating and just go in?
The folded cloth was a sign that Jesus wasn't done. Where do you need to receive that message personally — "It's not over. I'll be back"?
What would it look like for your faith to move this week from something you observe or manage to something you are fully inside of?
🛠 Practical Application
The Challenge
Identify which of the three responses most describes where you are right now — assuming, observing, or believing. Then take one concrete step this week to move further in. If you've been stuck in assumption, bring an honest conversation to God about a dashed hope. If you've been observing from the doorway, make a decision to step fully into one area of commitment you've been delaying. If you're already inside — help someone else find the tomb.
Audit / Reflection
Ask yourself honestly: What version of Jesus have I been looking for? Have you been seeking a Jesus who fulfills your plans, confirms your comfort, or fits within your control? Consider where the real Jesus — the risen, living, returning Jesus — may be standing right in front of you while you're still looking somewhere else.
Prayer Focus
Pray that the Holy Spirit would reveal any place where grief, disappointment, or comfortable distance has kept your group members from the fullness of who Jesus is. Ask God to give each person in your group a "folded cloth" moment this week — a specific sign that He is not finished, that the story isn't over, and that He is coming back for what concerns them. Close by praying that every person would have the courage to step fully inside.
📣 Weekly Declaration
I am not defined by what I expected God to do — I am anchored in what He has already done. I release every version of Jesus I constructed out of my own hopes and fears, and I open my hands to the risen Christ who is greater than any dream I could have named. I will not stay at the entrance — I am stepping fully inside, into the life, the surrender, and the faith that the resurrection makes possible. The stone is rolled away, the cloth is folded, and He is not done — which means neither am I. I have seen the Lord, and I carry that testimony with me into every room I enter this week. Amen.
