Living in the Last Days: A Study of Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians. Feeling overwhelmed by life right now? You’re not alone. When everything feels uncertain, we often worry about what’s next. But what if it’s possible to regain perspective and live with purpose? Are living in the last days? How do we live in the Last Days? How do we make a difference in uncertain times. Let’s dig into Paul’s letters to the Church at Thessalonica and learn to live by faith, stand firm, make a difference, and face the future with courage instead of fear.
Living in the Last Days Encouraged by the Day of the Lord – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 Are we living in the last days? Yes. And every day we are one day closer to Jesus’ return. So how do we live in the last days? We live with hope and purpose as encourage one another with the promise of Jesus’ return.
LIVE OAK CONNECTION POINT:
PRAYER GATHERING…On Monday, March 2nd we will have a time of focus on scripture and prayer and you are invited to join! We’ll meet from 7pm to 8pm that night. (No childcare will be provided.)
ICE BREAKER QUESTIONS: (If you did not have an official group meeting last week and use these)
*For a NEW GROUP meeting together or a group with new people, or a group that has had a long time not meeting together, you can use these Ice Breaker Questions to get people talking and start making connections.
**For an EXISTING GROUP without a lot of new people, feel free to use or adapt the 3 ice breaker questions below but also spend some time catching up with each other by sharing highlights and challenges since you last met. You may also want to have everyone share a hope for your small group for this Spring.
- ICE BREAKER 1: “Unique Introductions”
Have everyone introduce themselves this way:
- A) A UNIQUE GREETING(Example: Hi, Hello, Hey, Aloha, Bon Jour, Greetings,What’s up, etc.) Everyone has to have a unique opening greeting line. No repeats. Must be a unique greeting word or phrase that has not already been used by someone else during this ice breaker.
- B) Name and a 1-MINUTE BIO of who you are (includeany family info, what you do during the week, what you do for fun, and how long you have attended Live Oak)
Example: “Hi. My name is Doug Halcomb. I’m Senior Pastor at Live Oak, married to Jennifer, 2 kids, Jean & Graycia. And I Graduated from Tech in 1994. For fun I like enjoy movies, music and I’ve attended Live Oak from 1993- 2004, and again since 2012.”
- ICEBREAKER 2: “Lightning Round”
Start with the leader and ask a question that is either an “either/or” type question or a “what is your favorite___________” fill in the blank type question.
Example: Beach or mountains? TV or Movies? Favorite movie? Favorite food? Favorite hobby?
- Each person in the circle answers the question with the one who asked the question answering last.
- Then, the person to the right asks their own “either/or” or “favorite” question.
- Each person in the circle answers that question with the person who asked the question
- answering last.
- Go all around the circle until everyone in the circle asks a question.
- This gets everyone talking and participating.
- Try to keep the pace up and keep a lightening round type of feel with quick questions and quick answers.
- ICEBREAKER 3: “Hopes for our Small Group”
Have everyone share why they were interested in joining a small group AND what they might be hoping to experience in this small group.
DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
- What is a “bucket list” item for you?
- What impact internally and emotionally do you have to the teaching of Jesus and Paul about the return of Jesus and about talk about end times?
- READ: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11.
Spend some time SOAPing this passage. You can either spend time SOAPing individually and documenting for a several minutes and then spend time sharing with each -OR- SOAP in real time with each other. Either way make as many observations as you can.
OBSERVATIONS: What are the things that stand out to you about this passage?
- How would you summarize this passage in one sentence?
- What does this passage tell me about who God is?
- What does this passage tell me about who I am?
- What does this tell me about the return of Jesus?
- What does this tell us we are to do in light of the return of Jesus?
- READ: 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5. What do you think it means to live with that identity? How do we do that?
- A key question Doug asked this week was, “What would you change now if you really believed that Jesus could return at any moment?” What is something you need to change now in light of the return of Jesus?
- READ: 1 Thessalonians 4:18 and 1 Thessalonians 5:11. What do you think it means to “encourage one another with these words” and to “encourage one another and build each other up” as Paul instructs to do here? And how could we do that for each other?
- What else stood out from this week’s sermon?
- APPLICATION: What is your big takeaway from this passage and this week’s sermon? Be specific.
NEXT STEPS:
Everyone has a next step to apply what we’ve learned. What’s your next step? Be specific.
MEMORY VERSE: *Challenge yourself or your group to commit this verse to memory:
1 Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
PRAYER: Encourage your group to pray this prayer often in 2026 & use to close your group time.
A 2026 Prayer for MORE: Ephesians 3:14-21 “Heavenly Father, Help me to engage with you MORE. Work in me to make me MORE like you. Use me to help MORE people know you. Make my story about your glory! Amen.”
Scripture References:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 24:36-44; Matthew 24:14;