ERCC Sermons

Discussion Questions:

1) Was there anything from the sermon or the passage that stuck out to you?

2) Leviticus calls the weekly rest "a Sabbath to the LORD" (23:3), a day that belongs to Him before it is a day off.

What would change about your day off if you treated it as time with God rather than only time to recover?

3) Israel gathered a double portion of manna on the sixth day so they could stop on the seventh, trusting God to provide (Exodus 16:29). What fear most often keeps you from stopping?

4) God set His saving acts on fixed days so that each new generation would remember what He had done (Leviticus 23:42-43). What is one thing God has done in your life that you are in danger of forgetting?

5) The feasts were celebrations, and the sermon said the church should throw more parties that say how good God is. How could you open your home this season to celebrate God's goodness with others?

6) Meeting with God takes preparation, even something as small as a quiet moment in the car before church or a good night's sleep on Saturday. What is one small thing you could do this week to come ready to meet with God on Sunday? 

Discussion Questions:

1) Was there anything from the sermon or the passage that stuck out to you?

2) No law makes a business close on Sundays, and no one will force us to ask God how He wants us to rest, work, or spend. What area of your life have you never really asked God about?

3) In the fourth year, the first good fruit went entirely to the Lord before anyone ate it (Leviticus 19:23-25). What is one thing you could set apart for God before you enjoy it yourself?

4) Israel was told to keep the Sabbath instead of turning to omens and mediums to find out what was coming (Leviticus 19:26-31). Where do you look for certainty about the future instead of resting in God's care?

5) God commands honor for the gray head, even when an older person can no longer give anything back (Leviticus 19:32). Who in your life is easy to overlook because they offer you no benefit?

6) Israel was to love the stranger because they had been strangers in Egypt, and Christ loved us while we were still sinners (Leviticus 19:34; Romans 5:8). Who is someone you find it hard to welcome, and what would welcoming them look like this week?

Discussion Questions:

1) Was there anything from the sermon or the passage that stuck out to you?

2) God says "You shall be holy" to people He had already rescued, the way a parent tells a child who they are going to become (Leviticus 19:2). Do you usually hear God's call to holiness as a demand to meet or as a promise from your Father?

3) Good things like a spouse, a child, or a job become idols the moment we ask them to fix everything (Leviticus 19:4). What good thing are you most tempted to treat as the answer to all your problems?

4) Landowners were told to leave the edges of the field for the poor and the sojourner, because God was the one who made the crop grow (Leviticus 19:9-10). What would a generous margin look like in your budget, your schedule, or your work this month?

5) Honoring a parent doesn't require pretending there were no wounds, and it leaves the judging to God (Leviticus 19:3). What would honoring your mother or father look like for you in this season?

6) Jesus said to love your enemies because the Father sends sun and rain on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:44-45). Who is the person you find it hardest to want God to bless?

Discussion Questions:

1) Was there anything from the sermon or the passage that stuck out to you?

2) Israel could not eat blood because God had given its life for atonement, so even getting dinner ready carried a reminder of what God had provided (Leviticus 17:11). What ordinary part of your day could become a reminder of what God has given you?

3) When Jesus spoke of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, many who heard it called it a hard saying and stopped following Him (John 6:60, 66). What has been the hardest thing for you to accept about following Jesus?

4) God told His people not to walk in the ways of Egypt behind them or Canaan ahead of them (Leviticus 18:3). Which pull is stronger for you right now, the patterns you grew up with or the culture around you?

5) God promised to put His Spirit within His people and cause them to walk in His ways (Ezekiel 36:27), more like a navigator riding along than a map left on the seat. Where do you sense God steering you right now that you have been slow to follow?

6) A faith run like a ledger says I needed Jesus one day this week while someone else needs Him every day. Whose need for grace have you been measuring against your own?

Discussion Questions:

1) Was there anything from the sermon or the passage that stuck out to you?

2) If God simply deleted evil wherever He found it, He would have to start with people, and instead He made a way for sinners to live near Him (16:16). What does it tell you about God that He chose to stay in the middle of His people's mess rather than wipe it out?

3) Aaron's first sacrifice on the Day of Atonement was for his own sin, and he made it as a father still grieving the death of his two sons (16:1-6). When has grief or disappointment made it hard for you to come near to God?

4) One goat died to pay for sin, and the other carried the people's sins into the wilderness where they could not come back (16:21-22). Which is harder for you to believe, that your sin has been paid for or that it has actually been carried away?

5) Forgiveness rests on the sacrifice of Jesus, not on how well we pray or how sorry we manage to feel. Where are you still trying to earn forgiveness by the quality of your repentance?

6) The priests stood every day offering the same sacrifices, but Christ offered Himself once and sat down (Hebrews 10:11-12). What would change this week if you lived as though the work of dealing with your guilt were truly finished?

LEADERS: CHOOSE 2 OR 3 QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS OR ALLOW EACH MEMBER TO SELECT 1 OR 2 QUESTIONS TO SHARE ON.

1. Anything which stood out to you about Psalm 131?

2. Do you do anything to prepare your heart to worship God before you go to Small Group or Church? 

3. In the intro, Dean encouraged the church not to listen to the message just to get the “right answers”. Instead to listen with the intent to come away with a “right attitude” to live each day knowing you are under the gaze of God.

From the list below, select the one which best describes what you emphasize in your walk. Also, select the one in which you believe you need to grow most in.

1. Prayer

2. Fellowship with other believers

3. Obedience to God’s calling

4. Walking by the Spirit

5. Doing works of service

6. Bible study

4. David begins this psalm, praying to God. Do you ever use scripture to pray? If so, share how you use scripture to pray.

5. Dean said this psalm reminds him how he and Kirie live out their normal day. They talk about what God has revealed to them and what they intend to do or are doing for the Lord. If we keep God in our thoughts as we are in our house, walk by the way, rise up, lay down…it’s these “ordinary days” where God will do his greatest works in growing us. Describe your normal day. How much is God in your conversation or thoughts? If not at all, do you think you should grow in your awareness of God’s presence?

6. Dean used Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” to support David’s statement that he did not have a prideful heart. Most of know that God opposes pride. Do you still battle with pride in your heart? If not, share how you have chosen to have a heart of humility over pride. Have a person in the group pray for those are still having an ongoing battle with pride.

7. The Pharisees could not “see” God as Jesus performed works of God under their noses. Instead of rejoicing, because they felt their way of life they saw Jesus as a threat and planned to kill him. Which is more important to you… to preserve your way of life or to do God’s calling even if it goes against all worldly common sense?

8. Ambition is applauded by the world. Setting goals and then with a plan hit your goal. In this psalm, David says that he does not concern himself with things too great and marvelous. The builders of the tower of Babel and Pharisees had ambitions to be equal to God. Do you always go to God first or after you decide and plan to achieve goals which are good in your own eyes? (resist the urge to say the right answer).

9. Job was a blameless and upright man. Yet, due to circumstances he became more and more demanding that God explain himself. God then railed on Job, and put Job in his place. Which better describes your relationship with God:

> I usually ask permission first and then proceed.

> I usually go ahead without permission and if caught, ask for forgiveness.

 10. David trusted in God in ways which are mind boggling to me. He lived by faith and not by sight (most of the time). When God calls you to obedience, do you immediately obey or make sure all your ducks are in a row before following?

11. David says that “he has calmed and quieted his soul, like a weaned child is my soul within me”. The weaned child has gone through his first big trial in life in his weaning… but knowing that Mom was always there. David grew in his dependence to God as God weaned him. Where are you in your faith walk? Still in the weaning stage or are you able to say, “I have calmed and quieted my soul…like a weaned child is my soul within me” (in all circumstances of life). 

12. I believe we all desire to be authentic…yet, we fear the looking at the parts or ourselves which we’d rather leave hidden. Knowing that Jesus came for the sinners and not the righteous…discuss the quote from Richard Sibbes:

“It were an easy thing to be a Christian, 

If religion stood only in a few outward works and duties,

But to take the soul to task, and deal roundly with our own hearts,

And to let conscience have it’s full work, 

and to bring the soul into spiritual subjection unto God,

This is not so easy a matter, 

because the soul out of self-love is loath to enter into itself,

lest it should have other thoughts of itself than it would have.”

Is this quote encouraging or convicting for you?

13. David uses the word “hope” as a command from God. An assurance of hope comes from an assurance of faith. Discuss the relationship between faith and hope.

14. Dean used a quote from Thomas Chalmers’ sermon, entitled, “Expulsive Power of a New Affection”. Chalmers said that you cannot expel bad habits by sheer willpower, because the heart must have an object of desire, and it cannot exist in a vacuum. He said the only effective way to overcome sinful or worldly affections is to replace them with a greater, more compelling affection—love for God.

Do you agree with Chalmers or have you been able to get rid of things like pride, arrogance, selfishness…by sheer will power?

15. Did this message on Psalm 131 affirm your current spiritual walk, or do you plan to change something?

Discussion Questions:

1) Was there anything from the sermon or the passage that stuck out to you?

2) Unclean and sinful are two different categories, and the sermon said that confusing them is where Leviticus goes wrong for most people. Where have you treated something in your own life as a sin when it was really just a hard or messy part of being human?

3) Uncleanness spread by contact, so a person could be careful all week and still be undone by a neighbor he never noticed (15:5-7). What is something that has landed on your life through no choice of your own, and how has it shaped the way you come to God?

4) The man with leprosy had to live outside the camp and call out "Unclean" so that people would step back (13:45-46). Is there a corner of your life you have kept outside the camp because you assumed it was too far gone to bring near God?

5) Jesus stretched out His hand and touched the man, and instead of becoming unclean He made him clean (Mark 1:41-42). What would change this week if you believed you did not have to clean yourself up before coming to Him?

6) The sermon said that God is found outside the camp, with the people the rest of us quietly avoid. Who is one person you have been keeping at arm's length, and what is one ordinary thing you could do to move toward them?

Discussion Questions:

1) Was there anything from the sermon or the passage that stuck out to you?

2) The blood on the right ear, thumb, and big toe marked the whole priest, what he heard, what he did, and where he went, before he ever served (8:23-24). Which of those three is hardest for you to hand over to God right now?

3) The sermon said we want Christianity to be a democracy, where we can vote on the commands we don't like. If you are honest, which command of God would you most like to put to a vote?

4) God is dangerous because His glory is so heavy, and He is the safest because He is the one who makes the way in. Which half of that is harder for you to believe?

5) Peter calls every believer a royal priesthood whose job is to proclaim the excellencies of the One who called them into His light (1 Peter 2:9). Who is one person this week you could tell how good God has been to you?

Discussion Questions:

1) Was there anything from the sermon or the passage that stuck out to you?

2) The offering in chapter 4 exists for sin nobody caught, which means the damage was real the whole time the man felt fine. What is your first reaction to being told you are responsible for something you did not know you did?

3) The chapter begins with the priest, and his sin brings guilt on the people (4:3). Where have you seen the failures of someone in leadership land on the people under them, and how did that affect the way you thought about God?

4) In chapter 5 the man who kept silent when he was called to testify is later required to confess out loud (5:1, 5:5). Silence gets answered by speech. What is something you know you should have said and did not?

5) The sermon argued we can unintentionally sin by failing to do good the Spirit put in front of us. Where in an ordinary week are you most likely to tell the Holy Spirit no because it would be inconvenient?

6) God let the offering descend all the way to a handful of flour, with no oil and no frankincense, and still said, he shall be forgiven (5:11-13). What does that tell you about what God is actually after in a sacrifice?

7) Communion asks for self-examination that Leviticus 4 guarantees will come up short. What would change about how you come to the table if you believed the blood of Jesus reaches the sins you have never once thought of?