This is the fourth and final message of the series on the book of Ezra called "Turn."

Discussion Questions:

1. Is God more interested in protecting his holiness or bringing his holiness to you?

2. If your relationship with God is like a marriage, is God more likely to send you away because of your “detestable practices” or remain with you?

3. Do you think of God as essentially “pure” or essentially “merciful?”

4. Do your “policies” align with your stated belief?—that is before you answer the first question consider what your “policies” imply.

5. If “pure religion” is refusing to allow ourselves to be “corrupted” by the world and that means resisting the temptation to think about people the way the world does and treat people the way the world does what should that look like in the life of the church or in your own life?

6. If you were responsible for drafting church policy on this or a similar issue how would you handle it and what does that imply about your image of God? 

"Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did."

1 John 2:6  NLT

KNOW: This is the third message in a four-week series on the book of Ezra called "Turn."

GROW Questions:

1. What do I mean when I suggest the church has everything it could want for a highly effective religious experience except the one thing it needs—Jesus? 

2. Do you see the church today engaged in associations of power similar to Ezra’s relationship with Artaxerxes?  What does that tell you about our image of God? 

3. Is it possible that you’ve been lead to believe, however innocently, that God is actually different than the Son he gives to us? 

4. Do you find yourself angry, resentful, frustrated, offended, or scared when someone suggests to you that perhaps your image of God isn’t accurate? 

5. Does Jesus advance the will of God by killing, confiscating the goods of, banishing, and/or imprisoning people who break God’s laws?  How does he advance God’s will?  What does that tell you about God’s character? 

6. If Jesus is the full revelation of God what does it look like to follow the narrow road of Jesus? 

The second message in a four-week series called "Turn" which is a study of the Old Testament book of Ezra.

Discussion Questions:

1. Discuss the concept of collusion?  Do you see yourself participating in this ever?

2. What reason did I offer to explain why the leaders of the exiles rejected the help offered to them by the local residents?  What do you think?

3. Discuss the situation the exiles find themselves in when they finally complete the temple.  What’s ironic about their situation?

4. I suggest that it was rejection that turned the local residents into enemies of the exiles.  Do you agree or disagree?  Do you see this dynamic at work in today’s religious community?

5. Read and discuss the episode of Jesus with the adulterous woman.  Why does Jesus receive this woman with a spirit of no condemnation and what should that communicate to us about our policies of protection and rejection?

 

This is the first sermon in a four-week series on the book of Ezra called, "Turn."

Discussion Questions:

1. Why does Ezra frame Israel’s return from Babylon in language reminiscent of the Hebrew exodus from Egypt?

2. What is Ezra trying to show by comparing his community’s return from Babylon with his ancestors’ exodus from Egypt?

3. What did you think about my comparison of the song in Ezra 3:11 with David’s song in Psalm 136?  Do you think it has something to do with the mixed response to the completion of the new temple foundation in Ezra 3:12-13?  Why or why not?

4. Read the story of Jesus’ triumphal entrance in Luke 19 and discuss the same commingling and joy revealed there.  What does it mean that Jesus is among the weepers?

5. Who is God?  What does he want?  How does he go about accomplishing his will?

 

Dana Keim shares about how we might believe lies about God by making Him fit our image, rather than trusting that Jesus is the full revelation of God.

Derek Moran shares out of 1 Corinthians 8. We need to let go of the little things that divide us and focus more on how we love and what we really think about who God is and what his character is like.

This is the third and final message in a series on the book of Joel called "Rend Your Hearts."

Discussion Questions:

1. How do you feel about the metaphor of forecasting the weather that I used to set up this sermon?  What does this metaphor imply about how I read the Bible?  Where is this metaphor helpful?  Where is it limited?

2. What do you make of the differences between Joel’s prediction and Peter’s experience?  How would you have interpreted these differences prior to this sermon?  Would you have even noticed them? 

3. I suggest that Joel’s message is essentially, “repent and be saved FROM God.”  Do you think I overstate the case?  Do you see the difference between Joel’s message and Peter’s appeal to be saved from “this crooked generation?”

4. What do I think Peter means when he uses the phrase “this crooked generation?”  What do you think?

5. Why does Peter add the language “be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and you will receive the Holy Spirit” to Joel’s language of repent and turn to God?

6. How does baptism in the name of Jesus and reception of the Holy Spirit save us from “this crooked generation?”

 

This is the second message in a three-part series called "Rend Your Hearts" which is a study of the Old Testament book of Joel.

Discussion Questions:

1. What do I mean when I say Joel’s appeal to the people is “fear-based and self-centered?”  

2. What is the difference between tearing one’s garments and tearing one’s heart? 

3. What is the inherent disconnect between the goal of people tearing their hearts and the strategy of warning against future destruction? 

4. What do I mean when I say a fear-based, self-centered appeal to repentance will eventually produce an “energy crisis?” 

5. Discuss the transition from John the Baptist to Jesus.  How does John’s message “prepare the way” for Jesus and how does Jesus move people to a different and better process of repentance? 

6. What is significant about Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 as it relates to the conversation about what should motivate authentic internal repentance?

*Due to technical issues, the first minute or so was lost.

This is the first sermon in a three-week series called "Rend Your Hearts" which is a study of the Old Testament book of Joel.

Discussion Questions:

1. Can you appreciate how/why Joel interpreted the locust plague as a foreshadowing of God’s judgment?  Have you ever heard someone in our culture offering similar interpretations for “acts of God” such as hurricanes, tsunamis, tornados, or earthquakes? 

2. What specifically prompted Joel to interpret the plague as a foreshadowing of God’s judgment? 

3. When you hear the phrase “the day of the Lord” what thoughts, images, assumptions come to mind? 

4. What is the connection between Israel’s ritual religious expression as bein attacked by a foreign army?  How do you see this same connection fleshed out in the life and ministry of Jesus? 

5. What am I arguing in this message is the primary purpose or utility of religious faith/expression? 

 

 

This week pastor Mike O'Shea, family pastor Mike Strole, and (as of August 2015) youth developer Addison Hirschfeld share about their experience and WCC's integration with the Young Life organization. Two students who recently attended YL Camp share their story.