This is the third and final message in a series called "The Rhythm Of Life" which is a study of the New Testament book of 1 John.

Discussion Questions:

1. What lead John’s challengers to separate and prioritize the “spiritual” from the moral/ethical?  Does the church still do this today?  How is it similar/different?  Do you notice ways in which you do this? 

2. Discuss the idea that “faith in” God = “faithfulness to” God.  Why do some people push back against this idea? 

3. What does John mean when he tells his church to “obey God’s commands?”  In other words, what is he commanding them to do? 

4. Is the commitment/ability to love the way you’ve been taught (either explicitly or implicitly) to measure your spiritual maturity? 

5. What does it mean for our love to look like God’s love?  Why is it so important to know what God’s love looks like? 

 

The second sermon in a three-week series called "The Rhythm Of Life" which is a study of the New Testament book of 1 John.

Discussion Questions:

1. What has been your experience with things “of the Spirit?”  Have you tended to experience spiritual things (in yourself or in others) as personal/private/mystical or as public/corporate/moral-ethical? 

2. John commands his church to “test the spirits.”  What is the first implication of that command and how have you experienced it play itself out in actual church life? 

3. What is the second implication of the command to test the spirits?  Do you believe you have the capacity to discern truth from lies? 

4. What is the third implication of the command to test the spirits?  Have you ever heard someone suggest that the simple test to verify things of the Spirit is to see if they agree with the living witness of Jesus? 

5. Look up and discuss the following references Jesus makes to the person and work of the Spirit and discuss how they relate to 1 John 5:6-8. 

6. What does John mean when he says “in the beginning?”  What should that mean for us today?

 

This is the first message in a three week series called "The Rhythm Of Life" which is a study of the New Testament book of 1 John.

Discussion Questions:

1. Discuss the concept of “rhythm.”  What does it mean to you to have a life “in rhythm?”  Have you ever experienced what you would call a life “in rhythm?”  What did it look/feel like? 

2. How do you respond to my suggestion that the baseline to human life is a conviction/commitment/belief about God?  Is it possible that much of the disharmony human beings experience in life is because they do not live out of a clear conviction regarding God’s nature/character? 

3. What is Docetism and how did it threaten the early church’s conviction that the eternal God had taken on real human flesh in the person of Jesus (incarnation)? 

4. How are some Christians still docetic in the way they think about God? 

5. What is the difference between a priori and a posteriori reasoning and how does it impact how we think about God? 

6. What sorts of things did John learn about God from Jesus and how did that impact very real beliefs about God at the time? 

7. Discuss the implications of 1 John 5:20

 

This is the second message in a two-week series called, "God In Pursuit" which is a study of the Old Testament book of Jonah.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why might Jesus call Jonah a “law-breaker?” 

2. Have you been taught to measure the “success” of your faith by how well you love?  If not, why not? 

3. How does Jonah’s story serve as a representation of both Israel during his day and much of the Christian church in ours? 

4. Discuss the implication of the truth that you cannot love a God whom you cannot see if you do not love people whom you do see.  Why is that important to this story?

5. What is the purpose of the final parable in the book of Jonah?  What is God trying to do with it?  Does it work?

 

The first message in a two-week series on the book of Jonah called "God In Pursuit."

Discussion Questions:

1. According to Jonah 4:2, why does Jonah refuse to go to Nineveh?  How do you feel about that?  What should that teach us about God, ourselves, ministry, etc…” 

2. What do I mean when I say Jonah is a “running worshipper?”  Do you see any way in which you are a running worshipper? 

3. Discuss the sequence of events that lead to Jonah ending up in the sea.  How have you heard that preached/taught before?  How do you feel about my explanation of it?  

4. What is the purpose of the fish?  Who/what is Jonah being saved from and by whom? 

5. What is significant about Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2, specifically verses 8-9? 

6. I made a couple of parallels between the Jonah story and the life of Jesus in the gospels.  Discuss them.  How do the pictures contrast one another and what does that teach us about God and the Bible? 

 

The fourth and final message from the series on the book of Esther called "A Time Such As This."

Discussion Questions:

1. What is Xerxes’ response when Esther asks him to reverse Haman’s decree?  How did I suggest this relates to our current SIN reality?  What do think about that? 

2. How did I connect the fact that the Jews end up defeating their enemies to the Christian’s battle against SIN?  How did you feel about the connection?  Why do you think more Christians don’t live like they are “more than conquerors?”  

3. Discuss the side point I made about how we read the Bible.  Do Biblical details like Esther asking Xerxes for an additional day so the Jews in Susa can slaughter more of their enemies make you morally/ethically uncomfortable?  If so, how are you to read the Bible so that stories like this can teach, rebuke, correct, and train us in righteousness? 

4. What do I mean when I say the best defense is a good offense? 

5. Why do the Jews go from being a community of fasting to a community of feasting?  How does that relate to our Christian reality? 

6. In light of how Esther ends and we’re using it as an Advent series, what is significant about how Esther ends?

 

The third message in a four-week series called, "A Time Such As This" which is a study of the Old Testament book of Esther.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why was Esther a reluctant savior and how does that contrast with Jesus? 

2. What do you make of Mordecai’s comment, “if you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die?”  How does this contribute to the image that Esther was somewhat of a reluctant savior figure?  

3. Discuss the concept that calling, purpose, destiny is no less than always committing to do the good one has the opportunity to do even if it comes at great personal cost. 

4. Discuss the providential circumstances that lead to the banquet where Esther finally reveals Haman’s plot to the King.  What do you make of the purpose of this sequence? 

5. I suggested that salvation is primarily revelation and reversal.  Discuss those two elements and explain how they function in both the Esther narrative and the gospel about Jesus. 

6. If God were positioning you right now to do something to help another person are you more likely to think like Esther or like Jesus?  In other words, would you be looking for a way to accomplish the task without it having to cost you or would you commit yourself to it well knowing it would?

 

This is the second message in a four-week series called, "A Time Such As This" which is a study of the Old Testament book of Esther.

Discussion Questions:

1. Had you read the Esther story before this series?  If so, had you ever wondered why the conflict between Haman and Mordecai escalates so quickly?  If not, why not? 

2. What did you think about my historical analysis regarding the history between the Jews and the Amalekites as it relates to the conflict between Haman and Mordecai in the Esther story? 

3. Discuss how I took the conflict between Haman and Mordecai and the historic feud between the Jews and Amalekites and connected it to the reality of SIN.  What did you think about that? 

4. What is the implication of beginning with an image God informed by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and using that image to interpret the rest of the Bible?  How does/will it change the way you think about what the Bible is and how to read it? 

5. So what is the real enemy and how do you think the real savior, Jesus Christ, saves us from it?

 

This is the first sermon in a four-week series called, "A Time Such As This" which is a study of the Old Testament book of Esther.

Discussion Questions:

1. Why did I suggest God “seems” absent in times of darkness? 

2. How do you feel about God employing sinful human culture and even sinful human beings to advance his saving purposes? 

3. Why is Esther a morally ambiguous character?  How do you respond to that?  How do you think the book’s original audience would have responded? 

4. How is Esther a foreshadowing of Jesus?  What does that mean about the Bible and how any one part of it functions as useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness? 

 

*Some of the technical issues from the original file submitted on 11/16/14 have been resolved.

This is the eighth and final message in a series called "Transformation" which is a study of Paul's letter to the Romans.

Discussion Questions:

1. What do I mean when I say your image/picture of God is like the hard drive of your spiritual computer? 

2. Discuss the difference between the image of God as someone who is “for people” vs “against them unless.”  Really think about it for a minute, which have you been taught? 

3. What happens if we don’t first and foremost receive the good news about Jesus as good news about God? 

4. Discuss my interpretive diagram.  How does beginning with Jesus and working your way out change the way you approach the Bible, spiritual life, etc…? 

5. What did I suggest is the irony today regarding Paul’s warning in Romans 16:17-18?  What do you think about that? 

6. Why is this topic so important for the future mission of the church?