Waterville Community Church Podcast

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? 

 

This is the seventh sermon in an eight-week series called "Transformation" which is a study of Paul's letter to the Romans.

Discussion Questions:

1. What did I suggest Paul means when he distinguishes between “strong” and “weak” believers?  What do you think of my explanation?  Have you ever thought of faith “strength” in this way?  Does it challenge the way we often think of “strength” when it comes to faith? 

2. Discuss the experience of condemnation and condescension in the church.  How have you been a victim or perpetrator of either? 

3. How does the fact that Jesus “died and rose again…to be Lord of both the living and the dead” impact what Paul is trying to teach the Roman Christians? 

4. What does it mean to “live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall?”  Have you been guilty of this? 

5. What does it mean for the Christian community to “live in complete harmony with each other…together with one voice giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?” 

 

This is the sixth message in an eight-week series called "Transformation" which is a study of Paul's letter to the Romans.

Discussion Questions:

1. What transition is Paul marking with the words “And so…?” 

2. What does it mean to offer your lives to God as “living sacrifices?” 

3. What does it look like to be “transformed by the renewing of your minds?” 

4. What “pattern of this world” is Paul guarding against when he tells the Romans to “measure themselves according to the faith they’ve received?” 

5. In what way is “pretending to love” a “pattern of this world” and how do we as Christians not conform to it? 

6. Discuss the relationship between “rights” as commonly or even constitutionally understood and the command to “do right.” 

7. Why is it so important (and unique) that Christian love is a command and not a preference?

This is the fifth message in an eight-week series called "Transformation" which is a study of Paul's letter to the Romans.

Discussion Questions:

1. What did I suggest it means to be “chosen” as God’s “adopted children?”  How do you feel about that? 

2. What does it mean to think of God as a “subject of wrath” vs a “subject of mercy?”  What does it look like to live as an “object of wrath” vs an “object of mercy?” 

3. What is the principle of election and how should it influence how you read and interpret Romans 9:21-23? 

4. What does it mean for the “way of faith” to be about belief and confession, specifically belief that God raises the dead and confession that Jesus is Lord? 

5. What is a Biblical “remnant” and how do members of that group function in God’s saving plan?

 

This is the fourth message in an eight-week series called "Transformation" which is a study of Paul's letter to the Romans.

Click here to view the table graphic that was referenced in the message.

Discussion Questions:

1. Discuss the question posed in Romans 3:31.  What must a person who believes being made right with God is primarily a legal transaction conclude about the nature and purpose of the law?  

2. I suggested that a person who tries to hold together that God both condemns sinners and saves sinners will either not be interested in obeying Jesus or will not be able to because that “gospel” creates a pathological need for sin.  What did you think about that argument?  Have you seen this operative in your life? 

3. What does Paul mean when he says, “only when we have faith do we fulfill the law?” 

4. What is the difference between we have peace with God and God has peace with us?  Which one have you primarily associated with the gospel? 

5. What did I suggest it means to “die to sin?”  How do you feel about that? 

6. What did I suggest it means to be “raised to new life?”  How do you feel about that?

 

This is the third message in an eight-week series called "Transformation" which is a study of Paul's letter to the Romans.

Discussion Questions:

1. The “big idea” from this message is that the church’s confusion with Paul, confusion regarding salvation, and the reason we can produce converts but struggle to produce disciples is because our gospel has retained both the perspective that God condemns sinners and that he saves sinners.  How do you feel about that theory? 

2. Talk through the table I used in my sermon and discuss the differences between the two perspectives. [click here to view the table]

3. If God does not condemn sinners but saves them what is the primary problem and how does God address it? 

4. What kind of God does Paul believe Jesus reveals?  How did you respond to my explanation of the nature of “penalty” and what “sacrifice” is all about? 

5. Do you find my explanation hard to understand or hard to receive?  Why? 

6. What do we learn from the Abraham case study in Romans 4?  Was that helpful for you?  Are you still struggling with something?  What is it and why? 

 

The second message in an eight-week series called "Transformation" which is a study of Paul's letter to the Romans.

Discussion Questions:

1. How do you feel about my suggestion that Romans 1:18-32 represents the thought of a Judaizing Christian in Rome?  Why? 

2. Does this person’s thought sound anything like something you’ve thought about another person or group of people? 

3. What did I suggest Paul is setting up by sharing this perspective? 

4. What did I suggest is the primary difference between a Judaizer’s view of God’s judgment and Paul’s view of God’s judgment? 

5. What does it mean that God will judge all people’s secret lives “through Christ Jesus?” 

6. According to Paul, what does it mean to be a “true Jew” and how does that argument fit well with his perspective on the purpose of God’s judgment?  

 

This is the first message in an eight-week series called "Transformation" which is a study of Paul's letter to the Romans.

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you think is significant about the fact that the news Paul has been commissioned to share is 1) good and 2) God’s? 

2. What is significant about the fact that this news has been “promised?”  How does it influence the way you think about what God is doing in the world and in history? 

3. What is the difference between good news about something and good news to someone and how does it relate to this good news being “about his Son?”  

4. Why does Paul feel a sense of obligation to tell this good news specifically to Gentiles? 

5. What does it means “to be made right in God’s sight” and why is it so significant, as far as Gentiles would be concerned, that it is “accomplished from start to finish by faith?” 

6. What did I suggest is this good news Paul is talking about?  What do you think?