Religious Lies: Q & A

1. What are ways in our lives that we are hindering ourselves from truly experiencing the Gospel?  Are there areas of your life where your attitude/actions/words are hindering others from knowing who Jesus is?

2.  When you understand what the unforgivable sin is, how does that change your urgency about the Gospel?  What are the next steps you need to take THIS WEEK with people you know that haven't heard or responded to the Gospel message?

3.  How do you pray?  Are there certain things you always include?  How did you learn?  How has your prayer life grown?  And how has prayer helped your relationship with God become more personal?

4.  What are the buckets of your life that you can daily fill to deepen your faith?  What are the small mustard seeds that you can focus on?  How can showing simple faith everyday help your faith deepen over time?

5.  Close it out by reflecting back over the last 10 months of Mark.  What were the high points for your group?  What series did you like the best and get the most out of?  What was the biggest takeaway from the book study?

Religious Lies: Tradition vs. God's word

Things to remember

-Pray for Cuba Team

-Praise God His provision in providing a location for our new campus


Mark 7:1-23

In verse 1 we see that the Pharisees are so busy trying to judge Jesus and His disciples that they neglect the assessment of their own hearts. Have you ever fallen into this religious pattern of judging other people's hearts and behavior instead of dealing with your own issues? Is doing this wrong and unproductive? If so, why are we so drawn to doing it?

In verses 6-9 Jesus reveals that the Pharisees traditions weren't based on God's word. They were based on the preferences of the people who were in power and they elevated those preferences to the same level of importance as God's word. Does this still happen in the Church? What are some examples?

Verses 10-13 provide an example of how the Pharisees had elevated their tradition and preference above God's word. Perhaps you and I haven't done this in as formal a fashion as the Pharisees, but in complete honesty, would you have to admit that you have elevated your tradition (preferred way of doing things) above God's law? Why is doing this wrong?

The Pharisees idea of being clean and undefiled before God revolved around external cleanliness and behavior. Jesus challenges that idea in verses 15-23. How do these verses relate to the Gospel?

The wrap up:

(Head) We all have traditions that we elevate above God's commands.

(Heart) What are those traditions for us personally?

(Hands) Actively and prayerfully repent of these traditions and submit instead to God's word.

Religious Lies: Functional Saviors

Announcements!:
-Family meeting after 9:30 and 11:00 am services. BIG Announcement!

-Pray for Cuba team as they serve this week (Jessica Wilson, Andrew Shumate, Steven Wright, Emily Deer, Paul and MacKenzie Davidson)

-Live Q & A session July 28th. Email your questions about any of the content from the book of Mark to info@discoverrevo.com

Mark 12:13-17

1.  We have 2 kinds of saviors: functional and non-functional. (A non-functional savior is one we profess verbally or subscribe to in principle but does not affect or govern our lives practically. A functional savior is someone or something to which we look for security and hope practically, in real time situations). All Christians would admit that Jesus is their savior, but unfortunately he often serves in a non-functional role.  What are the functional saviors that we pursue daily?  (family, money, career, government)

2.  Caesar's purpose was to advance his kingdom, make his name known, and create followers of him that would be loyal.  One of the greatest ways that these leaders would accomplish that is through the concept of money: paying taxes, printing their image in every place that they could.  What is the correlation between this idea and what Jesus calls his followers to do? (tithe, evangelism, being image bearers of Jesus)

3.  Why do we say that giving tithes and offering each week has really nothing to do with money? (Giving is not about the money, but about WHO it is going to.  It's about selling out to the belief system that changed your life.  Your money shows whose authority you are under.  If you spend it all on you, you are acknowledging that you are the boss, the only one that matters, the sustainer, the provider.  Giving first to God acknowledges that you are under His authority, that you are trusting Him to provide, that His kingdom and agenda is most important, that He is the one that sustains and blesses. Those attitudes create followers of Jesus, and that's REVO's goal: to create followers of Jesus.  We want something for you, not from you.)

4.  A great summary statement is Matthew 6:33.  What does is mean to "seek first the kingdom of God"?  How can you do that on a daily, practical level?

-What did this text teach you about God?

-What did this text teach you about yourself?

-What do you plan to do about it?

Religious Lies: Give Me A Sign

Mark 8:11-21

1.  Why didn't Jesus give them a sign?  It would have been an easy fix, right?  It would have shut them up and finally helped them to be authentic followers, right?  What's wrong with asking for a sign?

2.  Jesus compares the traditionalism, doubt, and skepticism of the religious people to yeast in dough.  How do those things work in our lives?  What are the results?

3.  Here are the 5 questions that Jesus asked.  Let's put them in our context and answer them.

a. Why are you talking about having no bread?  (Why do we always sweat the small stuff?  Why do the unimportant things always worry us and consume us?  How can we stop doing that and focus on what matters?)

b.  Do you still not see or understand? (How many times have we heard a sermon on love, forgiveness, evangelism, discipleship, faith, etc, and it seems to never stick?  What causes that?  Why are so quick to forget the basics, which in turn causes our lives to seem like chaos sometimes?)

c. Are your hearts hardened? (Do you ever read the Bible or hear and sermon and automatically think of 5 different people that need to hear it?  How can you create a habit in your life of wrestling with texts/sermons/Bible reading?  Maybe you can take notes during the message and then revisit them during the week.  Maybe you can focus on ways that this text applies to your life/situation/job/relationships right now.)

d. Do you have eye but fail to see and ears but fail to hear? (Are you so desperate for the big things that you miss the little ways that God is daily moving in your life and around you?  Do you have a plan for your life/prayers that you want God to follow?  If he answered those prayers in some other way, would you even notice?)

e. Don't you remember? (Do you ever take time to think about what God has done for you in the past?  How he has provided, sustained, spoken to you, helped you?

4.  How do you identify the ways that God is moving in your life every day?  How can you move from "wanting more signs" to "acknowledging what God has done and worshipping Him for those?"

You Gotta Have Faith: Blind Faith

Mark 10:46-52

1.  Close your eyes.  Imagine what it would be like to be blind.  Imagine not being able to see color.  To know what the beach looks like, or the sunset.  The phrase that I think comes to mind most when I think about blindness is this: "you're missing out on so much.  So many of the joys in life, so many beautiful things, so many indescribable moments of life."  Now, how does that relate to spiritual blindness?  How would you describe what spiritually blind people are missing?

2.  What is your role as a person that can now see?  Do you feel any obligation to help anyone else?  Do you desire for others to see?  What does it mean for Jesus to look at us and say, "Call him to me."

3.  Why does Jesus set it up so that the Savior comes before the sight?  Why wouldn't Jesus just give everyone their physical sight first?  (People will then put their faith in their prayers and ability to ask, the signs of Jesus instead of the person).  What is Jesus after, clarity or intimacy?  What does those things produce?

4.  Share time!  Look at Luke 18:43.  If you have faith in Jesus, share how these things are true in your life.  Faith is an internal conviction that leads to external action.  What has your faith produced in your life?  Can you identify these things?

a. Worship

b. Witness

c. Follow

They're Back:

-What did this text teach you about God?

-What did this text teach you about yourself?

-What are you going to do about it?