Group Guide

February 8th, 2026

This Week's City 7:

6. Is the Bible God’s Word? Jesus proved He is God by rising from the dead and said the Old Testament was God’s Word and gave authority to the Apostles to write the words of the New Testament, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so that all the words of the Bible are God’s Word.
(Matthew 5:18; Luke 24:27, 44; John 14:25-26, 15:27, 16:12-13, 17:20; Acts 2:42; Ephesians 3:5; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:16-21)

Ice-Breaker:

Do you have any recurring dreams/nightmares?

Scripture

Jude 1
8 In the same way, these people—who claim authority from their dreams—live immoral lives, defy authority, and scoff at supernatural beings.

Discussion Questions:

This week, Jude talks about dreams. Specifically, he is warning the church about dreams from false teachers that might lead people astray. As we've discussed in previous messages, God speaks in a variety of ways. One of those ways is through dreams. However, when God speaks through a dream, He will never contradict something He's said in His Word. God wasn't wrong the first time. So, Jude would say that we need to reject new dreams that belittle old REVELATIONS. "If it's NEW it's not TRUE!" Two extreme examples of this kind of rogue vision that contradicts truth are Mohammed and Joseph Smith. But many preachers, teachers and authors today also claim new revelation from the Holy Spirit that is contrary to Scripture, which ends up leading thousands, even millions of people astray. How careful are you to test everything you hear or read against God's Word? What are the dangers if we just believe everything we hear?
These false teachers based their immoral behavior on visions that they claimed gave them license to redefine sexuality, marriage and love. Again, the exact same thing is happening today. Those in our culture, even in churches, that affirm homosexuality seek to redefine what the Bible says about homosexuality. We should reject new dreams that belittle old DEFINITIONS. They will try to say that the Bible is only condemning harmful or abusive homosexual relationships, not loving, consensual ones. They say that since we don't obey other Old Testament commands, like dietary restrictions, we are being inconsistent. Clayton laid out a clear case against these arguments on Sunday. How well can you defend the biblical case against homosexuality? How do you go about standing in this truth, without compromise, while still loving people who disagree in the process?
The bottom line is, when it comes to these kinds of disagreements between biblical truth and culture, God's truth wins. HE has ultimate authority... not you, not culture, not what's popular, not some supposed Christian that sells a lot of books or gets a lot of clicks. Jesus said that if we loved Him, we would obey Him. He said that if we put His word into practice we would be building our house on solid rock. He said that in order to follow Him we must DENY ourselves and take up our cross. Is God's Word the authority of your life? Do you truly submit to Him in every way? Or are there areas where you like to take back the reigns?
New dreams are useful when submitted to JESUS, His WORDS and His PEOPLE. Otherwise, that dream is a demonic counterfeit! You had a dream? Cool! I have a Bible! Let's see if the dream is in line with Scripture. Let's see if it's in line with other faithful Christians and what they believe to be true. In Acts 15, we see that the apostles and elders in the early church made decisions that "seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us." Is this how you make decisions in your life, big and small? Are you submitting them to God in prayer and to godly people in your life?
If we are going to be faithful Christians in today's world, we must hold to ORTHODOXY, where truth is EXTERNAL and RECEIVED. The opposite path would be UN-orthodoxy, where supposed "truth" is INTERNAL and CONCEIVED by your own sinful mind and desires. This is a dangerous road to go down, where we allow ourselves to do sinful things just because we prayed and felt like we heard from God. It can look like this: "I prayed about it and I'm good with my girlfriend and I living together." "I'm not happy in my marriage and prayed about it and so I'm going to get a divorce." "I prayed about dating this unbeliever and so I'm going for it." "I have same-sex attraction, and I prayed about it and I feel like God is ok with it." But you don't have to pray about these decisions, because God has already spoken. Is there anything in you that is going with how you think or feel instead of falling in line with what has already been spoken? Is there any area of your life where you lack obedience? Are you tolerating what Scripture calls sin?

Prayer Topics:

That God would help us hold to what is written.
That we would give God full authority in our lives.
We would have the courage to stand on truth without waivering.

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