Group Guide

March 19th, 2023

This Week's City 7:

4. Can a person be good enough to go to heaven? No. Because Jesus rose from the dead proving He is God, I believe a person is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
(John 1:12, 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 4:1-25, 5:1-2, 6-11, 6:23, 10:1-4, 10:9; Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 2:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Titus 3:4-7)

Ice-Breaker:

What is your least favorite part of kids' sports?

Discussion Questions:

Have someone read Luke 16:16-18 aloud.

Once again, Jesus is finding himself at odds with the pharisees. After his teaching on being a good steward of what God gives us and challenging us to live for eternal things, the pharisees scoff at him. So he lays a little more truth on them. One question Brandon asked us on Sunday was, "Is the Bible true?" He gave some statistics based on eight basic Old Testament prophesies Jesus fulfilled. The odds that one man could fulfill all eight are one in 10 quadrillion. How many did Jesus ACTUALLY fulfill? Over 350! There are over 2,500 prophesies in the entirety of scripture, 2,000 of which have been fulfilled without error. What are the odds of this? One in 10 to the 2,000 power. Thats a 1 with 2,000 0's after it. God's Word is accurate and should be our standard of truth. Have you heard these stats before? What does it do to your overall confidence in God's Word? What does it do for your faith?
Another question posed on Sunday was, "Where do you get your truth?" Where do you look to construct the guardrails of your life? Do you look to scripture? Sermons? Podcasts? Your own feelings or desires? Culture? Whatever feels good? Brandon talked about the movement within the Church to use scripture to justify things like homosexuality and gender fluidity. Just like the pharisees had done with divorce, it seems to be easy for some to take a scripture or two out of context and misuse it to fit their own evil desires. What we are missing is a proper understanding of God's Word. For the Jesus follower, scripture should inform where we stand on every single issue, value, position or conviction in life. Can you say that this is true in YOUR life? Where has the pull of culture started to dilute the truth?
The first challenge from Sunday was to seek the truth. Whatever the question is, the Bible should be where we go to find the answer. We must ask ourselves, "What does the Bible say? What do the verses actually mean?" We need to not only READ scripture, but STUDY it. Brandon shared Skip Heitzig's 5 rules of scripture study. Every scripture must be interpreted according to the original context and purpose, according to the original meanings of the words in the sentence, according to the grammar of the sentence, in light of the historical background, customs and culture, and in light of similar verses elsewhere in scripture. There are many commentaries online that can further help you accomplish these things. Have you ever studied scripture in this way? Do your scripture study habits need a kick in the pants?
After we seek the truth, we must hold to the truth. We can't be swayed by culture or by our friends and family. There will always be a pull in our culture to drift away from biblical truth. If we aren't intentional, it will erode our foundation of truth and we'll be tempted to try to make scripture fit with whatever we want rather than the other way around. No matter the lifestyles or choices of people in our lives, we must hold to the truth. But following Jesus' example, we must be a people of grace and truth, seeking to always speak the truth in love. Are there some relationships in your life where this is a difficult balance? How can you show someone love (that's living in sin) while still holding to biblical truth and principles? On the flip side, how can throwing truth grenades (truth without grace) damage the Faith and your testimony?
What are one or two things you feel like God is speaking to you through the study of these verses? What changes need to be made?

Prayer Topics:

That you would build your life on the truth of God's Word.
That you would let scripture inform every opinion you have.
That you would develp a hunger for more knowledge of the Bible.

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