Group Guide

October 8th, 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:

Coke, DP or other?

Discussion Questions:

Have someone read John 8:1-11 aloud.

Clayton began on Sunday by talking about "choice architecture." This is a false dichotomy, a logical fallacy, in which you are manipulated into thinking there are only two options to choose from which ultimately leads you to THEIR desired choice. For example, culture will tell you that you either have to be pro-choice or else you oppose women's rights. Or in the case of sexuality and gender, you have to be affirming of someone's choice or else you are a hateful bigot. In what other areas do you notice this happening in our culture today? Have you fallen victim to thinking you have to fit in one of two extremes?
The Bible teaches us how to think about sexuality, BUT the world/culture often shapes our desires and feelings in ways that we don’t perceive. The stories celebrated within our culture contain an alternate vision of truth, goodness, and beauty, and we can’t help but be deeply affected by those things. This is the power of story. Stories can make us feel good about bad things and feel bad about good things. Because we have been so thoroughly shaped by the subversive messaging of culture, you might agree with your mind that it is good but resist it in your heart because it may not feel good. This is because of how compelling stories are, especially of those people we know and love. What stories have shaped your ideology? Whose stories tug at your heart strings and make the truth more cloudy?
People that are affirming in our culture today will sometimes talk about "their Jesus" and how He is loving and accepting and would NEVER judge anyone for their sexuality. He loved people and didn't condemn anyone. They must get this idea from Scripture, right? On the contrary! Yes, Jesus was loving, and He spent time with people that were the most sinful, but the gospels are FULL of examples of Jesus calling people out for their sin and calling them into a different kind of life living for a different kind of Kingdom. A great example is John 8 when Jesus defended the sinful woman but still told her to "go and sin no more." This happens over and over again, Jesus telling people to leave their sin, repent and turn to God. In fact, He tells us HOW to judge those within thee church in Matthew 7, and in Matthew 25 He tells us that He is going to return one day to do just that... to sit on a throne and judge us all. Have you been guilty of adopting culture's soft, affirming view of Jesus? What are the dangers of this?
When it comes to our approach to dealing with our culture, friends and family that reject God's great design, Jesus is our perfect example. He was all grace and all truth. He wasn't either/or, he was both/and. And though we can't do it perfectly, we should strive to be the same. He lived in the perfect balance of that tension. He hung out with people that were very sinful, yet He called them to repent. He took SINNERS to DINNER, but He also wasn't afraid to call a SINNER a SINNER. As Christians, we can fall too far one way or the other. A religious spirit will distance themselves from people that are far from God, while a more casual Christian might affirm sinful behavior in the name of trying to be loving. To which side do you tend to lean? Do you need to be more gracious and loving towards people that aren't like you? Or do you need to take a harder stand for truth with your friends and family?
Grace AND truth! This principle should shape our lives and relationships. Truth without grace is just mean. Grace without truth is meaningless. But grace WITH truth is medicine. We're all sick with sin and wrong thinking. We need the medicine of grace and truth. We need to be a people of compassion and conviction. Countercultural truth #3 was that Christians extend COMPASSION anchored to CONVICTION and share CONVICTION clothed in COMPASSION. Who in your life needs more grace and compassion from you? Who needs more truth from you? Spend some time praying for these specific situations.

Prayer Topics:

That we would reject culture's choice architecture.
That we would stand on God's Truth, not people's stories.
That we would be a people of grace and truth.

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