UnChristian: Hypocritical
Matthew 23 and Selected Scriptures
Connect:
Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.
Discuss how resolutions made last week in “growing more like Jesus” worked themselves out – what God did in and through you (Phil. 2:13) Celebrate and thank God for those together and pray with those who experienced some “Lows” this week, for God’s encouragement for them.
Prayer:
Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.
Review:
We are launching into a new series looking at ways that Christian engagement in politics is perceived by those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Each week we are taking a key aspect of reputation, grounded on research of the Barna group, and looking at this while avoiding defensiveness, seeking to understand, and engaging authentically in the conversation. This week, we are looking at the perspective, “Christians are HYPOCRITICAL”
The Grand Tour of the message: Thinking back on what you heard this Sunday…
o What did you learn about God?
o What did you learn about people?
o What did you learn about yourself?
o What do you want to commit to putting into practice?
Reflect:
Tell a story about the way someone else’s hypocrisy affected a critical choice you had to make— business life, family life, values choices, etc. What happened and how did their hypocrisy cause ripples into your life?
Discuss the following Scriptures and read the verses in context:
Let’s be clear on what we’re talking about here— come up with a one sentence definition of the word, “Hypocrisy”.
How do I know if I am being hypocritical? ( Matthew 6:1-4 and 16-18, Matthew 23:1-3 and 5-7,)
What helps us to maintain a sober view of our own spirituality? ( 1 Samuel 16:7, Philippians 2:3-4, 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 and v13,)
How does hypocrisy render us useless to help others? ( Matthew 7:1-5, Luke 6:39-42, John 12: 42-43 )
What does Biblical authenticity look like? ( Acts 3:1-12 and v16, Acts 14:8-15, Proverbs 27:21, Ephesians 1:3-7 and 11-12 )
How can we guard our lives against hypocrisy? ( Proverbs 4:23 and 21:2, Isaiah 66:2, John 15:4-5, )
Respond:
Pastor Scott ended the message this week with an exhortation to “take off the mask” (the image of getting things right that we project to others). Instead, we can be transparent about the fact that we don’t always get it right, and sometimes we are dead wrong. Let’s spend some time praying today that God will give us the wisdom to “live out the truth while speaking truth” in a spirit of grace, humility, respect and faithfulness.
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