Session 5: Part 3 Why Study the Bible

Session 5: Part 3(pgs 91-108)

Challenge Review/Ice Breaker:

Share with your group about the group of people you've adopted and committed to praying for.  If you haven't found a group ask your group to help you become more aware of people groups in your immediate influence that you can pray for.  

Video

Why Study the Bible

Discussion/ Prayer:

1.  Why is it important for a Christian to read the Bible?  Why do you read/study the bible?  

Read Matt 28:18-20

2.  How do the last words of Jesus in Matthew impact the way you view the teachings and words of Jesus found in scripture?

A.  How does treating the bible as the words and commandments of Jesus change the way you read the Bible?  

B.   What characterizes your attitude when you read the Bible?  What are your motivations for reading the bible?

C.  What would keep you from reading the bible?  

"Very often this guilt is connected with legalism.   We create our own standard and then hold ourselves to it,  never stopping to consider that God has not placed this standard on us,  but we have placed it on ourselves... A culture of guilt is formed,  a culture where 'good Christians'  read their bibles because they're afraid not to,  and 'bad Christians'  feel guilty about not meeting their Bible reading quota. "(94)

3. What role has guilt played in influencing why you read the Bible?  

A.  How have you used/do you use guilt to motivate people to read the Bible?  Why is this ineffective?  

B.  What are the seeds of motivation that create commitment?  How does this influence the way you approach discipleship and help people have a desire to read scripture?

4. How does the desire to be thought of as spiritual by reading or knowing scripture, negatively impact his/her relationship with God?

Read Matthew 23:1-33

A.  How does Matthew 23 remind you of what you need to guard yourself against as a person of influence?  

B.  What does this passage prepare you to do in discipleship relationships?

C.  What does this passage tell you about what God is ultimately concerned about when you read the Bible?  

5. What purpose did God have in giving us the bible?  

Read Jeremiah 33:3, 1 John 5:13, John 20:31, 14:21

A.  What does the bible tell us about God?  

B.  What does the bible tell us about ourselves?

C.   What does the bible tell us about how to interact with God?  

"Evangelism is leaving someone with a better understanding of God than if he/she hadn't met me. "(Dennis Pethers)

6. How do the questions we've discussed provide you with opportunities to evangelize?

" Ultimately when we read the Bible,  we are  approaching the mind of God.   Every time you open the Bible,  you ought to prepare yourself for an encounter with the Creator of the Universe... We ought to approach God with humility... We don't usually think of being humble with the Bible.   We make this mistake because we don't think about what it is that we're doing when we read our bibles.  Reading your bible with humility means that you're assuming the role of a student.   Too often we search the bible to find agreement with the views we already hold.   This is backward.   Instead,  we need to recognize that we know nothing... Approaching the Bible with humility means that we're laying aside our agendas and looking for what God will teach us.   Every time you find yourself struggling to accept something the Bible says.,  you've found an area of your life that needs to be brought into submission to Christ.  Unfortunately we often waste these opportunities by finding ways to explain away what the Bible is saying to us. " (102-103)

7. How has reading God's Word changed you? How has God's Word caused you to live differently?  

8.  What keeps you from being impacted by God's Word?  What keeps you from hearing/obeying God's Word?  

9.  What characterizes a p;Epson that is not humble before the Lord and His Word?  

"before you develop skills in studying the Bible,  it's absolutely essential that you work through your motivations for studying in the first place.   Unless your heart is right,  you will misuse the bible,  no matter how skilled you are at studying it carefully. "

10.  How have you misused the bible because of poor motivations?

A.  What will humility before God's Word look like in your life?  How will humbling yourself impact your bible reading this week?

Individual Challenge:

Confess your tendencies towards poor motivations for reading scripture to your intentional discipleship group.   Ask them to pray for you and help keep you accountable in your relationship with God as you read scripture this week.