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Bible Discovery Series

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [33]

Date: March 20, 2005
Passage: Matthew 20:20-28
Message: The Pecking Order
Bible Discovery [33]

1. The ‘Pecking Order’ is a long established metaphor for working out our position and status in any group or community.
# Share experience of where you have seen this process happening.
# What subtle ways does the ‘Pecking Order’ affect the way we think and act about others. Give examples.
# Read Philippians 2:1-10 What does this tell us about Jesus attitude to all this?
# Read Matthew 20:20-24 How can the disciples after listening to Jesus for 3 years, still be so far from the heart of what he has been teaching them?

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [32]

Date: March 13, 2005
Passage: Malachi 1:1-10
Message: Bored With Grace
Theme Bible Discovery [32] – Majoring on Minors

Familiarity is both a friend and an enemy. We would not survive without things everyday that are familiar to us. We need familiarity to give a sense of security and belonging. Yet the old saying has truth that says “familiarity breads contempt”. We become accustomed to what we have and can very quickly lose the wonder of it all.
Share where this might have happened with you.

1. Read Malachi 1: 2, 6-7, 12 “When you are bored with grace you don’t necessarily become an unbeliever, you more likely become a cynic”. Discuss.

Study Questions: Bible Discovery [31]

Date: March 6, 2005
Passage: Zechariah 4:1-10
Message: The Weakness of Strength
Theme Bible Discovery [31] – Majoring on Minors

Share a time when you started something with great enthusiasm but somewhere along the way it all went wrong or didn’t get completed. What happened? Is there anything you would do differently if you had your time again?

1. Read Zechariah 4:4-8 The Jewish people had returned from captivity and started re-building the temple with great enthusiasm. Then it all stopped as they became preoccupied and distracted by many things. Now there was a “mountain” [v7] of obstacles to the job getting done. What are some of the major obstacles we face in serving God as we really want to?

Bible Discovery [30]

Date: February 20, 2005
Passage: Habakkuk 1:1-11, 3:16-19
Message: The Passive/Active God
Theme Bible Discovery [30] – Majoring on Minors

We all have questions.
One of the first things we learn to do when we can talk is ask questions.
Exercise: Have two people sit opposite each other and have a conversation. The only rule is that they are not allowed to ask each other ANY questions.
Discuss.

1. Read Habakkuk 1 Habakkuk is left wondering whether the cure is worse than the illness. He is left wondering whether it is better after all for God to remain passive than active. He is left wondering what are the theological implications of God using evil to discipline his people. Discuss how faith grapples with this.

Bible Discovery [29]

Date: February 13, 2005
Passage: Micah 6:1-8
Message: Great Expectations
Theme: Bible Discovery – Majoring on Minors

1. “Whether we mean to or not, we tend to create an “abridged” Bible of sorts, one that includes more passages from Matthew, Romans, Psalms and Proverbs, than from Ezekeiel, Zephaniah and Philemon!” Discuss

2. Share what you know from any of the ‘Minor rophets’

3. Review the historical setting of these prophecies. What was happening between the 800 BC and 400 BC.?

4. Read Micah 1:8-11. What does this passage tell us about Micah?

5. Read Micah 2:1-2. What does this passage tell us about other prophets around at the same time? What are the similarities to today? What sorts of things would some people rather us not preach today?

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [28]

Date: October 31, 2004
Passage: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Message: Testimonies from the Graveyard
Series: Bible Discovery 28

Ezekiel as a prophet often had to do difficult things. He had to preach what people didn’t want to hear. He had to lie on his side for 390 days to get a point across to the people.
What is one of the most difficult things you have had to do as a Christian?

1.Read v1-2 Ezekiel is set in the middle of the valley. It didn’t matter which way he looked; he saw the same thing. “Ezekiel needs a conviction of his own utter inability to change a thing before he can be an instrument of God’s redeeming grace.” Discuss

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [27]

Date: October 24, 2004
Passage: Jeremiah 29:4-14
Message: Living in the Real World
Series: Bible Discovery [27]

Share a time when you knew you were out of control or out of sorts or out of your comfort zone?
How did you cope with it?
Did, being a Christian, make a difference? Why / why not?

1. Read v4-6 - Jeremiah is writing to Jewish exiles who thought that their circumstances were just a temporary setback and in a short while things would get back to “normal’. In other words they were just waiting for God to take control and return things back to the way they “should “be.

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [26]

Date: October 17, 2004
Passage: Isaiah 55:1-13
Message: An Invitation Too Good To Refuse
Series: Bible Discovery [26]

1. “Isaiah lived at the crossroads of the most turbulent and tragic time of Israel’s history. He saw his nation compromise their faith and put their confidence in political alliances and military might rather than in God.”

If you had the opportunity to speak as a prophet in Australia, what sorts of things would you address?

2. We are constantly being invited to buy something, do something, go somewhere, experience something.

What is so different about what God offers us in v1-2?

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [25]

Date: October 3, 2004
Passage: Ecclesiastes 7:8-18
Message: How Then Shall We Survive (2)
Series: Bible Discovery [25]

The sign on the office wall read –
57 Laws of Success
# 1 Deliver the goods
# 2 The other 56 don’t matter.
There are some things that just have to come first in life.
What are some of the things in the Christian life that are fundamental to all other things?

Solomon gives us three more survival tips.
1. Patience is better than pride v8-9
* “Timing is everything” Discuss
* What is the correlation between patience and pride?
* “Patience is the art of living in someone else’s time zone” Discuss

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [24]

Date: September 26, 2004
Passage: Ecclesiastes 7:1-6
Message: How Then Shall We Survive
Series: Bible Discovery [24]

Life is more about survival than we think. Life has many moments that can have a major influence on what happens to us. We need to learn how to survive in a world that is threatening to consume our faith.

1. We all like to think we can ‘come to the rescue’ in a time of need. Share a time when you were able to help in one of life’s worst case scenarios.

2. Solomon gives 3 Survival Truths

(a) Character is better than charisma v1
Describe character
Discuss the importance of a good name.

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [23]

Date: September 19, 2004
Passage: Ecclesiastes 1:1-18
Message: How Then Shall We Understand
Series: Bible Discovery [22]

“Trivial” is a description that will vary upon one’s perception. What one will call trivial, another will call important. If we were honest with ourselves we are often more obsessed with trivia than reality. We often give ourselves more time pondering over life’s trivial questions than asking the essential ones.
Why am I here?
Where do I find meaning in life?

1. Talk about what you regard as trivial in the light of our world.

2. Share anything you know or remember from the book of Ecclesiastes.

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [22]

Date: August 122, 2004
Passage: Proverbs 1:1-7
Message: How Then Shall We Live
Series: Bible Discovery [22

Life is often reduced to proverbial statements or slogans. Advertising these days always has one line that tries to capture the heart of what the product is all about. Think of a few.

1. Share something you know or remember from the Book of Proverbs.

2. The Book of Proverbs is not a collection of hard and fast promises but an observation of the way life is, in general, with God. Discuss in the light of Proverbs 22:6

3. Wisdom is spelled DISCIPLINE – Read v2-3, 7 Paul talks about training for the race

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [21]

Date: August 122, 2004
Passage: Psalm 42
Message: How Then Shall We Worship
Series: Bible Discovery [21]

The Psalms are a reflection of the ancient worship of the people of God. You will find every human emotion in these books. You cannot read them without seeing your self in here.
They will challenge you, comfort you, bewilder you and inspire you.

1. What is the first thought that comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘worship’? Why did you think that? Does it reflect the true nature of worship?

2. Read Psalm 42. Clearly the writer was grieving the fact that he could not meet for corporate worship in the temple.

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [20]

Date: August 15, 2004
Passage: Job 28:12-28
Message: How Then Shall We Suffer
Series: Bible Discovery [20]

One of hardest things to take in life is when things don’t make sense. We understand toothache because the dentist tells us we have an abscess. But what we find difficult is when we work hard and fail, when we take care and suffer, when we love and still lose, when we do right and it all goes wrong, when the good guys lose and the bad guys win!

1. Share a time when you struggled with the unfairness, injustice, or what seemed like, the sheer stupidity of something.

2. Christians want to handle suffering in a way that glorifies God. What does that really mean? What do we do with our anger, our fears and our sense of God’s abandonment?

Study Questions - Bible Discovery [19]

Date: July 25, 2004
Passage: Esther
Message: Rebuilding Community
Series: Bible Discovery [19]

We were born for community. Despite the fact that sin has left us with some serious personal and relational flaws, we still have this insatiable desire to be connected. We have a deep longing to belong, to be recognised, to love and be loved.

1. Discuss what kind of community we live in here in Australia. How has community changed in the last 25 years? What has contributed to that?

2. Read Esther 4:15-16 What stands out to you in these verses? What difference did it make to Esther to have ‘all the Jews who were in Susa’ fasting for her?