Discussion Questions from January 9th, 2011 Sermon

The second sermon of the year for WBC was part 2 of "Staying Saved in 2011" from Luke 21:5-38. You can watch or listen to the message here.

So far, I have talked through six actions followers of Jesus can (must!) take in order to be ready for the Second Coming of Christ and to endure to the end.

They are:

1. Replace temporal affections with eternal perspectives (vs. 5-6).
2. Aggressively and intentionally grow in your knowledge of and affections for Christ Jesus (vs.

7-8).
3. Assume that the world will continue in chaos and go from bad to worse (vs. 9-11).
4. Make a habit of intentionally putting yourself in a position where you are desperate for God

to bail you out (vs. 12-18).
5. Guard yourself from loving God-ordained institutions more than God Himself (vs. 16-24).
6. Evaluate where your ultimate hope lies and deliberately change course toward confident

hope in final redemption (vs. 25-33).

My plan is to offer you two more from the text this Sunday morning (God willing!).

Here are some discussion questions based on this Sunday's message:

1. Why did God arrange it to be very difficult for Christians here on earth the closer it gets to Jesus' return? In other words, if God is sovereign over all things, why not make it easier on earth for His children?

2. What did Bro. Matt mean by running the risk of loving God-ordained institutions more than God Himself?

3. How might someone be guitly (practically speaking) of loving God-ordained institutions more than loving God?

4. Bro. Matt suggested that everyone evaluate their hearts to see where his/her ultimate hope lies. Have you done that?

[Suggestion: Ask yourself questions such as, "Why do I go to work?" Or "Why do I come home from the office?" Or, "Why do I get up when I get up in the morning?" Or, "Why do I go to church?" Keep tracing down the answers until you get to the bottom of your heart.

An Example:

Why do I go to work? To make money.

Why do I want to make money? To pay the bills.

What kind of bills to have to pay for? Car. House. Boat. Kids. Clothes. Food. Insurance. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Why do I want these things?

Could God have me at my job for another purpose?

And so on and so on....

*The purpose is to ask yourself very personal and pointed questions to get at the floor of your heart and your motives and intentions and purposes for why you do what you do.

5. If your ultimate hope is not in Jesus, what is likely to happen to you when the world begins to come to an end?

6. What's going on in your heart if your ultimate hope and expectation in life is to see and know and obey and follow Jesus?