back to indexBerean Community Church 8/28/24 Bible Study Introduction
00:10:51.760 |
we're gonna get started in just about 30 seconds. 00:12:05.760 |
To see everybody come together, this is exciting. 00:12:13.760 |
We are excited for this particular Bible study. 00:12:16.760 |
Pastor Peter's gonna explain the topic, the theme, 00:12:20.760 |
and how we're gonna really join our minds and our hearts 00:12:35.760 |
We have discussion, teaching, and more discussion 00:12:40.760 |
so please know coming in, we'll always begin with worship, 00:12:43.760 |
and we want you guys just to come in with worshipful hearts, 00:12:47.760 |
and then we'll begin with the fruit of our labor 00:12:49.760 |
during the week when we study passages and read the book, 00:12:52.760 |
where we can begin with the discussions, okay? 00:12:54.760 |
Let's take a moment now to join our hearts in prayer. 00:13:00.760 |
We're grateful because we know it's a huge privilege 00:13:08.760 |
privileged Father God to be able to be fed upon your teaching, 00:13:13.760 |
and so with grateful hearts, Lord, we want to lift you up. 00:13:21.760 |
we pray, Lord, that it will be spirit-filled, 00:13:23.760 |
we would fellowship, Lord, in the spirit and truth. 00:13:26.760 |
We want to take time now to sing to you, God, 00:13:29.760 |
to join our voices for you, Lord, and to lift you up. 00:22:00.760 |
We pray, Lord, as we come before you as a body, 00:22:09.760 |
remember Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross, 00:22:15.760 |
We pray as we go into a time of a new Bible study session, 00:22:23.760 |
of what it looks like to be part of your church, 00:22:32.760 |
that we would serve you with all of our hearts, Lord. 00:22:36.760 |
So we thank you, we love you, pray all this in your name. 00:23:06.760 |
I wanna cover a couple really important announcements. 00:23:09.760 |
So we're just super thankful for an active body, 00:23:12.760 |
and as you know, for us, we just carry the burden 00:23:17.760 |
Your small group is going to be assigned a specific month, 00:23:41.760 |
for the month of September, Daniel Eo, Alexi, Melissa, 00:23:49.760 |
these are the groups that's going to be assigned 00:23:57.760 |
because we need to see who's available which month, okay? 00:24:06.760 |
and doing a rotation for the cleaning service. 00:24:22.760 |
So, one, this is for specifically babysitting parents. 00:24:28.760 |
For students who are in the Sprouts Elementary Ministry, 00:24:35.760 |
We need some extra hands to do babysitting during that time. 00:24:41.760 |
It should be more like, yeah, 3:30, the little end. 00:24:45.760 |
So if you're available, please sign up for that. 00:24:47.760 |
Some of you guys have questions about babysitting. 00:24:50.760 |
Again, for the duration of the Bible study series, 00:25:02.760 |
are actually small group leaders here tonight, 00:25:04.760 |
and so we want to, you know, afford them the time 00:25:26.760 |
Please make sure to mark your calendars for Saturday. 00:25:42.760 |
across various affinity groups to come together 00:25:46.760 |
Okay, so I think-- can you hit the next slide 00:25:54.760 |
we're going to switch over to our discussion questions. 00:26:03.760 |
because it's the, you know, beginning portion, 00:26:09.760 |
please take this time to get to know each other, 00:26:34.760 |
Please make sure if you're going off or to a room 00:26:40.760 |
All right, we'll see you guys in a little bit. 00:26:48.760 |
For anyone who is assigned to the newcomers group, 01:04:06.760 |
If I can have all the groups to begin to wrap up, 01:05:15.760 |
All right, it's 8 o'clock. We're going to get started. 01:05:19.760 |
Please grab your seats if you're not ready yet. 01:05:26.760 |
Obviously, today's Bible study or this session of Bible study 01:05:29.760 |
is going to be a little bit different than what we had before 01:05:41.760 |
of what the schedule is going to look like starting from next week. 01:05:50.760 |
this is the first time being in weekday Bible study? 01:05:57.760 |
I cannot -- yeah, can you raise it all the way up so I can see? 01:06:00.760 |
How many of you -- for you, this is the first time attending Bible study? 01:06:04.760 |
Okay, that's that whole group over there, I know it is, 01:06:12.760 |
So as you guys are attending the first time doing this Bible study, 01:06:15.760 |
this is not normally the way we do Bible study. 01:06:17.760 |
We usually go through a text, through a book, passage by passage, 01:06:24.760 |
and you have to do the study and then come back and share, 01:06:26.760 |
and then we give you an overview of that text. 01:06:29.760 |
But this session of Bible study, we're doing this, 01:06:34.760 |
So let me pray for us and then we'll get started. 01:06:41.760 |
Father, we thank you so much for being gracious to us. 01:06:45.760 |
Thank you for the opportunity for us to engage in this Bible study, Lord God, 01:06:51.760 |
where we would learn and that you would really bring our mind and our hearts together, 01:06:56.760 |
that we would be united in faith, united in commitment, 01:07:04.760 |
and may your word and your instructions have its effect on us. 01:07:10.760 |
All right, so let me explain again, to give you kind of a background. 01:07:15.760 |
In Judges chapter 21-25, this is a period of Israel's history, 01:07:22.760 |
And during this period, Israel had no king, and it was very deliberate, 01:07:26.760 |
because God established Israel, and God himself was the king. 01:07:30.760 |
So he didn't want them to be like any other nation. 01:07:33.760 |
But what ended up happening during this period is summarized, 01:07:36.760 |
and this phrase is repeated over and over again. 01:07:41.760 |
they would keep on this cycle of getting into trouble, forgetting God, 01:07:46.760 |
and then the foreign nations would come and conquer them. 01:07:50.760 |
God would raise up a judge, and then through that judge, 01:07:54.760 |
revival would come into the nation of Israel. 01:08:06.760 |
If you notice here, it wasn't that they were doing what was wrong in their own eyes. 01:08:10.760 |
They were doing what they thought was right in their own eyes, right? 01:08:13.760 |
Everybody thought that they were doing what was right. 01:08:18.760 |
They didn't have a central king instructing them to unite them under God. 01:08:24.760 |
So in their attempt to do what they thought was right, 01:08:28.760 |
the nation began to each individually just kind of go off on their own, 01:08:34.760 |
The reason why I read this is I think this explains 01:08:39.760 |
what is happening in our generation with churches. 01:08:42.760 |
Everyone is trying to do what is right in their own eyes. 01:08:48.760 |
but they're just trying to figure out what is the purpose of the church. 01:08:51.760 |
Why do we do this? Why do we preach this way? 01:09:01.760 |
"Do not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives a prize. 01:09:08.760 |
Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. 01:09:11.760 |
They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 01:09:14.760 |
Therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim. 01:09:23.760 |
so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. 01:09:27.760 |
I read these texts to you because everything that we're doing at church, 01:09:31.760 |
we're doing it for a particular reason, right? 01:09:34.760 |
You may have come from maybe a Presbyterian background, 01:09:37.760 |
and you come to church and say, "How come our church doesn't do this? 01:09:40.760 |
Why don't we do the Lord's Prayer or the Apostles' Creed?" 01:09:44.760 |
We're not Presbyterian. We're Baptist church. 01:09:46.760 |
And so we have Baptist doctrine that guides us in what we believe, right? 01:09:52.760 |
What we believe that's according to Scripture. 01:09:54.760 |
Maybe some of you guys come from a charismatic background, 01:09:57.760 |
and you ask, "How come we don't pray out loud? 01:09:59.760 |
How come we don't do this during worship? How come we don't do that?" 01:10:01.760 |
Because you have a charismatic framework of how the Holy Spirit should be working, 01:10:07.760 |
and so you're trying to project that, "Well, isn't this what the Spirit is like?" 01:10:13.760 |
There are certain things that we believe the work of the Holy Spirit is and is not. 01:10:18.760 |
And so that's why even the way we pray, even the way we sing, is very deliberate, right? 01:10:24.760 |
So whatever background you may come from, you may come from a different church, 01:10:28.760 |
and all of it, we're not saying in and of itself, 01:10:30.760 |
obviously we're not in agreement, is wrong in and of itself, 01:10:34.760 |
but there's a particular reason why we do things at church. 01:10:37.760 |
Why do we pray this way? Why do we preach this way, right? 01:10:40.760 |
Some of you may come from a Bible teaching background. 01:10:43.760 |
So you project, "Because I went to this Bible teaching background, church, 01:10:51.760 |
Even that, we need to ask ourselves, "Where does that come from? 01:10:55.760 |
From Scripture, or does that come from the culture that you came from?" 01:11:00.760 |
And so we want to make sure, as a church, that as our church continues to grow, 01:11:05.760 |
that we are bringing everybody together to understand 01:11:11.760 |
And if you ask us why we do it, we want to show you where in the Scripture, 01:11:14.760 |
while we were studying in the 27, 28 years that we've been around, 01:11:22.760 |
It doesn't mean that we're getting everything that we're doing, we're doing perfectly. 01:11:26.760 |
There are some things that we're still trying to work on, we need to grow in. 01:11:29.760 |
But there are certain things that we do and don't do specifically 01:11:32.760 |
because this is what we see the Scripture teaching us. 01:11:35.760 |
And so we want to make sure that as our church grows, 01:11:40.760 |
that we, as a church, at least are together in understanding. 01:11:43.760 |
And so at the end of this, you might come and say, 01:11:46.760 |
"You know what? I don't agree with that. I don't see where you got that in Scripture." 01:11:50.760 |
But we can't ask or demand of the church because I prefer this, 01:11:55.760 |
or I came from that culture, or the church that I went to. 01:11:58.760 |
It's because we have different doctrines, we're viewing things differently. 01:12:01.760 |
The difference, even the fundamental thing is that as a seeker-friendly church, 01:12:14.760 |
We want to reach the lost and so we have different methods. 01:12:16.760 |
We have different methods because we have different doctrines that we believe in. 01:12:19.760 |
So part of the reason why we're going to go over the Covenant this session 01:12:23.760 |
is so that we can bring you on the same page. 01:12:26.760 |
And if you have questions while we're studying through the Ten Covenants, 01:12:30.760 |
hopefully you'll have an opportunity to discuss it in your small group, 01:12:33.760 |
or even ask us so that we can clarify it, so that we can be on the same page. 01:12:38.760 |
When our church was smaller, this happened organically. 01:12:41.760 |
We'd have Bible study, or we'd have lunch, or fellowship, hang out at the park, 01:12:44.760 |
and so we'd be able to explain how we came to this decision, why we're doing it this way. 01:12:49.760 |
But because the church is getting bigger, we're not able to interact with you that way. 01:12:52.760 |
And so, again, that's why we felt the need to do this, to bring everybody together. 01:12:59.760 |
membership class only covers it like a very short period, 01:13:05.760 |
And even those of you who've been here for a while, 01:13:08.760 |
you may have had conversations, but it's been a while, 01:13:16.760 |
The three core books, the book that we're going to be reading this session 01:13:21.760 |
But there's three books that our church requires. 01:13:25.760 |
At one point in church history, every single member, 01:13:32.760 |
And if you had to have any kind of paradigm shift, 01:13:39.760 |
it's hard for us to even track who read it and who didn't read it. 01:13:44.760 |
and this was started maybe about second or third year into the church. 01:13:51.760 |
And again, for the sake of time, I'm not going to go too deep into it. 01:13:54.760 |
Holiness of God basically reorients our understanding of who God is. 01:13:59.760 |
If you grew up in a church where the primary teaching 01:14:02.760 |
and the focus was how can we meet your needs, 01:14:05.760 |
how can we speak in a way where you're encouraged 01:14:07.760 |
so you can be a better husband, better community, 01:14:11.760 |
and you--again, in and of itself, it's not wrong. 01:14:15.760 |
But the central teaching of the Bible is about God before us. 01:14:24.760 |
So if we have an incomplete and inaccurate understanding of who God is, 01:14:29.760 |
everything that you learn about the Bible, the gospel, the church, community, evangelism, 01:14:38.760 |
It's kind of like taking a gift and putting it into the wrong basket, right? 01:14:42.760 |
So if you have a basket that's clean, then that thing's going to be clean. 01:14:48.760 |
then everything putting into that basket is also going to be tainted, right? 01:14:54.760 |
So this book, Holiness of God, helps us to understand who God is, that God is holy. 01:14:58.760 |
So if you look at all of the Old Testament, two-thirds of the Bible, 01:15:03.760 |
the main theme of the two-thirds of the Bible is to teach us 01:15:08.760 |
that sinners cannot have a relationship with this holy God, 01:15:13.760 |
that there is a chasm between this holy God and sinful man, 01:15:16.760 |
so that when Christ came, that they would have already been prepared 01:15:21.760 |
that they are desperate without some sort of savior, right? 01:15:25.760 |
And that's why the Pharisees were so rebuked, because they took what God was doing 01:15:29.760 |
and they created a system of righteousness of their own. 01:15:33.760 |
So in some way, if number one, the holiness of God, 01:15:37.760 |
if our view of God is off or tainted or incomplete, 01:15:42.760 |
everything you're going to be learning about the church, 01:15:48.760 |
it's all going to stem from a wrong understanding of who God is, right? 01:15:52.760 |
So if you haven't read that, I encourage you to read that. 01:15:54.760 |
The second book, Gospel According to Jesus, if you have a wrong view of God, 01:15:58.760 |
you're going to have a wrong view of salvation. 01:16:00.760 |
If your whole perspective of salvation is God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life, 01:16:05.760 |
so once you're saved, you're free, and now he wants you to be happy, right? 01:16:10.760 |
And so if that's your paradigm, you're not going to have a right understanding of the gospel. 01:16:16.760 |
Because a holy God has been offended, Christ appeased his wrath, 01:16:26.760 |
he says, "Be holy, for your heavenly Father is holy." 01:16:33.760 |
Salvation is delivering us from the bondage of sin 01:16:41.760 |
So an individual who is saved from the penalty of sin, 01:16:46.760 |
but has not been saved from the power of sin, 01:16:52.760 |
Because he doesn't understand who God is, right? 01:16:55.760 |
That's the second book, Gospel According to Jesus. 01:16:57.760 |
Third book, the one that we're going to be covering over, 01:17:00.760 |
is the Master's Plan for the Church, is where is this applied? 01:17:04.760 |
If God is holy, and our salvation is to deliver us from the bondage of sin, 01:17:19.760 |
During the pandemic, so many people fell out, 01:17:24.760 |
because they thought, their understanding of their faith is, 01:17:27.760 |
"I'm saved, Jesus loves me, and when I die, I go to heaven, 01:17:33.760 |
It'd be good to go to church, but it's not necessary. 01:17:41.760 |
If Christ is Lord, where is Lordship practiced? 01:17:47.760 |
Lordship is practiced in the community where God reigns, 01:17:51.760 |
And so, even the church, the problem that we have in churches, 01:17:56.760 |
If I ask an average Christian, "What is a church?" 01:18:00.760 |
And if you know even a little bit about the Bible, 01:18:02.760 |
you'll say, "Where two or three are gathered in my name." 01:18:07.760 |
It wouldn't be wrong, but that's like a first-grader's answer. 01:18:17.760 |
So, if I gather me and Holly, and we go over here, that's a church. 01:18:24.760 |
And then you jump into a pool, get wet, that's baptism. 01:18:28.760 |
You have dinner, eat some grape juice, that's communion. 01:18:31.760 |
So, because people don't have a biblical understanding of church, 01:18:36.760 |
churches practice whatever each church thinks. 01:18:44.760 |
Our church is going to be our social justice. 01:18:46.760 |
And so, they're picking and choosing what they think is going to help the people. 01:18:52.760 |
Our primary calling for the church is given to us in the Bible. 01:18:59.760 |
No church has the right to say, "Our church is going to be about this." 01:19:03.760 |
Our church is about the Bible because the Bible teaches us about what He wants. 01:19:08.760 |
We didn't just pick and choose, like, "That church is going to be about prayer. 01:19:12.760 |
This church is going to be about social justice." 01:19:14.760 |
No, we emphasize the Bible because Bible is where we learn what God tells us what He wants, right? 01:19:21.760 |
And so, it's not that we're just committed to the Bible. 01:19:23.760 |
It's just that the Bible is the starting point of what God desires. 01:19:27.760 |
So, the master's plan for the church is, I think, does the best job and is more thorough. 01:19:34.760 |
That's why next week, you're going to be reading two chapters because the first one is just an introduction. 01:19:41.760 |
So, because today's introduction, starting from tomorrow, we're going to do two chapters. 01:19:45.760 |
Then, after that, we're going to do one chapter each. 01:19:48.760 |
So, when you come in and we sing our song and you get into your small group, 01:19:52.760 |
the first thing you're going to be doing is to discuss the book, right? 01:19:56.760 |
Then, I'll give you a quiet time passages, and I'll explain that a little bit later. 01:19:59.760 |
Okay. Now, having said that, because today is an introduction, 01:20:05.760 |
I want you guys to maximize the small group time that you have. 01:20:09.760 |
There's nine different types of small group members, okay? 01:20:14.760 |
And as I explain this, I want you to ask yourself, "Is this you?" 01:20:20.760 |
Because after we're done, I'm going to ask you in your small group to confess, right? 01:20:29.760 |
And if you're not sure, we're going to ask people to judge you, okay? 01:20:45.760 |
If you have a dominator in your group, everybody is frustrated, okay? 01:20:51.760 |
The dominator can turn any question into an opportunity to talk about themselves, right? 01:20:56.760 |
This is somebody that no matter what the question is, 01:20:58.760 |
you can be a male and talking about rearing children and giving childbirth, 01:21:02.760 |
and he's like, "Oh, yeah, I know what that's like," and then he'll go off, right? 01:21:09.760 |
It's like no matter what the question is, you know, eventually, he'll soak up the attention. 01:21:13.760 |
The dominators suffocate any discussion by monopolizing the small group 01:21:17.760 |
where others are not given opportunity to speak because he speaks too much. 01:21:21.760 |
So, again, ask yourself, "When's the last time you heard somebody else's voice in a small group?" 01:21:29.760 |
So, in the context of talking, you say, "You know what? 01:21:32.760 |
I don't know what that person's voice sounds like." 01:21:38.760 |
Take a breath, go to the bathroom, and come back and give other people a chance, okay? 01:21:43.760 |
If you have a dominator, one dominator could ruin the small group, right? 01:21:56.760 |
Before they come to you, say, "Do you think I'm a dominator?" 01:22:03.760 |
Dominators tend to disengage when they are not the ones talking. 01:22:07.760 |
So, because you're not getting an opportunity to talk or you're so eager to talk, 01:22:13.760 |
you're just waiting for an opportunity for somebody to stop. 01:22:15.760 |
So, when you're not talking, you don't listen. 01:22:23.760 |
Dominators tend to sidetrack the small group to whatever topic they think needs to be addressed. 01:22:28.760 |
So, even though other people are sharing, the whole time they're thinking, "You know what? 01:22:31.760 |
I think we need to talk about this," and you're already thinking about how to change this topic. 01:22:35.760 |
Dominators genuinely feel like they are helping by keeping the discussion alive and interesting. 01:22:45.760 |
That's how they articulate in their own mind, "I'm doing this for the glory of God," you know what I mean? 01:22:52.760 |
Because our group needs somebody like me to keep this discussion going, right? 01:23:02.760 |
Because this person, I mean, maybe there's nobody in your table, but there's somebody, right? 01:23:09.760 |
One of the most common, when we have small group discussions and we ask, you know, 01:23:14.760 |
"What are you struggling with in your small group?" 01:23:16.760 |
You know, it's almost every session, there's somebody who's dominating some group 01:23:30.760 |
The professor has an answer to almost every question that is asked, right? 01:23:37.760 |
He's, you know, read every book, whatever topic. 01:23:42.760 |
So, whatever topic we have, he has something to contribute, 01:23:45.760 |
and he needs to make sure that you know about it. 01:23:48.760 |
The professor believes that he has more knowledge and insight than the rest of the group, 01:23:52.760 |
so he is morally obligated to educate everyone about what he knows to be true. 01:23:56.760 |
It wouldn't be right for him to stay quiet, or else you're going to leave in ignorance, right? 01:24:01.760 |
So, the professor has to constantly be teaching, 01:24:04.760 |
and you don't have to be a small group leader. 01:24:06.760 |
You could have been a Christian for three months, 01:24:08.760 |
but if you have a professor's attitude, right, you have to talk. 01:24:12.760 |
So, that's why the professor and the dominator don't get along, 01:24:25.760 |
So, the professor believes that he is doing God's work by speaking the truth, 01:24:28.760 |
speaking in love, part, he is working to improve, 01:24:34.760 |
He believes that if he doesn't speak the truth, then no one else will or can. 01:24:40.760 |
So, if you're not sure if you're the professor, ask somebody, right, 01:24:44.760 |
somebody that will be gentle, caring, right, but ask them, "What is your honest opinion? 01:24:52.760 |
Do you think I'm kind of like—do I come off as a know-it-all?" 01:25:05.760 |
Feelers tend to think all this theology and study can lead to legalism, right? 01:25:14.760 |
Aren't we just supposed to love Jesus and that's all he cares about? 01:25:17.760 |
And so, anytime we go too deep into theology, it's legalism. 01:25:20.760 |
They believe that if the discussions don't lead to more love and grace toward one another, 01:25:28.760 |
Jesus says he is looking for worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth, right? 01:25:35.760 |
It's not just as long as my heart is right, it doesn't matter what kind of theology you believe. 01:25:42.760 |
But the feelers tend to be so heavily focused on the feeling that theology seems to not matter, right? 01:25:49.760 |
It's not like they're not going to say that theology doesn't matter at all, 01:25:52.760 |
but theology is like two or three where emotions are like nine or ten. 01:25:57.760 |
The feelers tend to tune out when deeper theological discussions are taking place. 01:26:02.760 |
So, inwardly, you're judging the non-feelers. 01:26:05.760 |
They tend to come alive during sharing and check out during Bible studies. 01:26:10.760 |
You have a tendency to kind of like stay quiet until there's like sharing or somebody's in tears 01:26:15.760 |
or you're sharing something very personal and then they come alive. 01:26:19.760 |
But any time you go a little bit deeper digging, asking theological questions, 01:26:25.760 |
They're looking at you, but they're not looking at you, right? 01:26:29.760 |
So, if you're not sure if that's you, feelers will tend to admit they're feelers, right? 01:26:34.760 |
So, you probably kind of know because you're in tune with your feelings. 01:26:38.760 |
So, you might not have to ask, but if that's you, right? 01:26:42.760 |
I was looking for people who worship spirit and in truth, okay? 01:26:48.760 |
What I mean by directors are not people who are directing movies. 01:26:51.760 |
This is the type of person who communicates everything very direct, right? 01:26:56.760 |
Directors are people who tend to be direct and tend to come off as brash or insensitive. 01:27:02.760 |
So, if you say something that they may not agree with, they'll just say, "That's dumb. 01:27:15.760 |
Directors tend to be truth-tellers, but have not mastered the art of being tactful, right? 01:27:21.760 |
And so, they don't realize that they're creating an environment that's hostile. 01:27:26.760 |
And so, it creates the feelers to feel unsafe, to talk, right? 01:27:32.760 |
And oftentimes, the directors are professors and the dominators. 01:27:43.760 |
So, when you ask, ask them, "Am I too direct?" 01:28:03.760 |
Directors tend to be impatient and want to communicate clearly without wasting any time. 01:28:07.760 |
So, we know that people who tend to be direct, they're not trying to be hurtful to you. 01:28:13.760 |
So, they don't have time to go around and take five minutes to tell something that you 01:28:22.760 |
I don't agree with that, period, and then move on, right? 01:28:27.760 |
So, it makes the feelers uncomfortable, right? 01:28:34.760 |
This is a person that has a rebuttal for anything and everything. 01:28:40.760 |
Their position in the argument will always lean toward whatever position is not being 01:28:47.760 |
They just think that the other side needs to be spoken. 01:28:51.760 |
So, if all your group tends to say one thing, they tend to be the opposite. 01:28:56.760 |
And then if they change their position, they'll go, "Well, you know, I'm not sure if that's 01:29:02.760 |
They tend to disagree simply because there seems to be a consensus of something. 01:29:06.760 |
They enjoy stirring the pot even if it tends to turn into a heated discussion. 01:29:10.760 |
So, if you are a devil's advocate, right, this person is not going to spoil the group. 01:29:14.760 |
It sometimes helps the discussion, but oftentimes you will frustrate the group, right? 01:29:20.760 |
You'll frustrate the group because you're not seeking truth. 01:29:24.760 |
You just want to have a good discussion, right? 01:29:35.760 |
Peacemakers are people who will never disagree with anything, right? 01:29:39.760 |
If somebody says, "I agree with that," it's like, "Yeah, you know." 01:29:44.760 |
It's like, "Yeah, I can see that too," right? 01:29:47.760 |
They don't have a clear position on anything. 01:29:49.760 |
Peacemakers tend to think that the worst thing to do in a small group is to make someone 01:29:55.760 |
Even at times, maybe certain things need to be said. 01:29:58.760 |
It's like just the fact that you hurt somebody's feeling, that was wrong. 01:30:01.760 |
Peacemakers think that any lively discussion is not godly, prefers avoiding any discussion 01:30:07.760 |
that may lead to anyone feeling uncomfortable. 01:30:10.760 |
This person has mastered speaking in love but is always struggling to speak the truth, 01:30:18.760 |
Everybody loves this person, but they're all frustrated with this person too, right? 01:30:24.760 |
They're overly concerned about how other people feel where they're not able to tackle truth, 01:30:31.760 |
Again, this person is well-liked in the group, and people love that person. 01:30:35.760 |
They make other people feel good, but oftentimes, it's very difficult to have honest and deep 01:30:41.760 |
discussions with this person because they're always kind of pushing against any kind of 01:30:48.760 |
Critiquers are always looking for opportunities to correct any little thing that needs correcting, 01:30:57.760 |
The dominators, the professors, the critiquers, they're usually the same people. 01:31:02.760 |
Critiquers usually are ignited during discussions that require critical thinking. 01:31:06.760 |
Critiquers and dominators tend to clash since neither have the patience to put up with the 01:31:18.760 |
Hiders tend to stay silent and in the background unless they are personally called upon. 01:31:23.760 |
There's always just as much as there is a dominator, like in a lot of groups, there's 01:31:30.760 |
In fact, we have more hiders than dominators. 01:31:33.760 |
For every one dominator, I think there's four hiders from my experience, right? 01:31:41.760 |
They don't like conflict for two opposite reasons. 01:31:46.760 |
One, they have a low self-esteem or however you want to call it. 01:31:50.760 |
I don't want to psychologize it, but they think, "I'm going to say something dumb," 01:31:55.760 |
and then the critiquer and then the dominator, the professor is going to correct me, so I 01:32:06.760 |
These are the people who will never talk if you have somebody who's a dominator or professor 01:32:13.760 |
Or the other part of it, hiders tend to be quiet because they don't think the other people 01:32:20.760 |
They're saying, "If you don't care, why should I share with you? 01:32:25.760 |
You have either, "I don't know anything enough to share," or a bunch of, "You guys are not 01:32:34.760 |
Hiders, again, you don't make trouble in the group, but you're very frustrated because 01:32:40.760 |
the part of the small group is you want to get to know each other better, but if you're 01:32:43.760 |
there and you're in the habit of disengaging or not talking, you may be doing that because 01:32:49.760 |
you think, "I don't have anything to share," or maybe they're not going to care. 01:32:53.760 |
The way you'll come across is you don't care. 01:32:56.760 |
They'll come across like you don't care, right? 01:32:59.760 |
You may be projecting that to other people, but actually what's happening is they're going 01:33:02.760 |
to see that you don't seem to care because you're not engaging, okay? 01:33:08.760 |
So any one of these people, and probably there's a mixture of all of this in our groups and 01:33:16.760 |
I share this because we have so many small groups and we want you to get the most out 01:33:23.760 |
And so the next session, I'm going to ask you, "Which one are you?" 01:33:41.760 |
Flakers could be any one of those personality types. 01:33:44.760 |
Flakers are those who see the small group as something to be taken seriously only when 01:33:49.760 |
You have a member in your group where any little thing, like some of you guys have work 01:33:55.760 |
that conflicts with this time, so obviously that's understandable. 01:34:03.760 |
But I'm talking about Flakers where, you know, your favorite show is on and so I can't make 01:34:10.760 |
The Dodgers are playing today, so, you know, so this is not a high priority for you. 01:34:15.760 |
So you'll make it when you can and you miss when you don't. 01:34:18.760 |
So what happens is if you are a chronic Flaker, it creates, you have, you need to be aware 01:34:28.760 |
It's very selfish if you don't consider that you not taking that group seriously makes 01:34:38.760 |
And right now because our small groups are so impacted that if we have one group and 01:34:43.760 |
we have half of them not showing up half the time, we're not able to hold the group because 01:34:50.760 |
And so that's why Pastor Peter Trunk, I think it was the last one or the one before, he 01:34:54.760 |
said, "If you miss more than three, we're going to pull you out," and he said it very 01:34:57.760 |
firmly, and it worked for like two months, right? 01:35:01.760 |
Even in the home group, the attendance was a lot better for like two months, and then 01:35:06.760 |
So I'm not going to say three times or two times or four times, but generally speaking, 01:35:11.760 |
if you're the Flaker, right, if you feel like, "I don't think I'm going to be able to be 01:35:16.760 |
here for this many times," please let us know ahead of time, okay? 01:35:23.760 |
It's because you see a schedule, you see something coming up, but if you're in the habit of, 01:35:34.760 |
My best friend, you know, wanted to have dinner tonight," that means that level of small group 01:35:40.760 |
is going to go down to your level of commitment for everybody, and so it ruins it for everybody, 01:35:46.760 |
So because this is our first session, if you're going to commit to it, commit to it. 01:35:52.760 |
Do your best to come to every Bible study prepared. 01:35:54.760 |
If you know that you cannot commit to that, please let us know ahead of time, okay? 01:35:59.760 |
So either we will put you in a new members group or a Flake group, all right, where you 01:36:06.760 |
will be with other Flakers, so you don't have to feel guilty, okay? 01:36:12.760 |
We're doing it for you, so you won't be judged, okay? 01:36:17.760 |
So these are the things, again, as we're starting, hopefully you understand. 01:36:22.760 |
I'm going to give you, you may have known this before, but in your small group, to actively 01:36:29.760 |
share, and I'm just going to go over this real quick. 01:36:37.760 |
This is like, you know, what people can obviously see. 01:36:40.760 |
After you spend a little time, they say, "Hey, you're outgoing. 01:36:47.760 |
So what ends up happening is people who tend to put up a front are good at that part, right? 01:36:57.760 |
But if you're only sanctified in that area, what do you become? 01:37:04.760 |
Because you're only good on the facade, and who you are behind the scene is not consistent, 01:37:10.760 |
So if you want to really be sanctified, your outer person that people can see and your 01:37:22.760 |
These are people who are dominators, and they think they're the feelers, right? 01:37:29.760 |
When you're surrounded by people who are praying for you, caring for you, discipling you, they 01:37:35.760 |
Usually, your family has already told you, but you don't like them because they told 01:37:43.760 |
You have a tendency, and when your family tells you, they are usually direct. 01:37:48.760 |
They don't care about your family, and usually it gets exposed when people are angry, right? 01:37:53.760 |
If you get in a fight with your husband and wife, they'll keep it to themselves for a 01:38:00.760 |
And then you realize that your sister, your brother, your mom, or dad probably, or somebody 01:38:04.760 |
has already told you this, but this is a blind spot that you kind of are trying to hide. 01:38:10.760 |
But in a small group context, when you spend time with a lot of people for a long period 01:38:16.760 |
But that area, if you're not willing to receive instruction, you're not going to grow either. 01:38:21.760 |
Your blind spot is going to become bigger and bigger and bigger. 01:38:24.760 |
That's why these small groups are good, because you're in a context where you can share, and 01:38:28.760 |
people who are praying for you are able to come alongside you, and hopefully, tactfully, 01:38:33.760 |
lovingly, help you to see that and to grow in that. 01:38:40.760 |
It could be your private sins, things that you don't want other people to know, and they 01:38:50.760 |
Others, you have to commit to people who are committed to you. 01:38:55.760 |
So, the best place to do that is in your small group. 01:38:59.760 |
If there are certain things maybe you don't feel comfortable in, even in that small group, 01:39:05.760 |
If you have something that you're wrestling with, you want to confess something, to be 01:39:11.760 |
committed to confess your sins, or confess other things. 01:39:15.760 |
And then, the God only are things that God does. 01:39:17.760 |
When you are sanctified in the other areas, you tend to be sanctified in the areas that 01:39:21.760 |
you may not even know, and other people may not know. 01:39:24.760 |
So, small group is the best place to wrestle with this, and to commit to grow in all areas 01:39:34.760 |
Finally, starting from next week, starting from this week, next week we're going to be 01:39:39.760 |
We're going to, I'm going to briefly review the chapter one and two that you guys discussed, 01:39:43.760 |
and then we're going to go into the covenant, and along with the covenant, I'm going to 01:39:47.760 |
be giving you five quiet time verses for that week. 01:39:52.760 |
So, these are the verses that pertain to covenant one that I'm going to be teaching next week. 01:40:07.760 |
And so, there's five passages, and I don't want you to read all five before you come 01:40:15.760 |
So, tomorrow morning when you wake up, do one. 01:40:19.760 |
Because I'm going to be teaching in this order. 01:40:21.760 |
And so, when you come next week, and I start to teach about the first covenant, and it's 01:40:26.760 |
going to be about the church, that you'll have some basis of understanding of the text 01:40:35.760 |
So, some of you guys in your small group who are memorizing Scripture, this would be a 01:40:43.760 |
You don't have to memorize the whole thing, but maybe like one or two key verses in those 01:40:46.760 |
texts that you could memorize that and then check up on each other, if you choose to do 01:40:54.760 |
So, for the rest of the time for tonight, okay, which one are you? 01:41:03.760 |
Are you the dominator, professor, the feeler, the director, devil's advocate, peacemaker, 01:41:15.760 |
And then, how can you, if you're one of those things, how can you improve going forward 01:41:23.760 |
If you have a tendency to never talk unless you're picked on, like, how can you commit 01:41:34.760 |
If you're the dominator, give other people a chance. 01:41:42.760 |
Number two, what is the biggest weakness in your spiritual life? 01:41:46.760 |
And what are you hoping to get out of this small group, socially and spiritually, and 01:41:50.760 |
do you think you will be able to commit to the whole 13 sessions of the Bible study? 01:41:55.760 |
So, for the next 30, 40 minutes, however long it takes, get into your small group and then 01:42:00.760 |
discuss this, and then please do your five-verse quiet time and the first two chapters before 01:42:13.760 |
Father, we thank you so much for this new session of Bible study, and we pray that you 01:42:19.760 |
would help us to use this time to really learn and to come together to be on the same page, 01:42:25.760 |
Lord God, as we are doing our best to be deliberate about the church that you desire to build. 01:42:31.760 |
Lord, as you remind us over and over again that Christ is the head of the church, not 01:42:35.760 |
any man, not any purpose, so we pray, Father God, that these sessions will help us to be 01:42:42.760 |
We pray for these small groups and the small group leaders and all the hard work that they 01:42:47.760 |
We pray that you would reward them to be able to see tangible fruit, and we ask for all 01:42:51.760 |
the participants, Lord God, that not only knowledge-wise, but relationally, spiritually, 01:42:57.760 |
in every way, Lord God, that we would become a tighter, more united community as a result