Before We Get Started

For our discussion today, we will be using the sermon series discussion guides. If you would like to follow along you can access this discussion guide on the website at mosaicchurchaustin.com and then select “community group resources” in the menu options.

Prayer

Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?

This Week’s Topic

GOD + US

Today’s Topic

Who’s Telling the Truth?

Discussion Questions

Jeremiah 28:1-6, 9-17

In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people:  “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed from here and took to Babylon. I will also bring back to this place Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the other exiles from Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”

Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord. He said, “Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the Lord’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon.

 

 But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.”

Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it, and he said before all the people, “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon off the neck of all the nations within two years.’” At this, the prophet Jeremiah went on his way.

After the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Go and tell Hananiah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but in its place you will get a yoke of iron. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will put an iron yoke on the necks of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon…

Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’”

In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died.

Believing a False Story

Hananiah embraced a false narrative about Israel and misled others to do the same. Our faith becomes compromised when we accept a version of reality that contradicts God’s truth and his vision for his people.

Some examples of false narratives our culture tells us:

Radical consumerism: you exist only to work, produce, and spend

Radical atheism: you exist for nothing

Radical cynicism: you should trust no one

Radical individualism: you exist for you

Radical nationalism: you exist for your country’s kingdom

Which of these narratives do you feel has been loudest in your life?

What scriptural and theological responses do you use to combat these narratives?

Are there any false narratives you would add to this list?

What spiritual practices can help us identify when these narratives begin to affect us?

God’s Trustworthy Story

Jackie Hill Perry, Holier Than Thou

The soil from which all sin grows is unbelief. We sin because it is our nature to do so, but it’s not as if we always sin unintentionally, like depraved robots without the ability to behave according to reason. We are thoughtful with our rebellion. There is a level of reasoning within us when we decide which golden calf we’ll love on any given day. With that said, the foundation of our idolatry, the sin begetting all others, is a specific belief about God.

 

Timothy J. Keller, Counterfeit Gods

In any culture in which God is largely absent, sex, money, and politics will fill the vacuum for different people. This is the reason that our political discourse is increasingly ideological and polarized. Many describe the current poisonous public discourse as a lack of bi-partisanship, but the roots go much deeper than that. As Niebuhr taught, they go back to the beginning of the world, to our alienation from God, and to our frantic efforts to compensate for our feelings of cosmic nakedness and powerlessness. The only way to deal with all these things is to heal our relationship with God.

 

What kinds of beliefs about God damage our relationship with him?

What spiritual practices can heal our relationship with God?

How would you tell the story of your relationship with God?  

Closing Thought

Eugene H. Peterson, Run with the Horses: The Quest for Life at Its Best

If we forget that the newspapers are footnotes to Scripture and not the other way around, we will finally be afraid to get out of bed in the morning. Too many of us spend far too much time with the editorial page and not nearly enough with the prophetic vision. We get our interpretation of politics and economics and morals from journalists when we should be getting only information; the meaning of the world is most accurately given to us by God’s Word.

 

How do you prioritize reading the Bible in your daily life? End your time together praying for God to open your mind and heart up to his truth.