21 Nov Discussion Guide: You Might Regret That Later Week 2
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 main 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
This week we continue a new series titled You May Regret That Later. For the month of November, we are looking at how the Gospel empowers us to live better stories with fewer regrets, especially in the areas of our finances and relationships.
Today’s Topic
Bound in the Bundle
Discussion Questions
What is the best moment you have had with another person? Why is that moment so special to you?
What’s the meanest thing someone has ever done to you? How did that affect you?
1 Samuel 18:10-12
“The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice. Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul.”
1 Samuel 19:1-2,18
“And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted much in David. And Jonathan told David, “Saul my father seeks to kill you… Now David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and lived at Naioth.”
1 Samuel 24:2-6
“Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wild goats’ Rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. And afterward David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord ’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord ’s anointed.”
How do you think David felt about the way King Saul had treated him?
If you were in David’s shoes, how do you think you would have responded?
What do you think enabled David to react the way he did?
From what we saw with the story of David & Nabal this Sunday, did David always respond to others the way he did with Saul? Why do you think that is?
What does that tell us about our own ability to respond in Christ-likeness when people are mean to us?
Matthew 5:38-48
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
What do you suppose Jesus means when He tells us to, “Turn the other cheek?”
In first century Middle-Eastern culture being slapped on the cheek was less an act of violent or physical harm, and more an insulting gesture. If a person was offended by you, or had felt slighted by you, or had any actual, or perceived, reason to have beef with you, one of the main ways they would communicate the offense was to slap you on the cheek. This was a public declaration that there was no longer peace between the two of you, that you were their enemy, and that they were in the right (superior) standing, while you were in the wrong (inferior) standing. The right cheek was considered the inferior cheek, as opposed to the left cheek, which was an indicator of equal standing. So, to be slapped on the right cheek was a major insult to your reputation and your standing within the public arena.
When Jesus says we are to, “turn and present the other cheek also,” He is not saying that we are supposed to allow people to mistreat us, to abuse us, or that we are to be pacifist when it comes to the unjust actions of others. What Jesus is saying is that when someone attempts to slander our name, or to be mean to us, or is trying to insult us and drag our reputation through the mud, trying to put us down, our response should be to treat them with dignity as our equal even though he/she is wanting to see us as unequal. Jesus is basically saying when someone is set on making you their enemy, be set on refusing to treat them as anything other than a friend and an equal. Don’t retaliate evil with evil.
How does this kind of attitude/response towards others affect the relationships we have?
How does it affect the community we live in? The world we live in?
What makes “Loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you,” so difficult?
How does the Gospel of Jesus empower us to love that way?
Closing Thought
Is there anyone who has been “mean” to you that you know you need to forgive and love right now?