Tuesday, 5 January 2016

An Active Faith

Here's the link to the Sermon: The Real Deal

 
Reading: James 1:22-25
 
1.    What is the difference between believing and doing?

2.    What is the consequence of professing faith but ignoring God’s word?

3.    The truth of the Bible is useless until it is obeyed (AW Tozer). Discuss this statement.

4.    What are the things our society believes are acceptable that God does not. How should we deal with these issues?

5.    Like many passages we discuss, this one is easy enough to talk about in general, however our verse for the year strikes at the very heart of our personal faith and our priorities – it challenges us with words like obedience, commitment and discipleship. In the sermon we mentioned a number of things, and there is an excerpt pasted below. Take a look at the excerpt, perhaps add other bullet points in, then discuss how important our individual attitude is when it comes to examining ourselves and why we should regularly examine our own lives:

So we need to be people who respond to God’s instructions. We need to examine our own lives. How? Well let’s be practical:

·        Is there a sin you need to confess? 

·        Do you need to stop ignoring a problem and admit it as such? God does not expect you to be perfect but He does want you to be honest.  We need to admit when we have fallen short of God’s standard. In what ways is God calling you to change your course? 

·        Is God pushing you to change a certain attitude or behaviour?

·        Does He want you to reach out to someone, to forgive something they’ve done wrong, or simply to give of yourself to show kindness?

·        Is God calling you to step out in faith?  Perhaps He is calling you to use your gifts more?

·        Maybe He wants you to mend a relationship?

·        Are you praying regularly with others in our church?

·        Perhaps He is calling you to make regular worship a priority…

The real test of a believer is how we respond to what God tells us to do.  The real test of faith is not what we say, but more what we do in response to what God says.

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