Courageous and Compassionate

Here's the link to the Sermon: Courage and Compassion

Reading: Amos 7

1. Take a few minutes to recap on what Amos has taught us so far.
2. Verse 1 - what is a vision, and what is it not?
3. What do the visions in verses 1-7 show about God's judgement?
4. What does this teach us about prayer - can you make God change his mind?
5. Discuss the meeting with Amaziah. What does this show of Amos' character, attitude and behaviour, and what should we learn and apply from it? 
   
   

God always hit's the bullseye!

Here's the link to the Sermon: God always hits the bulseye!

 Reading: Amos 1-2 

1.  If you were being interrogated by the "bible police", what could you tell them about Amos? i.e. who, when, what, where, why, how...
2. look at the pattern laid out in Amos' imagine what the original hearers of the message would have felt as the message unfolded?
3.  Describe the society in Amos' day; how does it compare to the UK today?
4. God will judge all nations and all people:
1. discuss what this means;
2. what responsibility do we have for shaping our society?
3. how does this impact us as individuals?
5. How does God judge believers compared to non believers? (Luke 12:48)
6. God cares about the attitude of our hearts, what wrong attitudes might we have and how can we encourage/challenge each other over these (in love!!)

 

Turn around or be turned over

Here's the link to the Sermon: Turn around! 

 

Reading: Jonah 3

1. How should we react when God gives second chances to a) others and b) ourselves?
2. God demands that preachers preach His message. In which ways might we fail to do that and what are the possible results?
3. Why do you think Jonah’s message was so effective?
4. What is true repentance? How can it be recognised?
5. Discuss fasting, what is it, what might be sensible things to fast from, and why?
6. If God is unchanging (Num 23:19), then why does he seem to change his mind here?

Running Away From God

Here's the link to the Sermon: Running Away? 

 

Reading: Jonah 1

1. What do we know about Jonah (more detail from the sermon)?
2. What did God want Jonah to do? Why?
3. Consider what it means for God to be omnipresent.
4. Who might be your equivalent of the Assyrians (people you struggle to love as God loves)
5. Whose life/lives was Jonah endangering by his actions, and what should we learn from this to apply to our own lives?
6. Sometimes in a church it is right for us to throw the Jonah's out of the boat. Discuss this statement. What does it mean for the life of a church? What is the result if we fail to handle church discipline properly.
7. What were the main points that came out of this passage for you, either as a result of the sermon or in your own personal study? discuss some of them as a group.