What resonates most deeply with you from the reading of these verses?
What’s the inherent flaw in the statement, “Do great things for God; expect great things from God?”
In the message on Sunday, we learned a little about the preaching of Charles Finney and his usage of the “anxious bench.” What is your experience with “sensationalism” in preaching? How might this kind of preaching be dangerous?
Finney said, “The endless craving for emotional experiences might lead to spiritual exhaustion.” How has this been true for you?
Contrast the preaching of Charles Finney, with the preaching of the apostle Paul. How might you at times prefer the preaching of Finney to that of Paul?
In verse 4 Paul says he is a “witness.” In what ways are you also a witness of the Spirit’s power?
Read Acts 17.16-21, Acts 18.1-6 and then our text, 1 Corinthians 2.1-5. What’s the primary difference in the way Paul is preaching in Corinth?
In what ways was Paul challenged as a “preacher of the Gospel?” In what ways are preachers of the Gospel, here in West Cobb/Paulding County challenged?
Read 2 Corinthians 10.1, 10. What can you surmise about Paul as a preacher?
How important is it to you that your preacher/pastor or worship leader/singer makes you feel something? What happens to you when you don’t feel anything in church? What is your goal in coming to church or to a Bible study? What are you really longing for?
Read and reflect on the statement by Julie Canlis from her book, The Theology of the Ordinary and then answer the questions below. Canlis wrote, “200 years ago the sensational movement swept our country. ’True’ religion began to be associated with the extreme, the emotional moment, the passionate choice, the mountain top experience…What was happening in your local church was suddenly suspect; what was needed was a new personal revival. Your faith, heretofore growing by slow degrees, was seen to be too slow, too ordinary, lacking immediate and measurable results.”
How have you been tempted to view your faith through an emotional experience or passionate choice? What happens to your faith when you don’t have a regular “mountain top experience?” How do you protect yourself from feeling like you aren’t doing something right when you are not experiencing the growth you think you should be experiencing?
Read Romans 12.1-2 (MSG). How is God speaking to you today, right now, through this text?
Romans 12.1-2 (MSG): “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
