Sanctuary

1. Read Matthew 5.23-24 incarnationally. Where do you find yourself in this text?
2. Of all the Hard Sayings of Jesus, which is most difficult for you to live out? Why?
3. How do you see this text and Matthew 5.43-48 work together?
4. What’s the desire of Jesus in calling for us to love our enemies, and engaging those who we may hurt?
5. Bertrand Russell said the teaching of Jesus is “too difficult for most of us to practice.” If someone said the teaching of Matthew 5.23-24 is too difficult how would you respond? How have you practiced this Truth in your own life?
6. How does believing and practicing these Hard Sayings inform the process of transformation?
7. Dallas Willard says, “He does not call us to do what He did, but to be as He was, permeated with love.” How does this statement encourage you to move away from behavior management? What’s an area in your life where you are experiencing this kind of change?
8. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.” Describe a time when you compassionately “reprimanded” another? What was the outcome?
9. Read Matthew 5.21-22. What’s the primary point of this teaching? John Piper says, “despising your brother threatens to cut you off from God forever?” Is Piper correct? If so what’s the implication of this truth?
10. When was the last time you were hurt by a brother or sister in the Body of Christ? How did reconciliation happen? How did that situation bring about deeper transformation in you?
11. When was the last time you hurt another brother or sister in the Body of Christ? How did reconciliation happen? How did that situation bring about deeper transformation in you?
12. The temptation is to never fully engage these areas of conflict. In so doing, we live with open wounds and cannot grow. How important is following Jesus’ will and His way in this area of life? What’s the greatest challenge in doing this?
13. Read Ephesians 4.26-27. How is this teaching a part of your everyday, ordinary life? Give a specific example from your life of “giving the devil a foothold.”
14. Jesus gives us order in purpose. He says “Go and then come.” This may seem counter-intuitive. Yet the order here is imperative. Why is the order so important in honoring God with our relationships and our worship?
15. Read Romans 12.18. Is it possible to live at “peace with everyone?” What do we do we people who refuse to live at peace with us? How far do we take this teaching?
16. Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest summarizes this process. Read, reflect and respond.

“First be reconciled to your brother….” Our Lord’s directive is simple— “First be reconciled….” He says, in effect, “Go back the way you came— the way indicated to you by the conviction given to you at the altar; have an attitude in your mind and soul toward the person who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing.” Jesus does not mention the other person— He says for you to go. It is not a matter of your rights. The true mark of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.
“…and then come and offer your gift.” The process of reconciliation is clearly marked. First, we have the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden restraint by the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit, and then we are stopped at the point of our conviction. This is followed by obedience to the Word of God, which builds an attitude or state of mind that places no blame on the one with whom you have been in the wrong. And, finally, there is the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.”
17. Read Matthew 18.15-17. Jesus gives us a clear pathway in how practically to pursue reconciliation. Describe a time when you participated in this kind of reconciliation. What as the outcome?
18. The Psalmist writes,
“Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139.23-24

Spend a few moments in prayer. Allow the Spirit to bring to mind anyone that may have a grudge against you. Allow the Spirit to bring to mind an enemy that you may not be loving. Pray through the following prompts if helpful.

Prayer:
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
I surrender myself to You.
I surrender my desire for security and survival.
I surrender my desire for approval and affection.
I surrender my desire for power and control.
I surrender my desire to change (any situation, person, event, feeling, or emotion).
I pray not for what I want, but for what You know I need.
I pray for courage to follow You as You lead me in the everlasting way.

May it begin in me. Right here, Jesus. Right now, Jesus.
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1. Read Matthew 5.43-47 incarnatioanlly. Where do you find yourself in this text?
2. What’s the hardest part of what Jesus is saying?
3. How did Jesus define love? How are you growing into living in and living out His definition of love? Give examples.
4. In the text, Jesus quotes the Old Testament teaching. How does it encourage you to hear Jesus quote Scripture? How does it validate the Truth of the Old Testament?
5. Jesus makes six, “But I tell you” statements. Of the six, which one is most encouraging and which is most challenging?
6. Who was your first enemy? How did that relationship resolve? What if any scars are still lingering from that relationship.
7. In the original Greek Jesus defines an enemy this way, “An enemy; someone openly hostile (at enmity), animated by deep-seated hatred. Implies irreconcilable hostility, proceeding out of a “personal” hatred bent on inflicting harm, a person resolved to inflict harm.” In your own words and experience, define “enemy.”
8. Who is your enemy? Who is Jesus asking you to pray for?
9. Have you ever heard the term “frenemy”? It’s defined this way, “a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry.”
10. Who is your frenemy? How do you manage the tension in that relationship? What’s the level of deception in this kind of relationship? How dangerous and deceitful is this kind of relationship? How is God calling you to engage this tension, even now?
11. Give an everyday, ordinary example of this truth: “Love includes emotion as well as action.”
12. Eugene Peterson once wrote that before we can love our enemies, we have to pray our hatred. What’s at the root of your hatred?
13. How does Jesus pray for His enemies?
14. The text ends this way, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What is Jesus calling us to here? Describe the temptation to strive for perfection. How does the invitation to transformation release all expectation and pressure for sinless perfection?
15. Read and reflect on Romans 5.9-11; Hebrews 12.1-3.
16. What is one way we can begin to love your enemies, and those who persecute you? Who will join you in that step?
17. Give God praise for His unfailing love.

1. Read Matthew 7.21-23 incarnatioanlly. Where do you find yourself in this text?
2. This sermon series has been entitled “The Hard Sayings of Jesus.” How does this text cause you to think a better title might be, “The Scary Sayings of Jesus?”
3. What is Jesus saying here? Is Jesus actually saying there will be people who don’t go to heaven?
4. There are times when Jesus speaks in metaphor or parables. This is not one of those times. How does this teaching shape/reshape your beliefs about Jesus or eternity?
5. Read Matthew 7.15-19. In what ways have you encountered a “false prophet?” What does Jesus say is the criteria for knowing if a prophet is a “true” prophet vs. “false.”
6. Consider the good work God is doing in your life, what fruit is He currently producing in you? How are others around you experiencing that fruit?
7. Describe a season where you felt barren. A season where little or no fruit was being produced. Can you identify a reason why that season was fruitless? Does good behavior always equate to fruit bearing? What does Scripture say about how and when spiritual fruit is produced? Who initiates that fruit bearing?
8. Read Matthew 7.13-14. What is the narrow road that Jesus describes? How do you know if you are walking on the narrow road vs. the wide road? What indicators would help you understand the path you are on?
9. How does religion often lead to a road of “pleasing God?” Describe what it is like to walk down the road of “Trusting God.” How challenging is it for you to walk down the road of “Trusting God”? What’s the greatest temptation in walking down the road of “Pleasing God.”
10. Have you ever been in a season where you questioned your salvation? What took you to that question, how did the question get resolved?
11. Read 2 Corinthians 5.21 and answer the following questions.
Who is righteous?
Based on what?
Based on what whose done?
12. Read and reflect on the quote from Judah Smith.
“God is not intimated by sin. He is in control, and the blood of His Son has canceled and conquered the power of sin forever for all who simply believe. When we find that place of just trusting God and realize we are righteous permanently and our past, present future sins are forgiven, all of a sudden there is contagiousness. We discover things like self-control and morality and purity—these things we’ve strived for our whole life that don’t come by discipline but come by a real trust in the person of Jesus.”
13. Today, are you putting more faith in your sin, or in your Savior?
14. Read Galatians 4.8-11. How does this passage encourage you?
15. How does God reward those who are generous? Are those who are not generous punished?
16. Where are you most tempted to “drift” or “slide back” into slavery?
17. What is the most personal way God is making Himself known to you today?