Close Menu X
Navigate

June 13, 2021

Community Group Questions

June 13, 2021

Matthew 14:1-12

Today, Pastor Matt asked:

  • What do we do with things we don't understand: inglorious endings, failures and missteps?
  • What do we do with our costly sin?
  • What do we do with pain and chaos?

And he taught us:

  • "The plan of God is complex."
  • "The sin of man is costly."
  • "In the midst of chaos, go to Jesus."

1.  What do we do with what Pastor Matt identified as an "odd passage"? What information was new to you? Why do you think it's included in Scripture? How does learning and reading this passage give you more confidence in the Bible?

2.  Herod the tetrarch was a weak, fearful man, who did nothing out of conviction; John the Baptist was a forerunner to Jesus, courageous and did everything out of conviction. Most of us would exemplify character traits that fall somewhere in-between.  What area is challenging you and you are exemplifying traits of weakness or a lack of conviction? Or share with your group how God has enabled you recently to have courage or act with conviction.

3. Pastor Matt taught us that Herod is the embodiment of the hard soil we learned of in Matthew 13.  What progress have you made in applying some of the principles that we've learned recently? For instance, in the area of fruitfulness...share with your group where and how you are becoming more fruitful for Christ's kingdom; in what area this week are you wasting your talents, thereby being spiritually unfruitful? Or consider, persecution...how are you growing in the conviction that Jesus Christ is worth living and dying for?  As opposed to Herod and his weak choices, what are the results of some of your recent choices?

4. At the end of today's passage, Herodias seems to have won the day.  Read Matthew 5:10 and Romans 8:28.  "The plan of God is complex." How does this truth help you in a current circumstance or with something you can't understand? How are you grabbing hold and clinging to these truths?

5.  "The sin of man is costly." What does it mean to grieve over your sin?  Have you ever prayed that God might remove any numbness you have over your sin, and replace it with grief?  What were the results?

6.  "In the midst of chaos, go to Jesus." What is your chaos right now?  Which do you tend towards: self-reliance, self-assurance or excess?  How? If excess, what is your excess? How does thinking about John the Baptist's disciples going to Jesus after the burial of their leader provide you with an example to follow?

7.  Consider learning, singing or listening to: "All I Have Is Christ."  For what can your group pray for you this week that you and/or your family might live a life marked by the conviction that Jesus Christ gives life?