Do What Matters | Habit #11

Do What Matters | 13 Holy Habits That Can Change Everything

Habit #11 | Studying the Word

We are guided by God's Word.

Scriptures | Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Nehemiah 8; Galatians 5:13-15

Our Holy Habit for this week is Studying the Scripture. 

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom
to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law
is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you
bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
~ Galatians 5:13-15

Question 1 | You don’t have to have heard the sermon from Sunday, but if you were in church, watched online, or listened to the podcast, what stuck with you?

Question 2 |  Jeremy’s message was organized around three points, the first is Locate. Meaning, one of the basic ways to study scripture is to open the Bible and find your location in the Biblical story. One way to do this is to identify the book name (like Matthew or Genesis), the book type (style of writing) and the topic (what the book is about). So for example:

Name: Nehemiah
Type of writing: Personal journal
Subject: Rebuilding

Here’s the homework assignment | Take a few moments as a group and have everyone open up a Bible to the index. Look at all 66 books. See if you can find a book that you don’t know very much about. Then go home, do research on the book, and see if you can come back next week with the book name, type of writing, and subject. Come back next week and share what you learned!

Question 3 | Jeremy’s message was organized around three points, the second is Listen. Meaning, we have to actually read the Bible and be exposed to Biblical content. But then, we have to read it for what it says, not what we want it to say. In that sense, listening to the Word of God is like listening to people: we have to be patient, we have to be still inside, we can’t make snap judgments or make too many assumptions.

So two-part question here | What helps you listen to people, and that helps you listen to the Word of God in the scriptures?  

Question 4 | Jeremy’s message was organized around three points, the third is Live. Meaning, we don’t just learn scripture to gain more information, we learn the scriptures in order to live the scriptures. We study the Bible in order to apply the Bible, to do what it says and become more like Jesus.

Tough question | Is there anything in the Bible that you know, perhaps you know it very well, but you struggle to actually do? What do you need in order to do what you know? 

Question 5 |  Last week’s question ended with a question about life groups...

Here’s the question | “Spend group time praying about and discussing this as a group: Who are people you know who might be willing to host a Life Group in their home? Who are people you know who might be willing to lead a Life Group (hint: just because you lead, you don’t have to host, and vice a versa)? Who do you know who you could invite to attend your Life Group, or another life Group? And: Please get in touch with Jeremy (pastor@circleofpeacechurch.com) and share these names!!” And, please do the same this week!