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The Worst Thing that Could Ever Happen to Us

Scott Risley
Luke 11:37-12:3

Jesus speaks to the Pharisees against hypocrisy. Christians are not hypocrites when they sin. They are hypocrites when they pretend to be spiritual on the outside yet harbor sin in their hearts. Jesus hates hypocrisy because it shifts our focus to the external and ruins peoples' lives. Three negative impacts hypocrites have are: 1) they make following God seem hard; 2) they tell people to try harder vs. personally engaging people and helping them and 3) they isolate people vs. building a safe community. Grace is the only cure for hypocrisy.

Keywords

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A Dangerous Contagion

Conrad Hilario
Luke 11:37-12:3

Jesus speaks against the Pharisees' hypocrisy, a dangerous contagion that can spread throughout a community, just like yeast spreads throughout dough. We should also seek to be free from hypocrisy. A spiritual community without hypocrisy allows: 1) people to feel like they belong; 2) trust to be forged among members; 3) authenticity to be sensed; 4) people to focus on God, instead of comparing themselves to each other; and 5) God's Spirit to powerfully move through a group to change lives.

Keywords

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Confrontations with the Priests (or four good reasons to reject religion)

Jim Leffel
Luke 19:45-20:40

Four reasons to reject religion include: 1) hypocrisy; 2) dogma and deafness; 3) group-think; and 4) a body of teachings with no solutions. Instead, we are called to be ambassadors of Christ, delivering the good news to all people in faith, hope, and love.

Keywords

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God's Way of Life

Scott Risley
Luke 6:17-36

Jesus teaches the Beatitudes: a penetrating message for the followers of Christ and the hypocritical Pharisees. The righteous will suffer for following Christ but in God's kingdom, they will receive eternal blessing.

Keywords

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Breaking Their Rules

Scott Risley
Luke 5:21-6:11

Jesus clashes with followers of the Law concerning forgiveness, fasting, and the Sabbath Day. Jesus proclaims himself ?the Lord of the Sabbath,? which further angers the Pharisees.

Keywords

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A Collision with Religionists

Conrad Hilario
Luke 5:33-6:11

Jesus uses the parable of wine and wineskins to teach a lesson. Jesus calls people to be willing to throw away old wineskins (forms or ways of structuring the church) in order to best reveal God's love to others. Holding onto old wineskins results in a ?religious mentality?: placing too much importance on tradition and sin prevention. In contrast, Jesus focuses on God's truth and loving others.

Keywords

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Why Religion Doesn't Work

Ryan Lowery
Romans 2:1-11

How can God's judgment and love work in tandem? Why does God enact judgment? Why are we not fit to judge each other? These questions are addressed in Romans 2 through a discussion of God's character and humanity's limitations.

Keywords

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Confronting Half-Heartedness

Conrad Hilario
Malachi 1:6-13

The priests were accepting sacrifices of blind, crippled, and diseased animals to place on God's altar. They didn't see that they were going through their priestly motions instead of worshipping God with all of their heart. They were self-deceived and did not see their sin until confronted with God's just anger.

Keywords

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Discerning the Validity of Spirituality-Claims

Gary DeLashmutt
1 John 2:3-11

John, the last living disciple of Jesus, writes to the church in Ephesus to combat Gnosticism. Throughout his letter, John subjects the Gnostics' claims to three spiritual tests: the doctrinal test, the ethical test (based on Jesus' teachings on sex, money, and power), and the social test (based on Jesus' teachings on love). The latter two tests are the focus of these verses. These same tests can and should be applied to ourselves, spiritual leaders, and spiritual groups in order to discern hypocrisy and false spirituality. In Biblical Christianity, Jesus' ethical instruction and his command to love should coexist.

Keywords

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