Mt Pleasant :: Sam Fornecker: Winning Isn't for Everyone

St. Andrew's Church

Bible Study

Don't just take our word for it . . . take His! We would encourage you to spend time examining the following Scriptures that shaped this sermon: Exodus 16:2–15; John 6:24–35

Sermon Outline

• What are you working for?
• The lie of performance-based identity
• Do not work for perishable food!
• Christ the Wisdom and Weakness of God

Sermon Questions

1. What is the basic error of the Galilean crowd? Do you ever share their error?
2. In what way does Jesus' saying, "I am the bread of life," capture his essential message?
3. Before life group, watch the Lebron Nike ad (linked below). Consider the picture of God as a coach, hurling back at you yet another opportunity for — and yet another requirement of — victory. With what "image" of God does Jesus subvert this idolatrous picture? (See John 4:43, 5:20, 6:57).
4. "The word of the gospel is not do, but done." What is it that Jesus has "done"? See Hebrews 10:11–14, 1 Peter 3:18.
5. Of his life prior to conversion, the North African bishop, St. Augustine, wrote: "To possess my God, the humble Jesus, I was not yet humble enough. I did not know what his weakness was meant to teach... [Those who are willing to be made his subjects] see at their own feet divinity become weak by sharing in our coat of skin. In their weariness they fall down before this divine weakness which rises and lifts them up." Why was the ultimate manifestation of God's wisdom not in thunder and lightning but in humble human form? What did this achieve that a blazing revelation of divine power could not have?
6. How does the image of the bustling family living room, full of craziness and song, offer a beautiful alternative to Lebron, alone on the court? In what concrete ways can we be cultivating this church family as a scene more like the former than the latter?