4.30.23 Huddle
Opening Discussion
- What show, book, movie, song, or YouTube video made you question something you believed?
Read and Discuss
Matthew 11: 25-27 CSB
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure. 27 All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him.
- What did the Lord hide from the wise and intelligent?
- What kept the wise and intelligent from seeing the truth about the kingdom of God?
- What are some ways we can get to know Jesus?
- How can you seek out the truth about life?
Colossians 2:6-10
6 So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, 7 being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.
8 Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ. 9 For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
- What was Paul wanting the readers of this letter to know about Jesus?
- What are some ways people get taken captive by worldly things today?
- How can you continue to walk with Jesus on a daily basis?
- Why does God get to set the standards for how we live?
Genesis 1:26-28
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth,and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
Matthew 19:4-6
4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female, 5 and he also said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
- What do these two passages tell us about how God created humanity?
- How is this teaching unpopular today?
- What does it mean that we our made in the image of God?
- What are the things God has called man and woman to do?
- Why is marriage sacred to God?
- What are some ways you can reflect the image of God to others?
Apply it!
- What is one thing you can do this week to draw closer to the Lord?
Memorize it!
Colossians 2:8
Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.
Prayer TACOS
Thank God for giving us His Word so we have a guide for what is true
Adoration Worship the Lord for creating us in His image
Confess to the times you’ve allowed the world’s way of thinking to take precedence over what God says
Others Pray for someone who is lost in their thinking. Ask the Lord for wisdom on how you can speak to them in love this week
Self Ask the Lord to show you any areas of your life where your ideas and actions don’t line up with His truth
Closing Thoughts
The week after Easter, a church who had been meeting in other places, finally opened a building of their own. The Evansville 411 Facebook page made a post about it with pictures of the new facility, talking about the plans of having a community center within the church building so people can come during the week to enjoy the coffee shop and indoor playground. The comments section was interesting to say the least.
However, one individual picture from the post got several comments, while no one commented on the other pictures. It was a picture of the outside of the restrooms with the typical male/female bathroom symbols indicating which side was for guys and which was for girls. Several comments were removed, but there were negative comments about the church being against transgender people because they were affirming only two genders. One comment said, “Is there a gender neutral or family option, since one of the photos they picked is of the bathroom? Seems pointed…”
I’m not sure that this church was trying to make a political statement with their bathroom picture, but it turned into one. Increasingly the teaching and culture of the world is becoming more accepted, and the things of God are decreasing. For the Bible to say, “God created them male and female,” in some circles would be considered hate speech.
As Paul warned the Colossians to not be taken up by empty philosophies of the world, we should take this to heart. What is the world teaching about sexuality, identity, and reality? Do these things line up with what God, our Creator says? If not, what is different? And then the bigger question: How do followers of Jesus speak the truth in love to those who teach against God’s Word?