Sold Out Religion

Sunday, July 12, 2015
Micah 3:5-12 NIV

5 This is what the LORD says: "As for the prophets who lead my people astray, they proclaim 'peace' if they have something to eat, but prepare to wage war against anyone who refuses to feed them. 6 Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them. 7 The seers will be ashamed and the diviners disgraced. They will all cover their faces because there is no answer from God." 8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin. 9 Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; 10 who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. 11 Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the LORD's support and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No disaster will come upon us." 12 Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What did the Lord have to say about the false prophets? (v.5)
2) What did the Lord say would befall the false prophets, seers, and diviners? (v.6-7)
3) What did the Prophet Micah proclaim about himself (his character)? (v.8)
4) What did Micah proclaim about the wicked leaders (including prophets) of the people of God? (v.9-11)
5) What would happen to the people of God because of their wicked leaders? (v.12)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
6) Have you ever encountered, or heard of, a leaders in your church who was more concerned about him/herself than the people of God?

LIFE LESSONS
7) There are leaders among the flock of God who are false because they are more concerned about personal gain than they are about the people of God. 
8)Those who listen to (follow) leaders, motived by self serving gain, may be as deceived as they are unless their trust is in God and in His word alone.

Sincere and Pure Devotion

Wednesday, May 13, 2015
2 Corinthians 11:1-5 KJV

1 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in [my] folly: and indeed bear with me. 2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present [you as] a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him]. 5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What does the Apostle Paul ask the reader to do? Why? (v.1-2)
2) What did the apostle fear? (3-4)
3) What does Paul remind the reader(s) of? (v.5)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
4) Have you ever heard a different gospel than the one that you believe? If so, what, if anything, did you do to correct the false teaching for others who listened to it?

LIFE LESSONS
5) The gospel message is that we are saved by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus' death, burial and ressurrection to save us from our sins.