Part 2Orienting Our Hearts Toward Joy

Question 1: In this week’s sermon (Advent, pt.2), Pastor Tim reviews last week’s main points about love. If you didn’t get the chance to discuss any of the below questions on love from last week’s study guide, choose one and discuss it now.

Question 3 (Last week): Discuss whether or not you agree with the following statement:

Faith, hope and love are internal realities that our souls experience and possess. Therefore, because they are inherently internal within a person, you cannot tell if that person possesses them unless those realities are demonstrated outwardly in the person’s life. Works are the outward demonstration of faith. Endurance is the outward demonstration of hope. And sacrifice is the outward demonstration of love.

Question 4 (Last week): There are over 600 laws given in the law of Moses (Torah). The ten commandments are an illustrative-summary list of these 600+ laws. Furthermore, the two greatest laws (Loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself) are a summary of the ten commandments. Loving God and neighbor are the first and second greatest commandment not because they are more important than the ten commandments or all the other commandments in the Bible, but because they are a summation of those commandments. Knowing this makes us thankful that Christ fulfilled the law for us. The law demands we live a perfect life. So, He lived that life for us. The law demands we die if we don’t live that perfect life. So, He died that death for us. Therefore, Christ fulfilled the law for us. So, what does the New Testament mean when it calls us to fulfill the law ourselves (Romans 13:8, 10)? Does Christ fulfill the law for us, or are we supposed to do it? (Only after you have had a robust, mind-bending conversation are you allowed to look at Galatians 2:20 for insight. )

Question 5 (Last week): After teaching that the greatest commandment is to love God, Jesus then says, “and the second is like it” (Matthew 22:39), and then He exhorts us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. What does Jesus mean when He says this, that the second commandment is like the first commandment? Obviously, they both involve love. But in what way is loving a human being like loving God? (Side note: these verses completely dismantle anyone’s argument that it’s possible to love God, but not the church.)

Question 2: Pastor Tim talked about the world’s false view of joy. Sometimes believers can get disillusioned when they see evil people in the world so happy, joyful and prosperous (especially when they themselves are suffering). Just read some of the following verses: Psalm 73:3-12, Job 12:6, 21:7-15, and Malachi 3:13-15. What sort of truths should a disillusioned believer remind himself of when he encounters the “joy” of unbelievers?

Question 3: John Piper teaches that learning to rejoice in the Lord and being satisfied in Him should be the priority of our lives, even before all other commands. Is the biblical command to rejoice just as important of a command (if not more) as commands like “do not commit adultery” or “serve one another?” Discuss.

Question 4: The great illustration of a redeemed person’s life is the Israelites in the wilderness. Pastor Tim talked about this concept of “joy in the wilderness.” The redeemed are, as Pastor Tim notes, a sorrowful people (2 Corinthians 6:10). Why? First, there are certain comforts we used to rely on during our “former days in Egypt” (Numbers 11:4-6) – false comforts the Lord has called us away from. In choosing to leave Egypt, as Moses did, we have chosen to leave “the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25). And so, we find ourselves in the wilderness – a place where we can’t enjoy the true joys of the Promised Land (because we’re not there yet), and we can’t even enjoy the false joys of Egypt. How should this illustration form our worldview? How does it change the way we live? And how can it actually produce joy and endurance?