Study Questions - Bible Discovery [27]

Date: October 24, 2004
Passage: Jeremiah 29:4-14
Message: Living in the Real World
Series: Bible Discovery [27]

Share a time when you knew you were out of control or out of sorts or out of your comfort zone?
How did you cope with it?
Did, being a Christian, make a difference? Why / why not?

1. Read v4-6 - Jeremiah is writing to Jewish exiles who thought that their circumstances were just a temporary setback and in a short while things would get back to “normal’. In other words they were just waiting for God to take control and return things back to the way they “should “be.

In what ways do we often think like that?
What are some of the things we think God “should” and “shouldn’t” do?
What makes faith hard to flourish for you where you find yourself at the moment?
What would you love to change?
Pray for one another to exercise faith where you are, and the way things are NOW.

2. Read v7 – Jeremiah challenges these exiles to bless those around them.
“It is one of the lost secrets of the Church.
We have thought that our greatest fulfilment comes through great worship, great preaching or great spiritual experiences.
But the greatest blessing in being a Christian comes when we are a blessing to people around us!”
Discuss
Do we believe it? Why/ why not?

Read Matthew 5:13-14
Put that in your own words.
Describe what you think that would look like in our cultural context.

3. Read v8-14 – These exiles had prophets making wild promises that they would be back home soon. See Jeremiah 28:2-4 They were not speaking for God or from God. See Jeremiah 28:15

“One of the great downfalls of religion as such is that it has both extremes.
It can be the means of great hope or great delusion!
Over the centuries it has brought incomparable comfort and inconsolable disillusionment!”
Discuss

How can we identify where and when this is happening in our day?

“What we often misunderstand is that the good news is not that there is an absence of bad news!”
Discuss
What is the good news that we have to share?