Series Resources

sermon-based study guide

This guide is designed to guide a group discussion around the weekend sermon. You can also use this as an individual, but we highly recommend finding a friend and inviting them to discuss with you. Menlo Church has Life Groups meeting in-person and online using these guides. We’d love to help you find a group.

What you will find in this guide: A discussion guide for groups and individuals. If you are using this as an individual be sure to engage with each question in a journal or simply in your mind as you prayerfully consider what you heard in the sermon and seek to discover what God is inviting you to know and do.

Study Guide: Deconstructing Deconstruction

Connect

How often do you second-guess yourself? Why?
What’s one thing you no longer believe about God that you believed when you were younger? What changed your mind?
What about God do you hope is true? Why?

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Engage

Read Matthew 19:16-26

What did the young man in this passage have and what did he lack?
What metaphor did Jesus use in verse 24? Why do you think he chose that metaphor?
How did the disciples respond?
What does this passage ultimately reveal about humankind’s relationship with God?

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Apply

Share about a time you experienced doubt in your faith journey and it resulted in spiritual growth. What happened?
Where do you honestly see glimpses of hypocrisy in your life? What might God be prompting you to do about it?
When have politics gotten in the way of your pursuit of Jesus?
What is one step you can take this week to build upon a foundation of faith on the person and work of Jesus?

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Prayer

Have someone in your group close with this prayer:

God, we confess that we have doubts that are not reflective of you but of our frail humanity. Help us not give in to doubt, hypocrisy or divisive politics, but to build a foundation of faith on Jesus. We confess that we cannot do this on our own, because apart from you we can do nothing, but with you anything is possible. We thank you for the gift of faith and ask for your power to continue the hard work of accurately forming our beliefs about you, our good and faithful God. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Going Deeper

The Rest of the Story Resources:

Go to this website to see all the resources for this series including a guide for Lectio Divina. https://menlo.church/the-rest-of-the-story

Menlo Midweek Podcast:

Tune in every Wednesday for a conversation with the previous week’s speaker. It’s a deeper dive into the message and an engaging time to learn, reflect, grow—and have fun.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/menlo-church-sermon-podcast/id129950807

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