Childish Games

In one paragraph

Brian walked the Tribe fam through Luke 7:24-35, where Jesus compares the Pharisees and religious experts to children who refuse to play along no matter what song their friends sing. The conversation circled around a single, pointed idea: the problem was never the messenger or the method. It was a settled resistance to the truth itself. Jesus addresses the Pharisees and teachers of religious law...

Read together

1. Luke 7:24-35 main passage read aloud and discussed throughout the sermon
2. James (chapter not specified) cited for the warning that hearing God's word without obeying it leads to self-deception

What was said

• Read Luke 7:24-35 slowly this week and notice what details grab your attention before drawing any conclusions.
• When you find yourself forming a judgment about a person or idea, ask whether you are looking at the whole picture or only a carefully clipped piece of it.
• Sit with the phrase Brian offered from the passage, 'It's not the tune you reject, it's the truth you resist,' and honestly ask yourself whether there is a truth you have been treating as casual.
• Practice beginning your time in Scripture or prayer by setting aside your preconceived opinions and asking God for his truth even if it corrects you.
• Do a word count on a passage you are reading this week and see which words repeat, then ask what the writer is trying to drive home.

Talk about it

1. Brian pointed out that the word 'reject' in the Greek can mean to treat something as casual or to dismiss it without taking it seriously. Where in your own life have you noticed yourself doing that with something God was saying to you, not outright refusing it, but just setting it to the side?
2. Brian said, 'It's not the tune you reject, it's the truth you resist.' John came with strictness and people pushed back. Jesus came with joy and people pushed back. What does it look like when we find reasons to push back on God's messengers no matter how they come to us?
3. Jesus used a children's playground song to address the most educated religious people in the room. Why do you think he went that direction instead of matching them on their own intellectual level, and what does that choice say about what he thought was really going on with them?
4. Brian described people who stand on the outside and clip pieces of someone's life to judge the whole person, rather than looking at the whole picture. How do we guard against doing that, with people we disagree with, with Scripture, or even with God himself?
5. Brian described two ways people relate to God: coming to him open to his truth, or coming with your conclusions already set and trying to win him over to your side. Which of those patterns do you recognize more in yourself, and what would it actually look like to change that?