God Will Not Be Mocked

In one paragraph

Brian opened with a time-sensitive reason to pause the current series on identity and calling: a month of pride events beginning June 1 in Israel, including a festival near the Dead Sea. The conversation used Isaiah 5 as a launching pad to talk about God's covenant relationship with Israel, his pattern of discipline throughout history, and what that pattern might mean for what is unfolding right...

Read together

1. Isaiah 5:1-7 read aloud by a congregation member as the main launching passage, describing God's vineyard as the house of Israel
2. Exodus 4:22 cited to establish God calling Israel his firstborn son, introducing the father-child relationship
3. Hebrews 12:5-6 quoted to show that the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father does a child he accepts
4. Isaiah 5:13-16 read to show the consequence of Israel's rebellion, including exile and humiliation
5. Galatians 6:7 quoted directly as the sermon's title verse, stating God will not be mocked and you harvest what you plant
6. Jeremiah 30 a lengthy passage read on screen describing the time of Jacob's trouble and Israel's ultimate discipline and future salvation

Talk about it

1. Brian described the discipline of the Lord as always being exactly the right amount of force needed to get your attention and bring you back to him. Has there been a moment in your own life when you recognized God's discipline? What did that feel like, and how did you respond?
2. Brian said that God's primary method of chastising Israel throughout history has been removal from the land, and that he always sends prophets first before that happens. Looking at that pattern, what does it tell you about God's character as a father?
3. Brian shared the story of pressing forward with his Holy Spirit curriculum despite his wife's warning and the Holy Spirit's prompting, and said delayed obedience is disobedience. Where in your own life have you heard a clear warning and pushed ahead anyway, and what happened?
4. One person in the room said that people at festivals like the Nova Festival or the upcoming Prideland event are searching for something, and that they are right for the picking for the gospel because of that hunger. Do you agree with that way of seeing it, and what would it look like practically to pray for those people this month?
5. Brian asked whether we can have empathy, not just sympathy, for Israel's waywardness by looking back at our own seasons of rebellion before we knew the Lord. What makes that kind of empathy hard, and what gets in the way of extending to others the same grace God extended to us?