Turn the Cat Around Week 1 - Turn and Live

In one paragraph

Brian opened this service by sharing what is happening at Asbury College in Kentucky, where a chapel service turned into an ongoing time of prayer, worship, and repentance that people are calling a revival. That conversation led into a new sermon series called "Turn the Cat Around," drawn from Ezekiel 18, which pressed the question of what it looks like to stop asking God to conform to us and...

Read together

1. Psalm 34:1-8 read aloud during worship as a blessing to the congregation
2. Ezekiel 18:23-32 main preaching text for the series, on God calling Israel to repent and turn from wickedness
3. John 4:23-24 quoted during worship discussion about true worshippers worshipping in spirit and truth
4. Hebrews 12:1 read during offering time about stripping off every weight and sin that trips us up
5. Hebrews 12:7-10 read during offering time about God disciplining his children as a good father
6. Hebrews 12:11 read during offering time about discipline producing a peaceful harvest of right living
7. John 16:33 briefly cited to note that Jesus said hard times would come

What was said

• Ask the Lord to show you one specific area where you are resisting him, and then spend a few quiet minutes actually listening for an answer.
• Write down whatever it is you are still reaching back toward from your past, and then physically set that paper aside as an act of letting it go.
• Sign up on the fridge at Tribe to join the Wind River VBS trip June 25 through 28.
• If you need help releasing something you named during the service, reach out to someone from the prayer team this week rather than waiting until next Sunday.
• Read Ezekiel 18:23-32 on your own and sit with the question God asks there: why would you choose to stay the way you are?

Talk about it

1. Brian talked about the revival at Asbury and described a tension between pursuing God earnestly and recognizing that a genuine move of God cannot be manufactured or forced. Where do you find yourself in that tension, and what does it look like in your own life to stay hungry without trying to control the outcome?
2. Renee shared that what sparked the Asbury revival seemed to start with someone standing up and confessing openly where they were falling short. Is there something about that kind of public honesty that feels uncomfortable to you, and what do you think holds people back from it?
3. Brian said that in the days ahead, following Jesus will be less complicated but more costly. What does that mean to you personally, and can you think of an area in your own life where that is already proving true?
4. The passage from Ezekiel 18 shows Israel telling God that his way is not fair, and God responding by holding firm. Brian asked why it should actually be a comfort that God only pets one way. How would you answer that, and has there been a time when God not bending to what you wanted turned out to be a good thing?
5. Brian described the danger of staying at the foot of the mountain the way Aaron did, saying that if we refuse to be changed by God we end up reshaping our idea of God to fit what we want, which he called casting the mold of an idol. Can you think of a way, even a subtle one, that you have done that in your own thinking about God?