We are going through a study with Bob Goff entitled Love in Chaos, this session we are gong to review the session on A Divided Culture.
Main Idea: If we want to love others the way Jesus does, we must obey his commands.
Head Change: To know that obeying God’s Word is essential to following Jesus and showing his love to the people around us.
Heart Change: To feel love the way Jesus does for everyone we encounter.
Life Change: To actively love others—no matter who they are—and serve them by obeying God’s instructions to us in his Word.
Who is the most loving person you know? Spend a few minutes describing him or her to the group.
When we think about love and what it means, we immediately think of the people who’ve modeled love for us. The same is true in our relationship with God. We are meant to learn from and emulate his love for others. But life is hard—and people are too, for that matter. In all the complexities and even chaos of life, are we really expected to engage the people around us with love? Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier to hunker down and steer clear of all the chaos of life and relationships?
In Love in Chaos, bestselling author and speaker Bob Goff will show us why engaging people with the love of Christ is exactly how we undo the chaos surrounding us. In this session, he will remind us that following the way of Jesus requires us to obey his words.
Watch Session 1: A Divided Culture (10 minutes).
There’s a lot of conflict happening right now in our culture and it’s persistently beating us up. There’s division and anger and confusion, and it seems only to be getting worse. To what degree have you sensed cultural conflicts affect your life? Do you feel “beat up” by our cultural divisions? In what ways?
Bob set the stage for who he thought might be watching this series, including those for whom faith is important and some for whom “faith is an emerging thing.” Where would you say you fall on that spectrum? How would you classify the importance of faith in your life?
Bob made an interesting claim about love. He said, if “you express love because you’ve got an agenda for other people . . . it isn’t love anymore, it’s a program.” What is your reaction to Bob’s statement? In what ways does having an agenda for someone undermine our love for them?
Bob took us from the idea of chaos being outside of us to the chaos inside of us, likening it to Paul’s words in Romans 7:19, “I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.” To what degree do you experience that conflict inside you? How do you deal with that chaos? What could you do to deal with that chaos in a healthier way?
One of Bob’s goals for this series is for us to get clarity for our actions—why we believe what we believe, talk the way we talk, work the way we work, and choose to obey God instead of disobey. Do you have clarity about why you’re doing what you’re doing? Why, or why not? What can you do to gain the clarity you’re seeking?
Bob summarized Jesus’s instruction for his followers as, “I don’t want you to be right; I want you to be like me.” What do you make of Bob’s summary? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Bob said we can’t fully understand how we’re doing until we realize how others experience us. When we begin to think beyond ourselves, we’ll ask ourselves and others different questions. Instead of “How’s life working for you?”, we’ll ask, “How is your life working for the people around you?” How would you answer Bob’s question? For what reasons might the latter question be a better indicator of how you’re really doing?
We are called to confront the chaos in our culture (division, anger, immorality) with love and obedience. In what ways do you respond to the chaos you see in the culture? What do you think it means to confront chaos with obedience? What opportunities do you have right now to be obedient in chaotic situations?
Bob told the story about a time when he confronted the chaos of his friend’s diagnosis by anointing his friend with oil from a Burger King fryer. And though his story may have seemed a bit silly, he was adamant that his obedience in that situation didn’t only impact his friend but had a lasting impact on his own heart and faith. Do you have any stories like Bob’s? If so, feel free to share it with the group. How did God use your obedience to accomplish his will in that situation? How did he use your obedience to change you?
Bob said we’re called to love people “with kindness and respect.” When we show kindness and respect to others, we pay them the dignity they deserve as God’s image bearers. What does it look like to love others with kindness and respect? How does it affect the people who receive it? Can you love others without kindness and respect? Why, or why not?
We can’t obey what Jesus says to us in the Scriptures if we don’t know what he says to us in the Scriptures. What can you do to grow more familiar with Jesus’s commands to us in the Bible? In what ways can you grow in obedience to his commands?
Love and obedience don’t happen in a vacuum. They require us to be around other people, including those who might “creep us out,” who aren’t like us, or who are “flat wrong.” Who are the people around you regularly? In what ways can you view them as people to love instead of people to fix or correct?