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Bible Study: Sept. 23, 2018


NASHVILLE (BP) — This weekly Bible study appears in Baptist Press in a partnership with LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Through its Leadership and Adult Publishing team, LifeWay publishes Sunday School curricula and additional resources for all age groups.

This week’s Bible study is adapted from the MasterWork curriculum.

Bible Passages: Romans 8:29-30; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Discussion Questions:
— How might the average person on the street answer if asked, “What does God really want from all of us?”
— How would you answer the question, “What does God want from me?”
— What would you identify as the basics of Christian discipleship? How well or how poorly do you practice these basics?

Food for thought:

Vince Lombardi, the legendary head football coach of the Green Bay Packers for most of the 1960s, reportedly started training camp by holding up the pigskin and stating, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” From there they would move on to the elementary principles of blocking, tackling, running, throwing, and catching.

These were professional athletes, a team Lombardi five times took to league championships and led to Super Bowl victories the first two years that game existed. They were obviously no slouch of a team. The players had played the game for years, at the highest levels possible, and had become quite accomplished at the skills necessary to win games. Yet when it came time to begin preparations for a new season, Lombardi took them back to the basics, to the very fundamentals a first-year player in an entry-level league would cover. What a concept!

Sometimes in the Christian life if we’re not careful, we can fall into the trap of allowing our growth in Christ to plateau, to stagnate. We don’t lose our salvation, obviously, but our walk with the Lord has turned into a crawl, or perhaps a slide. In those times, we can be tempted to think that what we need to jumpstart our spiritual development is a more engaging preacher, a more dynamic worship service, or the latest and greatest study we’ve heard about from our friends in other churches.

We look outward for the solution to our inward heart problem.

In this week’s study from “Boring,” author Michael Kelley urges us to get back to the basics, to commit afresh to Christian disciplines that help us become more like Jesus. Kelley urges us to drop those things that hinder and hold us back from being the disciples, the followers of Jesus, we need to be. He reminds us that God’s plan for us is the same as it has been for believers before us — “to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). And he challenges us to return to the basics of Christian discipleship by faithfully spending personal time with God day after day.

MasterWork
MasterWork is an ongoing Bible study curriculum based on works from a variety of renowned authors and offers pertinent, practical messages that adults will find uplifting and enriching. The list of authors and their books to be studied in upcoming months can be found at www.lifeway.com/masterwork.

Other ongoing Bible study options for all ages offered by LifeWay can be found at LifeWay.com/SundaySchool or ordered at LifeWay Christian Stores.

    About the Author

  • Staff/Lifeway Christian Resources