What Makes Faith Real? · Group Guide

Discussion Questions

1. 1

   Read Matthew 6:16-18. Kent pointed out that Jesus says "when you fast," not "if" — he assumes his followers will do it. So what is Jesus actually correcting here: the practice itself, or who they were performing it for?

2. 2

   Kent refused to go to the circus at eight years old because a clown's smile is painted on, and "whatever's underneath that is not a smile." Jesus says the hypocrites disfigure their faces so their fasting will be noticed, and then adds that they have already received their reward. What reward did they get, and what did it cost them?

3. 3

   Kent quoted Howard Hendricks: it is safer to vaccinate someone with a mild case of Christianity so they never catch the real disease. What does a mild case look like from the outside? Would anyone around you be able to tell the difference?

4. 4

   An old man paid the neighborhood boys a quarter to play in his yard, then a dime, then a nickel, then nothing — and they stopped coming. Kent said we do the same thing spiritually. Where has something you once did because you wanted to become something you do because it is expected?

5. 5

   When the Queen Mary was decommissioned, workers lifted off smokestacks of three-quarter-inch steel and they crumbled — nothing left but layers of paint. Where do you suspect there is more paint than steel in your own life, and who would know it if there were?

6. 6

   Kent described fasting as a way of telling God, "I am very serious about this," and letting every stomach growl turn into a prayer. Name one thing you would be willing to go without for a day this week, and the one thing you would bring to God while you did.