Sermon Response Guide
PRIMARY SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 73 ESV
Key Points
- A wrong-sized comparison of ourselves to others can cause us to:
1) Exaggerate opinions
2) Diminish truth - A right-sized comparison of ourselves to God can catapult us into:
1) Compassion toward others who know God and those who don’t
2) Confession before God and people
3) Praise for who God is and what God has done
4) Hope in God as rescue and refuge
Memory Verse
Ask God to write this word on your heart this week:
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”
-Psalm 73:25 ESV
Questions for Reflection
Take time to reflect and respond to these questions on your own in the presence of the Holy Spirit, or with trusted friends or family members:
1: Was there ever a time you got a right-sized view of God that catapulted you into compassion, confession, praise, and/or hope?
- What do you remember about that experience?
2: When we compare ourselves to people we envy, we have a way of exaggerating their success.
- How have you seen this happen in your own life?
3: When we compare ourselves to people we think are getting away with evil, we frequently exaggerate our own righteousness?
- When was the last time you did this?
4: When we compare God’s blessing in our lives with God’s blessing in the lives of others, we wind up diminishing God’s gifts to us along with the giver: God.
- When was a time you went through something like this?
5: When we compare ourselves as believers to those who are not yet believers, we often diminish their contributions to society.
- Why do you think we do this?
6: What is the primary truth God revealed to you today?
- How will you respond?
- Who do you know who you can encourage with the truth this week?
Pray
Lord, no one and nothing compares to you. And by your grace in Christ Jesus, we are no longer slaves to comparison. Though comparison continues to come calling with just about every breath we take, help us to hear and respond to you calling us to look to you instead. We cannot follow that which we are not watching closely. Fix our eyes and our thoughts on you, Jesus. It is for freedom you have set us free.