Mark 10:13-16

  • Mark 10:18

The kingdom of God is for the weak, the helpless, and the unimportant.

Unless you receive the kingdom of God on that basis, you will never enter it.

  • Mark 7:32

  • Psalm 51:4-5

  1. Is it difficult for you to respect those whose standards aren’t as high as yours?

  2. Do you feel that you’re better than most people?

  3. Do you get angry when difficulties and suffering come into your life?

  4. Are you painfully preoccupied with a particular habitual sin?

  5. Do you frequently experience anxiety that something’s about to go wrong?

  6. Do you steer clear of intimate relationships or small-group discussions?

  7. Do you seldom think of the cross?

Discussion questions:

  1. In what speciic ways do you struggle to receive your identity by grace, instead attempting to achieve that identity through self-righteousness effort?

  2. Consider again the diagnostic questions shared in the message. How can/do these questions reveal tendencies toward self-righteousness in you? (How do they reveal small, subtle ways you are attempting to pass the entrance requirements into Christ’s kingdom through your own merit/achieve your identity in Christ?)

    Is it dificult for you to respect those whose standards aren’t as high as yours? Do you feel that you’re better than most people? Do you get angry when dificulties and suffering come into your life? Are you painfully preoccupied with a particular habitual sin?  Do you frequently experience anxiety that something’s about to go wrong? Do you steer clear of intimate relationships or small-group discussions? Do you seldom think of the cross? 

  3. How can we better apply the gospel to our own hearts, so that we can defeat our self-righteous tendencies and receive the kingdom like a child?