What Forms You?

Message Study Questions

Message Summary

Following Jesus is more like an apprenticeship that we live out with three key goals: being with Jesus, becoming like Him, and doing as He did.

But we have a problem. We are living in a modern digital Babylon which opposes these goals.

The message given to God’s people in Jeremiah 29 also applies to us today: build, increase, seek peace and prosperity, but don’t be deceived. God’s promises will be fulfilled.

If you seek God with all your heart, you will find Him. However, many people of God are led astray by deception. Instead of seeking God, we seek the things of this world. We let Babylon win and conquer us. God says we can enjoy the things of this life while seeking God first. But what does that look like in our life today? Enter Jesus. Jesus, God in the flesh, came to die on the cross to grant forgiveness and restore our relationship with God. This reconciliation is a gift that must be received by faith and is accompanied by the command to follow Jesus. Following Jesus is a way of life that we adopt. We seek Jesus; He forms us, and we become like Him.

1. Think about it. Who or what are you really following? Why?
   

2. What are you becoming?
   

Consider This

What you are seeking in life will form you. It will direct your life and shape you.

1. What’s forming you? What affects the way you think and behave the most?
   

2. Can you share some ways that you are vulnerable to deception?
   

3. What are you seeking for the most in your daily life?
   

   • Why do you seek the things you do?
   • How does that align with your relationship with God?
     

4. Read Genesis 1:26-27, and 1 John 4:16. God made people in His image. God is love. He is relational, intimate, and unconditionally giving. People need God’s love, His approval and significance because they are made in His image.

   • List some ways people try to fill that legitimate need for love apart from God?

   • Which ways are you most tempted to find your significance apart from God?

5. Read John 8:44, 2 Corinthians 11:14, and Rev 12:9. The Deception, this current world system, the digital Babylon we live in, seeks to fill those needs with cheap counterfeits. Satan is the great deceiver and his goal is our destruction ().

   • According to 1 John 2:16, what three primary things does the digital Babylon use to deceive us and lead us toward destruction?

   • Give some practical examples today.

6. Why do you think music has such a powerful pull on our way of thinking and feeling?
   How else does the world conform our thinking to Babylon?

7. Why do you think that personal prayer to God is so important?

8. List some things that hinder you from practicing a rhythm of prayer in your life?

9. List some habits that shape you. Which draws you closer to Jesus, which takes you farther away?

Moving Forward – Application

What you seek will form you and that is what you will become.
When Satan dangles baubles before your eyes, you will become like the world if you follow after them.

1. Can you prayerfully pick one habit to change (add, delete, or modify) this week?

2. Prayer is powerful. Being a follower (a disciple) of Jesus requires prayer. How can you develop or reinforce a daily prayer rhythm in your life this week?

   • List some examples of times and places where you can talk to God

   • What part does God’s word, particularly the prayers recorded there (example Psalm 143), have during your conversations with God?

3. How can you cultivate quiet moments and places where you can listen to God this week?

4. Over the next week, prayerfully read the following Psalms: 1, 23, 37, 40, 42-43, 63, 84, 86, 103, and 139, expecting on each one to hear something special that God is saying to you.

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 NLT2