Opening Question: What is you favorite fast food restaurant and Why?
Main Idea – sometimes we can treat Christianity like a fast food restaurant.
(1) In And Out (Be turning to Acts 2:40-47)
– What makes it hard to get IN early to church? (It’s hard to get OUT of bed on Sunday morning! Why is that?)
– What are some excuses you’ve made to avoid going IN to church or to get OUT of going? What makes us feel that way?
– Why would you stick around (or stay IN the church) afterwards? What are some excuses you’ve made to get OUT and get elsewhere (home/etc) as soon as church was done? What are some things that have made you feel like getting OUT right after service?
Read: Acts 2:40-37
– What does church mean in general? To God? To You? To Christ? What should “church” look like? Should we “in and out?”
– How did these people feel about church? Why do you think they felt that way? What can help us feel this way about church?
(2) Burger King (Be turning to 2 Timothy 4:2-4)
- We do it like you do it when we do it like we do it at Burger King! (From an old Burger King advertising jingle from the 1980’s)
- How can we make church like Burger King? (We want church our way! “Have it your way!” – another BK jingle.)
- Read: 2 Timothy 4:2-4
- A great number of teachers to do what? Why do we want to have our ears scratched? What are some things we want to say are “ok” that the bible says are not? (Sexual immorality, drunkenness, lying, not paying taxes, etc)
- Read: Luke 9:23
- If we are going to follow Jesus, what will it take? Can we do what we want to do when we want to do it? Can we have it our way?
- Anecdote: If that’s how we treat Christianity, we’re in for a whopper of a surprise…and it’ll be flame broiled…
(3) Claim Jumper (Please turn to Matthew 7:21)
Read: Matthew 7:21
– What claim were they jumping? (They laid CLAIM to salvation, but were rejected by Jesus! They were JUMP-ing to conclusions based on casting out demons, working miracles, and prophesying in Jesus’ name…)
Read: Proverbs 14:12 (Claim something we believe is right, insist it is, and jump to a conclusion…)
– Proverbs 16:25 (Why say the same thing twice?!)
– Proverbs 12:15 (What we need? Some advice! From whom?)
– John 12:48 & Acts 17:10-11 (The word will judge us – we need to live according to it! We must check the claims of religious people, we need to check the conclusions we’ve jumped to as well by examining the scriptures!)
(4) The Godfather’s Pizza
Old school deep dish “Chicago Style” pizza. Our heavenly Father’s word is deep. It’s the dish.
Read: Matthew 4:4 (What does the word feed? Our soul! Will you fight for flavor in your Christianity or will you settle for cardboard coated with cheap sauce? Of course this point in the discussion is a bit cheesy!)
It’s time to engage at church and not just pop in and out! We need to go after denying our self and doing it God’s way, not our way making Jesus King, not Burger King. We must not lay claim to truth, salvation, or a relationship with God because we’ve jumped to conclusions. It’s time to be noble like the Bereans were and jump into the scriptures and examine the claims that they make!
