Next steps

Last Sunday (9/19/10) the sermon from Daniel 4:19-27 was titled, "The Danger of Pride." What are the "next steps" God will have us take in response to the Word we heard?

 

1. In what ways do you see pride as both a good and bad thing?

2. How does God show us grace when we are caught up in our pride?

3. We discussed in the sermon how Jonah Lehrer describes the effects of dopamine, how this molecule communicates with our brain cells to tell us when we feel happy or receive pleasure, how scientists discovered through their experiments on the brains of rodents that too much pleasure can be fatal. It was an accidental discovery, but by placing electrodes in several rodents' brains and making them continually excited, the rodents lost interest in everything else. They stopped eating and drinking, their courtship behavior ceased, and the rats just huddled in the corners of their cages, transfixed by pleasure. And Jonah Lehrer writes, "Within days, all of the animals had perished. They died of thirst" (How We Decide, p. 35). How can "too much pleasure" have a negative effect on our lives?

4. What questions/thoughts/convictions were raised in your mind after hearing this sermon or reading this passage? How is God speaking to you now? 

 

"Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart."
Psalm 119:33-34

Pastor Kenneth Q. James