Speaker: Pastor Jay Childs
Scripture: Daniel 4
Series: Daniel: Finding Hope in Our Faithful God
- God Is Great in His Warnings (vv. 1-18)
- God Is Great in His Wrath (vv. 19-33)
- God Is Great in All His Mercy (vv. 34-37)
Discussion Questions
Download the discussion questions as a printable PDF file.
GETTING TO KNOW ME
- Pride. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear this word? Is it positive or negative?
- Humility. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear this word? What does our current culture say about pride and humility?
- Do you think you struggle with pride? Share with your group: why or why not?
INTO THE BIBLE
- Read Daniel 4:1-18. What is the specific warning here?
- What is your definition of pride?
- Read 1 Corinthians 4 (the entire chapter). What is Paul rebuking them for? Be specific.
- Read Isaiah 14:12-15. Whom is God speaking to? Clues? What is being said? Why?
- Read Ezekiel 28:14-19 and answer the above questions.
- Read Philippians 2:1-11. Discuss the lessons of Jesus’ humility.
- Read Mark 10:45. What are the implications for us? Where are you others?
- What are the subtle disguises of pride in our lives? Be creative.
- Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-30. How is this an antidote for pride? Be specific.
- Read Isaiah 40:21-25 and answer the same question.
APPLICATION
Discuss this quote from The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis. It is a senior demon writing a fictitious letter to his nephew—a younger, inexperienced demon.
You must therefore conceal from the believer the true end of humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character . . . By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible. To anticipate the Enemy’s strategy (i.e. God), we must consider His aims. The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the, fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another.
— LETTER #14