This Week’s Experience – 6/9/2024

Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rest in the law, boast in God, know His
will, and approve the things that are superior, being instructed from the law,
and if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light to those in
darkness, an instructor of the ignorant, a teacher of the immature, having the
full expression of knowledge and truth in the law—you then, who teach
another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach, “You must not steal”—do
you steal? You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit
adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob their temples? You who boast in
the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written: The
name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. For
circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a lawbreaker,
your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore if an uncircumcised
man keeps the law’s requirements, will his uncircumcision not be counted as
circumcision? A man who is physically uncircumcised, but who fulfills the law,
will judge you who are a lawbreaker in spite of having the letter of the law
and circumcision. For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true
circumcision is not something visible in the flesh. On the contrary, a person is
a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart—by the Spirit, not
the letter. That man’s praise is not from men but from God.

-Romans 2:17-29

Authentic belief in God is knowing Christ personally, being focused on being
rather than doing, and seeking after God’s praise.

Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rest in the law, boast in God, know His will.

-Romans 2:17-18a

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.

-Matthew 7:21

You who say, “You must not commit adultery”—do you commit adultery? You
who detest idols, do you rob their temples? You who boast in the law, do you
dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written: The name of God is
blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

-Romans 2:22-24

Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk,
those with sink diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and
the poor are told the good news.

-Matthew 11:4-5

For circumcision benefits you if you observe the law, but if you are a
lawbreaker, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

-Romans 2:25

I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is
against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what
you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

-Galatians 5:16-18

Therefore if an uncircumcised man keeps the law’s requirements, will his
uncircumcision not be counted as circumcision?

-Romans 2:26

But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you or go back and not follow
you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your
people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will
die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me, and do so severely, if
anything but death separates you and me.

-Ruth 1:16-17

A man who is physically uncircumcised, but who fulfills the law, will judge you
who are a lawbreaker in spite of having the letter of the law and circumcision.

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, and true circumcision is not
something visible in the flesh.

-Romans 2:27-28

And I say to you, anyone who acknowledges Me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God, but whoever denies Me
before men will be denied before the angels of God.

-Luke 12:8-9

On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is
of the heart—by the Spirit, not the letter. That man’s praise is not from men
but from God.

-Romans 2:29

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me. If you know Me, you will also know My Father.
From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”

-John 14:6-7

Authentic belief in God is knowing Christ personally, being focused on being
rather than doing, and seeking after God’s praise.

LIFE APPLICATION
To discuss during the week with your family, Life Group, or Campus.

1. Talk about a time when your faith wasn’t authentic. How did that make you feel? What changed so you didn’t live that
way any longer?

2. In what way(s) can you be better at being rather than doing?

3. Which scripture most stood out to you in this message?

4. What else stood out to you in this message?

5. What next step is Jesus asking you to take as a result of this
message?