People Do Not Drift Towards Holiness

In one paragraph

Brad walked the group through the second half of Mark 9, the section where Jesus warns against causing others to stumble and calls His followers to radical seriousness about their own sin. The setting was a Monday night study at First Baptist Jackson, conversation style, after a meal together. Brad framed the whole passage around a simple question: do we actually take these warnings seriously?...

Read together

1. Mark 9:42-50 the main text Brad read and preached through, covering causing others to stumble, cutting off hand/foot/eye, hell, and saltiness
2. Matthew 7 Brad mentioned people quoting 'thou shalt not judge' from it, and explained the passage is actually about how to check your own heart when correcting others
3. 2 Timothy 2 Paul warns Timothy not to have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments because they produce quarrels, and to be kind and able to teach
4. Matthew 12 quoted to show that everyone will give account for every empty word spoken, and by your words you will be acquitted or condemned
5. Galatians 5:13-14 quoted to show believers were called to freedom but not to use it for the flesh, rather to serve one another through love, fulfilling the law in loving your neighbor as yourself
6. James 1:22-24 quoted about not merely listening to the word but doing it, compared to someone who sees his face in a mirror and immediately forgets what he looks like
7. Revelation 14 quoted about the smoke of torment going up forever and ever with no rest day or night, used to counter annihilationism
8. James 1:19-20 quoted as a life verse about being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires
9. Mark 9 the father of the possessed child crying out to Jesus, 'I believe, help my unbelief,' cited as a model of prayer Brad returns to consistently

Talk about it

1. Brad used the example of knowing someone is a recovering alcoholic and choosing not to drink around them as a basic picture of not causing a brother or sister to stumble. What are some other areas of life where we might need that same kind of selflessness, and what makes it hard to follow through?
2. Brad said that 'leaving the straight and narrow path is actually easier than staying on it,' and that our call is to help one another stay on it. What has it looked like in your own life when someone came alongside you and helped you stay on that path, or when you had the chance to do that for someone else?
3. Brad talked about two errors we tend to make when it comes to hell: making too much of it or too little of it. Which of those errors do you think is more common in your own thinking, and how does what Jesus actually said about it sit with you?
4. Brad pointed to the image of a tiger cub named sin: cute and manageable at first, but destructive if you keep feeding it. Where in your life do you see something small being fed that you know will grow if you are not honest about it?
5. Brad closed with the Don Carson quote about people drifting toward compromise and calling it tolerance, drifting toward disobedience and calling it freedom. He said his tendency was to point that at the culture, but that it also describes him personally. Where do you see that kind of drift happening in your own life right now, and what would 'grace driven effort' look like as a response?