Twisting the Truth Bible Study Participant's Guide: Learning to Discern in a Culture of Deception - Softcover

Stanley, Andy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0310287669 ISBN 13: 9780310287667

Publisher: HarperChristian Resources, 2008

Synopsis

Join Andy Stanley for Twisting the Truth, a six-session small group Bible study developed to help you and your group understand how truth can get twisted and distorted, and how that impacts your life.

Throughout the study Stanley exposes four destructive and all-too-prevalent lies about authority, pain, sex, and sin. They’re deceptions powerful enough to ruin our relationships, our lives, even our eternities―but only if we let them.

With his gift for straight, to-the-heart communication, Andy Stanley helps us exchange falsehoods for truths that can turn our lives completely around.

This Participant Guide is filled with helpful discussion starters, video overviews, space for writing down thoughts, a helpful Leader’s Guide and much more. It’s designed to be used with the companion Twisting the Truth DVD (sold separately) which features six 10-15 minute live teaching sessions from Andy Stanley.

Sessions include:
1. The Sound of Deception
2. All Is Not as It Seems
3. Says Who?
4. Facing Forward
5. It’s Only Physical
6. It’s No Mistake

About this title

About the Author

Communicator, author, and pastor Andy Stanley founded Atlanta-based North Point Ministries (NPM) in 1995. Today, NPM consists of eight churches in the Atlanta area and a network of 180 churches around the globe that collectively serve over 200,000 people weekly. As host of Your Move with Andy Stanley, which delivers over 10.5 million messages each month through television, digital platforms, and podcasts, and author of more than 20 books, including Irresistible; Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets; and Deep & Wide, Andy is considered one of the most influential pastors in America.

From the Back Cover

Unraveling the Lies That Twist Our Lives
In six insight-packed sessions, Andy Stanley exposes four destructive and all-too-prevalent lies about authority, pain, sex, and sin. They're deceptions powerful enough to ruin our relationships, our lives, even our eternities--but only if we let them. Including both a small group DVD and participant's guide that work together, Twisting the Truth untwists the lies that can drag us down. With his gift for straight, to-the-heart communication, Andy Stanley helps us exchange falsehoods for truths that can turn our lives completely around.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Twisting the Truth Participant's Guide

Learning to Discern in a Culture of DeceptionBy Andy Stanley

Zondervan

Copyright © 2008 North Point Ministries, Inc.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-28766-7

Contents

Introduction: Invisible World by Andy Stanley.....................5Session 1: The Source of Deception................................9Session 2: All Is Not as It Seems.................................19Session 3: Says Who?..............................................29Session 4: Facing Forward.........................................39Session 5: It's Only Physical.....................................51Session 6: It's No Mistake........................................61Leader's Guide....................................................69

Chapter One

THE SOURCE OF DECEPTION

Doctors and scientists once believed that diseases just "popped up" spontaneously with no explainable cause.

Then, in the 1800s, Louis Pasteur and others confirmed the presence of invisible organisms that carried disease. These microorganisms can be found everywhere - in the air, in our food, and on all kinds of surfaces. They represent an invisible world constantly impacting the visible world, bringing infection and illness and even death.

The Bible tells us about another unseen world that constantly impacts us in harmful ways. Jesus gives us specific insight into it, and his explanation is unsettling, almost disturbing.

But maybe it can also be helpful. Maybe it explains some things. Maybe it's something we need to learn to factor into our struggles with temptation and in our difficulties in relationships and in marriage and in our families.

DISCUSSION STARTER

Talk about a time in the past when you were deceived by someone, or you fell for some hoax or trick. What was the reason behind the deception? Could you have avoided it? If so, how?

In general, how susceptible to deception do you consider yourself to be?

VIDEO OVERVIEW

FOR SESSION 1 OF THE DVD

In the gospel of John, we get Jesus' take on an unseen world. He was having a conversation with religious leaders who refused to recognize who he was, although his words and actions proved that he'd come from God. Jesus let them know why they were unable to recognize him: "Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire" (John 8:43-44).

Jesus went on to describe the devil this way: "He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (8:44).

Jesus was saying, "Why don't you get it? It's because there's a deceiver, the devil, the source and originator of all lies. And you've been so influenced by his power that your thinking is too twisted to recognize me."

So Jesus believed in the personal existence of the devil, whose ultimate agenda was the destruction of human life and whose tool is deception - distorting and twisting truth. He can persuade human beings that what's right is wrong and what's wrong is right. It devastates our hearts and minds, and sometimes even our bodies. It wrecks relationships, marriages, families, and anything that's truly valuable to the human race.

Jesus later referred to the devil as "the prince of this world" (John 12:31 and 14:30). This corresponds to an earlier confrontation between Jesus and the devil. Having come to tempt Jesus, the devil "led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to'" (Luke 4:5-6).

In an important sense, our world is currently the devil's domain, where he has been given authority to use deception in trying to accomplish his destructive agenda.

Scary, isn't it? But maybe it helps explain the intensity of our struggles with temptation and our inconsistency in doing what we know - in our saner moments - is right. Something invisible is impacting everything we do and see.

VIDEO NOTES _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. In what ways are you affected by things you can't see (e.g., germs, electricity, the wind)?

2. How does our culture portray the devil? 3. What is your understanding of who the devil is?

4. What do we learn about the devil from Jesus in John 8:43-44?

5. Read Luke 4:5-6. Does it surprise you that God has granted the devil temporary influence on the world around us? Why would God allow this?

6. How has the devil's influence been felt in this world?

MILEPOSTS

The Bible assures us of the devil's existence and that this world is under his influence.

The devil is a murderer, and his agenda is the destruction of human life and all that is good in human life.

To accomplish this agenda, the devil's tool is deception. He is a liar and the source and originator of lies.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Twisting the Truth Participant's Guideby Andy Stanley Copyright © 2008 by North Point Ministries, Inc.. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperChristian Resources
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0310287669
• ISBN 13: 9780310287667
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96