CONVERSATION STARTERS
Conversation Starters help us dig deeper, connecting Sunday’s sermons with our Monday lives. These prompts have been designed to help Community Groups grow in their relationship with God, with one another, and with their neighbors. Please know that these questions are meant to be a resource to you. You do not have to follow them verbatim or get through them all. We trust you to know your group and to ask the questions based on your group needs.

1) How would you summarize the sermon in 60 seconds or less? What stood out to you?

2) The average person is fast to dismiss the idea of a supernatural world where good and evil spirits battle, yet they can be fast to accept the “supernatural” world of things like horoscopes. What are other examples of “supernatural” phenomena that people embrace? Why do you think they embrace them?

3) Read Ephesians 6:12. If we don’t see the invisible war around us, we will make real people in our world the real devils. How have you seen this play out in our world? In your life?

4) According to John, the Enemy often comes disguised as an “almost Jesus”. How would you describe what an almost Jesus is in your own words? What are some examples of an almost Jesus in our culture today?

5) How can we guard against being deceived by things that pretend to be good but lead us away from Jesus? What criteria do you use to decide what is legitimate and what is an “almost Jesus”?

Prayer:
• Pray for these days leading up to the election, and how we as people of the light can be peacemakers, no matter which candidates are elected. Pray that we would be able to see who our real enemy is and not make enemies of those who think differently than us politically.

Title: The Deceiver of the World
Scripture: Revelation 12-13
Speaker: Gabe Coyle, GabeC@ChristCommunityKC.org

“What we need is a hearty infusion of imaginative red cells into the circulatory system of our faith.” - Eugene Peterson

"In the same way the mark of the beast is a sign of loyalty and belonging, not to God but to the beast. And just as we should not interpret the seal of God as something visible to the naked eye, so we should not think of the mark of the beast as something that can be seen, or indeed even as a physical reality. It is a spiritual mark, an attitude, a mindset that shows compliance with the agenda and methods of the beast." - Paul Spilbury, The Throne, The Lamb & The Dragon

>> Three ways to spot a fake:
#1 If our view of Jesus forces us to discount certain Biblical texts.
#2 If our view of Jesus leaves us nearly faultless and leaves our opponents irredeemable.
#3 If our view of Jesus looks so much like us right now such that if we actually took Jesus out of the equation our world wouldn’t change all that much.