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. Our broader, modern Western culture talks a lot about “being true to yourself.” What does that mean, and in what ways is it similar or different from what Paul describes here?

2. How does Paul contrast the old self versus the new self?

3. In verse 26, Paul commands them to “Be angry and do not sin.” Does it surprise you that the Bible permits, and even here commands, anger? What does Paul’s command look like practically? What characterizes healthy anger?

4. Read verses 24 to 32 again. Which aspect of “putting on the new self” do you currently find the most difficult? (Consider answering in pairs or groups of three).

PRAYER PROMPT:
Acknowledge before God that though he has made us new people, we still often act like our old selves. Pause to silently confess sins before God. Praise him for his grace and ask for his continued work in your lives.

Title: The New Self
Scripture: Ephesians 4:17-32
Speaker: Tom Nelson, TomN@cckc.church

> The true us is wise with words

> The true us is good at anger

Unrighteous anger condemns any who stand in its way; righteous anger desires to bless—to fill life rather than drain it.
- Dan Allender and Tremper Longman, The Cry of the Soul: How Our Emotions Reveal Our Deepest Questions About God

> The true us radically forgives

"Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it. To excuse, what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."
- C.S Lewis, Essay on Forgiveness

> Discern the difference between strong desire and deep desire.

> Stop merely trying harder and focus on training better

> We will not be perfect but we can make progress