Daniel: The Impact of Truth & Grace (Week 1)

Preacher: Daniel Erasmus

Worship:
As you spend time in worship this week, listen to King of Kings by Hillsong Worship. Reflect on how our salvation comes through Jesus, and how we are called to reflect grace and truth in the same way He did, so that more people will turn their hearts to Him.

Check-in:
Share with the group what stood out from your devotions over the last week.

Synopsis of message: The Impact of Truth & Grace
This past Sunday, Pastor Daniel introduced us to the book of Daniel and its position in the Old Testament. The book of Daniel contains both history and prophecy, and it gives us a model of how to live godly lives in an ungodly culture. The message continued by encouraging us to allow God to transform us into His likeness, distinguishing us from the worldly culture we live in – just as Daniel did, and just as Jesus did.

Pastor Daniel shared with us the two things that Daniel did as he rose to prominence: he stood firm and he loved well. As Christians, we are called to do the same, and there are two key elements that guide us in doing this: grace and truth. Pastor Daniel described them in the following way:

• Truth is best defined as God’s standard.
• Grace is best defined as God’s favour.

He continued by detailing three things that we can do through implementing grace and truth:

1. Love people: Jesus commanded us to love one another as He has loved us. In this way, we will be distinguished as His followers (John 13:34-35). This is important, because we can’t influence people through antagonising them.
2. Serve people: We are called to serve people, so that we can tell them about Jesus (1 Corinthians 9:19).
3. Share Christ: We share Christ so that people don’t stay where they are, but are transformed by Jesus instead.

Discussion questions:

1. Do you find it easy or difficult to maintain the balance between responding to people or situations with grace and truth?
2. Share with the group if you have experienced one of these two extreme responses (i.e. truth without grace or grace without truth) and what the consequences or effect of this was.
3. Share with the group the steps you can take during the upcoming week to grow in becoming more graceful and truthful.

Additional resources:

• Stand: Courage From The Book Of Daniel (bible.com)
• The Daniel Dilemma (bible.com)
• Jesus in All of Daniel (RightNow Media)