Joseph M Stowell

Did you find it easier to lift people up with your words this week rather than bring them down through gossip and slanderous speech? Did you find that you had a more heightened sense of these sins? Any examples …

1. Why is ego a good thing when controlled?

2. What is boasting? In what circumstances are we tempted to boast?

3. How does God rank boasting in Romans 1:29-32? Why are we tempted to minimize the sinfulness of boasting?

4. Why is boasting pointless? (See James 4:13-16)

5. Why do you think Moses was not allowed into the Promise Land (See Ps. 106:32-2:33 and Num 20:2-12)

6. Why is salvation in Christ a completely humbling experience? How then do we turn this around to give credit to ourselves?

7. How does flattery differ from genuine compliments? Why is flattery used?

8. Why is flattery damaging? See Psalm 12:1-4. What is the negative spirit that is behind flattery?

9. How can we take flattery out of our compliments? When we are given a compliment how can we turn it around to give God glory?

10. What is exaggeration?

11. Why do people exaggerate? What emotions are usually paired with exaggeration?

12. What are the results of exaggeration?

13. What are some steps that we can take to refrain from using boasting, flattering and exaggeration in our speech? See Philippians 2:3-4 for some help!

Make a commitment to consider the following verse this week …