Talk (Hypocrisy / Friends TOW all the cheese cakes)
Aim
Define hypocrisy, where we see it and how it effects our lives
Examine and challenge the areas of our lives / faith that are prone
to hypocrisy
Talk Introduction
Tonight we are going to discus hypocrisy
In a moment, we going to watch an episode of Friends in which Phoebe,
Chandler, Rachel all struggle with hypocrisy
Before we do that, would anyone like to tell us what hypocrisy means to
you?
Saying one thing and doing another…
[Friends series 7 – the one with all the cheese cakes]
The middle bit
In what way was Phoebe hypocritical?
Because Joey got a date, he cancelled dinner plans with
Phoebe. As a result, Phoebe had a go at Joey and told him “you do not cancel
plans with friends”. To make it up, Joey and Phoebe arranged to go out the
next day, but Phoebe arranged to go on a date with David instead.
Has this ever happened to you?
How did this make you feel?
In what way are Chandler and Rachel hypocritical?
Chandler and Rachel eat a cheese cake that was delivered
to Chandler‘s apartment by mistake.
Rachel says “Thief! You stole that cheese cake, that is
wrong”. Ten seconds latter, she is eating it.
What would you do?
What’s wrong with been hypocritical?
Trust / respect / lying to yourself
[Is it worse when it’s somebody we know, like your friends or
parents?]
Do you ever feel your parents or friends are hypocritical?
What kind of things do they say or do?
Why would they do that?
They want what is best for you…
Is hypocrisy ever a good thing?
Do you think our society is hypocritical?
We sell arms to the same country’s that we give aid to
Third world debt
Politics / The media
What about the Church?
The Bible bit
The Bible reminds us that it’s easy for us to see hypocrisy in
other peoples lives, but often we don’t see it in ourselves.
We can read this in Matthew 7:1-5 P918: “Don’t judge other people, or you will be judged. You will be judged in the
same way that you judge others, and the amount you give to others will be given
to you. Why do you notice the little piece of dust in your friends eye, but
you don’t notice the big piece of wood in your own eye? How can you say to your
friend, ‘let me take that little piece of dust out of your eye’, Look at
yourself! You still have that big piece of wood in your own eye. You
hypocrite! First take the wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly
to take the dust out of your friends eye”
Do you find it hard to stick to your beliefs?
Does it depend on the situation?
What do you do when somebody asks you about your faith?
[Do your friends expect more from you because you’re a
Christian / come to a Church group?]
Do you think you are ever hypocritical?
Conclusion
I thought we would close by spending a moment thinking about where
we are at in our lives.
[Put words on floor]
To do that, I'd like you to choose a word that you
struggle with...where you feel hypocritical...