Prep+ Podcast #3

Transcript

(This is a transcript generated by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy or content by Crossroads)

Hi growth group leaders. Welcome to this Prep Plus podcast for our third study in the Book of Jeremiah, which is going to look at the concept well, not just the concept. We're going to be looking at the human heart and how it's spoken about in Jeremiah chapters 1 to 19. How about I open by praying? I'm during my prayer from the kind of list of big prayers for this series from page 35, which is just a helpful way to orientate us to what are we?

What is God's Word saying in this section? What's this study trying to shoot at? So how about we pray? Almighty God, the world tells us all sorts of things about our hearts, but your word says something quite different, which, if we're honest, probably has more coherence with what we actually experience of ourselves and of those around us in the world.

So, father, would you please, please, please use this week's study to convict us of the natural, fleshly state of our hearts without Jesus? And would you use it to please point us to your incredible heart, which we see so clearly in Christ? Amen. Please go away and prep this study. This one is different. This one is a little bit out of the box.

So it is going to be one that might feel a bit unusual and a bit different. And so please do take the time to prep it and do the work yourself. It would be such a blessing to your group. And let me explain why that is. We have the kind of the structure diagram back there, and we're on page nine as usual, but we're actually looking at 19 chapters.

And as that little blurb says, there's lots of different kind of text types and different times and different voices in Jeremiah. And so in this study, we're actually stepping back to look at a big, big chunk to zoom in on one word, the word heart, as a way of exploring a key theme in Jeremiah, which is just the the state of the human heart without God.

So we're going to do a word study. Word studies don't give you the whole picture by any means, but they can be a whole lot of fun and really just invigorating for people to be able to think, wow, I can explore the Bible in this way. I can kind of come at it using this technique and find out all sorts of things in a fresh way.

And so what we're going to do if you turn over onto page ten, use a Bible search tool. You could use the ESV app. If you have that on your phone, you can just go down and search for a word and then look for where it comes up in Jeremiah and search for the word heart. Or you could use a website like Bible Gateway.

You might want to just send the link or send the app to your group beforehand before the study, so they all have it on their phones or ready to go, because you're going to actually list all those references, divide them up. You might want to kind of do some of that division beforehand. So you know how many, you know roughly how many groups you're going to split your group into, how many verses or what what chapter chunks each group might deal with, because we're going to look up each of those.

References. So if you haven't already, why don't you go do that, have that adventure and do that yourself and then come back together.

I wonder how you went. I wonder what discoveries you got from doing that exercise by answering those those three questions there. What's the wider section talking about? Whose heart is on view and what are we told about their heart? Just think through the logistics of how you're going to do this in your group. Are you going to have big butcher's paper?

Are you going to have a screen that you're typing things into? Are they going to write it down on a piece of paper? But you need to provide the pens and paper. And for this study, you are going to have to keep your eye on the time and know which references you are really wanting, you think are key to bring out for the picture of the study as a whole, because we really do want to have time for those pulling the threads together questions so that you so that people can walk away with a bit of kind of, yeah, a bit of a clear picture of what's going on with the human heart and also

God's heart in the book of Jeremiah. So hopefully those pulling the threads together questions will help do that. Thinking through what are some words and ideas that are repeated or surprising to people? You might need to have a bit of a definition of an uncircumcised heart that comes up a couple of times, I guess circumcision being that physical sign that you belong to God, that you're one of God's people, but it always is meant to reflect a heart that belong to God, that wanted to honour God.

And then thinking through. There's lots of other repeated words and surprising things, though, that you that you would have come across. What's one word that you would use to describe Israel's heart? What about the Lord's height? Is there a hope of a change of heart in Israel? Some of the verses in there are hopeful, and yet some of them are really not.

And so there's this kind of tension of how can a heart that, you know, you know, still pen has engraved on stone their sin? How can a heart like that, start beating again for God? And then please do set aside time for that last question. Well, not the last question, but that last point in twos and threes.

Take time to discuss. Where do you see elements of Judas heart in your own behaviour? Try and be as concrete as you feel comfortable with. What do you need repent of? What do you need to trust about God's heart? I've suggested twos and threes there because that can be quite personal stuff. You could split into guys and girls if that's going to be helpful for your group, but it's really trying to pull out.

It might be something about stubbornness. It might be something about the lies that we tell ourselves. There's a lot of kind of two faced ness to Judah's heart here. And I should have mentioned at the start, even the question that I've given you there in the speech bubble, right at the start of the study, I've suggested that they answer that in pairs, because that might also be quite personal.

Discuss a time when someone let you down. What do you think was the height of the problem? It's trying to kind of get in God's shoes a little bit about what it feels like to have a people who have hearts that are so stubborn and just just duplicitous. But yeah, back over to page ten. That final point, please, let's this is really the guts of of we're trying to let this word of God go to work in us.

And then we're going to have a look at Jesus, looking at how actually what we've seen about God's heart. We see that beating so hard in the heart of Jesus. There's two passages there from Matthew to help pull that out, to see how Christ really fulfils that heart. And I'm not fully giving away Game Away yet on how he gives us that new heart.

That new heart language really comes up. You may want to go there already, but it's really in chapters 30 to 33 that that goes to town. So maybe hold off just a little bit on how Jesus provides that renewal. If you want to create a bit of suspense, but there is hope, and we are going to unpack that more in chapter 30 to 33.

And as I look at that prayer that I suggested there on bottom of page ten, ask God to help us see his heart and ours more clearly. You might want to actually change that more to a time of confession, a time of thankfulness for God's heart. Because in this study, it is kind of seeing God's heart and seeing our heart, and just so thankful for his heart and so aware of ours.

So this is another. Yeah. This is this could be quite praying. It's a really convicting study, but it is quite a heavy study in some ways. But we do want God's Word to go to work in us and in our groups. So I hope you have a really great study with this one. Even though it's a bit out of the box.

Might feel a bit risky, but I hope it's a great adventure exploring these references in Jeremiah.