Prep+ Podcast #2

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 study two in our Jeremiah series, which is on Jeremiah chapter two. How about I pray for our groups this week, and I'm relying on the big prayers which are listed in the extras of our study books. Go and check them out. They are wonderful prayers to be praying for our groups, because those are kind of the things that we're really trying to shoot at in each of these studies.

So they're going to be helpful. So how about I pray? Let's pray. Almighty God, we're going to be reading Jeremiah two in our groups this week. And we really want it to go deep in our hearts. Would you, by your spirit, use your word to expose this spiritual adultery that we can be dabbling in? Would you have our groups as places where we can be honest about the wrestle that we're having with sin?

And would you use your word to really convict each of the people in our groups of and ourselves, of our desperate, desperate need for your mercy? In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Why don't you go prep this study if you haven't already, and then grab a pen, grab the booklet and we'll get going. This study, there's kind of two images that we're going to be wrestling through in the passage in Jeremiah two.

And so that hook question is just trying to get into one of them. Whenever you felt most thirsty in your life, please do prep those intro questions, because if you have a good answer, it really helps the group to give energy to that discussion and get discussion going. You can decide whether you're going to go around the circle and everybody shares, or they share in pairs, or how they're going to do it.

That could be a real thirsty or a metaphorical thirsty, but we're just trying to get that kind of issue out there. In this study, for the first time, we have that structure diagram. The structure of is tricky to tie down in some ways, but I'll just point out some features of that diagram. We know chapter one Jeremiah is called and we know chapter 52.

That final chapter, Jerusalem Falls. And then some other really key markers is in that kind of 30 to 33, we have this book of hope which we'll spend a couple of studies in. We also can see that there's kind of a bit of a key point in chapter 20, to some extent, when Babylon starts getting mentioned, when Jeremiah really kind of commits himself to be God's prophet in some ways.

But an even bigger kind of point is chapter 25, where we see lots of repetition from chapter one in chapter 25. So we know there's a key marker. There is a bit of debate about what that section up to 25 is showing, and what that section after 25 to the end is showing. But I think, you know, one possibility is how God's Word is tearing down Judah and then moving to how God's Word winds across the world.

But really, it is a book about Judah's sin and God's judgement. And there's another key section in 46 to the end, where attention focuses more on the nations one by one and prophecies against them. There's some little pictures in the orange section there, which are just little nods to some of the kind of key images that those chapters flag.

Great to read out that passage together and just let them list the phrases that describe how Judah has treated their god, because that's really the focus of this study. Chapter one really set up the book as a whole, and we had that one phrase in chapter 116, be they have made offerings to other gods and worshipped the works of their own hands.

It just gives this really this study and chapters 2 to 6 is a unit which is unpacking. What is the sin that is so bad that they're looking down the barrel of the destruction of their land and of Jerusalem? What is the sin that's so bad that's done that? And we really kind of are trying to unpack that in this chapter and use that as a way of seeing our own sin pretty clearly.

You'll notice those text tips down the bottom of page six are going to help you understand the passage. So do have a look at those. And also, if you haven't already familiar, familiarise yourself with just the extras at the back of the booklet. There's a timeline there and a list of kings. And what's really helpful for this study is just seeing that we're in that superpower period.

You've got Egypt hanging around, you've got Assyria is still kind of the big dog at the moment alongside Egypt. That is going to change as as Babylon is going to rise up. But that's kind of where we're at. Mindful, though, that Jeremiah is not chronological, the passages chop and change a bit. Let's move into some of these kick off kind of observation questions.

Really. Question one and two are those kind of observation questions just familiarising ourselves with chapter two 1 to 19. And I'll leave you to kind of to work those out to see these kind of two key images that are being used to get to the bottom of what is Judah's sin due to being the focus of Jeremiah. As in all that's left of Israel is that bottom section, that southern section which is called Judah, even though it is Judah and Benjamin.

And then in groups we have questions three and four, which is zooming in on that second image of fountains or cisterns or kind of wells, trying to work out what is it? What have they done to forsake the Lord? And then hewn out their own sources of water, their own sources of security? What? You know, they're kind of going to the super powers to do that in verse 13, really trying to work to pull.

Sorry question for trying to undo the symbolism in verse 13. What are we talking about, this cistern language, what are we getting? What do we mean by that. And then questions five and six pulling it to Jesus. What? What does he say about where we should go to drink? Where we should go for security? What? And this is one really helping us to value Jesus and how he has brought in a new way of relating to God.

But we do want to kind of just keep particularly in the application, questions will be reflecting on ways that we we may not do that because this this study could feel quite heavy. It is. And there's an appropriateness to that, because these are the chapters that really spell out Judas sin. And so turning over the page just on page eight, we have a whole list of possible kind of application questions.

Implication questions. Do take your time to have a look at those and choose which ones you think would be best for your group. You could get them to choose those questions themselves. But just be thoughtful about that. Maybe you want to say definitely do question for and then you guys pick another one or definitely do question three.

And you guys pick another one. Definitely. Questions three and six are the kind of more positive ones. So if you find yourself thinking okay great, I'll just do three and six. Hold back from that tendency. Just because the tone of this passage is really convicting us of our sin. But do take the time yourself to choose which of those questions you think are going to be most helpful for your group to explore, or you may choose.

You know what? I think my group will be helpful for them to choose, but just have some thoughtfulness about that, and also thoughtfulness about how you yourself would answer each of those questions. And then do, let's make sure that we're praying in response to what we're hearing in God's Word. Sometimes in our prayer time, we just pray about what's going on in our lives, but so helpful.

We also need to respond to what God is saying to us in His Word. So do have that time of praying in what we've been looking at from Jeremiah to.