February 25, 2024
Hope Seeds
Isaiah 6:9-13
God asked Isaiah to give the people of Israel a message. Although they won’t listen to Isaiah, God tells him to keep preaching until the land is laid to waste and the people are carried away into exile. God says Israel will ‘look like pine and oak forest with every tree cut down, every tree a stump, a huge field of stumps.’ God continues to speak to Isaiah: ‘BUT there’s holy seed in those stumps.’
Songs for this week: Spotify
Isaiah 6:9-13
- How do you relate to the Isaiah 6 picture of a ‘field of stumps’? Why does loss sometimes feel like a stump?
- Has there been a time when you’ve been between two things, for example, between jobs, between relationships, between places to live? What did that feel like? Were you able to find God in the midst of it?
- False hope is when I try to convince myself to be hopeful by thinking that things aren’t as bad as they look. Have you experienced false hope? How did that impact you?
- Brueggemann describes the prophetic tasks of the church as, to “tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial and express hope in a society that lives in despair.” Which task do you relate to the most? The least? How can we do these three things better?
- Why is having hope hard sometimes? Is there a promise that God has made that helps you stay hopeful today?
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Recent Sermons
Exodus 33:12-23 - The book of Exodus unfolds the growing friendship between God and Moses, one conversation at a time. Moses’ honest exchange with God is a picture of how we can talk with God, too.
Exodus 19:3-8 -God is seeking a community to join Him in His mission to bless and save the world. Israel was out of Egypt, where their purpose had been clear: make bricks! What was their purpose now? At the foot of Mount Sinai, before they take another step, God has a proposal.
Exodus 16:2-16 - The story of our roots continues. As the drama fades into daily routine, the real questions begin—Can we trust God for what we need each day? How much control do we really have?
Exodus 14:5-13 -The story of God’s rescue is not without drama! God’s people left Egypt only to come against a new opponent, the Red Sea! They were trapped between an angry Pharaoh and, at least as bad, an angry Sea. They cried out, expressed their terror, and God made a way. Of course, it did involve them moving their
Exodus 12:1-14 - The story of Exodus is the story of Jesus. The God we get to know in Exodus is the God who comes to us in the person of Jesus: a God who judges, who saves, and who renews.
Exodus 3:1-14 - The rescue begins. God looks for a person to lead the way—not someone perfect, but someone willing. In Exodus, God calls Moses through a burning bush and rekindles a relationship that had been years in the making.
