Prayer
Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?
Opening Question
What song do you have on repeat this month?
“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.– John 12:27-33
What’s So Great About God
In the sermon, we heard that the Hebrew word for God’s glory, chabod, means “weighty presence.” And that Jesus connected his willingness to die with God’s glory on display in the world.
What kinds of attributes or acts are considered glorious by our culture? How are acts of self-giving viewed in our cultural landscape?
Consider moments when God’s “weight presence” has been experienced in the Bible and in your life, what response do humans typically have when confronted with his glory?
What’s Gone Wrong With the World
“Now is the time for judgment on this world…”
– John 12:31
“Judgment” = the Greek word, krisis, meaning for justice to be done.
What is one unjust, evil circumstance in the world you long to see eradicated or ended forever?
Consider this quote from Miroslav Volf, a Croatian writer and current professor at Yale Divinity school, who saw his own people being ethnically cleansed:
“If God were not angry at injustice, that God would not be worthy of worship. The only means of prohibiting all recourse to violence by ourselves is to insist that judgment is legitimate only when it comes from God.
My thesis that the practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many…but, it takes the quiet of a suburban home [to believe] that human non-violence results from a belief in God’s refusal to judge.
In a scorched land soaked in the blood of the innocent it will invariably die…with other unpleasant captivities of the liberal mind.”– “Exclusion and Embrace”, Miraslov Volf
How does Jesus’s willingness to suffer the cross highlight the extent to which God longs to eradicate evil’s power in the world? What effect does this thought have on your longing to see that one unjust, evil circumstance in the world you ended forever?
What Can Go Right With You
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died
My richest gains I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my prideWere the whole realm of nature mine.
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all– Isaac Watts
What opportunities has God given you to be self-giving in your current circumstances?
How is God calling you to reveal God’s glory through self-giving in 2026? How can this group help or support you in that effort?
Closing Thought
In your final time together, consider listening to a recording of When I Survey the Wondrous Cross together on a streaming platform before praying for any needs the group may have.