26 Oct
2025

A Great Shout of Praise

Passage: Ezra 3:1-4, 10-13; Hebrews 10:19-25

“Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship…
If you worship money and things, they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough… Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is…that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.”

—David Foster Wallace

SERMON OUTLINE

  1. Worship and Fear
  2. Worship and Comfort
  3. Worship and Reality

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

What are a few boundaries or burdens in your life that you could describe as good for you? Why are they good?

Read Ezra 3:1-4, 10-13 and Hebrews 10:19-25. What do these passages show you about God’s character and about being his follower? What challenges, encourages, or sparks questions for you in these passages?

What fears did God’s people face in Ezra for being faithful to worship God? When it comes to being committed to worshiping God in a regular rhythm of gathering with the local church, what fears do you face and what fears do you perceive others facing in our context?
What are your expectations coming into church? How do we handle when we feel uncomfortable or inconvenienced by church? Bret McCracken asked in his book Uncomfortable, “Will you commit to join and sticking with a church, not because it is a good fit for you but because it is fitting you to become more like Jesus? Will you commit to looking at church not in terms of what you can get but what you can give, considering how your presence with the body might encourage others and stir them to love and good works? Will you embrace the awkwardness and inconvenience and uncool costliness of the uncomfortable church?”  How do McCracken’s questions fit with your expectations? In what ways was it uncomfortable or inconvenient for God’s people to worship in Ezra 3? What was their motivation and expectation?
Describe the varied responses of God’s people when they gathered to praise the Lord and saw the foundations of the temple in Ezra 3. How can we faithfully live out Hebrews 10:24 as we gather together for worship?
What from this passage and this discussion is something you want to put into practice or be more aware of this week or praise God for?

 

PRAYER

Share with your group how they can be praying for you: what is weighing on you from this past week? What are you praising God for from this past week?

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-23