2024
Exiles in Babylon
Passage: Daniel 1:1-3; Jeremiah 29:4-7
SERMON OUTLINE:
1.What is exile?
2.How do we live in exile?
3.How will exile end?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
What are some of the challenges and dynamics of being away from home? Can you think of a time when you experienced being homesick?
Read Daniel 1:1-3 and Jeremiah 29:4-7. What challenges, encourages, or sparks questions for you in these passages? What phrases stand out to you that help shape your understanding of God’s character and your identity as a child of God?
What has shaped your understanding of the relationship between the church and culture? Consider how this fits or contrasts with the church being Christ’s global, multi-ethnic kingdom exiled among the nations.
Jeremiah encouraged God’s people to seek the peace and prosperity of the gospel. This means we do not despise, live as tourists, or assimilate with the surrounding culture. Which of these three responses are you prone to wrestle with?
How can we as individuals and a church community further commit to the peace and prosperity of our neighborhood and city?
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?
Zephaniah 3:17 / “The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”