06 Apr
2025

The Rooster Crows

Passage: John 13:33-38

“I do not know You God because I am in the way. Please help me to push myself aside.”
—Flannery O’Connor, A Prayer Journal

“Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts:
the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves.”
—John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

Sermon Outline:

  • The Failure
  • The Cure

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Do you tend to focus more on failures or successes in your life? Why?

Read John 13:33-38. What challenges, encourages, or sparks questions for you in this passage?

Peter’s overconfidence minimized temptation, inflated his identity, and neglected spiritual resources. J. C. Ryle Anglican Bishop from Liverpool 19th century wrote: “We never know how far we might fall if we were tempted. We fancy sometimes, like Peter, that there are some things we could not possibly do. We look pitifully upon others who fall into certain sins, and please ourselves in the thought that at any rate we should not have done so! We know nothing at all. The seeds of every sin are latent in our hearts.” What has helped you see yourself honestly?
Peter thought he was the hero of his story. How does keeping God as the story of each of our stories shape our perspective and identity?
What spiritual resources have helped you face temptation? Specifically what does the practice of repentance look like in your life?
The cure to our failure has begun in everyone who trusts in Jesus as Lord. The cure includes a right knowledge of self, the work of repentance, and receiving Jesus’s payment for our sin on our behalf. How can this reality encourage you today?

What from this passage and this discussion is something you want to put into practice or be more aware of this week?

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?

“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” John 13:17