LESSON 5 (Jeremiah Ch. 26-52)
FLC SMALL GROUP
August 4-10

GATHER (5 min)
Thank everyone for coming.  Introduce any new people that may be joining for the first time.

CHECK-IN (10 min)
Go around the room and invite participants share a high and/or low this week in their family.   

READ SCRIPTURE (10 min)
Ask three different volunteers to read aloud the following three different scriptures:

Have Volunteer 1 read the following: Jeremiah 36: (4-8, 20-26)
Pr. Steve’s Thoughts: The life of Jeremiah was caught up in the intrigues of the final days of Jerusalem. God’s word is opposed. Jeremiah dictated his writings to a scribe Baruch, a pain staking process. Baruch delivers the writings to the King, who then page by page throws the book of Jeremiah into the fire, and then seeks the arrest of Jeremiah.
4 So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll. 5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am restricted; I am not allowed to go to the Lord’s temple. 6 So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns. 7 Perhaps they will bring their petition before the Lord and will each turn from their wicked ways, for the anger and wrath pronounced against this people by the Lord are great.”
8 Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do; at the Lord’s temple he read the words of the Lord from the scroll.
20 After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. 21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. 22 It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. 23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. 24 The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. 25 Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. 26 Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hidden them.
 
Have Volunteer 2 read the following: Jeremiah 29:1-14
Pr. Steve’s Thoughts: Jeremiah writes a letter to an initial group of officials those first taken into Babylonian exile in 592 B.C. He says to settle in for the long term, trusting that God’s gracious presence is with them even in that strange and far away place. Jeremiah says to settle in for the long haul: God will be with them.
4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 8 Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.
10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.

Have Volunteer 3 read the following: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Pr. Steve’s Thoughts: When all the familiar sign-posts of God’s presence are being taken away, Jeremiah affirms God’s ability to be present still. God will form a new covenant, a new relationship of presence and trust. Where on the one hand, the prophets spoke words of uncompromising judgment, and seems to hasten the end of the kingdom and the temple, on the other hand, the prophets spoke to God’s power to create something new, to offer a presence of grace even in the midst of failure. Where it would seem that the story of the people of God has come to an end, and a bad end at that, the prophets speak to the re-creative power of God to make a new thing happen.  For all the words of judgment and rejection found in Jeremiah, Jeremiah also offers words of comfort and hope. God will do a new thing.
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

OPTIONAL: WATCH SERMON ON YOUTUBE OR LISTEN TO SERMON PODCAST (12 min)
You may want to watch the previous week’s sermon together on the YouTube app of your TV or listen to the audio podcast on your phone available on FLC’s website.

REFLECT ON THE PREVIOUS WEEK (40-60 min)
Have a conversation with your group about what you just read, anything from the past week’s sermon that grabbed any group members’ attention, or about anything from the week’s reading.  Questions to consider…

1. What was new or compelling to you?
2. What questions do you have?
3. Was there anything that bothered you?
4. What did you learn about loving God?
5. What did you learn about loving others?

OPTIONAL: WATCH DVD previewing next week “Obadiah, Ezekiel Ch. 1-24” (11 min)
To get the most out of next week’s sermon and discussion, and for those who chose to do the nightly reading for the coming week, you may watch the video of Bible teacher John Walton explaining the themes and relevance of Obadiah and Ezekiel Ch. 1-24.
​
CLOSE (5 min)
Thank your participants for coming.  Remind them of the next meeting time and make plans for who will be responsible for snacks/kids/etc.

​LESSON 4 (Jeremiah Ch. 1-25)
FLC SMALL GROUP
July 28- August 3
 
GATHER (5 min)
Thank everyone for coming.  Introduce any new people that may be joining for the first time.
 
CHECK-IN (10 min)
Go around the room and invite participants share a high and/or low this week in their family.   
 
READ SCRIPTURE (10 min)
Ask three different volunteers to read aloud the following three different scriptures:
 
Have Volunteer 1 read the following: Jeremiah 1: 4-10, 17-19
 
Pr. Steve’s Thoughts: Jeremiah lived in the waning years of the Kingdom of Judah, he was a contemporary to Zephaniah and Habakkuk, Isaiah and Ezekiel. Jeremiah is sometimes known as the weeping prophet, because he is the author of the book Lamentations, written at time of Jerusalem’s fall. Jeremiah was perhaps the most reviled of prophet, facing opposition, imprisonment, and torture. Here the call of Jeremiah comes at a time of social and economic change for the kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah interprets his call as one destined to be a prophet in the face of rejection.
4 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” 6 “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” 7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. 9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
17 “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. 18 Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land.19 They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
 
Have Volunteer 2 read the following: Jeremiah 7:1-7
 
Pr. Steve’s Thoughts: Here the Temple Sermon of Jeremiah outlines the unfaithful practices of the time and how the people were alienated from God even as they called on God’s name.
7 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: “‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. 3 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.
 
Have Volunteer 3 read the following: Jeremiah 28: 1-9
 
Pr. Steve’s Thoughts: What made the times so confusing is that a variety of prophets were speaking in the name of God, even saying the opposite thing. Here a false prophet was not speaking for some other God, but for the one true God. So how do you know who is right and who is wrong? What is true and what is false? This was the challenge to Jeremiah.
 
1 In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people: 2 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed from here and took to Babylon. 4 I will also bring back to this place Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the other exiles from Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”
5 Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord. 6 He said, “Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the Lord’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon.7 Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: 8 From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms.9 But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.”
 
OPTIONAL: WATCH SERMON ON YOUTUBE OR LISTEN TO SERMON PODCAST (12 min)
You may want to watch the previous week’s sermon together on the YouTube app of your TV or listen to the audio podcast on your phone available on FLC’s website.
 
REFLECT ON THE PREVIOUS WEEK (40-60 min)
Have a conversation with your group about what you just read, anything from the past week’s sermon that grabbed any group members’ attention, or about anything from the week’s reading.  Questions to consider…
1.            What was new or compelling to you?
2.            What questions do you have?
3.            Was there anything that bothered you?
4.            What did you learn about loving God?
5.            What did you learn about loving others?
 
OPTIONAL: WATCH DVD previewing next week “Jeremiah Ch. 26-52” (11 min)
To get the most out of next week’s sermon and discussion, and for those who chose to do the nightly reading for the coming week, you may watch the video of Bible teacher John Walton explaining the themes and relevance of Jeremiah Ch. 26-52.
 
CLOSE (5 min)
Thank your participants for coming.  Remind them of the next meeting time and make plans for who will be responsible for snacks/kids/etc.

LESSON 1 (Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah Ch. 1-5)
FLC SMALL GROUP
July 7-13

GATHER (5 min)
Thank everyone for coming.  Introduce any new people that may be joining for the first time. Talk about what you did for the Fourth of July.

CHECK-IN (10 min)
Go around the room and invite participants share a high and/or low this week in their family.   

READ SCRIPTURE (10 min)
Ask four different volunteers to read aloud the following four different scriptures:
Have Volunteer 1 read the following: Amos 5:18-24
Pr. Steve’s thoughts: Amos was a prophet who spoke to the Northern Kingdom. The northern kingdom was the more prosperous of the two. Amos spoke strong words for social justice.
18 Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord?
    That day will be darkness, not light. 19 It will be as though a man fled from a lion
    only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall
    only to have a snake bite him. 20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light--
    pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? 21 “I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
    your assemblies are a stench to me. 22 Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. 23 Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Have Volunteer 2 read the following: Hosea: 11:1-11
Pr. Steve’s Thoughts: Hosea was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. Hosea spoke to the syncretism and unfaithful worship of the people. The passage includes both an indictment against worship, a description of the judgment to come, and the promise of God to restore.
11 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. 3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. 4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them. 5 “Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent? 6 A sword will flash in their cities; it will devour their false prophets and put an end to their plans. 7 My people are determined to turn from me. Even though they call me God Most High, I will by no means exalt them. 8 “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. 9 I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man— the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities. 10 They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. 11 They will come from Egypt, trembling like arrows, from Assyria, fluttering like doves. I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord.
Have Volunteer 3 Read the following: Micah 6: 6-8
Pr. Steve’s Thoughts: Micah was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. He takes up the mantle of Amos in his appeal to justice and mercy. Micah speaks against the presumption of worship practices, that the excess of sacrifice could somehow be a guarantee of God’s favor and give license to treat others unjustly.
6 With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Have Volunteer 3 Read the following: Isaiah 1:1-5
Pr. Steve’s Thoughts: We begin to read Isaiah this week.  We will begin to take up Isaiah more in depth in worship in the following two weeks.
1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth!
For the Lord has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” 4 Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption!  They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. 5 Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.

OPTIONAL: WATCH SERMON ON YOUTUBE OR LISTEN TO SERMON PODCAST (12 min)
You may want to watch the previous week’s sermon together on the YouTube app of your TV or listen to the audio podcast on your phone available on FLC’s website.

REFLECT ON THE PREVIOUS WEEK (40-60 min)
Have a conversation with your group about what you just read, anything from the past week’s sermon that grabbed any group members’ attention, or about anything from the week’s reading.  Questions to consider…

1. What was new or compelling to you?
2. What questions do you have?
3. Was there anything that bothered you?
4. What did you learn about loving God?
5. What did you learn about loving others?

OPTIONAL: WATCH DVD previewing next week “Isaiah Ch. 6-44” (11 min)
To get the most out of next week’s sermon and discussion, and for those who chose to do the nightly reading for the coming week, you may watch the video of Bible teacher John Walton explaining the themes and relevance of Isaiah Ch. 6-44.
​
CLOSE (5 min)
Thank your participants for coming.  Remind them of the next meeting time and make plans for who will be responsible for snacks/kids/etc.