This week, Pastor Zach and Josh break down the sermon study distributed to growth group leaders at Soteria Church on January 28, 2024. The sermon study on Nehemiah 1:4-11 is as follows:
REFLECT

What circumstances surrounded a time in your life when you felt like you prayed most faithfully?
Describe a time when you felt like your prayer life was stagnant.

ENCOUNTER
In Nehemiah 1:4-11, Nehemiah prays to God for days. Exiled in Persia, Nehemiah asks God to forgive Israel and to allow them to enter back into the promised land, back into Jerusalem, so that they might once again worship God according to the Law of Moses.
One of the more fascinating aspects of Nehemiah’s prayer is that it is saturated with other Scriptures. The genius of Nehemiah’s prayer is that he put God’s words back before God’s ears. 

Briefly, look up the following references and compare it with Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:4-11. How much of Nehemiah’s prayer was original to him compared to how much of it was simply quoting Scriptures back to God?


Daniel 9:4
2 Chronicles 6:40
Psalm 88:1
Daniel 9:5-6
Deuteronomy 30:1-5
Deuteronomy 9:29
Genesis 24:12

TRANSFORM

Have you ever prayed Scripture before? If yes, how did you do that?
How could weaving prayer into your Scripture reading reinvigorate your prayer life? What specific Scriptures could you pray together as a growth group in the coming weeks?

PRAYER

Read through 1 John 4:7-21 as a group. Use these verses as a script to pray back to God.
Praise God for who he is revealed to be in these verses.
Ask for God to help our church be what God has called us to be in these verses.

Propagate: Where we grow in community by multiplying healthy groups through the ministry of the Word. This podcast is a ministry of and for growth group leaders at Soteria Church in West Des Moines, IA. To learn more about Soteria, visit soteriadsm.com today.

Ver todos los episodios