Prophetic Series Pitch

Series Description

The Biblical Prophets are often confused with future tellers, but their role is quite a bit more nuanced.Prophets had a very accurate understanding of the way things are and still knew that they can be better. Prophets spoke words of hope about the way things could be, and were not afraid to call out the way things were wrong. They were creatives and used their own God given voice, emotions, and platforms. In this sermon series we look into some of their stories as we ask what it means to live prophetically in Ankeny Iowa.

Our World as it is

There are a couple of things that are going to be happening in our church and in the world throughout this series that seem to set it up quite appropriately. Week three of the series will fall on first fruits offering Sunday. The Election results will be public between the 3rd and 4th weeks, and this series is building up to advent. There also could be some parallels made between the Israelites being exiles in a new land to the ways that Covid has displaced us to our new realities.

Week 1 - 10/17-10/18 - Prophetic Blessing

Scripture Thoughts

This week kicks it off by first starting with some historical backing as to who the Israelites are, but it also acts to focus on this biblical theme of Blessing. God has at the core intended for us to be a blessing on others. God has intended for us to be vehicles of God’s own Grace. Before we start to dip into all of the ways that the Israelites got in the way of being a blessing we are reminded that God first blessed Abraham to be a blessing. A part of this series is to understand that the faithfulness of the prophets reached more people than then could have ever imagined. Even so much so that the authors of the Hebrew Bible would have likely had no understanding that their words would be a blessing for us today. Abram was called to be a blessing, and hearing that he faithfully. The last verse also hinted that once Abram and Sarai knew that they were blessed by God in order to go be a blessing to this nation of people, their natural inclination was to immediately build an alter to praise God.

Ideas for Small Group

To get people to start thinking a little about the what it means to participate in a blessed community

What individual blessings might I have that uniquely equip me to serve God?

When I feel the blessings of being in relationship with God, is my first inclination to want to share that blessing with others?

Week 2 - 10/24-10/25 Prophetic Peace

Jeremiah 29:4–7 NRSV

4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Scripture Thoughts

The context of this passage is that the people of God have gone into exile in Babylon, and are looking to a prophet Jeremiah to deliver they news on behalf of God. As exiles they are probably not too happy to be in the land that they have been forcibly brought to. I can imagine that they are probably turning to Jeremiah and hoping that Jeremiah will comfort them, tell them this will all be over soon, etc. But Jeremiah seems to take the opposite approach boldly saying that it is in fact God that has brought you here, and what follows in a series of commandments. The list ends with verse 7 which I think is maybe the crux of the passage. That wherever we are physically and geographically we are to seek the welfare of our neighbors, and of the city around us. we ought to pray for our city. We ought to pray for our neighbors. The Hebrew word that to best encapsulate this is living in Shalom. It ties historically into last weeks passage by saying that we were called to be a blessing, and yet circumstance threw us into this new place (Babylon for them, and perhaps the changes the COVID-19 has produced for us). Once we realize that God is working through us and that we were meant to be a blessing it is always a good reminder to hear that we are meant to live in peace with our cities.

Small Group Ideas

I think this could be a really cool week to (if everyone in the small group was physically able) organize a prayer walk of some kind with each small group at some place around Ankeny.

If that is not possible spend some dedicated time in small group praying for Ankeny, and for the geographic neighbors of the members of our small group, and of course for the “spiritual neighbors” (people we may know from a host of different things).

To open up a dialogue perhaps about what it means to leave in peace and abundance in a world that seems to uphold the values of fear and scarcity.

Week 3 - 10/30-11/1 Prophetic Offering (First Fruits Offering)

Micah 6:6–8 NRSV

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? 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 thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Scripture Thoughts

This is a prophecy that seems to address a “giving based righteousness” as in if I just give enough I am saved. Micah’s response to this seems to be to zoom out even further, and to remind people why it is that we give. We give offerings to “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.” With our whole beings we do those things. Those commandments go far beyond our financial resources (although they do still include our financial resources). In Ankeny First lingo this is reminding ourselves that our offering is a our time, our talent, and our treasure. In some ways this might have functioned better in the “Why.” series because it really calls us back to why we give of ourselves to God. this will also be the First Fruits Offering, to talk a little bit about when we give of our offerings to God how that participates in Justice, kindness, and humility in the world.

Small Group Ideas

What are some of the ways that we offer ourselves to God (particularly beyond offering our financial gifts)?

What does it mean that the Lord “Requires” (Micah 6:8) something of us?

Week 4 - 11/7-11/8 Prophetic Confession (week after Election)

Isaiah 59:8–13 NRSV

8 The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths. Their roads they have made crooked; no one who walks in them knows peace. 9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us; we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10 We grope like the blind along a wall, groping like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among the vigorous as though we were dead. 11 We all growl like bears; like doves we moan mournfully. We wait for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. 12 For our transgressions before you are many, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions indeed are with us, and we know our iniquities: 13 transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning away from following our God, talking oppression and revolt, conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.

Scripture Thoughts

The theme of this week will be confessing. This passage differs from others that cover confession in that Isaiah here is confessing not just personal sins, but social sins. He is bringing to the Lord both the ways that systems have caused sin in the world and also confessing that he is a part of those systems and that he takes at least some responsibility in confessing them. What if confession was bigger that just the personal sins that I have committed, and breached into the systems that I have participated in? What might I have to confess both for myself, but also for the world.

One of the characteristics of prophets is that they have an acute sense of telling things as they are. Meaning that they tend to not beat around the bush that much in telling of the ways that they have messed up. Isaiah also doesn’t seem to be blame-shifting to the leaders, but rather taking responsibility.

Small group Questions

What do we have to confess in our world today?

Ideas to consider:

Anger in the world

The struggle to care for our earth

The way that Covid 19 has been experienced

Any system of Evil, Injustice, or Oppression that has ever existed

How have we been a part of larger problems that we can confess personally to God?

Week 5 - 11/14-11/15 - Prophetic Anger

Jeremiah 7:5–11 NRSV

5 For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, 7 then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever. 8 Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the Lord.

Scripture Thoughts

Some quick historical backing that is necessary. Essentially the people were going to the temple and ignoring any of the needs that were on the outside of the temple. Particularly they were ignoring the needs of widows and orphans, so Jeremiah is commanded by God to basically go get angry at the religious people for failing to do their job.

We all get angry about something that is part of the human condition. What it is that we get angry about tells us something about our priorities. If we get angry when someone cuts us off or makes us late that tells us that we prioritize being on time, or perhaps order. When we get angry when the church fails to care for those on the margins it reminds us that we do prioritize those that are on the margins. Anger is not necessarily a bad thing (as it is often described) but rather it is an emotional check engine light to let us know what might be wrong.

When I am angry it might be me that needs to

Small Group Ideas

What is it that angers you?

Could it be that God is speaking to you through that thing?

What things are important enough to get angry about

Week 6 - 11/21-11/22 - Prophetic Hope of Jesus

Isaiah 53:11–12 NRSV

11 Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Scripture Thoughts

This is the end of the suffering servant passage and it will be important to mention the scriptural context that this passage is found within. Isaiah is speaking in code about Jesus to a group of people who don’t have much of a concept of a messiah. This should also act as a good set-up/transition for Advent. In a time of seeming hopelessness Isaiah uses a form of poetry to creatively portray Jesus. We have intentionally spent a little bit of time focusing on the Israelite people, and this is the week that we fast forward through their story to the hope of the coming messiah. The emphasis of the suffering servant passage is just that that there would be someone that would suffer with us. That through the suffering of one, many would be made righteous.

Small Group Ideas

This was one of the first times that these people had heard about the coming messiah. Share about some of your memories of the first time (s) someone explained who Jesus was to you.

Why was it necessary for God to suffer with us?

What does it mean to be made righteous and to have someone else bear our iniquities?