INTRODUCE: Share your experience with scripture memorization. Is this something you do easily, or is it a struggle? Explain.
PRAYER: Help us Lord to begin to “see” the world as You showed it to Isaiah.
READ ALOUD: Isaiah 65:17–19
See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.
DISCUSS
1. Discuss the difference between virtual and spiritual reality.
2. Share a spiritual reality that you believe in your head. How about in your heart?
3. What municipal services would be unnecessary in Jerusalem (or in Denver) if there were no more crying?
4.
READ ALOUD: Isaiah 65: 20
Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
- Now what municipal services have we eliminated?
READ ALOUD: Isaiah 65: 21-22
They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands.
- Describe labor in Isaiah’s vision? Try to come up with at least 4 observations from these verses.
READ ALOUD: Isaiah 65: 23
They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.
- As Pastor Robert prayed for Moline Street, what would it take to pray “as it is in heaven” over our home and our descendants? Would something in your heart need to change?
READ ALOUD: Isaiah 65: 24
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.
- How would such simple and direct conversation with God change your prayer life?
READ ALOUD: Isaiah 65: 25
The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.
Where does one find the eyes to see the good that God is doing tomorrow?
Generate some strategies for memorizing these verses. Are there ways you can help one another in this?
PRAY: You are good, and what you do is good; teach us how to do good.
IN SMALLER GROUPS OF 2-3 SHARE AND PRAY: Share one need for which you would like prayer today.
• Invite the Holy Spirit to guide your time
• Listen to the Lord for guidance in how to pray for one another and then pray
• Take time to pray for one person at a time.