Reach This City: Prayer and the Word

Text: Nehemiah 8-9

1.  What is your approach to reading the Bible?  How do you do it?  (Pick a book, start on page 1, drop the book open and read whatever page it lands on).

2.  What are you expecting to get out of it? (check it off the daily list, direction, instruction, wanting to hear from God, needing advice, needing help, obligation).

3.  What is your most common reaction after reading the word?  (learned something new, convicted over sin, didn't understand, like reading a good story, don't know what the next step is).

4.  When is the last time you had a "Feast of Booths" moment?  (when you read the Bible, were challenged by it, and put a plan of action into place).

5.  Define what the real purpose of the Word is. (challenge, equip, convict, encourage, instruct, all that is good.  But the Word is designed to change us and produce results).  Is your time in the Word producing results?

6.  We have 3 different aspects of prayer in chapter 9: Adoration, Confession, and Thanksgiving.  Go around the room and take turns voicing these aloud.  Start with one-liners of adoration about God.  Leave some time of silence for people to confess to God silently.  Remind them of the examples of why we need to confess on Sunday (stiff necked, threw out the laws, turned a cold shoulder, and didn't listen) and confess those things.  Then close out the time by each person acknowledging lines of thanksgiving to God.