My Commitment to You

Prepare - Do a little reading about the Babylonian Captivity and be prepared to help people understand at least the basics of what it was. Here's a quick summary!

1. Casually, as a natural transition from chatter to discussion, ask: Would you rather have a time machine to jump to a different time or a teleporter to jump to a different place?
2. Picking up on themes of their responses, find a way to ask something along the lines of what have been the most difficult changes for you over the last 9 months?
3. Read Jeremiah 29:4-14 and ask what people know about the Babylonian Captivity and be prepared to help people understand at least the basic idea of what happened.
4. Tell them that the experience of "exile" and our longing to return to a familiar life or for a better life is a universal human experience. Ask, in what ways have we been experiencing the feelings of exile in our culture recently?
5. If possible, watch "Exile" from the Bible Project (see below). It's 5 minutes long. Discuss impressions of the video.
6. Return to Jeremiah and discuss observations of what God commands them to do while in exile in Babylon and how that relates to what he wants us to do now while we experience feelings of exile today.
7. Finally, discuss ways that God provides hope for a better future in this passage (vs 10-14) and what we are called to do.

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