Part of the HARBOR HAWAIʻI ʻOhana
HARBOR HAWAIʻI ʻOhana

Sermon Questions and Resources

All In On Intercession

Community Group Discussion Questions
Week of Sept 13
Genesis 18-19

OPENER

  • What’s something you asked for over and over until you finally got a yes from your parents, a coach, a boss? What kept you asking?

DISCUSSION
Abraham is learning to go all-in on the God who goes all-in on us and in Genesis 18, that means standing in the gap for a city that doesn’t deserve mercy. God shares his broken heart with Abraham, and Abraham refuses to walk away. The stunning thing isn’t that God finally said no; it’s that he never did. Abraham stopped asking before God stopped answering.

  • Read Genesis 18:16–21. God tells Abraham what he’s about to do before he does it. Then in Ezekiel 16:49–50, God names Sodom’s pride, comfort, and indifference to the poor before he names anything else. Which of those “harder to spot” sins is easiest for you to overlook in your own life?
  • Read Genesis 18:22. Abraham stayed standing before the Lord. Intercession is the ministry of staying put. Ezekiel 22:30 says God is looking for someone to stand in the gap. Who are you currently standing in the gap for, and what does “staying put” actually cost you?
  • Read Genesis 18:23–25. Abraham never minimizes Sodom’s sin. Instead, he prays God’s own character back to God. What does it change for your prayer life to know God responds to his revelation?
  • Read Genesis 18:26–33. God never once says “no.” Abraham stops before God does. What have you stopped asking for that God never told you to stop asking for?
  • Read Genesis 19:27–29. Sodom still burned. But God remembered Abraham and pulled Lot out. Where have you assumed a prayer went unanswered when God may have answered it differently than you expected?
  • Growing as an Influencer: God said he’d spare the whole city for the sake of the righteous in it. The presence of the righteous can hold off judgment on the guilty. Where has God placed you (campus, office, job site, neighborhood) that you haven’t yet seen as a mission field? Who’s your one more?
  • Fruit → Root: When the fruit is prayerlessness or quietly giving up on someone you used to pray for what root might be underneath: a belief that God doesn’t really care, a fear of being disappointed again, or a sense that your asking doesn’t actually matter? How does the gospel reshape that, knowing Jesus never stops interceding for you?

ACTION STEP

  • Take out your phone right now and set a daily repeating reminder: “Pray for my one more.” Who’s the name going in it, and who in this group will ask you about it next week?

DIG DEEPER
We study Scripture to understand what it says, means, and intends, patiently walking with the text instead of moving too quickly to application.

OBSERVATION – What Does It Say?

  • Track the word outcry in Genesis 18:20–21. Who is crying out, and what does God say he’s going to do about it? What’s striking about how God chooses to investigate?
  • In Genesis 18:22, everyone in the scene moves except one person. Who stays, who goes, and where is each party positioned? What does the physical staging of the verse emphasize?
  • Read Genesis 18:23–32 and list the numbers Abraham names and God’s response to each. What’s the pattern, and what never appears in God’s answers?

INTERPRETATION – What Does It Mean?

  • In Genesis 18:17–19, God gives a reason for not hiding his plan from Abraham. What does that reason reveal about the relationship between covenant calling and prayer?
  • Genesis 18:25 asks, “Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just?” What is Abraham appealing to, and what is he not appealing to? What does that reveal about the foundation of confident prayer?
  • Genesis 18:26 says God would spare the whole place for the sake of fifty righteous people. What does that say about how God views the presence of his people in a guilty place?

CROSS REFERENCE & CONTEXT(Connect the Bible to Itself)

  • Compare Genesis 12:2–3 with Abraham’s plea in Genesis 18:23–25. How does Abraham’s intercession flow out of his original commissioning?
  • Compare the outcry of Genesis 18:20 with Exodus 2:23–25. What does the shared language suggest about whose voices God hears and responds to?
  • Read Genesis 18:22 alongside Ezekiel 22:30, Luke 18:1–8, and Hebrews 7:25. How does Scripture’s storyline move from a man standing in the gap to the Son of Man who never stops standing?

SERMON RESOURCES

SERIES RESOURCES