LIFE Group Guide
The Most Compelling Invitation: Week 2
Pastor Brandon Myers April 30, 2017
Isaiah 55:6-9
Prayer Request: Praise God for his awesome altogether righteous ways, and His perfect
compassion and ask Him to help who He is to grip you and reorient you. Pray the practice
of repentance increasingly characterizes your life and our church and more and more
people who you know who are still alive and can turn to the Lord in this day of grace.
Icebreaker: When did you first experience God’s free grace and pardon and have a sense
that in Christ God had fully forgiven you? Describe other times when you were struck by
God’s great compassion? What are some of your favorite Bible verses that highlight
God’s gracious nature?
Read Isaiah 55:6-9 twice with two different readers:
6 “Seek
7
8
9
the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Sermon Outline:
I.
II.
III.
A truly repentant person:
a. Earnestly pursues and does not delay calling on the Lord (vs.6)
b. Abandons all their sin and turns to the Lord (vs. 7a)
Right now, in the day of grace, repentant sinners will meet:
a. The Lord’s compassionate mercy (7b)
b. The Lord’s immeasurable pardon (vs.7-9)
The Lord’s thoughts of grace are infinitely the opposite of unrighteous
and the Lord’s ways of forgiveness are infinitely the opposite of wicked.
Discussion Questions:
1. As you heard the word of God preached what did God’s Spirit remind you of,
challenge you with, convict you of, or encourage you in? Did you have any questions
or was anything unclear?
2. Read verse 6. What do people often seek instead of the Lord and who do they call
when they are desperate? In your experience do people think the Lord is only
accessible for a limited time? Why do you think this?
3. Read vs. 7. A key part of repentance is knowing ours ways to be wicked and thoughts
as unrighteous and forsaking/abandoning them and turning to the Lord. What is your
experience with this and how can you continue to cultivate this in your life?
4. According to vs. 7 what does the Lord promise to meet the one who forsakes their sin
with? How should a repentant sinner come before the Lord in light of this promise?
5. Read vs. 8-9. How have you understood these verses in the past? In light of the
immediately preceding context (vs. 7’s contrast of our ways and thoughts), how do
you understand vs. 8-9 better now?
6. Commenting on Isaiah 55:8-9 John Calvin wrote, “There is no thing that troubles our
consciences more than when we think that God is like ourselves.” From the larger
context of Isaiah 55, in what other ways is the Lord unlike us in his grace and free
pardon?
7. Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. How is God’s work through the cross of Christ the chief
demonstration of his gracious ways and thoughts being infinitely higher than our
unrighteous thoughts and wicked ways? What are the Lord’s purposes in showing
grace to and in saving sinners (see especially 1 Cor. 1:28-30)?
***Challenge: consider memorizing Isaiah 55:8-9 as a LIFE group***
7. Who in your life needs to repent today turning to the Lord for pardon and compassion
and trusting in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation while there is still
time? Say them by name and pray for them together as a group.
Prayer: Gracious heavenly Father, you have made yourself known and accessible and
you have shown us supremely what you are like through your son—our savior the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thank you for allowing yourself to be found and for drawing near to us and
loving us so freely as you have. We confess our sin and forsake our unrighteous thoughts
and wicked ways to you. Specifically we confess and forsake__________and we turn to
your promise to have compassion on us and abundantly pardon. We praise you and
glorify you alone for your amazing mercies. We ask that by the power of your holy spirit
you would continue to help us be a people who daily forsake our sin and wickedness not
just externally but also inwardly and we pray that we would continue to be reoriented
around your gracious promise and kind nature to undeserving sinners who offend you—
this is infinitely above our understanding. We are so grateful that you are unlike us Lord.
We praise you that you do not hold petty grudges, that you are not quick to anger that
you are not slow to forgive, that you are not impatient toward those that wrong you, that
you do not seek to destroy someone who hurts you. We come before you and confess our
inability to fully grasp your compassion but as sinners who need you we are grateful for
your promise and grace and the power you displayed in the death of Christ on the cross
so that we could be forgiven. Help us to tell those about your mercy and kindness and
help them to flee to you while you are near and there is still time. All these things we pray
in the name of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, Amen