Depravity

1 · Icebreaker · 7 min

Open the room

Have you ever tried to push a car with a dead battery? What finally had to happen?

Leader. The answer you want, eventually, is “someone else had to bring life.” Do not say it for them during the icebreaker. Say that passing is allowed, especially the first few weeks.

2 · The word · 8 min

See it, then say it

Definition, from the book

Depravity refers to the deep corruption of human nature due to sin, resulting in our inability to please God, understand spiritual truth rightly, or come to Him apart from His grace.

In the original language

Greek nekros — dead, lifeless, without power. The day’s text calls us dead, not merely damaged.

Memory verse · Ephesians 2:1–2

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

Together, open the flashcard for Depravity. Say the word, the definition, and the verse once. Then put the phone away.

3 · Open the Bible · 15 min

Ezekiel 37:1–6, 9–10

The devotion asked about spiritual blindness and about Romans 6. Ezekiel’s valley makes the same point with bones that cannot hear until God speaks. Read it as a story.

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones… and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones… Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Have two readers if you can. Bibles open. The excerpt is only here so a forgotten Bible does not stop the night.

From the passage

1. 1.What can the bones do for themselves in this story? Who acts?Core

   Leader. They are very dry. They do not decide, cooperate, or improve. God speaks, and breath comes.

2. 2.God asks, “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel does not say yes. He says, “Lord, you know.” Why is that a better answer than optimism?

   Leader. Hope is in God’s power, not in the bones’ potential. Depravity kills our confidence in human potential without killing our confidence in God.

4 · Around the room · 20 min

A conversation this chapter did not assign

1. 3.Ephesians 2 says “dead,” not “sick” or “confused.” What is the difference between “people need a little help believing” and “people need to be made alive”?Core

   Leader. Help still assumes a living patient. Death requires resurrection. This changes evangelism and parenting.

2. 4.Romans 8:7–8 says the mind set on the flesh cannot submit to God’s law. Why does that offend us — and why might it be good news if it is true?

   Leader. It offends pride. It is good news because the solution is no longer “try harder to be the kind of person who starts the boat.”

3. 5.John 6:44: no one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws him. How should that change the way we pray for people who seem unable to care about God?

   Leader. Prayer stops being a backup plan. If they are dead, asking God to speak is the work, alongside telling them the news.

5 · Say it · 5 min

In one sentence

Apart from Jesus we are not weak swimmers. We are dead, and only God can make us alive.

Ask for two volunteers, not the whole circle. They may look at the sentence, then try it without looking. Clumsy and true is the goal.

6 · Pray · 8 min

Leave silence between these

1. Thank God for any spiritual breath in the room. It did not come from the bones.
2. Pray by name, if people are willing, for someone who seems dry.
3. Ask for humility. This doctrine is about us before it is about “those people.”