Anyone Who Looked, Lived

In one paragraph

Philip walked the congregation through steps six and seven of the twelve steps, connecting the idea of humility and rebirth directly to a passage from Numbers 21 and then to Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. The sermon asked a simple but serious question: are you entirely ready to let God remove what is broken in you? The answer, he argued, is found not in self-effort but in looking to...

Read together

1. Numbers 21:4-9 the bronze snake on the pole, used as the Old Testament type that Jesus draws on when speaking to Nicodemus
2. John 3:14 Jesus tells Nicodemus that just as Moses lifted up the snake, the Son of Man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes may have eternal life
3. John 5 mentioned as the chapter where conflict with religious leaders begins, and where the man at the Pool of Bethesda is healed
4. John 14 referenced briefly as where Jesus says 'I am the way, the truth, and the life'
5. Romans 15:13 read as the closing benediction: may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing

Talk about it

1. Ray talked about throwing his daughter's toy cow out the window and lying awake that night wishing he were more patient. When have you recognized a fault in yourself that you knew God wanted to change, and what did that moment feel like?
2. The sermon described step six as asking whether you are 'entirely ready' to have God remove a defect, and noted that sometimes we resist change because a flaw has become part of how we see ourselves. Is there anything in your life like that, something you know is wrong but that you are not quite ready to let go of?
3. Ray used three words to describe the story from Numbers 21: sin, sorrow, and salvation. He said sorrow means recognizing that you are 'snake bit' and cannot fix it yourself. What does it look like practically to move from recognizing a problem to genuinely grieving it rather than just managing it?
4. Jesus told Nicodemus that being lifted up on the cross would work the same way the bronze snake on the pole worked: anyone who looked lived. Alan Levi's letter said the cross is not a place for argument with God but a place of surrender and humility. What makes it hard for people, including people who have been in church a long time, to simply trust the way God has made rather than trying to fully understand or approve of it first?
5. The sermon connected step seven, humbly asking God to remove our shortcomings, directly to the new birth Jesus described in John 3. How does thinking about ongoing sanctification as a kind of continuous turning and looking, the way the Israelites looked at the bronze snake, change the way you approach your own struggles with sin?