Held by Jesus | Chosen. Held. Loved. | John 17:9-19

About Table Communities

Table Communities are community gatherings for the purpose of:

• Building meaningful relationships through intentional time together
• Engaging in mutual discipleship through directing one another towards Christ with truth shared in love
• Multiplying grace through love, prayer and gifts of the spirit

The notes will guide you through praying together, reading scripture and engaging in intentional relational time together. There are also notes and practices for this month's habit of grace. We know that most groups will not have time to discuss the habit of grace during their time together, but they are available if time allows and are available for those seeking to intentionally engage with God's grace during the week. If that desire is within you, please read the notes on your own time or go through the habit of grace practices with a spiritual friend or your spouse, so as to build one another up in truth and love. Finally, this gathering is not about getting through all the note content, but rather this gathering is about building meaningful relationships, engaging in mutual discipleship and multiplying grace. Let those values shape the direction and pace of your time together.

Remember: What we all have in common

Saint : Beloved, forgiven, being renewed, filled with the Holy Spirit

Sufferer : Carrying real pain and struggle

Sinner: Still in need of ongoing grace

Kick off with prayer

Somone pray for your time together.

Example prayer, if needed. Ideally pray freely as you feel called:

‍Father we praise you for gathering us together. Despite whatever weighed on our hearts as we entered this house, we pray that your Spirit guides our time together and free us from anything that is not of you. We pray that by the strength of your might we may speak truth in love to one another. We pray that we are led by the gifts of your spirit, so that we may build up one another and your church as a whole. As we read your word, we pray that we may be filled with the knowledge of your will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner pleasing to you.  

Passage: Chosen. Held. Loved. | John 17

We will read the text together seeking for God to give life to the text through his Spirit. "Lord please help us to hear your word and receive what you have for each of us"

John 17: 9-19

9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Passage Summary

Jesus prays for His disciples so that they may be filled with his joy and sent out into the world. Jesus prays that as he leaves them they are protected from the evil one and sanctified in truth. Their future does not rest on self-effort but on the preserving prayer of Christ and the sustaining power of God.

Pray for and minister to one another