Don Pearson // Northview Campus // May 4, 2025
SMALL GROUP
DISCUSSION GUIDE
THIS WEEK’S KEY PASSAGE: Luke 17:1-4
REMINDERS
Leader Appreciation Gathering
Each year in May we want to slow down and take time to connect and celebrate our group leaders.
Please join us for our annual Leader Appreciation Dinner this Wednesday May 7, 6-8pm at The Barn (5330 Kies Rd, Rockford, MI 49341).
We’ll enjoy a great meal, good conversation, and pray for and with one another. It’s always a good time shared with great people!
Questions? Reach out to Kim at [email protected]
Summer is Coming!
Summer events are on the way! Stay in the know by keeping an eye on our events page.
TOGETHER IN THE WORD
THIS WEEK’S KEY PASSAGE: Luke 17:1-4
Note: If you are meeting as a group, we encourage you to read the text together out loud.
GOING DEEPER:
Luke 17:1 “…Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.”
Don displayed a slide on “Scandals”—traps, offenses, stumbles—and their effects. Discuss and give examples.
They:
- Normalize the inappropriate
- Encourage self-defeating behavior
- Create disillusionment and distrust
- Erode accountability
Questions:
- Influencers are the stars of social media—for good and for bad. We also are influencers in our circles of relating. To whom are you an influence, and how might you influence someone to stumble?
- What might be some woes coming to those who cause someone to stumble?
Luke 17: 3 “So watch yourselves.”
Don provided avenues to examine ourselves:
- Tests
- Asking a friend
- Counseling
- Discipleship
- Asking God
Question: What tools have you used to promote self-awareness?
“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.”
Rebuke: to criticize sharply; an expression of strong disappointment; reprimand
Question: Sounds harsh! How do we carry out this directive? Use Matthew 18:15-17 to consider your answer. What does this look like in real life?
“Forgive them”
Don provided a list of difficulties of forgiveness. Discuss.
- Emotional resistance due to betrayal
- Expectations of reconciliation?
- Forgiving myself
- Timing and the process
- Justice and revenge
Forgive so many times??
Question: Read Luke 17:4 and Matthew 18:21-35. Why does Jesus use this extreme example?
TOGETHER IN ACTION
Talk with your small group, family, and friends about how you can live as a faith community that examines yourselves, rebukes well, and forgives quickly.
Ask someone in your life to walk alongside you as a partner in faith and service, encouraging one another in your growth in holiness and reminding one another to live full of faith and humility. If you don’t know who to ask, pray with faith that God will bring this person into your life.
TOGETHER IN PRAYER
Join the body of Christ at Magnify Church in praying Philippians 1:9–11. Write this verse down where you will see it daily and remember to pray it for yourself and our entire church body.
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. – Philippians 1:9–11
