Don Denyes // Rockford Campus // January 5, 2025

SMALL GROUP
DISCUSSION GUIDE

THIS WEEK’S KEY PASSAGE: Luke 13:10-17

REMINDERS

WINTER BIBLE STUDIES (Beginning the week of January 12, 2025)

Both Men’s and Women’s Winter Bible Studies will begin the week of January 12th at the Rockford and Northview campuses. Registration for each is open on the events page of the website.

LEADER DEVELOPMENT CLASS (Sundays, 6–7pm – Rockford Campus – “The Pond” downstairs near the library)

We’ve had some terrific LDC’s covering the topic of how to navigate Crucial Conversations. Thank you to the leaders who have been able to make it!

This upcoming Sunday, Jan. 12, we will continue our discussion around “Start with Heart” – What is it that I really want for my relationships long-term? It’ll be some GREAT conversation you won’t want to miss!

TOGETHER IN LIFE

Week 1 of 2025 is complete – 51 to go!

Does this kind of thinking stress you out? What is your preferred way of thinking of life’s events?

Do you like to count the days, predict, plan and execute? Or do you prefer to “go with the flow”?

How does this impact the way you celebrate big life events like planning a party?

Do you prefer informal or formal gatherings? Do you prefer to have a plan and make a lot of details come together? Or do you like to figure it out last minute and pull it together organically?

TOGETHER IN THE WORD

THIS WEEK’S KEY PASSAGE: Luke 13:10-17

Note: If you are meeting as a group, we encourage you to read the entire text together out loud.

KEY QUESTION:

• In what ways does God see you, call you, free you, and defend you? 
• How does this look practically in your life?

The Woman: Bent and Bound

The woman in this passage is bent over with a painful ailment that had disabled her through an evil spirit. This went on for 18 years and seemed to have no hope of change.

QUESTIONS

• What kinds of issues might she have struggled with because of her ailment? Socially? Medically? Relationally? Financially?
• What might that have been like?
• Have you ever had to endure long-suffering in your life? If so, in what ways? For how long?
• Have you noticed God’s love and care for you in that season? If so, how?

Jesus: Compassionate and Mighty

“When God’s powerful Word is connected with His loving touch, the result is a miracle”. The loving kindness of Jesus to see, care, call, and touch this woman is quintessential of God’s character. The infinite Creator makes us whole from the inside out, in spite of our limited, broken, and evil hearts. Oh the joy we experience when we realize His compassion and might that we can experience in our lives!

QUESTIONS

• What was Jesus’ response to the woman’s presence in the synagogue (v12-13)?
• Is there something bent or bound in your life you long to have healed in your life?
  • A relationship?
  • A health issue?
  • A financial challenge?
  • A moral issue?
  • A past failure?
• Have you taken this issue to God to resolve?
  • If so, what has that been like for you?
  • If not, why not?
• What is your long-term hope?
• What is a proper response to God’s work in our lives?
• How can this group help you bring this to God and encourage you to trust in Him?

Ruler:  Religious but Lost…

Whenever we miss God’s love, we miss everything else. Like looking in a mirror and at once forgetting what we saw or getting fixated on a hangnail when we have a broken leg, we can miss what God is wanting for us and from us. The Synagogue Ruler was trapped in a loveless belief that tradition was what would bring life and that through following the traditions, God would be pleased and he would earn His approval. The Ruler had his rules, but missed Christ…

QUESTIONS

• What examples of legalism or hypocrisy are mentioned in this passage?
• How can good intentions lead to legalism?
• What is the difference between good habits or practices and legalistic ones?
• What examples are there of legalism today?
• How does legalism keep us from knowing Christ?

God’s love is extended to you RIGHT NOW. Regardless of your history, your past mistakes, your current addictions or shortcomings “God shows love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

QUESTIONS

• What is the significance of God’s healing presence in our lives WHILE we were (or are) still sinners?
• What does this motivate us to live like whenever we realize this powerful reality?
• In what ways does Communion remind you that God sees you, God calls you, God frees you, and God defends you?

TOGETHER IN ACTION

Having Scripture on the top of our minds and deep into our hearts is one of the best ways we can adopt the truth of God into action in our lives.

Consider picking a passage or verse(s) for your group to memorize together. Encourage each other weekly to commit it to memory. When you show up for next week’s meeting, take time to practice reciting it together.

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8

TOGETHER IN PRAYER

Take time in your group to talk about some practical things in your life that you really want to see God move to rescue you from. Get to know one another’s longings and desires in these areas so you can be praying for and supporting one another.