Stu Quakenbush // Rockford Campus // May 11, 2025

SMALL GROUP
DISCUSSION GUIDE

THIS WEEK’S KEY PASSAGE: Luke 18:1-8

REMINDERS

Annual Business Meeting (Sunday, May 18 6:00-8:00pm, Rockford Auditorium)

All Magnify Members are invited by the church board for an important meeting and a time of celebrating God’s faithfulness throughout the past year. Please watch for agenda items, ways to be a part of the meeting, and voting options.

*Note, anyone can attend this meeting, however only members are allowed to speak and vote

Men @ Magnify Summer Bonfire (Wednesday, May 28, 7:00-9:00pm, The Barn 5330 Kies Road, Rockford)

All Men at Magnify are invited to hang out around a bonfire, eat snacks, play yard games, and talk about being a Godly Man in 2025. No need to register. Just bring a camp chair, a friend, your sons, grandsons, or nephews and if you want, a snack or drink to pass.

Summer is Coming!

Summer events are on the way! Stay in the know by keeping an eye on our events page.

TOGETHER IN LIFE

The days are getting sunnier and the temperatures are getting warmer. School is almost out. What are two or three activities or experiences on your summer bucket list?

TOGETHER IN THE WORD

THIS WEEK’S KEY PASSAGE: Luke 18:1-8

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

KEY QUESTION:

• What prayers have you stopped praying out of discouragement or hopelessness? How might God be calling you to persist in prayer?

GOING DEEPER:

Do Not Lose Heart

Scripture tells us that the purpose of this parable is to teach us that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Stu noted that in other sections of Scripture, the same phrase is translated as “do not grow weary.” In other words, Jesus told this parable to His disciples in order to teach them to continue persevering in faith and prayer and to not grow weary as they waited. 

QUESTIONS

• Stu shared a quote from evangelist George Müller, in which Müller described praying for the salvation of five men everyday for decades. While one of the men came to faith within 18 months, it was a total of 54 years before the fifth man was finally saved. Have you ever prayed for something for years? What did that / does that feel like? 
• Why might some prayers take longer to answer than others? What might God be doing in you, another person, or a situation in that time? 
• What does it look like to not lose heart?

The Unjust Judge and The Loving Father

Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that we pray to a just and loving Father. Even though the judge in this parable was wicked, he ultimately granted justice to the widow out of annoyance. Jesus tells us that if an unjust judge will grant justice, how much more will a loving Father who deliberately chose you before the foundation of the world? 

QUESTIONS

• Have you ever doubted God’s love for you in prayer? 
• Compare this parable to Jesus’s words about prayer in Matthew 7:7-11. How is Jesus calling us to greater faith in God’s love and care for us? 
• Do these passages affect your approach to prayer?

A Spiritual Family

This week’s sermon ended with a panel of women speaking about prayer. One of the women identified herself as a spiritual mother to the students under her care. The Bible tells us that when we’re born again into new life, we’re saved unto Christ and into a family which is the people of God. As Stu said, we’re in relationship through the blood of Christ, and those relationships are very real.

QUESTIONS

• Do you consider yourself part of a spiritual family that is just as real as your family of origin?
• How are you stepping into the role of spiritual father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or sister?

TOGETHER IN ACTION

• Ask God to show you if there are prayers you have either stopped praying or haven’t prayed at all out of hopelessness or discouragement. If He reveals something to you, begin to take it to God in prayer with faith that He hears and cares. 
• Practice living out the family of God. Is there someone in your life who you can be a spiritual father or mother to, or someone who can be a spiritual father or mother to you?

TOGETHER IN PRAYER

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. – Jesus, John 15:16 

• Pray for faith to believe that God is not an unjust judge, but a loving Father who delights in you as His child. 
• Pray that you will know you are a member of a spiritual family. 
• Pray that God will use you to bear good fruit within that spiritual family and within the world, starting with a life of faith and prayer.