Small Group Questions

November 2 - 8

Sermon Series: Friends & Family

Week 1: Friendship

Ice Breaker, if Needed:

Did you, or someone you know, have an imaginary friend as a child? Share the story!

Discussion Questions for Small Groups or Individual Study

1. What happens when you desire biblical friendships, but use the strategies of the world to find and maintain your relationships?
• Read Acts 2:42-47
• How do your expectations of who your friends are supposed to be and how they are supposed to act interfere with this biblical picture of relationship?

2. What do you look for in a friend? What kind of friends does God want you to have? What kind of friend are you?
• Read Proverbs 13:20
• Why is it important to be discerning as you seek and build friendships?

3. Describe the characteristics of a friendship where Jesus is positioned in the center.
• Read Proverbs 17:17
• What is the expiration date of a friendship built on these values? Do you have friends you can call on in times of adversity? How do you know?
Can others call on you, even if you haven’t connected in a while? Why or why not?

4. How are you getting in your own way when it comes to building and nurturing friendships?
• How does fear, insecurity, and discomfort keep you from embracing the friendships God has for you? What should you do with those feelings?
• If you fully understood your value as loved, wanted, and needed because you are in Christ, how might that impact your relationships?

5. What if friendship wasn’t about what you could get from it, but what you could invest in the Kingdom of God through it?
• Read Proverbs 18:24 and John 15:15
• Who is closer than a brother?
• What if you were a friend like Jesus? What would you need to surrender? Embrace?
• How would lives be transformed if we all made the investment to dig deeper and pursue Jesus-centered friendships?
• Pray to be shown who (and how) to engage in Jesus-centered friendships. Follow through!