Sermon

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SHEPHERD GROUPS

1. What was one thing you found particularly interesting, insightful, helpful or difficult to understand from this sermon? What have you taken away from this series as a whole?
2. What do you think of when you hear the word depression? Have you ever struggled with it or known someone who has? To what degree?
3. What scriptures can you think of where Jesus spent time with suffering people?
4. Do you tend to engage with or avoid suffering people? Why? How can you grow in this area?
5. Why is prolonged isolation destructive to the Christian? Have you ever experienced this?
6. "Everyone needs a friend with whom there are no secrets and with whom there is no condemnation." Do you have such a friendship?
7. "If all we turn to God for is relief from suffering, He may or may not grant that relief, for He offers far more." How do you respond to that statement?
8. "And so there is a peculiar, rich, and poignant joy that seems to come to us only through and in suffering." (Tim Keller, Walking with God Through Pain & Suffering). How do you respond to that statement? How have you found it to be true or not in your own life?
9. Spend some time praying over the members of our church body, and the members of your shepherd group, who are suffering. Ask God for strength and courage to minister to those specific people you know are suffering.

RESOURCES
For counseling info and assessment at RBC, contact our Counseling Pastor, Paul Goodnight.

For information on the Lay Counseling Institute, visit www.lciministry.org.