Week 1: Available
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Week 1
INTRO:
Friendship is something we all long for, but in today’s world, many of us feel isolated, unknown, or alone. Scripture shows us that bad company can lead us toward ruin, while good friends help us endure and grow in our relationship with God. Jesus modeled true friendship by making himself available. In his interactions, we see how showing up, slowing down to listen, and lifting others up can transform relationships. As we kick off this Groups At Home season, we’ll reflect on Jesus’ example and explore how we can become more available friends to those around us.
WARM UP:
Let’s start with everyone sharing:
Take time for each person to share why they joined groups and what they are hoping to experience / get from time together.
QUESTIONS:
Read Luke 19:1-9
In the midst of his busyness, Jesus made time for Zacchaeus. It’s no secret that he was a man stricken by loneliness. Instead of going to the next town, Jesus spent the day at Zacchaeus’ house. However, Jesus paused and saw Zacchaeus, emphasizing that he was still a child of God, regardless of wrongs he’d done.
Share a time when a friend showed up for you in a time of need. How did their availability strengthen your relationship?
What are the greatest enemies of availability in your life?
How can we fight against these to be more interruptible?
Read John 21:1-20
Good friends take the time to slow down and truly listen. Peter's friends exemplify this by listening to his pain and sorrow throughout the night while they fished. Jesus also models this aspect of friendship by slowing down and listening to Zacchaeus. This demonstrates that genuine friendship isn't always efficient or comfortable, but these very qualities make it good. It requires us to sacrifice a part of ourselves.
Discuss the difference between hearing someone and listening.
Why do you think listening can feel harder than speaking?
What are some practical steps we can take to become better listeners?
How would listening change your relationships with others?
Read Luke 19:7-10
While people were muttering about Zacchaeus, Jesus spoke words of encouragement and dignity. No matter his past, Zacchaeus was still a son of Abraham. Probably believing all the bad things said about himself, Jesus shows us that friends are meant to help us believe the best things about ourselves.
How would intentional encouragement grow your friendships and build trust?
Why is our tendency to stay on the surface? What challenges do surface conversations present in deepening friendships?
What would it look like for you to intentionally speak truth into the lives of your friends that need to hear it?
ACTION:
This week, choose one person to be fully available to. Show up with your attention, slow down to listen, and speak encouragement that lifts them up.
Week 2
Week 2: Vulnerable
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INTRO:
We’re in a series called The Gospel of Friendship where we’re discovering the good news of God’s design for relationships. This week we looked at the power of vulnerability and how being open and honest builds connection, healing, and deeper friendship with God and others. Vulnerability isn’t weakness; it’s strength in choosing to live open, instead of hiding behind walls. In Mark 5, we see how one woman’s choice to step out of hiding led her to hope and healing in Jesus. Together, we’ll unpack what it means to grow in vulnerability through honesty, asking for help and praying wholeheartedly.
WARM UP:
Let’s start with everyone sharing:
Take time for each person to share: Share your most embarrassing moment and answer:
Who is the person in your life that you’re most vulnerable with and why?
QUESTIONS:
Read Mark 5:24-33
We get to choose how we approach Jesus. We can talk to him with our guard up, or we can let the walls down and be vulnerable. He already knows everything going on in our lives, but he gives us the space to bring him our problems. Each time we do this, we are building trust with Jesus.
Why do you think we are so quick to put up walls instead of being honest about what’s really going on inside us?
How do you discover safe people and places to let those walls of vulnerabilities down?
How can we practically begin to dismantle the barriers that separate us from Jesus and others?(we face our pain, find safe people, build relationships of trust, choose to have courageous conversations, etc)
Read Matthew 26:38
There’s a temptation to believe that Jesus doesn’t know what we are going through - that he doesn't know our pain. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Jesus, God in flesh, experienced pain, heartache, and grief. We can be vulnerable with him because he was vulnerable with us.
Jesus asked for help. How are you at asking for help?
Why is our tendency to go it alone? Why is it difficult to ask for help? Where do you see pride getting in the way?
Asking for help is an avenue for grace to impact our relationships. Share about a moment when you received grace / help in a time of need.
Read Matthew 26:39-46
In this passage, we catch a glimpse of one of Jesus’s most vulnerable moments. He knows that the cross is near and pleads with his Father for this cup to pass from him. The next step is death, and Jesus is agonized by the thought of taking it. His first response? Honest prayer.
Jesus was brutally honest in prayer and still surrendered to God’s will. What does this say about how we should approach God when we are overwhelmed?
I love that Jesus invites his friends to pray with him. How can we take practical steps to become people of vulnerable corporate prayer?
ACTION:
Pick someone to pray with at least 3 times this week. Pray bold prayers and be vulnerable.
Week 3
Week 3: Accountable
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INTRO:
Accountability is not about control or shame, but about love, growth, and restoration. Jesus modeled what it means to hold others accountable with truth and grace, always aiming for reconciliation. Healthy friendships are marked by honest confession, loving correction, ruthless ownership, and patient reconciliation. These practices are not easy, but they lead to deeper connection with God and with one another. As we talk through these questions, let’s invite God into relationships to deepen accountability.
WARM UP:
Let’s start with everyone sharing:
When was the last time you tried something new (big or small) and how did it go?
QUESTIONS:
Read Matthew 12:36
Nothing is hidden from God’s sight. We may think that our actions are secret, but in the end we’ll give an account for everything we have done. This truth isn't meant to scare us. Actually, it should instill a healthy fear of the Lord. He sees all and still loves us day after day. We are never forsaken. We can approach the throne boldly through confession. That’s where we find grace.
Confession not only brings us closer to God, but closer to each other.
What has been your relationship with confession to God?(guilt? fear? freedom?) Why?
What emotions stir in you when you think about confessing something difficult with a friend?
How could confession actually strengthen, rather than weaken, your faith, and closest friendships?
Read Proverbs 24:26
The scary thing about confession is that we open ourselves up to correction. Throughout the Bible, God lovingly corrects his people across generations in order to push them to their purpose. Correction often comes with pain, but we are better for it.
Forgiveness paired with correction leads to deeper relationships. Share about a time when you were lovingly corrected. How did it grow / help / deepen your relationship?
How can you become the kind of friend others feel safe correcting and being corrected by?
Read Psalm 51:3
These days, people are quick to shift blame and slow to take responsibility. When we take ownership of our actions, we not only build up our friendships but we strengthen our character.
Why is it easier to blame others or make excuses than to take full responsibility?
What are the obstacles, fears or worries about radically owning our mistakes?
What would it look like to take ownership in one relationship this week?
Ownership ultimately leads to reconciliation. How does God’s reconciliation with us in Christ shape the way we pursue reconciliation with others? (Read 2 Corinthians 5.18 MSG) “All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.”
ACTION:
Spend time praying through a few relationships in your life. How could God grow accountability in our friendships? What relationship needs an accountable moment? What relationship needs to be reconciled?
Pray with one another.
Week 4
Week 4: Loving
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INTRO:
Love is at the heart of the gospel and at the center of our friendships. Jesus reminds us that to love God and love others is the greatest commandment. Our faith is proven not in words alone, but in how we love. In Matthew 18, Jesus tells a shocking parable about a king and a servant, revealing what love looks like when it is lived out. Love is more than a feeling; it shows up in accountability, listening, compassion, generosity, and allowing love to actually change us. As we walk through this story together, let’s examine what love requires of us in our friendships and relationships.
WARM UP:
Let’s start with everyone sharing:
What’s one of the most memorable acts of kindness you’ve ever received from a friend or family member?
QUESTIONS:
Read Matthew 18:23-25
Without accountability, there is no love. The king held this man accountable to the debt that he owed. It may not be easy or comfortable, but it was time to reveal how much the servant owed. He has been trusted with something by the King, now it was time to repay.
How have you seen truth-telling strengthen a friendship? Why is it so hard to hold our friends accountable?
How does accountability make room for love in our lives?
What is the relationship between accountability, consequence, truth and love?
How does listening reflect God’s love for us and how can we practice it better in our friendships?
Read Matthew 18:27
There's a difference between pity and compassion. Pity looks at people’s issues from a distance. While emotion is stirred up in us, pity keeps us invulnerable and disconnected. Compassion moves us to step into someone's mess, taking some of the weight on our shoulders.
Compassion requires action, not just pity. Share a time when someone stepped in for you in a way that reflected compassion.
How does one grow in compassion / “splagchnizomai”?
How can we act on our compassion for our neighbors/community this week?
Read 1 John 3:16-17
Love pushes us to generosity, ultimately changing our perspective so we can love our neighbors as ourselves. Nothing is stronger than the love of God, proven by his death on a cross. Just like Christ was generous, we should be generous.
In your friendships, do you find yourself giving abundantly or only the bare minimum? What needs to change?
Why is it so dangerous when we receive love or forgiveness but refuse to be changed by it? Think about the Matthew 18
Forgiveness means to cancel. Are you holding something against someone – that needs to be cancelled / forgiven?
What are a few practical ways to be generous in our relationships?
Share one way you have extended grace to someone else.
ACTION:
This week, pray about giving generously to the 1:1. Love should push us to extend a helping hand to those most vulnerable in our community.
Week 5
Week 5: Enduring
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INTRO:
Friendships are meant for good times, but also the bad. We need to be there to lift each other up when things get hard. Endurance is essential to the Christian walk. “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5
WARM UP:
Let’s start with everyone sharing:
- What do you think it means to be an enduring friend?
- Who have been enduring friends in your life?
QUESTIONS:
Scripture tells us that we are stand with your friends in prayer. Where 2 or 3 are gathered, he will be in the midst of them.
Read Romans 8:34
- Who is the most prayerful person you know? How does this play out in their life, and how do you think they’ve become so committed to prayer?
Jesus intercedes for us and models that we should also be fervently praying for our friends. Would you say you are as committed to interceding for others as Jesus calls us to be?
- What steps could you take/ rhythms could you create in your life to get closer to the standard Jesus has set in praying for others?
Speak life when they forget who they are. Sometimes we will need our friends to remind us of what’s true and good when everything seems dark. A brother is for a time of adversity.
Read 2 Timothy 1:5
-Share about a time that a friend reminded you of your identity when you needed to hear it. How did this affect you?
There are many ways to encourage others... but what is the significance of reminding your friends who they are? Why is it so important that we emphasize identity?
Is there anyone in your life who needs this reminder right now? How could you encourage them this week by reminding them of what God says about them?
Help them see the bigger story God is writing. Are lives don’t exist in silos. We are all connected to each other through God’s work in history. Each of us have a role to play, joining him in his great work. Friends remind us of that.
Read 2 Timothy 6-8
When going through hardships, do you ever find yourself forgetting about the bigger story God is writing?
Sometimes we need the people in our lives to help us see past our circumstances and remember the bigger picture of God’s plan. Why is it so important that we remember the bigger story God is writing in the midst of our struggles?
What specific things about God’s bigger story should we make sure to remember? How can clinging to these truths keep us encouraged?
ACTION:
Thank God for someone who has been an enduring friend, and identify one step you can take to become a more enduring friend.