Guest Speaker:  Stuart Cameron

Psalm 118: 1-2 & verses 19-29

Suggestions on How to Discuss a Sermon

Icebreaker Questions

You can choose any questions that suit your group best - or come up with some of your own. It's good for your group to get to know each other well, so you want them to talk about themselves and their families. You can come up with your own questions, or you can use one or more of the questions below:

• What's your favourite thing to do this summer/spring/fall/winter?
• What's the best thing that happened to you this week?
• How has God been working in your life this past week?
• What challenges have you faced this week? Did you see God working through them? How?
• Are there things you've heard this week about the world around you that concern you?
• Was there a chance to share Jesus with someone this week? Tell us about it.

Preparation Before the Group Comes

You might want to rewatch the sermon on YouTube to refresh your memory of the major points of the sermon. If you meet later in the week, you might want to rewatch sections of the sermon with your group.

• Make some notes on the sermon - especially look for the main points. There are usually three of them.
• Look for questions the pastor includes in the sermon.
• Sometimes, reading the scripture that's used in the sermon in various translations helps. You can find them on   biblegateway.com
• If you have questions yourself about the sermon, there is another website that gives good explanations and scripture references on just about any topic:   gotquestions.org

Starting the Sermon Discussion

Have them answer 1 or 2 questions from the following list:

• As you reflect on Sunday's message, what one principle or insight stands out as being particularly helpful - or confusing to you?
• If that sermon had to be re-delivered, what 2 points or ideas would you encourage the pastor to include no matter what?
• What's one thing from the sermon that you hoped our group would talk about?
• Was there any one thing you most agreed with, or disagreed with, from the message? What was it and why?

Scripture Reading

Read the scripture that the sermon was based on. It's often good to have people put the scripture in their own words. You may want to read the scripture in various translations.

• If the scripture recounts an event, have them tell the story in their own words. 
• If the scripture is explaining some doctrinal point, or giving instructions - have them summarize what was written.

Then talk about what the scripture says to them. (Again, one or more of the questions.)

• Reflecting on these verses, what strikes you the most? Why?
• What is the most challenging in these verses? Encouraging? New?
• What did you learn about God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit?
• If these verses were applied to our culture today, how would it change?

Digging Deeper

You may want to use questions that the pastor asked in his sermon, and/or:

• What insight, principle, or observation from this weekend's message did you find to be:
• most helpful?
• eye opening?
• troubling?
• encouraging?
• convicting?

• If you were to incorporate what the sermon said into your own life this week, how would the next week be different?
• Describe your life 1 year from now if you consistently applied this truth?

• What have you learned from the sermon and our discussion that you can think and pray about this week?

Prayer Time

Close your group meeting with a prayer time. Encourage people to pray - even tell them they can only pray 1 or 2 sentences at a time. That might help people who are nervous about praying aloud with others to pray.