Each week we’re publishing some questions to think about based on the Sunday messages & Bible readings.
These can be used in home groups, with others or on your own, and are designed to help you engage in the passage and themes in more depth and reflect on how God might be speaking to you through them.
Icebreaker Question
What helps you feel safe and settled when life feels busy or uncertain?
(It could be a place, a person, a routine, a prayer, a cup of tea… anything!)
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, our Good Shepherd,
thank you that you know us, love us, and stay close to us.
Thank you that we don’t have to figure everything out on our own.
As we spend this time together, help us to relax, be honest, and hear your voice.
Show us where we need your comfort, where we need your courage, and where you may be leading us next.
Help us encourage one another and grow closer to you.
Amen.
Reading & Questions
Read Psalm 23 & John 10:11-21
- Psalm 23 talks about God, the shepherd, leading us to still waters and places where we can rest and be nourished. Do you recognise this as a need in your life at the moment? What might it look like for you to stop and simply 'be' with the good shepherd?
- James suggested (echoing Julia's talk from last week) that we often build 'pens' to feel safe — in routines, possessions, church buildings, familiar ways of doing things, or ways of thinking. What kinds of 'pens' do people most commonly build, and why do you think we cling to them?
- Jesus suggests that his knowledge, intimacy with and love of his sheep is rooted in his relationship with his Father. How does this shape or change our understanding of our relationship with Jesus as our shepherd?
- Jesus says he knows his sheep, and his sheep know his voice. What helps you recognise the voice of Jesus in everyday life? What makes it harder to hear him?
- When have you experienced Jesus leading you out of a place of comfort into something new, stretching, or uncertain? What was that like?
- If following the Good Shepherd means joining him in the wider world, where might Jesus be calling us — individually or as a church — to step out, welcome others, or make him known right now? Spend some time praying together about this, and asking that we might have the faith and trust needed to follow him.
Closing Prayer
Conclude this time together by praying for the world, our church, for those you love and for each other.
Pray for each other and ask that we would grow in our intimacy with Jesus as our good shepherd, be able to find rest in him, be able to hear his voice, and be willing to follow wherever he leads.