To the leader: depending on your group, there may be more questions here than you have time for in your group. If that is the case, please pick the ones that seem most relevant to your group members, while concentrating on Scripture.

     

Optional Icebreaker: How many cities have you lived in during your life? Which is your favorite and why?

   

Scripture: John 4:7-15, Jeremiah 15:16, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Romans 12:2

   

Discussion Questions:

  

1. Describe the difference between “normal, everyday anxiety and depression” that most of us may have had at times, and the more serious kind that Pastor Jeff had.

  

   

2. Have you had a family member or close friend who was suicidal? What was it like?

  

3. True or False: Doctors can cure mental illness. Explain your answer.

   

   

4. Read together John 4:7-15. Discuss the concept of “living water” and all that it means. How does it relate to mental illness?

   

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans). Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’ ‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?’ Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’

-John 4:7-15

   

5. Look at other important words from the message such as Spirit, Truth, Word, and Joy. How do they apply to mental health? What Scripture do you know that applies to these terms?

   

   

6. Compare Ezekiel 36:26-27 to John 4:7-15. How are these passages alike? Different? (Note: there are many “gems” in the Old Testament. Don’t neglect to read it along with the New Testament!)

  

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

-Ezekiel 36:26-27

  

7. Why is mental illness at an all-time high in America?

  

   

8. Have you had a personal experience with mental illness in any way similar to Pastor Jeff’s? How did you cope?

  

  

9. Read Romans 12:2. What does this Scripture mean to you?

(Hint: Think about Pastor Jeff’s 4-step formula:

• Read/Study the Sermon on the Mount.

• Attend a serious-minded Community Group.

• Make weekend worship non-negotiable.

• Ask someone to disciple/mentor you.)

Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

-Romans 12:2

   

10. “You are the victim of circumstances only if you choose to be.” Discuss the meaning of this phrase. Use Scripture when applicable.