Small Group Questions

These questions are designed to foster discussion in small groups at Cedar Valley Church and are related to the sermon on 08/30/2026. Click here to watch it on Youtube.

WARM UP: Think of a time someone showed you kindness you didn’t feel like you deserved. What was that like?

HEAD: These questions help us examine the Word.

1. Read Matthew 8:1-17 together. Who are the three people Jesus encounters, and what need

does each one bring to him?

2. Touching a leper, helping a Roman centurion, and touching a woman were all things that

would have shocked Jesus' original audience. Why would each of these have been such a big

deal in that culture?

3. Verse 17 quotes Isaiah: “He himself took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.” What

does this tell us about why Jesus was healing people?

4. How do these three stories put into action what Jesus had just finished teaching in the Sermon

on the Mount (Matthew 5–7)?

HEART: These questions help us wrestle with what we believe.

1. There are two ways people respond to Jesus' authority: those who are drawn to it, and those

who feel threatened by it. Which one describes you right now, and why?

2. Is there an area of your life where you feel too unclean, too foreign, or too overlooked to

bring to Jesus? What holds you back?

3. The leper didn't beg — he simply said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

What would it look like for you to approach Jesus with that same confidence this week?

4. How does it change the way you see God to know that his mercy has no boundaries?

HAND: These questions help us bring truth and beliefs into our everyday life.

1. Who is someone in your life who feels unclean, foreign, or overlooked — someone the world

has pushed to the margins? What's one way you could show them the Gospel and the mercy

Jesus?

2. Is there a need you've been hesitant to bring to Jesus in prayer? Take a moment as a group to

bring it to him.