Come To The Table

Small Group Discussion Guide

Based on the message by Pastor Randy Hooper

1. SERMON RECAP

Pastor Randy Hooper preached from Luke 14 about the great supper parable, calling believers to recognize that the church is the table where God has prepared an everlasting meal for all people. He challenged the congregation to move beyond personal comfort and religious routine into the passionate, servant-hearted work of inviting others to experience what God has prepared for them. He reminded the group that true freedom, as described in 1 Peter 2:16, is never a license to live for oneself but always a calling to live as a servant of God.

2. KEY SCRIPTURE

Luke 14:21-23 (NKJV)

"So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.' And the servant said, 'Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.' Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.'"

3. ICE BREAKER

Think of the best meal you have ever been invited to — a holiday dinner, a celebration, a backyard cookout. What made being invited to that table feel special?

4. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Pastor Randy described the church as a table where God has set a meal, and he said that every believer's name is already on a chair. What does that image of a prepared, personal place at the table stir up in you emotionally or spiritually? Does it feel real to you on a daily basis, and why or why not?

2. In 1 Peter 2:16, believers are called to live as free people who are servants of God, not people who use freedom as a cover for evil. Pastor Randy pointed out that freedom in our culture has drifted far from that definition. Where do you see that tension between personal freedom and servant-hearted living showing up most in everyday life, including in your own?

3. The guests in the parable of the great supper each gave a different excuse for not coming to the table. Pastor Randy noted that none of the excuses were particularly convincing, yet all of them were accepted as sufficient reasons to miss the meal. What kinds of modern excuses keep people from accepting God's invitation, and what keeps people who are already believers from bringing others to the table?

4. Pastor Randy shared that 2 Corinthians 3:17 connects the presence of the Holy Spirit directly to freedom, and he described the danger of a believer's spiritual tank moving from full to empty as the world slowly fills more of their attention. What are the early warning signs, in your own life, that your spiritual tank is beginning to drop below full? What has helped you refuel in the past?

5. He told the story of a man who accepted Christ on his deathbed, just one day before he died, because a team took the time to visit him and share the gospel. Pastor Randy said that one soul causes all of heaven to celebrate. How does that truth change the way you think about the people in your life who have not yet come to the table? Does it feel urgent, and if not, what might be getting in the way of that urgency?

6. Pastor Randy asked the group a pointed question: when you look at the table, how many people are sitting there because of you? Without guilt or self-condemnation, how would each person in the group honestly answer that question right now, and what would it look like to begin changing that answer over the next year?

5. APPLICATION CHALLENGE

This week, each group member should identify one specific person in their life who has not yet come to the table, write that person's name down somewhere they will see it every day, and reach out to that person in a simple and personal way, whether through a phone call, a text, a meal, or an invitation to church. The goal is not to preach at them but simply to make contact and let them know they are valued and thought of.

6. PRAYER POINTS

• Pray that each group member would develop a renewed and sustained hunger for God's word that moves beyond habit and tradition into genuine daily passion and dependence on the Holy Spirit.

• Pray specifically by name, if the group is willing to share, for the people they identified in the application challenge, asking God to soften hearts and open doors for natural, Spirit-led conversations about faith.

• Pray for the local church as a whole, that it would carry the warmth, urgency, and unconditional welcome of the master's table in the parable, so that those who walk through its doors for the first time feel that a place was always prepared for them.

7. MEMORY VERSE

2 Corinthians 3:17 (ESV)

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

Leader note: Encourage group members to bring the name they wrote down for the application challenge to the next meeting and share briefly how the outreach went. Celebrating even small steps of obedience builds momentum and reminds the group that building the kingdom is a shared, ongoing effort.