July 26, 2026 | Courts of Praise | Bishop Beau Barton

Jesus Is the Seed

Small Group Discussion Guide
Luke 8:11 — "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God."
Jesus tells a story about a farmer, some seed, and four kinds of ground — but He's not talking about farming. He's talking about how we respond to His Word. Tonight's central question: what kind of ground has your response to God's Word made you into, and what do you want to do about it?

Discussion Questions

Group 1: The Two Debtors, Simon, and the Woman
  1. In Luke 7:36-50, why do you think the woman's response to Jesus was so physical — tears, her hair, kissing His feet — rather than just words?
  2. What does Jesus' parable of the two debtors reveal about how gratitude is actually supposed to work?
  3. Why was Simon's assumption — that his sin was smaller and therefore cost less — actually the wrong way to measure his own gratitude?
  4. What does it look like practically to respond to Jesus the way the woman did, out of an understanding of what's been forgiven rather than out of guilt or performance?
Group 2: The Parable of the Sower
  1. In the Parable of the Sower, what's the real difference between the "road" and the "good ground," even though both groups heard the same word?
  2. Why do you think the rocky ground's joy didn't survive a trial?
  3. What are some modern equivalents of the "cares, riches, and pleasures" that choke out the word in the thorny ground?
  4. None of the four grounds were predetermined — they became what they became by their response to the seed. How does that change the way you think about your own heart?
Bringing It Together
  1. Both stories are about response — the woman's response to being forgiven, and the ground's response to the seed. What do these two parables teach us together about what it means to actually receive what God gives us?
Closing Challenge: Pick one thing God has spoken to you recently — a promise, a conviction, a word from this series — and write it down somewhere you'll see it daily this week. Refuse to let it go, even if you don't see it producing anything yet, and come back next week ready to tell the group what holding on looked like.