NOTE: If you missed this week’s message, click here to listen or watch.
Talk about your experience on Sunday morning.
- How did God speak to you during worship and/or teaching this week?
- What have you been reflecting on and/or praying about in response to this week’s service?
- Spend a few minutes checking in about people’s experience through the Bible Reading Plan through the Gospel of Matthew. What has God been teaching people?
Read Matthew 6:19-21 & 24 together.
- Jesus talked more about money than any other topic (other than the Kingdom of God). Why do you think this topic was (is) so important to Jesus?
- What do you think Jesus meant when he said in verse 21, “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be”?
- How do our spending/giving/hoarding/saving habits reveal the desires of our hearts?
- In verse 24 Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and money.” In what ways do we sometimes serve money instead of God?
- Jeff said that “the topic of giving & generosity is not a conversation about our wallets, it’s a conversation about our hearts.” In light of this passage in Matthew 6, what does our giving & generosity reveal about our hearts and our connection to Christ?
Read 2 Corinthians 8:7&9 together.
- Jeff said, “Generosity comes from the overflow of our hearts.” How does understanding the gospel and God’s generosity towards us make us more generous? (v 9)
- What does a lack of generosity reveal about our understanding of the gospel and God’s character?
- What, then, do you think ‘the cure’ is to a lack of generosity in our lives?
- Everything we have is a gift from God. How should this truth this change the way we think about money, possessions and generosity?
Read Malachi 3:8-10 and 1 Timothy 6:17-19 together.
- What instruction, warnings, and encouragements does the Malachi passage offer us about tithing (giving 10% of our total earnings to God’s work at the local church)? How do you react to these words
- In Malachi 3:10, God tells us to “put me to the test!” What does he mean?
- How have you personally experienced God’s blessing in your life when you have been faithful to tithe and to honour God with your finances?
- Jeff described ‘giving’ as something that is over and above the tithe (10% to the local church).
- Why is it important to be generous with both the ‘tithe’ and ‘giving’ to those in need?
Close off by reading Matthew 6:33 together.
- God promises to meet our needs when we seek the Kingdom first. In what practical ways are you feeling led to be more intentional to “seek the Kingdom first” in your finances? What are you going to do about it? How can this group support you in it?
- Spend some time praying for one another in the group. Pray that God would empower us to live out the gospel through our generosity!
