Sermon-Based Small Group Lessons

When God Gets Personal with My Stuff, Part 2

Dr. Les Hughes

March 8, 2009

 

 

Summary: Life-Changing Lessons

 

1.  I can’t earn eternal life in heaven by being a good person.

2.  Material possessions won’t satisfy our hunger for a personal relationship with God.

3.  Evidence of my relationship with Jesus is found in what I DO, not only in what I DON’T DO.

 

 

Scripture

 

Luke 18:18-30

 

  18A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

 19"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 20You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'[a]"

 21"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.

 22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

 23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

 26Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"

 27Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

 28Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"

 29"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."

 

 

Opening Question

 

What are some of your fears during this economic time in our nation?

 

 

Digging for Truth

 

1.  Les said, “If you really want to know a lot about a person, check out how he or she spends and manages money.”  What do you think we’d discover about most Americans if we looked into their finances?

 

2.  Life-changing Lesson #1 says, “I can’t earn eternal life in heaven by being a good person.”  What would you say to a person who believes this?   (see Romans 3:23)

 

3.  Lesson Two states, “Material possessions won’t satisfy our hunger for a personal relationship with God.”  Why do you believe this to be true?

 

4.  Lesson Three states, “Evidence of my relationship with Jesus is found in what I DO, not only in what I DON’T DO.”  What are the “do” things you would expect to see in the life of believers?

 

5.  During this economic time, a proper perspective on finances will help believers cope with fearful situations.  One truth is that God owns it all.  How can this truth help us have a proper perspective in these times?

 

6.  A missionary who became a martyr, Jim Elliot, once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”  What is it that we cannot keep and we cannot lose?

 

7.  In Matthew 23:23, Jesus affirms the principle of the tithe.  Read that passage.  Why do you think most believers do not choose to be obedient to this principle?

 

8.  Giving by believers today is less than during the Great Depression.  What do you think this says?

 

9.  Randy Alcorn shared some questions to help us evaluate our giving.  Allow me to read these questions to you.  I’ll leave a few seconds between each for you to answer in your mind.

 

            a.  Has the degree of my giving suggested that I have recognized and embraced the full extent of Your grace in my life?

 

            b.  Father, could it be that You have raised me up – with financial assets You’ve entrusted to me – for just a time at this?

 

            c.  Lord Jesus, have I over accumulated?  Have I allowed unwise spending and accumulating debt to inhibit my giving to You?

 

            d.  Have I fallen for the lie that I just don’t have enough to give, despite the fact that the greatest example of giving in Scripture were poor people?

 

            e.  If I were to make a list of all the assets You’ve entrusted to me, Lord, and ask what You want me to give away is there anything – house, car, real estate, retirement funds, bank accounts – that I’m leaving off as untouchable?

 

            f.  Five minutes after I die, what will I wish I had given away while I still had the chance?

 

 

Closing Thought

 

Would someone like to share a time when you gave to God, feeling like there wouldn’t be enough to get by, but you saw God provide in a supernatural way?