The Price is Right: “You’ve all Overbid”

Selected Scripture

Connect:

• Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.

Prayer:

Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.

Review:

This series, “The Price is Right, we are looking at honoring God with the resources we are entrusted with as He provides for our own needs and gives us the capacity to “be blessed and be a blessing”. We will look at tithes and offerings as God’s intended way of reducing the hold that our ‘stuff’ has on our hopes, confidence and security. This week we looked at dealing with debt and what it takes to overcome that…

The Grand Tour of the message: Thinking back on what you heard this Sunday…

o What did you learn about God?

o What did you learn about people?

o What did you learn about yourself?

o What do you want to commit to putting into practice?

Reflection:

Personal Experience:

• Share about a time you spent money you should not have spent. Maybe it was a “too good to miss” deal that was actually a “too big to absorb” expense. Maybe it was an honest mistake like investing in a stock or a friend’s business. Maybe it was a gift that was a little too extravagant… What’s your story of life below the waterline?

  Group Discussion:

  1. Let’s start by talking about the big picture of stewardship as we are living for eternity while we live in time. Read Matt 6:19-34, Prov 3:9-10, Luke 6:38, 2 Cor 9:6-8 and discuss:

     1. Is there any relationship between our worry about money and our greed for more?

     2. What difference does it make to know that God knows our needs?

     3. Think about a major purchase you made recently. Would it make a difference to ask “Lord, is this a need?”?

  2. There are all kinds of reasons we get into debt and all kinds of consequences once we are there. Let’s talk about that:

     1. Pride & Pain: Sometimes we don’t deal with debt because we would have to add the pain of “owning bad decision” to the pain of being in debt! Read Prov 18:12, Ps 37:21, Prov 22:7, Prov 11:2 and discuss the place of pride in our hesitancy to face debt and deal with it.

     2. Counsel: Read Prov 15:22, Prov 11:24. Whose ‘counsel’ has guided most of my financial decision making to date? Costco sales pitches, people I compare myself to, financial advisors, Scriptural principles… which voices best explain my spending habits as a whole?

Application: 

It’s not just about freedom; it is also about faithfulness. What would need to change in order to be faithful in the area of creating financial margins that release generosity?

Prayer:

Spend some time in prayer thanking God for His provision and presence, asking for His guidance and strength to walk with Him in this area of our lives.

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