The Price is Right: “Showcase Showdown”

2 Corinthians 9 and 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 how our obedience can have a cascading effect, inspiring others…

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:

• Why does it feel good to give stuff away? We spend our lives trying to gain, to avoid loss and build wealth… so why on earth would it ‘feel good’ to give anything away to someone else? Talk about a time you gave something away and unpack that question: Why did giving feel good?

  Group Discussion:

  1. Our giving has influence as well as impact. Read the following passages and discuss

     1. Influence: 2 Cor 9:1-2, Matt 5:16, Heb 10:24: These are various ways our giving influences others in worship, generosity, love, etc. Talk about what was happening or being discussed in each passage and identify HOW the actions of one believer influenced others.

     2. If giving is an exercise of faith, in what ways does it help us to grow in our faith walk with Jesus? (James 2:17-18, Romans 12:1, Phil 4:19, 2 Cor 9:6-10)

     3. Giving can nurture growth.; can lack of giving inhibit growth? Why or why not?

     4. Can giving be an act of worship? How so?

  2. Scott talked about the difference between having an “abundance” and a “scarcity” mindset. How do the following verses help us to NURTURE an abundance mindset: Deut 8:17-18, Mat 6:31-33, Ps 24:1, 2 Cor 9:8-11, Mal 3:10.

  3. The larger point here is that our giving can bring God glory through our demonstration of His grace practically and through the praise and thanks offered to God for provision of needs through our giving. BOTH bring Him praise! Read 2 Cor 9:12-13 and discuss the difference giving made here.

     1. If they had NOT given to the need, how would this have limited the gospel’s impact?

     2. How did the fact that they DID give something facilitate the Gospel message?

Application: 

We love the IDEA of being generous people, but the ACT of giving can feel like loss. What would it take to change that?

Prayer:

Spend some time in prayer committing ourselves to God in the good and challenging times of life, seeking first His purposes through this and every other facet of our lives.

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