Be Rich: Maximizing your Margins
I Timothy 6:17-19
Connect:
Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.
Discuss how resolutions made last week in “growing more like Jesus” worked themselves out— what did God do in and through you (Phil 2:13)? Celebrate those together!
Prayer:
Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.
Read:
Review: Remind the group of the focus of this series:
o This series is focused on stewardship and the mindset/habits/perspective that Scripture calls us to have toward finances.
o We first looked at awareness of how God has blessed us (to whatever degree), and the following week we looked at trust (locating our trust in God, not stuff/money, power, etc).
o The focal passage is in Timothy, and this past week we looked at the connection between our treasure and our hearts!
Read the passage together: I Timothy 6:17-19
Reflect:
The spirit of the message to “…be rich in good deeds…” was that we all have margins of some kind, and can be intentional about how we invest those margins of time/money/skills, etc:
o Why is it a challenge to invest our margins?
o Why is it that, statistically, as our margins of time/money goes up, our giving goes down? (“The problem about getting too involved in our possessions is we get over involved in the possessor and forget our dependence on God.” —Martin Luther King)
Read Romans 12:4-8. Discuss this passage.
o “We belong to each other” sounds like slavery! What do you think this means?
o Where else in the Scripture does it talk about our responsibility before God to use our gifts? (Get suggestions, then review the following scriptures: Matt 25:14-30, I Cor 12:14-31)
Granted none of us can do everything, the spirit of “do whatever you CAN do, and do it WELL” seems to be part of our created purpose (Ephesians 2:10).
o What would get in the way of our doing what we ARE able to do?
o How does the eternal aspect of “God has prepared in advance” help us to re-envision this investment of life?
Read Matt 6:19-21, 2 Cor 9:6-8. Discuss the “Left overs” vs. the “First fruits”/ “Tithe”:
o 2.5% is the “average” giving of believers to their church. Why are we so willing to be “Free Riders”?
o What is it about eternity that would make enough of a difference to us here and now that we actually change what we end up doing with our margins?
Respond: (Divide the group into pairs)
o Jesus challenged his listeners with the simple but powerful fact, “Where your treasure is, your heart will be also.” Hallelujah, thank You Jesus! Remember, I Cor 4:1— “Since we have received this ministry in the same way as we received God’s mercy, we do not lose heart…”
Pray together for the eyes to see our time in light of eternity, and to act in a way that honors the God Who has called us for HIs purposes in His Kingdom for His glory!
____________________________________
Get more resources to go deeper through Commentaries and Bible Study helps HERE