Tag: generosity

Matthew 25:31-46 // Do Good, Be Generous

Lean In // 5 minutes

Leader note: This week a simple question and image has polarized people into two camps.  Click the link below and have group members answer the question.  Make sure to watch your time as the question is simply intended to be fun and create energy.  Don’t spend more than 5 minutes on the question.

Click here: White/Gold or Black/Blue?

What color is the dress?

Look Down // 10 minutes

Read Matthew 25:31-46

What separates sheep from goats?

Sample answers may include…

  • Sheep respond with:
    • Action- food for the hungry & water for the thirsty
    • Engaging the stranger
    • Compassion- visiting the prisoner
    • Care for the sick
    • Obedience- Serving others is the same as serving Jesus
    • Seeing and identifying with the “least of these”
  • Goats respond with:
    • In-action
    • Indifference
    • Complacency
    • Rationalization- “why” help is not needed
    • Self-centeredness
    • Belief that the least are unimportant

What’s the surprise in the story?

Commentary: The surprise is found in how the people responded to the poor, needy, marginalized, and broken. 

Look Out // 10 minutes

Who are the “least of these” in our world today? 

Sample answers could include…

  • Hungry/Thirsty – Physically hungry/thirsty, seeking fulfillment & life
  • Stranger – Outsider, the immigrant, marginalized,
  • Without clothes – Homeless, vulnerable, human trafficking
  • Sick – Mentally ill, shut-in, physically handicap
  • Prisoner – Addicts, broken, indebted, broken relationships, depressed

Leader note: Go through each of the categories Jesus highlights in the passage and put together a full list of who would be included in each one before moving on to the next question.  Consider the emotional, physical, spiritual, geographical, financial, and relational factors.

An experiment: Integrating Love, Truth, Justice, & Peace

Leader note: We tend to lean toward one characteristic more than the others.  So, when we see a person described as “the least of these” we tend to react with love, truth, justice, or peace. 

As a Look Out experiment, choose a category from the “least of these” question (listed above) and divide your group into four groups.  Depending on their category, group members will only give voice for either love, truth, justice, or peace.  So, group members in the love category will speak up for the “least of these” through only a perspective of love while group members in the truth category will give voice for their perspective through a lens of truth, and so on and so forth. 

*Please remind everyone that it is only an experiment!

Sample Story: Mike pulls up to a traffic light and discovers a person standing on the side of the road holding a sign.  The Love Group responds by finding a way to help the person by rolling down the window and giving them something.  The Truth Group responds by thinking, “They made decisions that have led to this circumstance and I know that helping can only further the hurt.”  The Justice Group responds by advocating for the poor and needy and how they never received the same opportunities as others.  And, the Peace Group responds by trying to harmonize the different ways to help the person in need.

Look In // 15 minutes

Leader note: With the definitions of the “least of these” listed above and in mind, lead group members through these questions.  Don’t let the group settle for just the usual talking points like homelessness or immigration.  Rather, encourage group members to go deeper.

Where have you recently seen someone in need?  How did you respond?

What could it look like to integrate love, truth, justice, & peace for those in need?

Leader note: As the leader, pay attention to group member’s stories and themes so that you can possibly respond to helping those in need as a group.

How could your group respond to the needs in your community?

Live It Out // 5 minutes

What would happen in our community and world if we unleashed good deeds and generosity?

Leader Note: This weekend is our Be Fearless campaign where we are unleashing good deeds and generosity.  If you are looking for opportunities to serve, please click this link: Be Fearless.  There are five events to serve with one goal in mind: To fearlessly change the world for Jesus Christ.  Here are the events:

Saturday, March 7-

  • Boys and Girls Club Work Project Irvine – 8:30a-12n
  • Kids Around The World – 10:30a-1p

Saturday, March 14-

  • Boys and Girls Club Work Project Costa Mesa – 8:30a-12n

Saturday, March 21-

  • Lighthouse Community Centers Work Project – 8:30a- 12:30p
  • Medical Clinic at Christian Arabic Church – 8a- 3p

Key Verse(s): For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Matthew 6:21

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. – 1 Timothy 6:18

Key Thought: Do good for those who can’t and won’t do anything for you.

Click here for Life Group Serve Opportunities

Learn More About Flow Questions: Check out Kenton Beshore’s book Ask in the Irvine Campus Bookstore for more on the Flow Question model.

1 Timothy 6:17-19 // Giving Is Living

Lean In // 5 minutes
 
What something you’ve bought that was a total waste of money?
 
Leader Note: Keep this question light and encourage everyone to play. In couples group it’s probably not a great idea to have them talk about what they think their partner wastes money on! Think of informercial products, silly trinkets, things that end up in the trash or in storage in a few weeks.
 
Transition your group by saying something like… “when it comes to our finances there’s one thing that we can all generally agree on, there never seems to quite enough of it do to all things we want to do. We want to spend time in this discussion looking at how the scriptures shape our view wealth and generosity.”
 
You may also want to quickly review week 8 of Rooted where we discussed how although we don’t see our think of ourselves as being “rich” that living in Orange County automatically puts us within the top of the worlds richest economies. We are rich in opportunities, resources and possessions, especially when you consider the baseline for much of the world’s population. We are “those who are rich in this present world.”
 
Look Down // 10 minutes
 
 
What does this passage say about wealth?
 
Sample answers…
  • Wealth can lead to arrogance – creates a false sense of security
  • You can’t put your hope in it
  • Wealth isn’t something you can count on, put your hope in
  • God alone gives us wealth, trust in his provision
  • God gives us wealth so we can be generous, share with others
  • Generosity produces a richness in us that we can’t get anywhere else
  • God wants us to be rich, experience wealth, in doing good deeds
  • Wealthy people are the ones who understand it’s all from God
  • Wealthily people use what God has given them to bless and serve others
  • Giving leads to true life/treasure that extends beyond this world
 
Look Out // 10 minutes
 
What are the traps people fall into because of wealth?
 
Sample answers…
  • No one can tell me what to do you.. I have money so I know everything
  • Creates a false sense of power and entitlement
  • Thinking it makes me secure
  • I own what I have, I earned it and can do whatever I want with it
  • My worth is equal to my bank account
  • Wealth buys happiness
  • Wealth is the answer to all of lives questions
  • Selfishness and greed, can’t get enough of it
  • Debt, chase after it, live outside of my means
  • Creates worry, anxiety, always concerned “how my money is doing”
  • Disconnect you from the needs of others, out of touch with other’s needs
  • I’m smarter, I work harder
Leader Note: Invite stories here for where people have seen others fall into traps because of their thinking and actions concerning wealth. For example, it someone answers… “it creates a false sense of security” ask them where they have seen that.
 
Look In // 15 minutes
 
What traps have you fallen into regarding wealth and money?
 
Sample answers…
  • Thinking what I have is mine, I earned it and I can do whatever I want with it
  • That it will solve all my problems, if I only had a little more then I would be happy
  • Wealth will improve the ways people see me, give me prestige
  • Worry that I won’t have enough, can’t trust that God will really meet my needs
  • Money gives me ability control others, makes me a person of authority and influence
  • People who don’t have significant wealth are a waste of time, thinking less of them
  • Uncertain… now that I have it, I can’t live without
  • If I had more I could give more, I’ll give have enough, when I’m taking care of
  • That giving doesn’t really bring me peace, I do it out of obligation
  • Ownership
 
What do you need to believe about God to get out of that trap?
 
Sample answers…
  • That everything I have comes from him, he owns it all
  • My identity comes from how God sees me, not in my wealth
  • That God knows my needs and he will take care of me
  • That giving is a command that is for my benefit, not my punishment
Leader Note: There are two main things we want our groups to see in this passage. Firstly, that we can’t place our hope and trust in our wealth. Secondly, that God calls us to be “rich in good deeds” through the ways we use what he has given us to bless and serve others. The first understanding is a matter of changing our perspective and the second is one of practice. Shift your group with the next question to focus on what it could look like to practice generosity for the sake of others.
 
What could we as a group and as individuals do to be “rich in good needs”
 
Leader Note: Encourage your group to dream about what it could look like to commit to giving regular with their time, talents and treasures. What are the needs in your community that you could rally around together? We believe that God has unquietly placed our groups together for a reason that goes way beyond us simply meeting together for our own encouragement! He wants to use your group serve and bless others. 
 
Live It Out // 5 minutes
 
What if we made generosity a normal expression of our group? What would change around us?
 
Leader Note: Outreach Weekend is next weekend! Set your group up this week by telling them that you’ll have an opportunity to give and serve together, to put this week’s discussion into practice.

Key Verse: Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God. 1 Timothy 6:17a

Key Thought: God owns everything

Click here for Life Group Serve Opportunities

Learn More About Flow Questions: Check out Kenton Beshore’s book Ask in the Irvine Campus Bookstore for more on the Flow Question model.