Sermon Response Guide
PRIMARY SCRIPTURE:
Proverbs 30:7-9 ESV
7 Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.
Key Points
- The more you have the more you want.
- The more you give the more you gain.
- The more you lose the more you live.
Memory Verse
Ask God to write this word on your heart this week:
“One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.”
-Proverbs 11:24 ESV
Questions for Reflection
Take time to reflect and respond to these questions on your own in the presence of the Holy Spirit, or with trusted friends or family members:
1: Read Matthew 6:19-24 and answer the questions that follow.
· What are examples of treasures on earth?
· What are examples of treasures in heaven?
· Why do you think it’s easier for us to answer the first question compared to the second?
· Apart from its environment, how would you define “treasure?”
· What do you think Jesus means when he says, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also?”
· Why is it impossible to serve God and money?
· What does this impossibility teach us about God?
· What does this impossibility teach us about ourselves?
· Based on the last week of your life, do you think you lived like you love God or like you love money?
2: What are you most often tempted to believe money will provide for you that it cannot provide?
3: In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl writes, “Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.”
· How have you experienced this to be true in your own life?
· How would you describe the relationship between generosity and joy?
Pray
Lord, the more we get to know you, the more we want to know you. Thank you for giving your all for us so we could gain all we could ever need or desire in you. Teach us to live our lives according to your promise: that whoever is willing to lose their life for your sake will save it. Save us, Lord, from our overwhelming love for money and the multitude of lies we keep believing about money. In your generosity, grant us an overwhelming love for you, and an abundance of truth we can keep bravely believing and boldly proclaiming about you.
