Good With Money (part 2): What Do You Expect?
TO START
Just a reminder that this sermon series will be the last before our summer break from small group discussion guides. We’ll start back again in August.
As a kid, do you remember the first time you held a lot of money? Tell your group the story. How did it make you feel?
Consider starting group tonight with a money playlist! Listen to snippets of these songs and summarize their philosophy of money. Which song best captures your relationship to money?
https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/best-songs-about-money/
TO DISCUSS
What are the financial markers that make you personally feel secure? (Examples: a big paycheck, cash in your wallet, 401 K…) Why do those things give you so much security? Be totally honest.
Have your markers moved over the years? Do you need more to feel secure now than you did in the past? Why is that?
Have you ever accumulated enough money to feel safe and secure only to watch it vanish? Tell the story to your group.
Have you ever said to yourself, “If I can just get enough money, then I’ll finally have…” What was it you thought money would buy? How could we reframe that hope and move it from hoping in money to hoping in God?
Do you ever connect money to your identity? Do you feel like a better, more important person if you’re making more or a lesser person when you’re making less? Why do you think that is (or isn’t)? Explain. How does your identity in Christ compare to the identity you have through money? Are they different?
Do you feel money pressure from your family or friends? Do you feel like the people around you have money expectations of you? Practically speaking, how do we deal with those kinds of expectations in a holy way?
Have you ever been tempted to think you have what you have because of you? What voices are telling you you’re the one who controls your financial fate (culture, tv, parents, college, talk radio, bloggers…)? What jars you out of that way of thinking?
How might we, practically speaking, give credit where credit is due? What would it look like for you to intentionally attribute your wealth to God in a way that helped remind you not to credit yourself? (Are there prayers you could pray, habits you could develop, things you say to yourself in certain situations?)
In I Timothy 6, Paul encourages the church to put their hope not in wealth but in God, “who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”
Is this the way you think of God, as a Giver of gifts for our enjoyment?
Do you struggle to enjoy your gifts? Does it ever make you feel guilty to have good
things? Why do you think that is? How does this verse affect you?
We said this Sunday that they key to a healthy relationship with money is low expectations. What would it look like for you to lower your expectations?
TO READ
This week make yourself a reminder not to trust in money. Write the following passage on an index card and keep it in your car or on your bathroom mirror:
“Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.”
Prov 11:28
TO PRAY
Praying about money in a group may seem strange, but let’s do it anyway. Have each group member share one way they’re working on their relationship with money. Pray for God to help.