27 Nov Discussion Guide: Gratitude Week 4

Prayer

Take the first 10 minutes of your time together to listen to what God is doing in one another’s lives and pray for any specific needs people in your group may have.

This week we conclude our Gratitude series. What is gratitude? Is it the same as being grateful? And, how can we, as the people of God, show the world the gratitude we have towards Jesus and his rescuing us from our sin? This, and more, is what we will be discussing this month.

Discussion Questions

Can you tell us about a time where you have seen someone give something significant to another person?

C.S. Lewis

“I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusement, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our giving does not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say it is too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot because our commitment to giving excludes them.”

What does it mean to give? What does it mean to give sacrificially?

Why do you think it is difficult for us to give sacrificially?

What things tend to compete most for your time, energy and finances when the opportunity to give to God’s Kingdom arises?

Philippians 2:1-8

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

How did Jesus model the kind of giving and generosity He calls us to participate in?

What was the motivation that lead Him to give like that?

How should the Gospel impact, inform and influence the way we manage our finances and schedules?

Closing Thought

What would our community group look like if we were to live with the motivation to model sacrificial generosity?