07 Aug Discussion Guide: Return to Me Week 4
Before We Get Started
For our discussion today we will be using the sermon series discussion guides. If you would like to follow along you can access this discussion guide on the website at mosaicchurchaustin.com and then select “community group resources” in the menu options.
Prayer
Because the main goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for, or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together.
This Week’s Topic
Today, we continue our new series, Return to Me, a study of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament. This week we take a look at Habakkuk, a Prophet called by God to confront the injustice both in the world, and within the nation of Israel. Habakkuk saw the pain, suffering, and evil in his world wondered why God wasn’t doing something about it. God’s response? His plan was in motion. The real question was whether Habakkuk would have the faith to trust in the goodness of God amidst the waiting for justice? This same question is posed to us today as we dive into our discussion.
Today’s Topic
Malachi and the Generosity of God
Discussion Questions
Why do people, maybe even you, have a hard time when it comes to pastors/churches preaching or teaching about money?
Malachi 3:6-11
“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
How were the Israelites viewing their money, or possessions, in the days of Malachi?
The Israelites had been called from the beginning, when God called Abraham out of his homeland of Ur, to be a set apart people. They were called to be a people, through whom the other nations could see who God is and what His Kingdom is all about. They were not to live as the other nations lived; grabbing for power, being greedy, lacking justice for the poor, seeking to elevate themselves at the expense of others, etc. And yet, during Malachi’s day, this is precisely what they were doing. They were storing up treasures for themselves and pursing material wealth and power. The Israelites were ignoring the needs of the poor and seeking to set themselves up as more important than others. So, God is calling them to return to Him, to His heart, so that He might bless them and provide for them, because God could not bless the things they were doing as their attitudes and actions were in direct rebellion to the call God had given them to be a reflection of who He is.
If you were God, who had given the Israelites all they had, and they were treating you this way, how would you feel? What would you do?
How does our culture tend to view/treat money?
What kind of view of money does the Bible say God wants us to have? Why do you think that is?
Matthew 6:31-33
‘Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ‘
Why might someone have a hard time when it comes to giving a percent of their finances to God (either through the church or some other ministry)?
What does that reveal about our hearts, or our view of God?
What does it mean to “seek first the Kingdom of God,” in any area of life? How about in our finances?
How might this approach impact our view of money and the anxiety, stress, and problems a non-Kingdom-first view tends to bring?
Matthew 6:26-29
“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”
Does God need anything from you?
Why then, does God want you to give and live generously?
What does God want for you, more than anything He wants from you?
How does the Gospel prove that to us?
Closing Thought
What might an intentional and purposeful financial plan that prioritizes God and His Kingdom look like for you?