Grace like God’s grace

Read 2 Corinthians 8:1-7.

Questions for discussion

1. Has anyone ever been generous to you when you knew you didn’t deserve it?
2. Do we deserve God’s forgiveness?
3. What is it called when we give to others when they don’t deserve it?
4. Would you share with someone who never shared with you?
5. Would God want you to?

Key concepts

When we give to others, even when we think they don’t deserve it, it is called grace. God demonstrated grace when He sent Jesus to die so our sins could be forgiven. It is called grace when God forgives our sins, even though we deserve to die for our own sins. We practice grace when we share God’s love with others through forgiving them. It is important to excel in faith, in speech and knowledge and in love, but it also important to excel in the grace of giving. Giving can be giving money, but it can also mean sharing what we have and sharing God’s love by forgiving those who have hurt or upset us.

A generous promise

Questions for discussion

1. What is a promise?
2. Read Psalm 37:26 and 2 Corinthians 9:7-10. What does God do for those who are generous?
3. Read Proverbs 11:24. On the other hand, what happens to those who are selfish?
4. What will others do because of our generosity?

Key concepts

God is generous and He wants us to be generous too. One way He rewards our generosity is by taking care of our physical needs. The best thing about being generous is that when people see our generosity, they will thank God.

Intentional generosity

Read Deuteronomy 24:19-22.

Questions for discussion

1. What were the Israelites commanded to do when harvesting sheaves, grain, olives and grapes?
2. Who would benefit from the harvesting not being as thorough as it could have been?
3. Why were they commanded to be considerate of those less fortunate?
4. Who are the poor in our community?
5. How can we be intentionally considerate of these people?

Key concepts

Essentially, God commanded the Israelites to be generous with others because when they were slaves in Egypt, they were at the mercy of the Egyptians. God wants us to be merciful to those less fortunate than we are. “He says blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7). We can intentionally be considerate of those less fortunate by giving generously to those who are poor.

An unexpected blessing

Read Ruth 2 and Deuteronomy 24:19-22.

Questions for discussion

1. How did Boaz obey one of God’s Old Testament commands regarding generosity?
2. How was Boaz generous to Ruth and her mother-in-law?
3. How did God choose to bless Boaz for his generosity?

Key concepts

Boaz was a successful farmer. He had much land, hired hands and animals. He noticed a woman picking up the grain that was left over after the harvesters had been through the field. He instructed the harvesters to be generous and leave extra grain for the woman. He did not even know that she was a potential wife. God chose to bless the generosity of Boaz by giving him the young, beautiful woman as his wife. Boaz was just being generous – not expecting anything in return for his kindness – but God chose to bless Boaz with a wife. God promises to reward generosity (Proverbs 14:21).

But it’s not fair!

Read Matthew 20:1-16. Then tell this “modern” story about a similar situation, or make up a story of your own that your children will relate to:

One Saturday, Dery’s dad needed help cleaning the garage. It was nine in the morning and Dery agreed to work until noon for $5. Halfway through the morning, Dery’s brother Keaton offered to help, too, so their dad invited him to come and join in the work.

By lunchtime, all the work was done, and the dad called the boys to the table. “Thank you, my son, for helping” he said to Keaton and handed him $5. Dery was watching and was surprised that Keaton got paid $5 for only working half of the time.

“Surely Dad will pay me more than $5,” he thought.

But when Dad turned to Dery, he handed him a $5 bill, too. Dery was about to complain, but then he thought that it would be better to be quiet. He knew he had been given the amount he had agreed to work for. If his dad wanted to be generous with Keaton’s pay, who was he to complain? After all, there had been many times his father had been generous with him, too.

Questions for discussion

1. What would you do if the same thing happened at our house?
2. How do you feel when someone else gets more than you do?
3. What does Jesus say about those who are always looking out for what others get instead of appreciating what they were given?

Key concepts

God wants us to be content with what we have rather than complaining and looking at how generous He has been to others. As long as we are comparing what we have to what others have, we will never be content.

Greed is not godly

Read Acts 8:9-24.

Questions for discussion

1. What did Peter and John have that Simon the Sorcerer wanted?
2. Why did Simon want it?
3. What did Peter say to him?
4. Do you think God would forgive Simon if Simon asked Him to?

Key concepts

Simon was attracted to the power that Peter and John had through God and the Holy Spirit. He wanted it because he thought that he could make money by laying his hands on people and filling them with the Holy Spirit, too. Peter told Simon that he had the wrong motivation for wanting the power of the Holy Spirit. We don’t know for sure if Simon repented, but we know that if he did, God would graciously forgive him and change his heart.

The rich man who didn’t share

Read Luke 16:19-31.

Questions for discussion

1. What did the rich man have?
2. What did Lazarus have?
3. What happened after they died?
4. Where did Lazarus go?
5. Where did the rich man go?
6. What did the rich man ask for?
7. What did Abraham tell him?
8. What do you think God wants you to do when you see someone is in need?

Key concepts

Lazarus was a very unfortunate beggar who was poor and sick. But there was also a rich man who did not share even the crumbs from his table with Lazarus. Years later, after the rich man and Lazarus had died, the rich man was suffering in hell and Lazarus was in heaven. When the rich man asked for mercy to be granted to him, Abraham, who has in heaven, said no, because in the rich man’s lifetime, he did not share the good things he had with Lazarus, who was poor and sick.

Gimme my share!

Read Luke 12:13-21.

Questions for discussion

1. Why did the man come to Jesus?
2. What did Jesus say about wealth in verse 15?
3. What happened to the rich man who stored up things for himself?
4. Do we have anything stored up in our house that we could give to someone who needs it?

Key concepts

A man came to Jesus, hoping that Jesus would make his brother share his inheritance with him. Jesus told him a story about a rich man who had such a large harvest from his crops that he had to build more storehouses to hold all his grain and his many possessions. Then God said to the man that his life would be taken from him that night. Jesus ended the story by saying, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Your money or your life

Read Matthew 19:16-30.

Questions for discussion

1. What did the rich young man ask Jesus?
2. What did Jesus tell him?
3. What did he brag about?
4. What did Jesus say to him?
5. What did the rich young man do?
6. Is it harder to share if you have a lot or a little?
7. If you had a penny and someone else had a dollar and you both lost your money, who lost more money?
8. Why can money make it hard for someone to go to heaven?

Key concepts

The rich young man had lived a very righteous life, but he had one problem – he loved money. Jesus asked him to sell all he had and give it to the poor. Jesus did this to show the rich young man that in order to please God, nothing can be more important than loving God. God looks at what is in our hearts, not just at what we do. God wants us to love Him more than we love money or anything else.