Lesson 7: Live Giving to God

Live My New Life in Christ

Growing and living goes hand in hand. As we grow, we begin to discover that we have certain abilities and can accomplish things. Living our NEW LIFE IN CHRIST involves living a life of giving and serving others.

Memory Verse: Malachi 3:10

Sharing Time: Share with each other how your experience of sharing last week’s story with someone. Take a few minutes to pray for the people that have heard last week’s story.

Tell (read) the Story: Mark 12:38-44

Ask: What does this passage say about God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)?

Tell (read) the Story Again: Mark 12:38-44

Ask: What does this passage say about people?

Retell the Story: Ask for one or more to retell this story, with the group’s help.

Ask: What applies to you, that you could put into practice this week?

Ask: Who can you tell this story to this week? Share with us who you can share this story to this week and let’s pray for each other for God directed opportunities to share this story.

Summarize: In a typical church service there is always an offering time, where church members are asked to GIVE a financial gift to the church. The church uses this money to pay staffs and pastor’s salary, facility’s bills and maintenance, and church programs. God commanded this practice to the Jewish people for the same purpose in the Old Testament. But like any religious practices, it can be abused. In this story we see the rich made a spectacle out of their large giving amount so that other may see it, while the poor widow quietly gave two coins. Yet Jesus said that from all who gave that day, the poor widow gave the most because she gave from her heart of worship and out of her own situation of need. God looks at the heart of the giver, not the amount given. GIVING an offering is an act of worship given out of our hearts of gratitude because all that we possessed really came from God (1 Chron. 29:14). The apostle Paul taught the Corinthians: “Each one must GIVE as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. 9:7)” As we live our NEW LIFE IN CHRIST, God wants us to GIVE our offerings to the church so that God’s house is supplied, but God wants us to GIVE it as an act of cheerful worship coming from our hearts. Worshiping God through GIVING our offerings comes from the heart of living our NEW LIFE IN CHRIST.