To Accompany Message: Compassion For the Poor
Read Mark 14:7
1. In a couple of weeks we will celebrate Thanksgiving. Would you share your favorite memory or tradition connected with this holiday?
2. In a scene from a classic movie set in the thirties, some children from a poor family are given a gift by a charitable organization. The little girl opens the gift to find a doll. At first she is delighted until she lifts it from the box and finds that it’s face is broken, and she begins to cry. Can you share a memory from your most meager Christmas?
3. If there was a time when there was financial hardship in your life, how was your compassion for the poor increased by that experience?
4. We’re going to have you skipping all over the Bible. Please read Matthew 6:2-4. Why do you think the Lord instructed us to give in this way? From God’s perspective, as long as the poor are taken care of do you think the motivation of the giver matters? Why or why not?
5. Read Matthew 19:16-21. Jesus said to this young man, “if you want to be complete…” and then instructed him to sell his possessions and give to the poor. What quality in this young man’s heart was Jesus trying to correct? What was at the heart of His instruction to this young man? Read verse 22. What was this young man lacking?
6. In Mark 10:21 the Bible tells us that Jesus felt a love for the young man who was trying to please God by following the ten commandments, yet held back when it came to his possessions. What was the “one thing the young man lacked?”
7. Please read Luke 16:19-31. What, in a general sense, is the correlation between our money and our faith. In what financial state is it, humanly speaking, easier to trust in God? What affect does money tend to have our faith and why? What serious implication about belief is communicated in verse 31? To whom is this verse alluding?
8. Read Luke 21:1-4. Explain in your own words the kind of faith this widow possessed. What did Jesus want us to learn from this example?
