Living Beyond Myself
Lesson 1 - Making the Most of Life
1. Into Your History:
Preparation for Object Lesson:
Have
the host welcome each group member at the door as they arrive. The host will pass out chocolate gold coins
to each person. Each person will get a
random amount (from one to maybe four or five) of coins (Even though this may
seem random the host must keep track of how many they give to each
person). As the host hands the coin to
the person they should say something like, “Look at these, I got them at smart
and final.” It is important that they do
not say that they are giving them away or that they can be eaten. As you can see we are studying the parable of
the 10 minas found in Luke 19:11-27, and we will see how good our people are at
making the most of what they are entrusted with.
It
would be wise to plant at least one person who could, during the social time,
ask other people for an extra coin, “Because my kids will love them and I need
one more.” This way when you ask for the
coins back during the group this person can give back more than was given to
them (just like in the parable). It may
also be funny if you plant a person who eats their chocolate with enthusiasm
and encourages others to eat theirs or offers to eats anybody’s chocolate that
does not want it.
This
is obviously just a fun way of illustrating what stewardship is and should not
be used to make any judgments about how good or bad a person really is. This illustration also only paints a partial
picture of real stewardship so it should not be leaned on heavily during the
teaching/discussion.
Suggested Ice Breakers
· Tell a quick story of a time when you were given a responsibility or a job and you either succeeded extraordinarily or failed miserably. (e.g. parents’ instructions, bosses instructions, teachers instructions, etc.)
· Ask the question, “What presently in life have we been entrusted with?” Have one person write the groups answer. (e.g. Time, Truth, talents, spiritual gifts, money, children, relationships, marriage, job, etc…)
· Tonight we will be talking about stewardship and we will define stewardship as how we handle anything that has been entrusted to us from God.
2. Into the Bible:
a. Read Luke 19:11-27
b. Reel in the Hook
The hook was to pass out candy. It is time for the host to collect the candy. It should be clear from the passage that those who ate the candy or gave it away were not good stewards with what had been given to them. They may have assumed that the coin was a gift and theirs to do what ever they wanted, but this was not true. Many times there are things in our lives that seem to be given to us. We may think that we can do whatever we want with these things, but we will be accountable to God for everything in our life that is given to us.
c. Questions about the object lesson:
· When the candy was given to you what did you think the purpose was?
· Did you consider that you would have to give it back?
· Did you consider you might be rewarded if you gave more back than you received?
d. Reread the passage: Luke 19:11-27
e. Understanding the Text
· What happened in the story?
· What does the money (minas) represent in this story?
Answer: it represents anything that we have
been entrusted with.
· What happened with the first two servants?
· What was the reward?
Note:
It is interesting that the reward was not rest, but opportunity for
wider service.
· What happened with the third?
· Why was he punished?
d. Going deeper
· What are the two different responses to being entrusted with something?
· What kind of influence do you think the people who hated the king had on the servants entrusted with the money?
· Have you ever been influenced by someone who is not a Christian to neglect a responsibility you have to Christ?
· What is the main point of this passage?
Answer: We have been entrusted with things from God and we must choose
how we use them. There will be
consequences depending on our decision.
3. Into your life
Over the next few weeks we will be focusing on how to live beyond ourselves. We will look at many different aspects of our life to examine some of the things we have been entrusted with.
This week there are two challenges:
- Reread Luke 19:11-27 and think critically about this allegory. (There are many details in this story that we did not have time to examine.)
- Pick one thing that you know you have been entrusted with that you have not handled as well as you should have. This week make an attempt to handle this responsibility in an excellent way.
(Give an opportunity for group members to announce what they will be doing this week, and ask them about it next week.)