Before the Session
Facilitator: In advance of the session
- Have the Bible Background Video ready to view.
- Review today’s scripture text and the session activities to help better facilitate the discussion.
- Encourage your group to listen to the Faithelement podcast ahead of the next session (Share the link via email or social media)
Context (From the Current Session Page)
Start by asking the group:
- How do you feel about the saying that “money can’t buy happiness” and why?
Share together this clip, then ask:
- Which of these situations feel familiar to you and why?
- How much money do you think people really need to live in your community and why?
- In what ways do we include conversations about money in our faith development?
- To what degree do we tend to keep money separate from our practices of worship, Bible study, prayer, or service and why?
Content (From the Mind Session Page)
Read 1 Timothy 6:6-19, then watch the Bible Background Video.
Then ask questions like these:
- Why is contentment so important, and what is the definition of “contentment” in this context?
- Why does the desire for material wealth end up ensnaring many believers?
- What do you think the writer means in saying that people have “stabbed themselves with many pains?”
- What are the things that are more important than material wealth, according to this passage, and why?
- In what ways does his brief “song” of praise to God in verses 13-16 reflect the points the writer is trying to make about our relationship to God and to material things?
- While this passage does not condemn wealth, as such, it does give instruction to those who are materially wealthy. What light does such instruction give to our understanding of the nature of contentment?
- In what ways is this godly contentment a reflection of the life we might expect to live with God in eternity versus the life we lead now?
Closure (from the Media Session page)
Continue by asking:
- What do you think of 1980’s music?
- What do you think of cat videos?
Tell the group: For today’s session, we will combine both, then play the “Don’t You” commercial and ask:
- Aside from being funny, what impression did this video make on you and why?
- To what degree do we tend to make our pets take a back seat to our more immediate desires and why?
- In what way does having someone take care of us or put our needs ahead of theirs contribute to our sense of contentment?
- What are some ways by which we can find true contentment with more than taking care of ourselves, our pets, and those close to us?
- What can we do this week to find divine contentment through care for others?
Close in prayer.