Discussion Questions

Sermon Overview

Because death reverses the wrongs of life, the living should hear God now and respond.

Digging Deeper

Read Luke 16:19-31

1. Money is a recurring theme in Luke 16. What does Jesus say about money? Why do you think he talks about it so much?

2. When you think about someone spending an eternity without God, do you struggle with whether it is just? Why, or why not?

3. Real people go to a real hell. What difference should this reality make in our lives now?

4. It can be easy to feel like we have to get it all right in this life so we don’t end up like the rich man in the parable. What helps us avoid thinking we can earn our way to heaven due to a fear of hell?

5. The great news of the gospel is that if we are in Christ, we are beneficiaries of a second reversal, greater than that of death. What was that reversal, and what does it mean for believers?

6. What brokenness in our world now might we joyfully anticipate being reversed in eternity later?

7. How do you do justice and show mercy in your everyday life? If you struggle with this, how can you grow in showing mercy?

8. In the sermon, we heard that part of responding to the reversal that is death is “to be generous and prepare.” What are some needs around us that we can anticipate and meet as a community?

9. How do we share this truth of the gospel - this reversal of right and wrong - to someone who doesn’t believe there is anything other than this life?

Prayer

Discussion Questions

Sermon Overview

Pursue a God-pleasing righteousness from the heart, including in your marriage

I. The righteousness God seeks is from the heart (vv. 14-15)

II. The kingdom Jesus brings fulfills the law but does not relax righteousness (vv. 16-17)

III. God's enduring desire for righteousness is shown in his enduring instruction about marriage (v. 18)

Digging Deeper

Read Luke 16:14-18

1. In the sermon, righteousness is “being right, doing right, before God.” The righteousness God is seeking is righteousness from the heart. What’s the difference between being righteous just on the outside (like the Pharisees) and being righteous from the heart?

2. Have you ever found yourself resisting a teaching in the Bible, only to later realize (or experience a sense of conviction from the Holy Spirit) that it is a truth that was pressing on something you were loving as a rival to God? Please share.

3. If you were to be honest, is there an area of your life where you are settling for outward conformity (a merely external righteousness)? What might be a good step toward pursuing change in this area of your life?

4. After hearing this sermon, how might you respond to someone who thinks they can live however they want because Jesus counts us as righteous through trust in him?

5. Jesus didn’t come to make righteousness unnecessary, but rather to make it possible. What does that mean? Do you find this truth encouraging? How so?

MARRIAGE

In our culture, the starting point for thinking about marriage is often self-fulfillment: my wants, my needs, my goals. It’s easy to miss God’s design for marriage, which is a covenant to which we must be faithful, a union that is only broken with great trauma, and a picture of God’s love and faithfulness. It is, therefore, not surprising that so many fail to see the grievousness of divorce as God does.

6. How can we speak and act about marriage so that those around us are pointed toward God’s good design of marriage?

7. This passage urges us to “Pursue a God-pleasing righteousness from the heart, including in (our) marriages.” If you’re married, what would this practically look like?

8. Given your marital situation and background, what was one takeaway from this sermon God might want you to remember in the days ahead?

Prayer

Discussion Questions

Sermon Overview

Followers of Jesus shrewdly manage mammon now for eternal purposes.

Digging Deeper

Read Luke 16:1-13

1. How was the crooked manager in the parable shrewd?

2. If you’re a follower of Jesus, what would it look like to be shrewd for kingdom purposes?

Mammon can be defined simply as money and possessions (like in verses 9 and 11). And it can be understood as a demonic power that uses money and possessions to lure people away from God (like in verse 12).

3. Mammon will fail (v. 9) because it goes up and down in life, and when we die, it will be worthless. If you believed this through and through, how would it change your life?

4. Western culture is a materialistic culture. What blind spots do you think this causes in our lives and church when it comes to spending your money with kingdom priorities?

5. How have you experienced the influence of mammon inside of you? How have you looked to money to give you peace, security, significance, adventure, pleasure, etc?

6. In what ways is Jesus a better God to serve than Money? Why is this easy to forget in day-to-day life?

7. Often, we connect with what Jesus has done in the past to motivate our lives now (e.g., Jesus was generous, so we should be generous). In our passage, Jesus motivates generosity and faithfulness with future eternal rewards (see v. 9 and v. 11). Do you think much of eternal rewards? Why or why not?

8. Imagine the eternal rewards God promises for shrewd stewardship of mammon, like eternal friends (v. 9) and true riches (v. 12). What comes to your mind?

9. How can we, as a Gospel Community, together encourage one another to look forward to eternal rewards?