This is a DNA guide following the sermon on Leviticus 229-22. If you missed, you can listen here.
Discover
Read Leviticus 22:9-22. In this sermon, Brad Watson preaches through Leviticus 23:9-22 and teaches on the the two festivals on the first fruits of barley and wheat harvests. Seemingly obscure, this passage challenges our notions of worship, generosity, and work.
Q: What are your views on giving, charitable donations, and offerings of your possessions to God?
Principles of Generosity and Giving from this festival:
God wants to place himself at the center of our work. His presence fills it through the invitation to worship with the fruits of our labors.
God calls us into giving and worship from the outset, not from the reserves or leftovers.
We get to give out of abundance from what we’ve received relationally from God—we can trust him.
We give with thankfulness instead of bargaining.
We give in a way that produces justice.
To be a Kinsman Protector would always require incredible cost, effort, and demand a degree of self-sacrifice. God tells the people of Israel before and after the passover that he will be their Kinsman Redeemer.
Q: Which principle of generosity is the most challenging for you? Which do you want to grow in?
Nurture
There are two tendencies with giving. 1, find loopholes to give the minimum, and 2 give out of moralistic obligation. However, the gospel reverses it entirely. Jesus makes him self the offering, is the first fruits of the harvest, and invites us into a harvest we didn’t work for or earn.
Q: How does the gospel free you from being beholden to your possessions? How does God’s grace beget more grace out of your life?
Act
Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-7.
Discuss in your DNA group about the role possessions, work, and finances play in your worship. What would it look like to see God involved? How could you listen to him and hold each other accountable to giving with cheerful hearts.