Sermon Outline:
- Guard the image of God by respecting the fruit of the labour of others
- Life cannot be exchanged for possessions
- Our work produces possessions that are easily lost
- Christ's work produces possessions that cannot be lost
Family Discussion Questions:
- How is working and the ability to own and use things connected to the fact that humans are made in God's image?
- Read Genesis 1:28 (God to Adam), and Genesis 9:1-8 (God to Noah). How does not respecting the possessions of others dishonour their calling to glorify God?
- What are different ways, other than theft, that a person might be sinfully careless with the property or work of their neighbours?
- There were a few different crimes that could be punished with capital punishment. Why is it important that theft is not on that list?
- How can the rules that speak of all the ways that possessions can be lost help us to long for treasure that cannot be lost?
- What was the price paid for the imperishable inheritance of a Christian? (1 Peter 1:18-19)
- What is included in the imperishable inheritance of a Christian?
- If you really got your head around the Imperishable Treasure of the Gospel (Ephesians 4:28), what affect will that have on:
- Your own work?
- Your own possessions?
- The way you treat the possessions of other people?
- Your work for the Gospel? - What warning does God have for us in 1 Corinthians 3 about trying to build a church relying on things that cannot last instead of on the Gospel?
- God's Word tells us that a Christian is part of Christ's inheritance, His possession. Why is that the sweetest comfort instead of an insult (Ephesians 1:15-23)?
