REALLIFE STUDY GROUP

“Lay Up!”

ICEBREAKER: What is your favorite jewel or precious stone?

CONFESSION: I choose to lay up my treasure in Heavenly places. When I give, when I pray and when I fast I am storing up and investing in my destiny and my legacy.

DEFINITION: Lay Up: to gather and lay up, to heap up, store up, to accumulate riches, to preserve your treasure, to hide

OUTLINE: When you lay up treasures....

· You are planting in a future harvest

· You are investing in yourself and your legacy

· You are placing your treasure in a protected place

· You are entrusting to God what you could never entrust to man

· You are defining what you value most and what your priorities should be

· You are putting what you cannot multiply into the hands of the Master-multiplier

· You are laying down your own will....Laying up is an act of laying down or surrender

The Pattern of Prosperity Laying Up Principles:

1. You must believe that God wants you to prosper (3 John 2:1)

2. You must give God what belongs to God (Malachi 3:10, 11)

3. You must WORK (Ephesians 4:28; Proverbs 10:4, 5)

4. You must understand that God is your source (Psalm 24:1)

5. You must meditate on God’s Word and then obey it (Psalm 1)

6. You must properly steward what He has given you

7. You must be willing to help others in need (Proverbs 28:27)

8. You must ask God for wisdom (1 Chronicles 22:12, 13)

9. You must discover your gifts and look for a mentor

TEXT: Matthew 6

STUDY GROUP QUESTION:

1. Where, when or with who do you feel most safe?

2. Matthew 6 says to lay up your treasures where moth and rust cannot corrupt and thieves cannot steal. All of these attempt to devour. Moths eat little by little at you. Rust erodes and eats away your effectiveness. Thieves steal your stuff and eat up your goods and rob your joy. Besides the obvious, why would the enemy and the world want to steal your stuff?

3. What three things does Jesus assume that every believer will do in Matthew 6? (Hint: they follow the word “when”)

4. Proverbs 7:1 says, “My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.” Identify one commandment in God’s Word that we need to lay up or always remember.

5. Job 22:22 says, “Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.” Deuteronomy 11:18 says, “Therefore shall ye lay up these words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.” What methods does the enemy use to steal the Word from our lives or our focus?

6. What do you have that you would like to give to Jesus and have Him multiply it?

PRAISE REPORTS & PRAYER REQUESTS

ACTION POINT: This week I will give, I will pray and I will fast something.