USING THIS CURRICULUM

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Gervase Todd
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1 BIBLE FELLOWSHIP TEACHING PLANS OCTOBER 8, 2017

2 USING THIS CURRICULUM PREPARATION This section is designed to guide your study preparation. First, you will be encouraged to read the Bible passages through, consulting the commentary provided as you need it to bring clarity or better understanding. Note that the commentary for each passage is provided within the heart of the study so that you can consult it more easily within the context of the passage you re teaching, or even read from it in your group if needed. Second, you will be encouraged to read through the entire teaching plan. Reading through the entire teaching plan ahead of time helps to ensure you have the best possible experience with your group. Some of the questions may not work for you or your group, and you might also come up with new questions that will work great with your group. Third, you will be encouraged to pray for all involved in worship and study each week. HIGHLIGHTS This section is designed to give you the big picture of the passages you will study and the teaching plan itself. The Biblical Emphasis simply states the main idea of the Bible passage(s) you will study. The Teaching Aim simply states the one thing you are aiming to communicate to your group through the study. INTRODUCTION, UNDERSTANDING, AND COMMENTARY These sections represent the actual teaching plan you will use with your group. The Introduction Section is designed to engage all members of your group, regardless of their spiritual maturity, around the teaching aim of your study. The Understanding Section is designed to equip you to facilitate a group discussion on the texts or topics assigned. The questions will range from basic comprehension to specific application. Commentary from LifeWay Christian Resources is provided on each passage as well. Commentary is also provided to help you prepare in a more in-depth fashion, and also provide guidance for questions that may come from your group.

3 CALVARY GENESIS 4:1-7 OCTOBER 8, 2017 TEACHING PLAN PREPARATION > Spend the week reading through and studying Genesis 4:1-7. Consult the commentary provided and any additional study tools (such as a concordance or Bible dictionary) to enhance your preparation. > Determine which discussion points and questions will work best with your group. > Pray for Pastor Rob, the upcoming group meeting, your teaching, your group members, and their receptivity to the study. HIGHLIGHTS BIBLICAL EMPHASIS: Genesis 4 presents a contrast between two brothers. Through this comparison, we see that what matters to God is what happens in our hearts. Stewardship is an attitude in our hearts before it becomes an offering in our hands. TEACHING AIM: Stewardship requires you to think of all of your life as belonging to God. MEMORIZE: 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent? 7 If you do what is right, won t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Genesis 4:6-7 3 Abel The Pioneer of Stewardship Calvary

4 INTRODUCTION As your group time begins, use this section to help get the conversation going. 1 What s the best job you ve ever had? What s the worst job you ve ever had? 2 What would you say is the purpose of work? 3 No matter what your profession is, what are some ways that your work relates to your faith? The Bible speaks about work more often than you might imagine. Work was given to Adam before the fall for Adam s good and for God s glory. The Lord put Adam into the garden and told him, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth (Gen. 1:28). God told Adam to work and fill the earth with His image bearers. Work was not a curse of the fall, but a blessing of a gracious God. Only the fall has caused us to view our work as a burden. Work allows you to support your family; beyond that, work is also a calling from God to grow and develop your potential and make a difference for His name. Your work should not detract you from fulfilling God s plans for your life. It should be the natural outlet through which you fulfill God s work. Abel was a pioneer of stewardship because he realized his work glorified God, and he gave back from the fruits of his labor. 4 Abel The Pioneer of Stewardship Calvary

5 UNDERSTANDING & APPLICATION Unpack the biblical text to discover what Scripture says or means about a particular topic. Help your group identify how the truths from the Scripture passage apply directly to their lives. > Have a volunteer read Genesis 4:1-2. How is what we see happening between Adam and Eve here a partial fulfillment of what God commanded in Genesis 1:28? Why did Eve give praise to God for what He had done? Adam and Eve were hurt by the fall, but they did not lose the ability to give God glory with their lives. Despite their sin, they conceived and gave birth to a son, whom they named Cain. Eve recognized God s blessing in providing her with a son, and she gave God the praise He was due. Eve recognized that she owed her life to God. Through childbirth, Eve fulfilled the mandate from God to fill the earth with His image bearers. The verses we will study today focus on three key comparisons between Cain and Abel. What comparison do you see in verse 2? From the beginning, we see the first born son, Cain, enter into his father s profession as a worker of the soil. The second born, Abel, was a keeper of the flocks. Was either brother s work inherently better than the other s? What does this tell you about the value God places on the different types of work we do? 5 Abel The Pioneer of Stewardship Calvary

6 Read Colossians 3:23. What does obedience to this command look like in your job? What are a couple of ways that you can steward your work to the glory of God? One job is no better or holier than another. Your specific calling is less important than your desire to honor God in that calling. The purpose of all work is to produce fruit for the Lord. This happens as we steward our work to the glory of God. Being a farmer was no better or worse than being a shepherd. The story of these brothers reminds us that God creates each of us personally and calls each of us professionally. As we will see, stewardship of our vocation is a matter of the heart, not a matter of the specific type of labor. Why do we make arbitrary distinctions between sacred and secular work? Is being a pastor or missionary a more God-honoring calling than working a 9 to 5 desk job? Explain. COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 4:1-2 The firstborn of Adam and Eve was a son whom Eve called Cain. This name in Hebrew sounds like the Hebrew verb that means to acquire, to get. While in Scripture it is usually the father who names the child, Eve did the naming in this case. Perhaps she did so because she believed this boy was the seed or offspring that God had promised would crush the serpent s head (see Gen. 3:15). She recognized that it was with the help of the Lord she had acquired him. Later she gave birth to his brother Abel, whose name means breath or temporary. The name may have been an indication that she recognized the temporary nature of life on earth. Abel s name came to have meaning in the abrupt shortening of his life. When they grew up, the boys engaged in different vocations. Cain worked the soil while Abel kept flocks. 6 Abel The Pioneer of Stewardship Calvary

7 > Have a volunteer read Genesis 4:3-5a. When Adam and Eve sinned, God provided the sacrifice of an animal to cover their shame. The literal skins of an animal were used to cover their nakedness. Through this, God taught His people that a sacrifice was needed to atone for their sin. We know from the rest of the Bible that Adam s sin was passed down to his children, which formed an unbroken line of sin that continues to this day. Cain and Abel were sinners; and as such, they brought offerings to God to atone for their sin. What was different about the offerings the two brothers made to God? What do these differences in offerings reveal about the differences in their characters? Why are we content to offer God less than our best? What does that demonstrate about the value we place on God? Abel offered God the firstfruits of his flock. This means that he gave God the first offspring the best he could offer. Abel did not know for certain whether he would have more to give, yet he still offered the best of his flock to God. Trust in God s provision and care motivated Abel s generosity. Notice that the Bible says that Abel gave from his flock, while Cain gave from the land. Abel s offering was more valuable than Cain s because it cost him more personally. His degree of sacrifice was a reflection of his heart. Cain s sacrifice is not described in detail, but it can be assumed that it was not from the firstfruits. Ultimately, the offerings were different because of the motives behind them. How does Abel model our church s value of Lifestyle Generosity: Generous living over ordinary giving? 7 Abel The Pioneer of Stewardship Calvary

8 Cain s offering is the first recorded account of an offering in Scripture. However, we can infer the brothers probably learned to give offerings to the Lord from their parents. They both gave an offering, which indicates it was likely a common practice. How do we know that God s response to each offering didn t have to do with the specific type of offering? What is the key takeaway from this story for us and our own offerings? 1 John 3:12 says that Cain was the evil one, and Hebrews 11 holds Abel up as a hero of the faith. The natural question for us to ask is, why did God reject Cain s offering? Other places in Scripture show that God accepted grain offerings, so that means the offering wasn t rejected on the basis of substance. Abel s offering wasn t rejected because God is flippant and capricious. Rather, God rejected the offering because He sees what we can t: the heart. Cain s heart was not in his offering. 1 Samuel 16:7 tells us that God looks at the heart. He saw that Cain s offering was not given from a place of worship. In what sense is giving a matter of spiritual maturity? Have you ever thought about giving in these terms? Why or why not? From the very beginning of Scripture, generosity is seen as an important part of a relationship with God. What are some reasons that people do not give to God? Why are these reasons ultimately just excuses? Giving is an act of worship, which is why most Christian worship services make room for a time of giving. Everything we have comes from God, so giving back to God (both with our work and the fruit of our work) is worship. Because stewardship is a matter of worship, it is also a matter of spiritual maturity. 8 Abel The Pioneer of Stewardship Calvary

9 Growing Christians are giving Christians. We recognize that everything we have comes from God, so we give back in appreciation for all that He has done. Seeing work this way allows us to break down the barrier between sacred and secular work. Being an image bearer of God means that we have the ability reflect God in all that we do including our work. Christians should seek to do their best work because God receives the glory from our work. Stewardship includes both time and resources. Stewardship means choosing generous living over ordinary giving. COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 4:3-5A When the time came for a sacrifice to be made, each brought to the Lord the product of his vocation. Adam s family must have received God s revelation about the necessity of sacrifice to create and maintain fellowship with God. The background to this was probably the sacrifice that God performed to provide the clothing to cover Adam and Eve s shame (see Gen. 3:21). The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. The reason for this contrast is never stated. Perhaps the issue was the attitude of the respective worshipers rather than the nature of the offering. Some interpreters suggest that the attitudes expressed were faith versus non-faith (cp. Heb. 11:4). Others suggest that the contrast was between a careless, miserly offering and a choice, generous offering (cp. Lev. 3:16; 1 John 3:12). But if the Lord had given prior revelation about sacrifice, it is likely that he would have included some specifics about the nature of the sacrifice as well. Although later sacrifices could include grain (i.e., bloodless), this was usually given in conjunction with another sacrifice (e.g., Lev. 2). The Book of Hebrews speaks of the better sacrifice of Abel (Heb. 11:4a) and that God spoke well of his offerings (Heb. 11:4b). Later the author of Hebrews wrote of Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled 9 Abel The Pioneer of Stewardship Calvary

10 blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12:24). > Have a volunteer read Genesis 4:5b-7. These verses describe Cain s reaction to his rejected offering. What did Cain s response communicate about his heart? Beneath all sin is a lie, just like the first sin. What lie did Cain believe in order to become angry with God? What does it teach us about God that He took the time to rebuke Cain? Why are corrections like these ultimately good for us? God cared too much about Cain to allow him to go unchallenged in his sin. God rebuked Cain and offered him the chance to change course. The dejected and sullen reaction from Cain provided a window into his soul. He did not like that God refused his offering; yet instead of asking for forgiveness, Cain doubled down on his sin. God confronted Cain s sin and tried to help him see the problem festering in his soul. Sin is waiting for us. We are bent by nature to sin, so we cannot treat it lightly. What seems like a small problem in our hearts is never as small as we think. It might not seem like a big deal to give less than we are called to, or to not give at all, but God doesn t see it that way. He wants us to experience the blessing of stewarding our lives and resources for His glory. If He didn t care, He wouldn t have confronted Cain. God s rebukes are evidence of His love. He contends for us passionately and corrects us pointedly. The greatest obstacle to stewarding our lives for God is our sin. Because God cares about our lives, He corrects our sin. 10 Abel The Pioneer of Stewardship Calvary

11 What attitudes do you have about giving and stewardship that need to be corrected? Would you pray and ask God to reveal sinful attitudes hiding in your heart? How should we respond when these are uncovered? COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 4:5B-7 Ironically, the first recorded offering given to God was also the first one rejected by Him. Since cereal offerings were authorized in the law of Moses, the fact that Cain s offering was of vegetation rather than an animal is not why God did not have regard for it. Cain s furious reaction suggests that the offering was rejected because of sin in his heart, not the nature of his offering. The Bible makes it clear that God had rejected Cain s offering because of Cain s wicked lifestyle (1Jn 3:12). The animal-like description of sin as crouching is reused in 49:9 to describe a lion. The parallel use of desire in this verse and 3:16 suggests that sin wishes to be as intimate with humanity as a woman is with her husband. The only way to avoid this is to be its master, not its companion. The poor attitude of Cain is demonstrated by his response to correction from God. He was unwilling to accept God s decision on the matter. After sulking and then becoming angry, he proceeded to kill his brother. P R A Y Thank God for allowing us to glorify Him through our work. Ask God to help us see His purpose in our jobs and to model hearts bent toward stewardship, like we saw with Abel. Pray that you would know and understand the purpose God has for you in your specific vocational calling. 11 Abel The Pioneer of Stewardship Calvary

USING THIS CURRICULUM

BIBLE FELLOWSHIP TEACHING PLANS OCTOBER 22, 2017 USING THIS CURRICULUM PREPARATION This section is designed to guide your study preparation. First, you will be encouraged to read the Bible passages through,