INWARD PRAYER

QUESTIONS:

1. Did you take up the challenge from last week and journal about what
you noticed regarding social media? What did you learn or experience?
2. Responding to this week’s devotional, What stood out to you from what
was said this week regarding consumerism?
3. What is one thing that you wanted to buy in the past (or maybe right
now) that consumed a lot of your thoughts and/or desires?
4. What does the “good life” of consumerism claim to offer us?
5. Does consumerism actually live up to its claims? Why or why not?
6. Read 1 Timothy 6:6-12 together thinking about (and then after
answering) these questions:

1. What is Paul telling us we should be warned of?
2. What is he saying we should do?
3. What does consumerism lead to?
4. What should we pursue instead?

OUTWARD PRAYER

THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE:
OPTION #1: GO to the mall and take notice of different posters, signs, or
sales. What do they say? What message are they trying to get across?
Write it down and bring it to next week’s small group.

OPTION #2: GIVE something thoughtful to someone in your life. How does
that make you feel as opposed to buying something? Giving vs.
Consuming? Write that down and bring it to next week’s small group.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU HAVE
(A LIE WE LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY BUY INTO)

WHAT’S THE MAIN POINT? I need to get out of the consumerism trap
and retrain my heart to Jesus

WORD UP:
1 Timothy 6:6-12
This particular passage reveals the trap that the temptation towards money and stuff really is. It
speaks very clearly about:
1. Contentment
2. Temptation and the trap of consumerism (the rival rhythm)
3. The destruction that comes with this trap
4. Our need to run away from this trap
5. To not just run away from it, but to run toward new rhythms with Jesus
Matthew 19:16-30
This story highlights what the verse in Timothy speaks about. It shows the trap in a story and
how that trap can capture your heart instead of Jesus. It’s our hope and prayer that youth
would see the rich young man and see how that trap of consumerism steals their hearts from
Jesus.

WAKE UP:
Here are a couple options to help youth wake up to idea of the devotional you are teaching:
1. Share a story of when you really wanted to buy something so much that it consumed your
thoughts. Share of what it was like to get that something. Share what happened to that
over time, did the feeling last?
2. Read all or a portion of the pages 41 to 45 from You Are What You Love: The Spiritual
Power of Habit1 by James K.A. Smith which you can find here: https://forms.gle/
f2vootqKaGC9HyGC6 – Ask Joel for the password if you don’t know it by texting him at
(780) 996-5635 or emailing him at joel@beulah.ca

WHY DO I CARE?
• I can unknowingly be shaped by this world’s rival rhythm of consumerism
• Consumerism can steal my focus and heart toward Jesus
• Consumerism leaves me empty and wanting more stuff

James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit (Grand Rapids: 1
Brazos Press, 2016).

WHAT DO I DO?
• Ask Jesus to show me where my heart has been stolen away by the rival rhythm of
consumerism
• Pray and ask Jesus to retrain my heart after Him instead of consumerism

• THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE OPTION #1: GO to the mall and take notice of different
posters, signs, or sales. What do they say? What message are they trying to get across?
Write it down and bring it to next week’s small group.
• THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE OPTION #2: GIVE something thoughtful to someone in your
life. How does that make you feel as opposed to buying something? Giving vs.
Consuming? Write that down and bring it to next week’s small group.