Heritage Presbyterian Church Adult Sunday School

1. Biblical Stewardship:
video studies
Breadth
5 sessions
Depth
4 sessions
Motivation
5 sessions
21 3

2. THE TREASURE
PRINCIPLE
Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving
Adult Sunday School
2018
(Four Sessions)

3. The Treasure of Giving 3
Curriculum
Produced by Eternal
Perspective Ministries (EPM)
• A Bible-believing, Christ-
centered nonprofit
organization with two
objectives:
• Teach Bible principles
• Reach people in need
• Class outline and
discussion questions
derived from The Treasure
Principle: Bible Study, by
Brian Smith and Randy
Alcorn

4. The Treasure of Giving 4
Class Description &
Outline
Explore the guidelines and rewards of
giving as highlighted in the six “Treasure
Principle Keys” found in Scripture. Biblical
and practical, this perspective-shifting
series helps Christians replace anxiety over
money and possessions with something far
more priceless: the liberating joy of giving!
• Session One: The Treasure of Giving
• Session Two: The Spirituality of Giving
• Session Three: The Sacrifice of Giving
• Session Four: The Joy of Giving

5. The Treasure of Giving 5
Our Video Host
Randy Alcorn: Founder and director of
EPM; award-winning and best-selling
author (read his Tabletalk interview here)
• Former pastor and participant in Operation
Rescue
• In May 1990 a court awarded a
judgment to an abortion clinic to
garnish Alcorn’s wages
• For conscience’s sake, Alcorn
reduced his salary in perpetuity
to minimum wage and gave all
his royalties away
• In giving nearly all his income to
God’s kingdom, he discovered
the Bible’s treasure principle

6. The Treasure of Giving 6
What Can I Expect?
• Personal connection with God
• Mutual support with other people
• Honesty before God
• God’s truth in your heart

7. The Treasure of Giving 7
What Will It Take?
• A desire to learn and to trust God to work
within you
• Determine to set aside the cynicism that life
experiences may have cultivated in you
• Open your ears again to God’s promises of
hope and joy
• Set aside ugly stereotypes of religious
hucksters trying to part fools from their
money
• Invest some time and effort, and expect
potential returns that are out of this world!

8. The Treasure of Giving 8
Key Verses
• Deuteronomy 8:17-18 Beware lest you say in
your heart, “My power and the might of my
hand have gotten me this wealth.” You shall
remember the Lord your God, for it is he
who gives you power to get wealth, that he
may confirm his covenant that he swore to
your fathers, as it is this day.
• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know
that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
within you, whom you have from God? You
are not your own, for you were bought with a
price. So glorify God in your body.

9. The Treasure of Giving 9
Key Issues
• A steward manages assets for the owner’s
benefit. The steward carries no sense of
entitlement to the assets he manages. It’s his
job to find out what the owner wants done
with his assets, then carry out his will.
• Our giving is a reflexive response to the
grace of God in our lives. This grace is the
action; our giving is the reaction. We give
because he first gave to us.
• Giving breaks us out of orbit around our
possessions. We escape their gravity,
entering a new orbit around our treasures in
heaven.

10. The Treasure of Giving 10
Video Highlights
• The title deed to the universe
• The heart of a steward
• Joyful giving
• The power of grace
• Grace and the giver
• The fringe benefits of giving

11. The Treasure of Giving 11
Video: The Treasure of
Giving

12. The Treasure of Giving 12
Video Discussion
• List at least two dangers of assuming that
we own our possessions.
• What are some benefits in recognizing
that we are stewards rather than owners?
• List two or three guidelines that can help
you determine the “salary” you pay
yourself from God’s wealth.
• Do you agree that giving jump-starts our
relationship with God? If so, how?

13. The Treasure of Giving 13
Bible Exploration
• Read Luke 16:10-13; 1 Corinthians
4:2. Summarize God’s instructions
to you, whom he has trusted with
the management of his wealth.
• Observe the characteristics of the
faithful stewards in Nehemiah 12:43
and Matthew 25:21, 23. How would
your life be different if you lived like
this more often?

14. The Treasure of Giving 14
Living the Truth
• Describe an instance when you took
a risky step of obedience because of
God’s grace. What fringe benefits
did you experience as a result of
giving?
• How can we help each other delight
more fully in the joy and reward of
faithful stewardship?

15. The Treasure of Giving 15
Questions for God
• Pray: “God, am I treating you as
owner and CEO of ‘my’ assets, or
am I treating you merely as my
financial consultant, to whom at
best I pay a fee in the form of
offerings?”
• Pray: “Around what center does my
life orbit: around things or around
you? How can I make you more
central to my thinking and living?”

16. The Treasure of Giving 16
Treasure Principle Keys
1. God owns everything; I’m His money
manager
• We are the managers of the assets God has
entrusted—not given—to us
2. My heart always goes where I put God’s
money
• Watch what happens when you reallocate
your money from temporal things to eternal
things

17. The Treasure of Giving 17
Scripture Memory
And God is able to make all grace
abound to you, so that having all
sufficiency in all things at all times,
you may abound in every good work.
As it is written, “He has distributed
freely, he has given to the poor; his
righteousness endures forever.”
2 Corinthians 9:8-9

18. The Treasure of Giving 18
Next Session:
The Spirituality of Giving