DECALOGUE X

How much of how we "live" is rooted in dissatisfaction with our current situation?

How much of the machine of society runs on the gears of getting more, getting new, keeping up and acquiring what others have?

That's the thing; no one would read those two rhetorical questions and feel like they were just invited into some deep insight. We all already know it. And yet, something in us continues to operate as though we'd never come across the idea before.

As you discuss the 10th command, take some time as a group leader seeing how your group will go beyond discussing what it already knows, and into finding ways to actually live differently. Remember, this is about ceasing to be slaves. But slaves aren't free because they know about freedom. They're free because they walk out of the world that enslaved them.

Take some steps out of enslavement this week.

Thaw

• What was the must have toy/shoe/garment/etc of your childhood? Did you ever get it? Did a friend get it first? Do you remember what your friend/sibling having it first did to you? Explain.
• What is it that keeps us behaving lime children where our wants for other people's stuff is concerned?

Leader note: if someone says "continuing to not have", in response to the last question, ask them if people who have things ate less greedy. The answer might help people understand that poverty has nothing to do with greed.

• What most stuck with you from Sunday morning?
• As you listened to the message, did you think about someone in your life, or about yourself more? Why do you think that is?

Read

• Ex 20:17
• Thoughts?
• These are some primitive categories. Tease them out a bit to modernize them for our context?
• Why do you think this command is the last?
• Why do you think it was meaningful enough to make a top ten list for former slaves?

Read

• Luke 12:15
• Thoughts?
• Jesus literally says here, "be seeing, and protect yourself from all forms of greed..."
• What does seeing have to do with anything?
• What is the difference between "seeing" and simply "don't do ______ behavior?"
• What does it mean to be on guard, or to protect or even to watch?
• Why is Jesus painting a picture of looking over your heart like a shepherd over sheep, or a guard over a city?

Read

• Proverbs 4:23
• Do you see a connection to what Jesus is saying in Luke 12? How do the heart being guarded and greed fit together?

Read

• James 4:1
• Thoughts?
• Where does this begin? Why is it significant to know it doesn't start without outward behaviors?

Leader note: it may be worth pointing out that everything begins in the heart. Lust starts there. Murder starts there. Greed and entitlement start there. Once again proving Jesus isn't concerned with behavior management like so much religion is, he starts with where this really begins...the heart!

Read

• James 4:2
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• Tensions, fights, anxieties, dissatisfactions, worries. Describe what wanting something that someone else has done to you or to a relationship. You may take a moment to think about it. It may be someone's property, their appearance, their success, their family, their relationships, their personality, their disposition, their luck....whatever it is, ,explain what these things may have done inside you.
• Additionally, you may not have any issues of greed, coveting or dissatisfaction within you. Share with the group how you got to that point.

Leader note: if someone does venture out to share how they feel free from greed or coveting, pay attention to whether it stems from them coming from money, or coming from peace. Others who are jealous for more "stuff" in their life believe that if they just had more they would be happy. So if the person sharing mentions financial ease, others may pounce and say "see, if I had that wealth background that they had, I'd be fine". As difficult as it is to understand, the wealth or lack of it isn't the issue. The issue is what we are taught to believe about stuff and having it. We already know that the poor are some of the most content people there are, while millionaires are often on record as miserable. We have to do the difficult work of disbelieving that our peace lies in the possession of things (Luke 12:15!!!).

Read

• With the understanding that Paul writes this from a prison cell, and that the Philippian church had scraped together what they could to make sure he had food and water while imprisoned, read Philippians 4:4-13.

Leader note: depending on where you think you can take it, make special note of verse 12. What is this mystical, secret wisdom that Paul learned that centered him, regardless of external circumstances? What experiences are necessary to teach such a deep, mysterious wisdom? Who do we know that seems to know this secret of contentment? How does this pertain to the tenth command and the a slave having his freedom?

Apply

• How does this group go from agreeing about this mentally to living differently?
• How do we train our hearts, convincingly entitled as they can be, to disbelieve our freedom, life and happiness are dependent on having or gaining what others have?
• How does the tension some in the group carry right now begin to wane as they begin "seeing" and "keeping watch"?
• What's one step toward living at peace with what we already have, while celebrating others' fortune and helping with others' misfortune, that we can take?