Guide for Lesson 1 – Making Choices (Practical Issues, Unit 2)

Section Do List:

RELAX-

Tuner: Choices

How To Play:
Have everyone start at the centre of the room and move according to your commands.

Come up with 10 to 15 sets of choices and have the youths move in different directions for the different choices. E.g. “For those that chose x, take 1 step forward, for those that chose y, take 2 steps back”

Try to come up with clear cut choices like “Book or TV, Red or Blue, Prata or Mutabak, etc.”

At the end of few rounds, the youths will be all over the room.

Debrief:
All of us make different decisions. We make the decisions based on who we are. At the same time, these decisions also define who we are. Like the game, we make the choices because of our preferences, yet these choices also determine the unique positions that we are in at the end of the game.


15 Mins
RELATE

•Share one high and one low point
•Pray for one another, and 2 other items from the church 15 Mins
REACH OUT
•Have 2-3 persons share what they have done to Invest & Invite their friends/relatives to Christ or TTB
•Thank God for the effort and pray for these friends/relatives to be responsive.


10 Mins
RECEIVE Introduction
The following is a list of things that influences us in our daily lives. Rate from a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being having no effect, 10 being an overriding influence to everything in our lives.

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We know that the list is nowhere being close to being exhaustive, and not all of influences are bad, but not all of them are bad either. The key of today’s lesson is to help us make the right choice to be able to witness those that God had placed in your lives...

Read: Genesis 39:1-15
1) Do you think Joseph considered the choice carefully or was it a snap, on-the-spot decision?
2) What is the scriptural reference for your answer?

Looking at Joseph’s example, there are three things we want to learn from his encounter.

a) Consider the choice
Reflect on the decisions you make daily, how many of these decisions are made consciously? When was the last time you decided to go to school, or come for cell, or hang out with your friends? Joseph could only make his choice after he stopped to consider his choice.

b) Compare it with the Word
Now that we’ve stopped to think about the choice, the next question will be what to think about. Do we apply the standards of the world? Do we take own identity/position/morals into consideration? Do we compare it with the Word and ask ourselves “What would Jesus do?”

Leaders please apply discretion for this point especially.

c) Choosing what will result in good
Now that our choices are informed, the hardest part always boils down to making the choice. The right choice is very often the hard choice too. It is up to us to make the decision and commit to it.
Would Joseph’s decision to say no have meant anything if he gave into the wife after her persistent pestering?

What about the times when all the options are equally bad/grey/good? Visit a sick friend vs studying for Exams; Committing time for devotions vs bible study; etc.. These are the situation where it calls for us to choose the decisions that will lead to the greatest good. I know that saying this doesn’t help with making up the decision at all. Rather, use this as a guideline for our choices. Very often, the best decision is not the one that is most “right” but the one that produces the most good.

Read: Genesis 39:16-20
3) What was Joseph’s “reward” for his choice?

4) Share about an instance, if it applies, when you got into trouble for doing the right things.

While, most of us know the story of Joseph’s success for the rest of his life. However, in this case we see that sometimes, in fact more often that we hope to be the case, making the right choice gets us into trouble. Yet, recognize that very often these “trouble” that we get into for doing what’s right, not the once that we deserve for doing wrong of course, are part of God’s plan. For Joseph, his jail time was his ticket into the pharaoh’s courts.

Closing Thought:
Read 1 Peter 4:1-11

Push your youths, ask the hard questions. Challenge them to commit all the choices in their lives to God above everything else.

Memory Verse:
1 Peter 4:19
“Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good."

Closing Prayers

30-45 Mins

Notes:
I prepped the lesson to be a single train of thought. This could be hard to pull off depending on the dynamics of your group. Do rephrase the questions/ Break up the lesson and resolve some of the issues first. Once again, I cannot emphasize this more, apply your discretion.
I tried to condense the material as much as possible for this lesson, do go through the lesson plan and pick out some questions that you can ask if you see fit. Also please do Read 1 Peter 4:1-11 in advance and prayerfully consider ways to challenge our youth. I feel that the key to the lesson here is not about teaching them to choose God, but rather committing them to choosing God.


Done by Zhan Feng :)