from Love Joy peace

Theme Verse: Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God (Acts 4:19)

Hook
Get a each student a Styrofoam plate and a sharp object (pen, scissors, etc). Get your students to recall the times this week when they are angry and how they reacted.

For each time they lost their temper (use foul language and curses, say hurtful words, badmouth about the other person to your friends, scream and yell, hit, slap, scratch, or push somebody, slam doors or throw things, get mad at people who have nothing to do with the situation, destroy property, do nothing and keep it inside, etc), make a hole in the object.

If they cannot think of anything, ask them to think back further and remind them that they are not angels. =]

Explanation of the Hook
Explain that the multiple holes made in the plate are like the scars we leave behind when we say hurtful words or do things in a fit of anger that we later regret. Even when we stop being angry with a person, the holes still stay. We cannot undo what we did. Another good analogy is 'betrayal'. You can forgive your friend for betraying you... but you won't trust the person easily again. Therefore, it is important to handle our feelings properly. Our feelings can affect other people and it is not just anger that is bad and destructive.

Read Matt 5:21-22. As Christians are we allowed to get emotional? (general) After all emotions can result in very negative consequences. Is it OK or sinful for Christians to get angry? (specific)

Of course we can have emotions. Christians are also humans. God created His people with deep emotions. Even Jesus got angry (Matthew 21:12-13) and Jesus got sad (John 11: 32-36). You might think Jesus is a perfect man, and therefore His emotion would always be under control. But actually that's not true. From the verses we see that emotions are natural and we don’t need to be ashamed of them.

But why do we get angry?

Ask them to each list 3 things that make them extremely angry.

When we are angry, we must ask ourselves if our anger is righteous anger. That is to say, do we have the right to be angry and whether we are angry about the right thing?

When we have been wronged, our anger may feel justified - but if our response should never be sinful (Eph 4:26). How we express our anger is very important.

Ask them to think of a positive way they can express their anger.

We shouldn't try to SOAK IT UP or one day we will overheat and explode. Instead we should give our inappropriate feelings to God and ask him to help us deal with it (just like all the Psalmists did.)

Cover "What God says about: Wrong feelings / Right feelings" from Love Joy Peace. This will show them that there is a right and wrong expression of most emotions and not just anger.

In conclusion, Don't let your emotions control you. Turn to God for help in handling your emotions. After all... If you can't trust him with your emotions, how can you say you trust him with your life? Jesus is most certainty willing and able to help you. *Romans 8:32*

Link to teacher's guide / optional quiz

Do this lesson in small groups of 5 or 6. Split the work among your co-leaders.

Hook: The Bananana Game
Theme Verse: Matt 5:43-48

After the game, do the "Even My Enemy" worksheet.
For qn 1, clarify what an enemy means.

Use this definition:

Someone is your enemy if...
1. You try not to talk about him (or her).
2. You try not to associate with him (or her).
3. You don't even want to associate with anything that links to him (or her).
4. You don't treat him (or her) like a friend.

The point is not to limit enemies to people we really really hate.

Instead of qn 3, cover the 'Surprise' section in the Love Joy Peace notes.

And then get one of your leaders to wrap up Matt 5:43-48. Do your own summary for this. I leave it to you as your "meditation homework". Try to answer the question: What does it mean to love our enemies? You may refer to the teacher's guide to help you understand it.

Why should we love our enemies? Simple. Just as our enemies may not deserve to be loved us, we do not deserve to be loved by God. We were once the bad guy. We were once enemies of God. But God loved us, his enemies, and died for us on the Cross. (Rom 5:8).

Since God has done it for us, then why can't we do it on to our enemy? If we can't (love our enemy) it can only means that we have not understood the meaning of our salvation, and the fact that we cannot love our enemies indicates that our pride still exists.

Then the question is what will happen to our enemy's soul. If we choose not to love them and do not act and our enemy's soul is not saved, is the blood not on our hands? (Ezekiel 33:6) And if our enemies are actually our brothers-in-Christ, then shouldn't they be our friend instead of enemies since we have a common God?

Split into smaller groups and get them to pray for themselves to love their enemies.

My challenge to all of you is to read this book 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die and share reason after reason with your students and your friends. By doing so you will be continually teaching what is of highest importance - the Cross.

After the Bible, it was this book together with When I Don't Desire God that brought me faith and encouragement when I first started serving in small groups. I pray that it will bless you too. =]

Introduction{

Lesson plan: Power of the Cross
Main point of lesson: Through Jesus we can expect freedom from our sin.
Main Passage: Acts 3

}end Introduction

Hook{
Go one around and share:

1) Describe who you are with 3 descriptive words.
2) Describe 2 things about you that need improvement.
3) Describe what you'll like to be like but have no hope of becoming with 1 word.

For example, "I am 1) Hardworking, 2) Meticulous, and 3) Frank. I need to 1) be more Dillgent and 2) be more Patient, and I would like to have a higher IQ.

}end Hook

Lesson Proper{

Read Acts 3:1-10.

(Warm up) If God were to heal someone today like he healed the crippled beggar in Acts 3 would you be surprised?

- Most of us would be...
- Imagine you are the beggar. Would you expected to be healed? No... Mostly you will expect to be ignored and hopefully to get some $.
- Why? We think we know "how things work around here". The world teaches us to believe only what we see. So often we subconsciously ignore God, and react with surprise when He does something.

Read Isaiah 53:5
Read Romans 8:32

What do these verses tell us about God? (Answer yourself)

Do you have a sin (or bad habit) that you seem to commit repeatedly?
- no need to share... just get them to acknowledge... at another time you may want to take it up.

OK, read the Acts 3:11-25.

Who killed Jesus?
- according to Peter, the onlookers killed Jesus (v14, 15, 17)
- in the same way, when you and I sin, it is as though we killed Jesus...
- and when we willfully sin, as though we are crucifying him again.
- If Jesus died for past, present, future sins, He died Because Of Our sin.
- like the onlookers we were ignorant - we weren't alive when he died but...
- like the onlookers we are still responsible.

(Study the questions below yourself, I will give you the key point)
What are the two things that Peter tells the onlookers (and us) that they must do?
- Faith
- Repentance

What does God promise us if we repent and believe in Jesus Christ?
- Sins wiped out
- times of refreshing from the Lord
- Jesus, the Christ

What is the end result?
- blessing
- turning from our wicked ways

Conclusion
Before we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we had no choice but to sin. We were slaves to sin. But because Jesus died to free us from our sins, we now have a choice in the matter. Sometimes or Often, we will lose the battle against sin. BUT because of the Cross, we know that we will win the war. Our bad habits may not disappear overnight but we have the blessed assurance that the work God has started He will bring to completion (Php 1:6). This is may be some thing we cannot even imagine... but there is no need to be surprised.... Nothing is impossible... God is at work.

} end Lesson Proper

Will try to get the lesson out by Tuesday.... We will probably do Acts 3, followed by Love Your Enemies and Feelings which are ways they can express Acts 3. I think we will also not go beyond Acts 7... After Stephen we will go back to the Gospel.

"Sharing the gospel" has been accessed... 33 times... glad that all of you are putting in effort into preparation...

These last two weeks we have started to talk to our youths about their responsibility to share the gospel.... but some of them don't even know what to do. I don't think our job is to keep telling our youths must share gospel must share gospel. If we just do that, very soon they dread coming because we always talk to them abt what they fail to do.

We must get (and help) them to do it. Not talk but action. Not airy fairy but practically. So this week instead of Acts 3, we will cover Sharing the Gospel (pdf). Print out the first page in the pdf as the hook for your youths.

Main pointers for discussion:
1. Why do we need to share the gospel?
2. How do we share the gospel?

Opening Questions
1. Answer the following question with a Yes or No.

Would you risk your life to save:

1. a friend?
2. a sibling?
3. your mother?
4. someone whom you hold dearly to? (this is to establish the point that we are concerned about the lives of people whom we are related to or are important to us)
5. What about a criminal?
6. Or an enemy?
   

At this point you can mention that each one of us are criminals in our own way and enemies of God but Jesus died for us. And by doing so, we can have eternal life. However, not everyone has the privilege of knowing this wonderful news and we know that do not know the gospel (the message of Jesus) will eventually die. They are in need of spiritual help. Are we going to help them? Let’s bring in an example. If your friend was drowning, will you ignore him or quickly jump in to save him? After asking them this, go on to the next question.

2. "Is spiritual help and physical help of the same importance?" Do you think this statement is true or false? Why?

Read,
Proverbs 24:11-12
Matthew 28:19-20
Point: It is our purpose and duty the share the gospel.

Sharing,
Since they have acknowledged that people close to them are important, ask them to name people in their life who need to know about Jesus.

Challenge them... if they have the opportunity, would they be willing to share the gospel with the person(s) they named?

Now teach them a simple evangelism method. If you don't know any, you can find the Bridge to Life in your Love Joy Peace material.

Explain what is the Bridge to life,
The ‘Bridge to Life’ section is a suggestive outline to how we can share the gospel by telling them that Christ has died and paid for sins so that we can go heaven and they can ask the non-christian to decide whether they want to accept Christ.

Go through the Bridge to Life,
From bridge to life points 1-3, we must recognize that if our loved ones do not come to know about the gospel then it leads to death and eternal judgment. So...we need to share the gospel to them!

Ask them,
4. Suppose you wanted to try and rescue some of your friends from dying spiritually. List in order of effectiveness which would be the best ways to conduct the rescue, with 1 being the most effective.

- Email them a letter about Christ
- Bring them to a church service
- Give them a bible
- Send the pastor to talk to them
- Give them a gospel booklet
- Preach a sermon to them
- Tell them what Christ means to you
- Pray for them
- Loan them a Christian cd
- Bring them to a youth Group
- Wear a Christian T-shirt

Point: Help them to realize that we can set the stage for sharing the gospel and the possibilities are endless.

Close: Ask them if they are willing to make a commitment to reach out and share the gospel to the people they name (or two friends). Pray for them to be able to do so.

You can ask them informally whether they will be willing to invite their friends if we organize an event to help them share the gospel to their friends. My suggestion is that we have a board games event with food (like minds cafe) and also put in time for some storytelling... we can share abt our r/s Jesus and open the door for our youth to share the gospel... or we cld come up w a game that shares the gospel.

I think we must do this. I will be asking some of you to help head it. Only when we lead them in sharing the gospel... then we have truly become their leader. Last time we used to do street evangelism... but to me this idea is more friendly and meaningful rather than cold-calling. They can invite their friends and it is also a gd opportunity to ask their parents to support us... they can invite their cousins who are non-Christians....

Cleans… Awesome work, thanks Ariel!

Narrative

Acts 2 - Before and After - Romans 12:2 - Being a living testimony (lifestyle) o Matt 25:31-46, 1 cor 13:1 - If you are not a living testimony, o You need your heart pierced by the gospel (v37-41) - What does it truly mean/really look like to love God? - What is the motivation for their action in v44-47 o Of sharing their belongings? o Of sharing the gospel? o Motivation à They understood what the gospel meant… The love of God à Grace

Application

How has God changed your life? If we say that He has not, what does that mean?

Topic 2: Of Butterflies and Caterpillars: Are you before....or after?

Which one are you?

Main Point: Are you before or after? Being a living testimony.

Theme Verse: Romans 12:2

Hook: Ok, someone needs to find the stuff for this hook. Or make some. You know how you’ve played the game where you have two pictures and you have to SPOT THE DIFFERENCE? Yeah, we need 3 sets of those, preferably 5. It’d be good if someone has time to get some original pictures and photoshop them coz it’s important that we know which picture is the original and which is the doctored ones. So anyway, game is pretty simple as things go, spot the difference in the pictures. After that, just ask them which picture they think is the original and the doctored one, ie. which picture is before.... and which is after? * HINT HINT.

Ok so after that we are diving straight into explanations by telling them that just as it’s not always easy to tell which is the b4 and which is the after pic/ or that sometimes it isn’t easy telling which is b4 or after (depending on whether your kids are smarter than we think); it is also difficult to tell i we are acting like we’re ‘before...or after’ Christians. Now here’s a question: Why is it important to know if we are acting like we are before and after? Here’s another one: Does a caterpillar that has become a butterfly still crawl around on it’s belly eating leaves? Or does it fly and drink nectar or pollen from flowers? Can you still call a butterfly that’s still crawling around on it’s belly a butterfly? So like, when we become a Christian, are we still one if we don’t act like one/ strive to be one? ( Again rhetorical question, don’t tell them the answer or that they are right, leave them hanging and let the question fester in their minds....BwAHAHA)

Remember last week’s waterfall metaphor? If we’re not moving forward towards Christ, we are moving backward away and towards a big, BIG waterfall.

1. Who is Jesus? What did Jesus do for us?

It’s important to strengthen the foundation of bible knowledge, and hence, the identity of Christ is of absolute importance in this process.

Verse 21: “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Verse 22: “… Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.”

Verse 24: “… it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”

Verse 36: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

Hopefully from these verses, they’ll be able to glimpse the power of Jesus Christ, and the importance of believing in him. (How long you want to talk on this point is according to your own discretion) Now that we have established who Christ is, you could probably ask them who Christ is to them and what he has done in their lives. This can then lead to the next main point.

2. Since you have Christ in your lives, how should you behave as a Christian? What defines the actions of a Christian after they accept Christ?

Are you the “God-fearing Jews” who were “cut to the heart” (v37) when they found out about the identity of Christ?

Or are you the ones who dismiss the miracles of God, like those who made fun of the apostles when they spoke in tongues (v13)?

Which do you want to work towards?

The answer we’re looking for in this case is motivations. Ask them for example, why they come to church? What are their motivations? Why do they come for cell group? Why did they do the bookmark exercise last week? DID they do the bookmark thing? How did it go? Share how YOUR bookmark thing went.

3. Read Acts 2, ALL of it. In this chapter, we’ll discover what being a true Christian takes, OBEDIENCE, FAITH and ACTION.

4. OBEDIENCE: The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost

Why did the believers gather together? Obeying Jesus’ command in chapter 1 v 4. It also proves that God fulfils all his promises, such as the gift of the holy spirit to all who love and obey him!

5. FAITH: Peter Addresses the Crowd

Because of Peter’s great faith, we see how he truly becomes a “fisher of men” here. His preaching is powerful and he does it in great confidence. (WHAT A CHANGE!!) And this is through the Holy Spirit, which reiterates last weeks point about the importance of having the HS in us!

Also, because of his faith, God is able to make use of him to evangelise to the Jews, refer to verses 36 to 41. à “… and about three thousand were added to their number that day.” Look at the mighty works that God does through those who are faithful to him!

Have you experienced a change in your life since becoming a Christian? When we come to Church for example, do we come with the expectation to meet with God and be transformed by Him?

6. ACTION: The Fellowship of the Believers

Do you all have faith in Christ? If you truly do, then it should manifest in your actions like it did in the believers’ actions!

What did they do?

• Devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer
• Wonders and miraculous signs done by the apostles
• United – they were together and had everything in common
• Selling of their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
• Met in the temple courts everyday
• Broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of the people

Effect? The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

The focus of almost everything was on God, and “breaking bread” is almost like our holy communion today. Imagine having that everyday! Are we anywhere near these people? Do we even do a fraction of what they do? Their entire LIVES are centred on him! And so were their hearts, which is more important than anything else, because God looks at our hearts. So, even though we may do all the “Christian actions” such as going to church and going to cell, if we are not going because we love God but for other reasons, God knows.

7) So what does it mean to love God? Read Matthew 25: 31-46.

What is Love? Read 1 Corinthians 13:1. Jesus once said to Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep.( John 21: 15-19) If we don’t care does it mean we don’t Love God? 1 John 4:20-21. The believers did many things that even we now might consider fantastic. How many of us would be willing to say sell your ipod and give the proceeds to someone poor? And yet perhaps in our affluent Singapore such an analogy is a little off, so how many of us would be willing to ‘sell’ our TIME to our friends or maybe someone in need? Or even closer, our parents? How many of us would be willing to do something spontaneous in Love for these people, say mop or vacuum the floor at home without it being called for? To maybe bake something for your friends or even just show up with a bunch of flowers randomly for your mom? Well, you know, these people 2000 years ago did it, and they did it well. They shared their belongings and went more than the extra mile for their fellow Christians, and they MADE sacrifices for one another. Some made little sacrifices, some made bigger ones, but they all did it for one another and that is what Love is about. Sacrificing things, time, even money for others is hard at times, but you know? Sometimes, that is what Love calls us to do and sometimes Love is hard, Love is difficult. But, Love is a choice, not a feeling, not an emotion. We love because we choose to. And that is the part of being a living testimony. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It ALWAYS protects, ALWAYS trusts, ALWAYS hopes, ALWAYS PERSEVERES. Love never fails. God loved us because He chose to. And that’s why, Jesus died for us on the cross. He chose to.

This part about love can be elaborated with your own examples, perhaps, more personal ones!

8) What are some ways we can love God? Pray that we will be open to meeting with God and to be transformed by Him and live according to His commands. He died to set us free, how can we reject Him?

9) Homework: Go pray for someone again this week, & also do something spontaneous in Love for a friend or family.

Once again, my apologies that you will have to wait a few days for the cleans. In the meantime, you can think abt whether you have a story of your own to tell. Maybe about how God has kept you safe and sound in this crazy world... It is easy to forget what you've been taught but also easy to remember stories about real people.

Lesson 2 – A Changed Life (How has God changed your life?)

Which one are you?

Main Point: Are you before or after? Being a living testimony.

Hook: Ok, someone needs to find the stuff for this hook. Or make some. You know how you’ve played the game where you have two pictures and you have to SPOT THE DIFFERENCE? Yeah, we need 3 sets of those, preferably 5. It’d be good if someone has time to get some original pictures and photoshop them coz it’s important that we know which picture is the original and which is the doctored ones. So anyway, game is pretty simple as things go, spot the difference in the pictures. After that, just ask them which picture they think is the original and the doctored one, ie. which picture is before.... and which is after? * HINT HINT.

Ok so after that we are diving straight into explanations by telling them that just as it’s not always easy to tell which is the b4 and which is the after pic/ or that sometimes it isn’t easy telling which is b4 or after (depending on whether your kids are smarter than we think); it is also difficult to tell i we are acting like we’re ‘before...or after’ Christians. Now here’s a question: Why is it important to know if we are acting like we are before and after? Here’s another one: Does a caterpillar that has become a butterfly still crawl around on it’s belly eating leaves? Or does it fly and drink nectar or pollen from flowers? Can you still call a butterfly that’s still crawling around on it’s belly a butterfly? So like, when we become a Christian, are we still one if we don’t act like one/ strive to be one? ( Again rhetorical question, don’t tell them the answer or that they are right, leave them hanging and let the question fester in their minds....BwAHAHA)

Remember last week’s waterfall metaphor? If we’re not moving forward towards Christ, we are moving backward away and towards a big, BIG waterfall.

1)So...eh how does a Christian behave? What defines the actions of a Christian after they accept Christ?

The answer, we’re looking for in this case is motivations. Ask them for example, why they come to church? What are their motivations? Why did they do the bookmark exercise last week? DID they do the bookmark thing? How did it go? Share how YOUR bookmark thing went.

2) Read Acts 2 , ALL of it.

3) Recall from last week’s lesson: why did the believers gather together?( v8, 14) To wait for the comforter who would anoint them with power and teach them what to do.

4) What was the result of their gathering?(2: 1-13) God fulfilled His promise and met with them, giving them the holy spirit.

5) The believers experienced a dramatic change in their lives when they received the Holy Spirit (met with God). Have you experienced a change in your life since becoming a Christian? When we come to Church for example, do we come with the expectation to meet with God and be transformed by Him?

6) Their faith and meeting with God also had a lasting effect on the believers. ( v 43-47) Do you notice anything interesting about the behaviour of the believers? They were sacrificial, living testimonies as though they had died and were given a second chance. What do you think was the reason behind their behaviours? Love of Christ, Love for God.

7) So what does it mean to love God? Read Matthew 25: 31-46. What is Love? Read 1 Corinthians 13:1. Jesus once said to Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep.( John 21: 15-19) If we don’t care does it mean we don’t Love God? 1 John 4:20-21. The believers did many things that even we now might consider fantastic. How many of us would be willing to say sell your ipod and give the proceeds to someone poor? And yet perhaps in our affluent Singapore such an analogy is a little off, so how many of us would be willing to ‘sell’ our TIME to our friends or maybe someone in need? Or even closer, our parents? How many of us would be willing to do something spontaneous in Love for these people, say mop or vacuum the floor at home without it being called for? To maybe bake something for your friends or even just show up with a bunch of flowers randomly for your mom? Well, you know, these people 2000 years ago did it, and they did it well. They shared their belongings and went more than the extra mile for their fellow Christians, and they MADE sacrifices for one another. Some made little sacrifices, some made bigger ones, but they all did it for one another and that is what Love is about. Sacrificing things, time, even money for others is hard at times, but you know? Sometimes, that is what Love calls us to do and sometimes Love is hard, Love is difficult. But, Love is a choice, not a feeling, not an emotion. We love because we choose to. And that is the part of being a living testimony. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It ALWAYS protects, ALWAYS trusts, ALWAYS hopes, ALWAYS PERSEVERES. Love never fails. God loved us because He chose to. And that’s why, Jesus died for us on the cross. He chose to.

8) What are some ways we can love God? Pray that we will be open to meeting with God and to be transformed by Him and live according to His commands. He died to set us free, how can we reject Him?

9) Homework: Go pray for someone again this week, & also do something spontaneous in Love for a friend or family.

Hope you are pleased with your A level results…Here’s is a cleaned up version of the lesson. Kenneth’s commentary (and hook if you are preparing it) is still in the post below. Cheers.

Main Point: As Christians, we have a calling to do God’s work (does your action match your belief) and our doing is in response to His love.

Theme Verse: Acts 1:8

Questions:
Who are you? What does it mean to be a Christian? What makes a Christian different? Oh don’t give them the answer to this yet. Have them write it down on a paper, or tell you but don’t give them an answer. Let them sit on it.

Read Acts 1:1-11

Who did God say the disciples were supposed to be?
(Answer in Acts 1:8, cross-reference to Matthew 28:18-20)

God was speaking to the apostles (his first eleven disciples) but as we will see in Acts, it was not just the apostles that were filled with the Holy Spirit but many believers, and every member of the early church took the instruction of preaching the gospel upon themselves.

Has God’s commission to be His witnesses to the “remotest part of the earth” been fulfilled? (Has everyone on earth heard the gospel?) …. Obviously, not yet… and as Christians (the people who know God) in Today’s world, this commission falls upon our shoulders.

What do you think it means to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you? (Acts 1:8) To answer this question, ask yourself, what is this power for? It is to enable us to do God’s work. Why is this important?

As mere men, we know little about the will of God. Yes we can read the Bible but even when we read the Bible we need God to reveal the depth of His truths (See Psalms 119:18). Combine our lack of knowledge with our sinful nature and you will begin to understand how difficult doing God’s work can be. But God will not ask us to do something without providing the means for us to do it.

God knew that we have fallen so far that we don’t even want to do the things He created us to do. Don’t believe? How many of us have the desire to share the gospel? Because of our sin, we are not able to be His follower. That’s why He sacrificed His son Jesus.

One of Jesus’ names is Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us’. Although Jesus is not physically present with us now, if we ask God for the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ, God sends us the Holy Spirit, which is God’s way of always being with us. Because of Jesus (who cleanses us from our sin) and the Holy Spirit (who dwells in us), we can know the will of God just like Jesus did (Acts 1:2). How? Pray.

Oh yeah, say to them ‘God is with you!’, and get them to say it to each other’ =]

OK, we have established that we can know the will of God and God has given the commission of being His witnesses to us, the people that know Him. So the question is does your action match your belief? Are you His witnesses? After becoming a Christian, have you taken an interest in God’s work or you sit back relax?

Actually you don’t have to do God’s work if you don’t want to.
Read Acts 1:12-26. Just like Matthias replaced Judas, God can always get someone to take your place. But God chose you (James 1:18) leh.

If you keep ignoring God… you put yourself at risk of forgetting who you are. Consider this logic map: Ignore God’s work -> Bored-> Find some other stuff to do, preferably stuff that YOU like-> End up doing your ‘work’-> Forgot about God...hmm...can you still really call yourself a Christian? Still not convinced? Was there a time your parents asked you to do something and you put off doing it till later....like much later....and you ended up not doing it? In the same way, if we keep putting off God, we can forget about Him totally. The Idle mind is the devil’s workshop. And any work you don’t do for God is work you do for yourself.

Also, you gotta remember, why else are we doing God’s work? John 3:16. Jesus died for our sins because He loved us… How are you going to respond to Him?

OK, application time... what are you going to do about it? share…

Some suggestions for your kids:
Make Prayer bookmark, kinda like a little simple bookmark that says stuff like: I prayed for you today, just like any other day, but Jesus loves you so, and I know; truth be told, so I made you a prayer anyway. And have them take this and pray for someone they know during the week and give that person this bookmark. If that person is a Christian ask them to challenge them to pass the bookmark on!

Leaders pray for them and erm well make them bookmarks b4 hand that say Proud to be a Christian!

This is the lesson prepared by Kenneth. Chapter 1 team, if you have improvements email it to me and I will post it. I am having exams this week but I will try to work on it later in the week if I don't get any emails.

Acts Chapter 1: Up the Jesus St!

Homework for leaders: I know some of us DON’t read this all so, make SURE YOU READ THIS. Before class make sure you make some kind of bookmark thingy for your students which says: Proud to be a Christian!

Hook: Get some paper and cut it up into smaller pieces so they are in little strips the size of playing cards. Have each student and leader write 5 things about themselves on that card, like I once ran 21km or something like that. The things should preferably be things that people will have a hard time linking back to you. Then, put the papers in a bag and randomly pick one paper each. Make sure no one gets the paper with their own name written on it. Oh yeah, make sure they wrote their name on the paper. Now, once they have the paper, they need to( without seeing the paper) put it up to their head like in Indian poker, and try to guess who it is that they are. To help them guess, they are allowed to ask a question about the person with a yes/no answer, or ask someone to read one of the 5 things that the person has written on the paper. ( If the things that are written are really obvious, spice it up a bit by changing the rules so that when the person reads one of the things, they can either a) throw in an extra word somewhere, b) take out a word or c) change one word in the sentence. Keep guessing til game over or times is up. Needless to say, first to guess wins.

Main Point: As Christians, we have a calling to do God’s work and we do not just blindly do it, but we do it because we Love God.

Theme Verse: Acts 1:8

Qns ( Actually ask them the questions, you can use the explanations given below to help or improvise)

Who are you?
If someone asks you to introduce yourself, what do you normally say? You might say, ‘ I am Larry....blah...blah, I like tennis, hate Japanese food etc...’, or even one of the 5 things that were just written in the game. Though we may not know it, these characteristics that we just spelt out define who we are; and more importantly how we view ourselves! I might even describe myself as a tall, brilliant handsome looking man with a penchant for blazers and suits and a shiny magnificent chin BUT I’m still talking about characteristics that I feel I have. So, the thing is, we all have some vague, maybe even specific idea about who we ARE as a person, BUT WHO ARE YOU as a Christian? Are you a Sunday Christian? A only saint-like-front-of-my-friends kinda Christian? A ‘when I’m happy’ Christian? Or are you a Real Christian? Here’s a Question, ask them this: What does it mean to be a Christian? What makes a Christian different? Oh and don’t give them the answer to this yet. Have them write it down on a paper, or tell you but don’t give them an answer. Let them sit on it.

Read Acts 1:1-11
Is there anything in particular in the passage that you find significant? What is it that God has commanded us to do?
Talk about the Great Commission and look at verse 8. Reference it to Matthew 28:18-20. We have been called by God to go and spread the good news to everyone!

What does it mean to receive power?
It means we are not alone and that God is with us! Immanuel! Acts 2:2-4. We are not alone in this great commission. Why is this important? What can man alone do? Nothing. We are nothing without the power of the Holy Spirit. You’ve heard of the phrase, ‘ Man proposes, Heaven Disposes.’ Well, it’s kinda like that. We can plan and try and do everything in our power but if God is not with us, we will still fail. But becoz we have God, we can fulfil His mission. Leaders, there’s a LOT more to milk out of this question and if you want to pls go ahead. Just watch your time. I’m just stopping here becoz it might get too lengthy otherwise. Oh yeah, say to them, and get them to say it to each other:’ God is with you!’.

Look at v11, what were the disciples doing? Are you like the disciples- still staring up into the sky? Or are you doing God’s work?
Read Acts 1:12-26
So , question: why should we care about the Great Commission?
Short answer is, if we don’t do it, we will be replaced, like Judas. Yeah, I know, bit of a mind-blower for them, hold it for now and flip to John 15:1-17. Pretty self explanatory, you can link it to the part about power earlier as well.

So, next question is: Isn’t that a little extreme? Why God like that one? I thought it was just enough to believe in Jesus? Stuff like that, though technically, THEY should be the ones asking the question.
OK, so let’s do a little logic mind-map here. What happens when we don’t care about God’s work? Ignore God’s work -> Bored-> Find some other stuff to do, preferably stuff that YOU like-> End up doing your ‘work’-> Forgot about God...hmm...can you still really call yourself a Christian? Still not convinced? Remember the last time your parents asked you to do something and you put off doing it til later....like much later....did you end up doing it? In the same way, if we keep putting off God’s work, we’ll forget about it totally. The Idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Any work you don’t do for God, is work you do for yourself.

Also, you gotta remember, why else are we doing God’s work? John 3:16. Jesus died for he our sins because He loved us, we do His work, partly to reciprocate that Love. John 15:13


Now, we go into what I like to call the waterfall metaphor: In life, we’re all like this poor sop who fell into the middle of a river that going full-speed toward a waterfall. A VERY BIG WATERFALL. Now, as life would have it, the sides of the river are too far away to swim to without being swept downstream, so the only thing you can do is swim straight...against the current. But lucky you! There’s a guy with a boat that’s anchored so it’s not being swept downstream and he’s just like say 100 m upstream. You just need to get to him to be saved. That guy with the boat? He’s Jesus. So anyway, the point I’m trying to say is, being a Christian, not always easy, it’s like swimming against the current, you don’t always get to do the things you think are fun, it’s sometimes a lot of hard work, BUT being a Christian is like being the guy in the river. You either keep swimming up towards God by constantly reaching out towards Him, or you get swept down the big, BIG waterfall.

So question...what are you going to do about it?
Make Prayer bookmark, kinda like a little simple bookmark that says stuff like: I prayed for you today, just like any other day, but Jesus loves you so, and I know; truth be told, so I made you a prayer anyway. And have them take this and pray for someone they know during the week and give that person this bookmark. If that person is a Christian ask them to challenge them to pass the bookmark on! P.S. make as many bookmarks as you want.
Leaders pray for them and erm well make them bookmarks b4 hand that say Proud to be a Christian!
What other things can we do?