Hook: Who to save?
(You can tell your own story… but here are some key instructions)
Imagine a group of 5 people are on a boat in the middle of the ocean.
The boat has hit an iceberg and is sinking.
Out of the 5 people, you only have 2 lifejackets. So choose 2 to give the lifejackets to.
Those without lifejackets will surely die.

Here are the profiles of the 5 people:
1- An 18 year old male youth running away from his home
2- 65 year old female pastor of a family church
3- 30 year old male drug addict who had been in and out of rehab but finds it hard to kick the habit
4- 50 year old female, widowed and jobless
5- 20 year old male youth studying hard to become a doctor

Try to discuss seriously, get them to evaluate who should be saved and why. Also, try to get them to share why the others should NOT be saved.

Morale:
According to our human standards, we judge and give “value” to people. These are all based on our opinions, based on what they have done or is currently doing.
However, God is different. He sees everyone as equal. For He even loves the sinners, adopted us as we are, yet treats us way better than we deserve.

Lesson Begins
Lesson Point Progression: (don’t read this out. It’s to help you plan lesson J )
1- God loved us while we were still sinners
2- Jesus will satisfy your spiritual hunger
3- Only Jesus can make us into the people we were meant to be
4- Jesus has taken our sins far far away
5- God calls you His child

Privilege of Paupers
Read the passage first, then answer the questions, then read the passage again.


Tie in with the activity- It doesn’t matter who you are, God loves you the same. It doesn’t matter what you have, or what you bring to God. God loves you the same. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you more, or less. Not only that, He treats us better than what we deserve, therefore from paupers, to royalty.
Learning point: As God has shown such grace to us, we should also follow His example. Don’t judge people for what they have done or is doing, but treat everyone with grace, love and kindness, just as God has done for us. Leave the judging to God, while we do our best to reflect His glory.

Spiritual Hunger
Read passage and answer questions.

Okay this part might seem extremely random, but here’s the link to the entire lesson.
Spiritual hunger is what drives us to follow Him. While God invites everyone to His table, only a few do attend. Why? Lack of a spiritual hunger. Some do not see the need to go to God. Others refuse to believe this invitation He has given us. Some others choose to remain ignorant. It is important to have this drive towards Him and hunger for His word, and His spirit.

Portrait of a Pauper

Read the passage and answer the questions.

Interestingly this passage seems like the first one. But this one focuses more on the fact that we are imperfect and God still loves us even though we are not perfect. And God loves us so much such that He demonstrated His love for us by letting Jesus pay the price for our sins. He gave us so much, yet while we were still undeserving.

Pain of our Past

Passage helps, but it is up to you whether you want them to read it. Answer the questions J

God loves us even when we make mistakes and repent. God showed and is still showing us mercy, as long as we show Him respect and continually repent. While mankind looks at our deeds, God looks at our heart, and judges us based on it. (Is this a reason to continue sinning? NO! Cause God looks at your heart, and knows what you are guilty of, and whether you intentionally sin or have truly tried your utmost best to glorify Him)

Link

No one is perfect- everyone has fallen short of the glory of God. Thus no one has the right to boast, as God views us equally and saved us equally.ur utmost best to glorify Him)

Done by Kenn

Day Two ─ God to the Rescue!

Harrow everybody! Today, we will be talking about.. hold your breaths.. God! Like every other Sunday in the year! Yay! But today is gonna be an exciting lesson, so please get excited... NOW. Let’s begin. :D (Not to say that the other lessons aren’t exciting, of course. I’m being motivational. =D)

Ask our friends (don’t call them kids, it hurts their peelings) who their favourite comic book hero is. E.g. the Flash (YEAHHHH!), Batman (so-so), Superman (eh..) etc. Or if your friends are females, try asking them who their favourite hero in general is, if they don’t read comics.

Then ask them why. Awesome superpowers? Awesome utility belt? Awesome cape? Or was it something the character/person did? Maybe Stalin was a great man with great dreams? Maybe they could relate to Scott Pilgrim? Maybe the dude saved a kitty from a tree or a drowning lizard from the pond?

Now, we get to the seeree-uhs stuff. What makes a hero? Powers or selflessness? Utility belt or sacrifice? The most celebrated heroes are usually the ones who.. sacrificed selflessly. Ask them to think again about their reason(s) very very carefully. Who is the hero of heroes?

Yes, geniuses. God. Why? You know why. He made the greatest sacrifice. No other sacrifice even comes close to this One. Indeed.

Um, to aid in further understanding of how seriously BIG this sacrifice is, (though this part is optional but highry recommended) please turn to Numbers 19:1-8. The main star of this mini passage (a seemingly ordinary OT ritual) is the red heifer. A heifer is a cow that had not been pregnant before and so could not produce milk yet. Okay, no big deal, you say. Next requirement was that it had to be a red heifer. A red cow. That’s pretty rare. Okay, but I’m sure you’ll still be able to find one without too much hassle, you say. The red heifer was to be “without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke”. Dude, you have a cow and you’ve never used it for farming before?! Can you now see how rare this animal was/is? Valuable, rare and pure. This was the specificity of the requirement of the sacrifice. This parallels with Jesus. Jesus was a man who was perfect in every way. Perfect. No defect, no blemish. He lived on earth for about 33 years. He never sinned. And then God sacrifices this Perfection-Personified. For us. Does that help? :/

Let them do the first part of the book. Remind them that Jesus came for the sinners, not the righteous. (Refer to Mark 2:17) Go on to the second part as well. Then ask them to think about question 3. “Why is it hard to accept something you didn’t earn or work for?” We don’t deserve it.

Now, ask our friends if they’ve ever thought “Oh no, now God will NEVER forgive me after what I’ve done this time!” Or “Shoot, messed up again. Great, now I’m DEFINITELY going to hell ):” Yes? No? Probably yes. Remind them about last week’s resson. Remember how limitless God’s grace is? Of course, sometimes we think it’s.. 2 good 2 b true. However! Ye of lil faith! Jesus made a way for us! GOD made a way for us! He “makes even evil people right in His sight”! (Rom 4:5) Impossible? I think NOT. Do the ‘too good to be true’ part. (Note that I didn’t incrude the ‘trading records’ part cos I didn’t think it flowed very nicely. But feel free to just stick it in somewhere in between. Still important stuff.)

Can we see? God is our hero. He RESCUED us from sin and death. Even though we don’t deserve anything from Him, He saved us. That’s some amazing grace right there. Smiley face.

Now, what do all these stuffs mean? What are we talking about here? Ask them to recap what they’ve learnt. Do the ‘into God’s presence’ part/heart of the matter/memory verse/heart of Jesus and then throw them some application questions. (Not literally, though. Don’t harm them physically.)

Apprication time!

ONE. Now that we know God has saved us, how do we respond to that?

Say “oh, thanks, God” and go on living our lives as usual? Be the best person you can be?

(Don’t give them options unless necessary though.)

TWO. According to the memory verse (Eph 2:8-9) we were saved by grace, yes? Well then, how do you feel about all this? Knowing that God made the biggest sacrifice everinthehistoryofthewholeentireworldofallthingsbigandsmall, how do you feel about that? Does the fact that He rescued you feel far away? Do you feel unaffected? Or perhaps you feel humbled. Accepted. Loved.

Think about it and pray that if our hearts are stubborn in our rebellious ways, God will change our hearts anew with the right attitude to come humbled before Him because He loved us and saved us while we were living against Him (see Rom 5:6-8 pg 50) and we don’t deserve His love or mercy.

Before the cell, remember to pray that whatever we discuss/teach will be from Him.

OKAY that’s all. God loves you all. Bye bye.

Equipping opportunity for you!

Alden's Lesson