SACRIFICIAL LOVE
SAY: Our Christian faith is built upon the idea of a giving, sacrificial love: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” ( John 3:16 ). Yet we live in a world that often is more concerned with protecting our own social status, more concerned with taking than giving. Christians sometimes fall into that self-centered trap as well. God wants Christians not to be selfish and lifeless, though, but to be alive in action to those in need never counting ourselves as too good or simply that we don’t belong with others. (Think of Sacrificial Love on the Trek mountain)
• How do you think this lesson similar to choosing who sits at your lunch table, or which lunch table you will sit at?
MY BURDEN IS LIGHT
Needed: Half sheet note cards, (Cut card stock in half) pens
Give each person a note card and a pen.
SAY: Keep your cards to yourselves. Don’t share your thoughts with others at this time. Think about someone you don’t like, someone you don’t agree with, someone who has hurt you or someone who just doesn’t fit in with others. Think of someone you normally wouldn’t write a card to, and draw a symbol for that person on the top of your note card.
READ aloud: Matthew 11:25-26 25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
SAY: On the card, in 5 words or less tell that person about the things they can learn from being a Christian. Explain to that person what good Christians do from day to day.
After a couple of minutes,
READ aloud: Matthew 11:27 27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
SAY: Continue your card by telling this person in 5 words of lesswhat changes when you follow Jesus’ teachings.
After a couple of minutes,
READ aloud: Matthew 11:28 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
SAY: Think about the actions by this person that have caused you anxiety or caused you to see the awkwardness of the situation. Take a moment to give that hurt to God asking God to take your anxiety—your burdens—and give you “rest” in your heart about this person. Continue the card, telling the person in 5 words or less what you have come up with.
After a minute,
READ aloud: Matthew 11:29 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
SAY: Think about what pain or anxiety this person might have. How can Jesus’ gentleness and Love help you to help him or her? Tell the person in 5 words or less why you might be willing to “take his or her yoke” upon you, and how you might be able to do that. What will you do to make this person’s situation better.
After a couple of minutes,
READ aloud: Matthew 11:30 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
SAY: How does knowing that Jesus tells us how to handle our burdens change the way you feel about the person who is giving you burdens? In five words or less, tell the person why this is a good time to forgive.
After a few minutes,
CHOOSE TO LOSE
Needed: game descriptions on slips of paper
Lay the game slips in the middle of the room.
SAY: We’ll play whatever game the group decides to play. The only catch is that everyone must agree on the same activity.
Allow the group two or three minutes to come to a consensus. After youth have decided, or after a few minutes,
ASK:
• How did you go about trying to make this decision?
• How did you feel as you tried to agree on an activity?
• What hindered you from coming to an agreement? What helped you?
READ aloud: 1 John 4:7-12 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
• How did picking a game reflect John’s words?
• How could you better reflect John’s words the next time you face a similar situation?
SAY: As Christians, we don’t always agree. But we are instructed to compromise and sacrifice for others.
Play the game the students agreed upon
CLOSE
SAY: Our Christian faith is built upon the idea of a giving, sacrificial love: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” ( John 3:16 ). Yet we live in a world that often is more concerned with protecting our own social status, more concerned with taking than giving. Christians sometimes fall into that self-centered trap as well. God wants Christians not to be selfish and lifeless, though, but to be alive and in action to those in need never counting ourselves as too good or simply that we don’t belong with others.
Decide if you want to lead the prayer or have a youth do it.
PRAY: Dear Lord, bless our enemies and those we flee from. Bless them because we do not curse them. Enemies and outcast have driven us into Your embrace more than friends have. Enemies and outcasts have made us strangers and an unconnected inhabitant of this world. Lord help us to find shelter in Your arms so that we can show those that are different from us to Your sanctuary. I Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
MORE
If you still have time, here’s a little bit “more”
Share “Rags and Brags”. Each youth should take turns sharing a good thing that happened in the last few days and a bad thing in the same time frame. If you’re worried about time – Do one Rag or Brag per person, their choice.