1. LEADER PREPARATION

Transcription

1 character traits of god Week 4: God is Loving This includes: 1. Leader Preparation 2. Lesson Guide 1. LEADER PREPARATION LESSON OVERVIEW This is the final lesson in our series on God s character. This week we focus on God s love. God s love for humanity is amazing because it never ends. God s love for humanity opened the door to providing a way through Christ to have sins forgiven so we could stand in the presence of a holy God. LESSON OBJECTIVES 1. WHAT: God loves us unconditionally without end. 2. WHY: God s love is a transforming experience that helps us understand how God is our creator, protector, and provider. 3. HOW: Encourage your students to receive God s love and to pursue ways to develop this same godly trait in their lives. PRIMARY SCRIPTURE Psalm 144 SECONDARY SCRIPTURES Jeremiah 31:3; John 3:16; and 1 John 4:7-10, 19 TEACHING PREP The short overview below is designed to help you prepare for your lesson. While you may not want to convey this information word-for-word with your teenagers, you ll definitely want to refer to it as you lead your small group lesson. God s love is an amazing thing it s beyond understanding! God s love for us isn t conditional it isn t based on our faithfulness or anything that we do. We can t be good enough to earn it. We can t be bad enough to lose it. Throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, we discover the story of a Creator that loved humanity enough to protect us from harm and provide for our needs. He chooses to do this, no one forced him!

2 Read Psalm 144. The word love is used a TON in our world: We love our families and we love a favorite food. As you and your students explore the loving nature of God, work to gain a specific and personal understanding of God s love. THE BEFORE & AFTER [optional] Text Message Questions We ve provided a couple of different text message questions to send out to your students prior to your meeting. Feel free to use one or both of the questions below. As with the rest of the curriculum, edit these questions to fit the needs of your ministry. Parent How loving are you? Find out at small group tonight. Need a little love? Don t miss small group tonight. We ve provided you with an below that you can send to your parents following the lesson. Our hope is to encourage parents to continue the conversation at home. Feel free to edit and customize the to fit your ministry needs. Dear parents, We wrapped up our small group series on the characteristics of God this week by looking at God s love. We used Psalm 144 as our primary text, and we saw how really unfathomable God s love is, and we discussed our responsibility to share this love with others. We saw how God is love and how we are given the opportunity and the command to love others. This week take a few moments to talk with your teenager about God s love. Discuss the importance of God s love. Talk about ways your student can share God s love with friends. Pray that at school your teenager will let God s love shine. Here are some questions you could use during your conversation: Do you keep track of your prayer requests and how God answers those requests? Why or why not? If you do keep track, how has this affected your spiritual growth? Jeremiah 31:3 teaches us that God s love is limitless and without timeframes or conditions. How is this different from what our culture teaches about love?

3 When have you experienced others loving you the way God loves you? When have you loved others the way God loves them? Have an awesome week!

4 character traits of god Week 4: God is Loving 2. LEsson guide GETTING THINGS STARTED [optional] Before your small group meets, find something simple that you were given that means a lot to you maybe a card from a loved one, an old family Bible, or an art project from a child. As you begin your small group, welcome your students and invite them into your meeting area. Open in prayer, and then SAY SOMETHING LIKE: I ve brought along something with me tonight that reflects love. It s a reflection of someone s love for me, and I ve kept it because of my love for this person. It isn t anything valuable to anyone else, but it means the world to me because of the person who gave it to me. Take a few minutes to display the item and explain its significance to you. SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Tonight we are going to wrap up our study of the characteristics of God by looking at God s love for humanity. We will look at how much God loves you and me. God s love is so much deeper and stronger than the love we can feel toward another person, and it was displayed most passionately through the gift of Jesus. If you came up with an opening activity, movie clip, or game that worked well with your group, and you d like to share it with other youth workers, please us at ideas@simplyyouthministry.com. Teaching Points The goal of the Teaching Points is to help students capture the essence of each lesson with more discussion and less lecture-style teaching. The main points we have chosen here are (1) God loved us enough to create us, (2) God s love protects, and (3) God s love provides. Remember: All throughout these lessons, it s up to you to choose (1) how many questions you use, and (2) the wording of the main points keep ours, or change the wording to make it clearer for your audience.

5 Read Psalm 144 together as a group. Consider allowing one or more of the teenagers to read the text. SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Let s spend some time talking about God s love for us. 1. God loved us enough to create us How have you experienced God s love in your life? What does his love mean to you personally? Be as specific and personal as you can. In Psalm 144, where do you see evidence of God s love? What are some of his character traits or actions that display his love? Have you ever had moments in your life when you felt unwanted? If so, what created those feelings, and how did you handle the experience? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: You are not an accident, and you are not unwanted. There isn t a single accidental person here on the planet. There never has been and there never will be. God has a plan for everyone who has ever lived or will every live. That plan is to spend eternity in heaven if we ask for God s forgiveness and follow Jesus. This plan is for everyone regardless of where you come from or who you are. God s plan also includes discovering how you can life your live in a way that honors God, who created you and loves you. 2. God s love protects What s the importance of the psalmist reminding you that God is your protector? God doesn t physically walk next to you on your high school campus or in your neighborhood, so how can this principle of God as your protector help you live out your faith? Think back to your early childhood, when you experienced a time that your parents or some other adult kept you safe in a dangerous situation. How did you feel? How has the intensity of your feeling of safety and security changed as you ve gotten older? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: It isn t always easy in fact, it s often difficult but we need to learn to depend on God to protect us. God wants to be the one that we go to when

6 we have a need or feel scared about something. God wants to protect us in the same way that earthly parents protect their children. 3. God s love provides Do you keep track of your prayer requests and how God answers those requests? Why or why not? If you do keep track, how has this affected your spiritual growth? The psalmist reminds us of how much God wants to provide for us a desire motivated in God s love. What are some ways that God has provided for you in the last week, month, and year? What can you learn from these times God has provided? SAY SOMETHING LIKE: God promises to provide for us and meet our needs. God doesn t promise wealth, popularity, or fame, but God does promise that our needs will be taken care of and that our lives will be blessed. And because of these blessings in our lives, people will know that our faith is alive and God is true and living. ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION [optional] In Psalm 144:3-4, we are reminded how small and frail humanity is compared to God. What typically makes you feel small and frail, and how do you cope with those feelings? Even though we don t deserve it because of the sin in our lives, God still loves us. We are able to experience forgiveness when we first choose to follow Jesus, but we continue to need forgiveness when we stumble, struggle, and sin. And God continues to love us. Does this surprise you on any level? Doesn t it seem like God would eventually give up on us and say that we can t receive any more love or forgiveness? Explain. Read Jeremiah 31:3. God s love is limitless and without timeframes or conditions. How is this different from what our culture teaches about love?

7 APPLICATION God s love for humanity is an amazing thing. Often people put limits on love, but God s love is unconditional. Read John 3:16. God s love is available to anyone who believes. It is not limited by anything. In what ways is our love typically limited? When have you experienced unconditional love? Read 1 John 4:7-10. These verses talk about how God is love and offer a description of what real love looks like. In your own words, how would you share these verses with a friend who isn t a Christian? How might this help your friend understand or experience God s love? Pair up with another person in the group for these questions. When have you experienced others loving you the way God loves you? When have you loved others the way God loves them? It can be hard to love others, especially in high school. God s Word, however, reminds us in 1 John 4:19 that we can love others because God loved us first. What people are you struggling to love right now, and why? What do you think it will take to get to the place where you can love these individuals? How can you learn to love people that you don t want to love? How can we help each other to become accountable to love others? Bring everyone back together to discuss some of the answers to the previous questions. Why can it be especially hard to love others? How can we challenge and encourage each other in this area over the next week?

8 SUMMARY End your small group lesson here. Provide your teenagers with a quick summary or take-home challenge based on (1) the content of this lesson, (2) the dialogue that took place during the lesson, (3) your understanding of the issues and struggles your teenagers are facing, and (4) the big picture of your youth ministry and what your leadership team wants accomplished with the teaching and discussion time. FOR KEEPS [MEMORY VERSE] Encourage and/or challenge your teenagers to memorize the verse below. O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them, mere mortals that you should think about them? (Psalm 144:3).