lesson loop 6.27.13

Here is a recap from the lessons on Tuesday night:

Middle School

We continued our series on Sin and Forgiveness called "Turning from Sin".

We really focused on what Grace is. We began by having each student attempt to tally their "spiritual score" based on all their righteous deeds. After seeing this was impossible, we talked about how this is contrary to the way holiness works. The students then gave their definitions of grace, and I gave some Biblical examples (children of Israel and the healing of the 10 lepers) Then we focused our time on Ephesians 2:1-10, which really gives us an excellent understanding of grace.

From Ephesians 2:1-10, we saw -

1. God's Grace Is Not Deserved
2. God's Grace Is Given To Display His Glory
3. God's Grace Enables Us To Actually Do Good Works 

I am praying that the students have a crystal clear understanding of salvation by grace.

High School

HS continued in the book of Judges and looked at our first judge - Othniel. While not much is mentioned about him, this seems intentional, because he is set up as the ideal judge and the deliverance that God brought through him was the ideal restoration that should have happened with each judge (but didn't).
My main points were:

1. Our Unfaithfulness Stirs God's Anger (yet He doesn't sin in His anger)
2. Our Hope is Stirred by God's Faithfulness (His covenant love is the stabilizer of the universe)
3. Our Direction is Reversed by God's Salvation (God can heal us from whatever sinful course we are on, whether we are an unbeliever or His child)

I really challenged the teens that there is hope to be found in God's deliverance. That is the main point of the book of Judges. God, because of His covenant love, provides deliverance when we don't deserve it.

By the way, for the first time I have recordings of the lessons in the right column if you wanted to catch exacty what our lesson covered.

Here are the links for both growth group questions, so that you can look over what your children discussed with their leaders.

MS Growth Group Q's

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QA24A03AkX8UV5zCFenTYlCAwyAUrQlezKyFgvBSCkE/edit?usp=sharing

HS Growth Group Q's

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZgYXLFunZhWqZpGHYHKNa8-HZE9e0RoWq89TrboMeoo/edit?usp=sharing

Have a great rest of your week!

lesson loop 6.12.13

Last night was Water Night and we had an awesome time! Between the super water slide and the water balloons flying around, there was a lot of water! :-)

Besides all this, we had our normal worship, lesson and growth group time.

MS started a brand new series on Sin and Forgiveness called "Turning from Sin".

We considered the 3 primary themes in Scriptures -  Creation, Fall and Redemption

We considered how God created everything beautiful, sin messed it all up, and God is redeeming things through His Son Jesus Christ. We illustrated this by writing our names on pieces of plastic and dipping them in dye to represent how sin has polluted everything. Then we washed them off in water to represent how God cleanses us from our sin.

HS continued in the book of Judges and looked at "Roots of Disobedience" - magnetic idolatry. My 2 main points were:

1. We Must Know God Personally
2. We Must Worship God Exclusively

We often struggle to break free from idolatry, and often return to the destructive cycle of sin, just like the Israelites. We were challenged to repent from our sin before sin takes its toll on us, with God's covenant love as our motivation.

Here are the links for both growth group questions, so that you can look over what your children discussed with their leaders.

MS Growth Group Q's

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-fPetto8tIE_zJ7O5tmkh0kpT7Idcb3KyymQr-x4uSc/edit?usp=sharing

HS Growth Group Q's

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-gL_nECbbHuwYTVRL5BEryHTfJNA5oCoxyHYdkqw0_4/edit?usp=sharing

Have a great rest of your week!

small group questions for tomorrow night

Parents who will be at Family Night tomorrow -
Like usual we will break up into groups to discuss after the lesson. If you are there with your children you will meet as a family, while the rest of the students will meet in their growth groups.
Here are the questions we are going to go over. If you have an opportunity to look over them ahead of time, it may help you as you prepare to go through them with your children after the lesson tomorrow night.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MhVRlCvHW93SZBmUIx_UROdYi7Dq_N50Zg4dfM0Rw-s/edit?usp=sharing

Hope to see some of you tomorrow night!

lesson loop 6.3.13

David Day shared with our students last Tuesday from 2 Corinthians 12.

Here are the questions that the growth groups went over -

What are the things in our lives that we consider thorns in the flesh?

What do you usually boast about?

What are the things you consider yourself weakest in?

Why should we boast in our weaknesses?

What would it look like for someone to be boasting in their weakness and trials as Paul describes?

How does Paul's description of our attitude as it should be compare to your attitude today?

In what ways can you act more intentionally in your weaknesses to bring glory to God?