EQUIP WEEK
WHO IS GOD?
LEADERSHIP PREPARATION
Lesson Summary:
Note: These lessons are designed to be 30 minutes long. If your club time is shorter than this, we encourage you to be prayerful about parts of this lesson to put more or less emphasis on. If limited on time, we urge you to prioritize Tool Time and summarize Dig In, as Tool Time is what prepares you for sharing the Gospel.
As always, let the Holy Spirit guide your leadership.
This week’s lesson will start at the beginning and reflect on God’s original design for the world: that we and all other creatures would flourish in peace and live together in his perfect love.
Scripture References
Materials Needed
- Soft object that can be used to toss/catch.
- Prayer Cards to hand out.
Take a look at these videos from Bible Project as you prepare:
- Heaven and Earth – https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/heaven-and-earth/
- Tree of Life – https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/tree-of-life/
Main Point
God’s desire for our lives has always been that we would live and thrive in His perfect love.
Team Roles
Host: This Student Leader will lead the Start Up section of the
lesson, helping create a fun environment, making everyone feel welcome and included.
Speaker: This student leader will guide the group in growing deeper in their faith by reading and reflecting on passages of scripture. They will then connect the content to the group’s daily lives by asking practical questions and leading the conversation.
Other Roles: Promo, Welcome, and Follow Up.
(7 minutes)
Say: Welcome to First Priority. As we kick-off our first meeting, let’s share the Mission and Vision of First Priority.
- Mission: To take the Hope of Christ to every student.
- Vision: Students Reach Students.
Icebreaker Game: The Name Game
Supplies Needed: Soft object to catch
Ask the students to form a circle. Start the game by tossing a soft object and saying the name of the student you are tossing it to. Once that student catches the object, they toss it to someone else as quickly as possible while saying their name. Play continues with the one object until it makes it to everyone in the group. If time permits, make the game more challenging by adding more objects to the circle. The game is over once there are too many objects for the group to keep up with.
DIG IN
(5 minutes)
Say: Our names are incredibly helpful tools. They help others identify who we are and provide a mental label they can use to organize their thoughts and feelings about us.
Before we get started with today’s lesson, ask yourself this question: What labels do I use to think and speak about God? (Let students think about this for just a moment.)
As you continue to think about that question, let’s look at a passage in the Bible together.
Read Scripture:
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)
Say: If we were to create a label that arranged all of our thoughts and feelings about God and what he has done for us, it should read LOVE in gigantic, bold letters. Everything God has done and will ever do is based on love because God is love. Even before the world was created, God existed in love. A core belief of Christianity is that God is three-in-one, meaning the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always existed in a relationship of perfect, self-giving love.
God created the world, not because He HAD to, but simply because He wanted to share his love with us. He designed us to love Him, be loved by Him, and to live in harmony with the rest of His creation, which He also loves.
Think about that! God, the maker of the entire universe, decided to create you and loves you to the fullest; that’s amazing!
But look at how the verse says, “God is love” and not “love is God.” Because we are human, our view of love can be really messed up. So, if God is love, but our ideas of love come from culture and not from God, how are we supposed to know what perfect love is? Let’s continue to read to find out.
Read Scripture:
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. (1 John 4:10-11, 16-17)
Say: God showed us His love for us by sending His Son, Jesus, into the world. He selflessly gave His life to take away our sins so that we could live the lives He always intended us to have.
This year, we will be journeying through the Bible and discovering the role we have to play in God’s Big Story. God has called each of us to live out and share the Gospel. God created a good world for us to live in with him and call home. When sin entered the world, it caused division and brokenness and led us away from God. So God sent his Son, Jesus, to provide a way for us to come home again.
TOOL TIME
(18 minutes)
Say: So, the big question is SO WHAT? How does this affect my view of myself and my peers? (Let students think about this for just a moment.)
Knowing that God created us for the sole purpose of loving and being loved by him should change the way we see ourselves, our peers, and really the entire world. Understanding the value God sees in his creation should affect the way we treat it.
Ask: How should we treat God’s creation? (Take a few minutes for students to share.)
Say: In real life, this means we care for our planet, we speak to others with kindness and look for the chance to serve, we stand up for the weak, and we choose to forgive even when others may not deserve it.
There are people around us who still don’t know their purpose. It may even be a concept we all struggle with at some point in our lives. It is so important to share with our friends and peers that God has a plan and a purpose for each of us, and that he designed us to take care of his creation.
Before we end our time today, let’s take a moment to look at a tool that can help us share the Gospel and tell our friends about the purpose God has for us! The Four is a tool of 4 symbols that helps us remember four spiritual laws.
The first symbol (the heart) emphasizes God’s love and plan for our lives. We learned today about God’s plan for us and his creation.
The second symbol (the division sign) emphasizes the sin that separates us from God and His perfect plan.
The third symbol (the cross) represents what saves us from this sin. God sent His son Jesus to die on a cross so that we can accept Him in our hearts and join in full communion with God again.
The last symbol (the question mark) emphasizes the importance of accepting this gift of salvation. We must individually accept God into our lives and believe that Jesus died for us so that we can be reborn and made new!
As we wrap up club today, think about these four symbols what they represent and what they mean to you.
Think about a friend who needs to hear this message. Write the name of that friend on the card that you would like to pray for. One of the most loving things you can do as a follower of Jesus is to pray for others. Let’s spend some time thinking about who we can pray for. Write their name down on the card and pray for them before you leave today.
Ask God to give you the chance this week to show them a glimpse of God’s love and His desire for them to live and thrive in it. Before we close our time in prayer, let us remember our main point for today: God’s desire for our lives has always been that we would live and thrive in His perfect love.
Closing: Remind students to write names of friends they would like to pray for on their prayer cards and spend some time praying for them before they leave today. End your time together with prayer.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Take a minute to announce the upcoming meeting date and anything else members of the club need to know to be ready for the next meeting or event.
