LEADER 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.

As Christians, your “testimonies” are the stories of how Jesus has redeemed and transformed your life. These stories are powerful and they are meant to be shared!

This week, choose from one of the following options for DIG IN:

1. 1. Have a Student Leader share the Gospel message using something they’ve created, found, or by using the provided Gospel presentation sample below.
   2. Have a Student Leader share their testimony. They can use these questions to help guide their thoughts:
      1. • “How has Jesus changed my life?”
         • “What is a time in your life when you have experienced God working in your life?”

Main Point
God is actively pursuing a relationship with us and has made His love for us known through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

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. (See Page 9)

Scripture References

• Matthew 18:12
• 1 John 1:8-10

Materials Needed

• Prepared Gospel Presentation or Student Testimony 
• First Priority Bibles
• Student Response Cards

(7 minutes)
Say: Welcome to First Priority! We know that you could literally be anywhere else right now, so we are so pumped that you chose to be here with us!

© Icebreaker Game: Birdie on a Perch

Ask students to split into two equal groups. Instruct each group to form a circle, one surrounding the other. Explain that the inner circle will walk clockwise while the outer circle will walk counterclockwise. When prompted by the Host, students will break into groups of three to strike one of three poses:

• Canoe: Two students sit in a row while the other stands between them “paddling.”
• Prom: Two students will pose like a prom couple while the third “takes pictures.”
• Birdie on a Perch: Two students will take a knee side by side while the third lays across.

Reset the moving circles after each pose. The last group to strike a pose is out of the game. Repeat until only one team remains.

(5 minutes)

• Option 1: Student Leader shares Gospel message (sample provided below).
• Option 2: Student Leader shares testimony.

Option 1: Gospel Presentation Sample 

Say: Today, we will be sharing the story of how God, the Creator of the entire universe, is pursuing a loving, personal relationship with each of us.
This truth is known as the Gospel or the “Good News”

Say: Now, I know this can seem a little far-fetched. You may be thinking, “If there is a God, why would He take the time to care about me? Aren’t there bigger things for Him to worry about?” This is a fair question, one that Jesus Himself answered. Let’s check out what He said:

Read Scripture: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?” (Matthew 18:12)

Say: Take a second to use your imagination. Put yourself in the shoes… sandals… whatever they wore at the time… of that shepherd. You have been given responsibility over each and every one of these sheep. You spend every hour of the day with them. Protecting them from predators, leading them to food and water, guiding them to shelter during storms. These sheep are fully dependent on you.

Ask: So when one goes missing, when you see that Doug – we’ll call him Doug – isn’t with the rest of the flock, what would you do? (Take a few moments for students to share.)

Say: You would probably find someone to watch the rest of your sheep, as you go and look for Doug. That’s what a shepherd would do when one of his flock is missing. And that is what Jesus is sharing with us in this passage. He knows the ninety-nine will be safe if they stay under the shepherd’s care. But Doug isn’t so fortunate.

He wandered off and now is alone, lost, and vulnerable. Doug needs the shepherd to pursue him and help him find his way back home.

As silly as it may sound, you and I are just like the sheep who are tempted to wander and get lost. When we sin, follow our own desires, and ignore the guidance of God’s Word, we are tempted to wander into the hills and get lost, just like Doug did.

We are meant to find our protection, safety, value and life in God who is the One who made us and loves us completely. He is our true shepherd who guides us out of temptation and into the safety of His arms.

We are tempted or led away from our true shepherd when we focus our lives on things that destroy, rather than things that bring life. Some things that can tempt us to turn towards sin, rather than God are our relationships, reputation or appearance.

Ask: How can relying on appearance, reputation and relationships lead to destruction?

Say: When we rely on these things, they may seem like good things to pursue, and sometimes they are. But they can so easily become harmful things for our lives if we put them above our relationships with God.

Jesus, our Good Shepherd, came to save us from the dangers of sin and to bring us back where we belong, which is to dwell and thrive in the love of God and others. He did this by coming to earth as fully man and fully God, living a perfect life, dying on a cross, and rising back to life. Like a shepherd, He picks us up, throws us over his shoulders, and brings us home.

When we accept Jesus as our Good Shepherd, as our Savior, He breaks the distracting powers sin used to hold over us. Instead of us being easily led into the dangerous hills of pride or lust, Jesus guides us to paths that lead to eternal hope. He restores us, brushing off our dirty coats and offering us a new life that we could never earn for ourselves.