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.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described how His followers, members of His Church, were to act toward each other and how we are to treat those within our faith community and those we encounter daily.

Take a look at this video from BibleProject as you prepare:

• Justice – https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/justice

Main Point
The family of God is a community of faithful believers characterized by Jesus’ description in the Sermon on the Mount.

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 everyone and be sure to get the names of any new friends.

Icebreaker Game: Know Your Neighbor
Supplies Needed: Small strips of paper, bowl
Game Preparation: As students arrive, instruct them to write down their names on small paper strips and place them in a bowl.

Explain that today’s game will test just how closely the group has grown together. Instruct the students to find a partner. Once everyone has a partner, they will each grab one random name from the bowl.

Students will then have the opportunity to ask up to three questions about the person on their partner’s paper, that DO NOT pertain to their appearance, in an effort to guess who they are. The game concludes when everyone has figured out whose name is on their partner’s paper or after they run out of questions.

Question Examples:

• “Do they play basketball?”
• “Do they ride the bus to school?”
• “Do they watch old anime?”

(5 minutes)
Ask: In this game, what made it easy or hard to guess the name on the slip? (Take a few moments for students to share.)

Say: True connection or community grows through time spent together and the willingness to connect. You can sit in the same classroom with someone year after year but feel like you don’t really know them. On the other hand, you can also spend a week with someone at camp and feel like your shared experiences have created a bond that will last forever.

Today, we will look at how Jesus described what His Church would look like and how this shared model for life strengthens and deepens our connection as a community of faith.

Read Scripture: Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:1-5)

Say: We’re only a few verses into this snapshot of what believers will look like, and already Jesus has shown that His ways for life are the opposite of what people expect. Jesus’ words are as radical today as they were then. Jesus says that the poor are wealthy in the things of the Spirit. In God’s Kingdom, everyone who mourns will experience comfort. The overlooked and meek, they will be the ones who inherit everything.

The world tells us that money, strength, popularity, and success are the keys to happiness. If we listen to what others are saying, being meek or not pushing ourselves forward is a recipe to be stepped on and overlooked. Jesus turns everything upside down when He insists meekness is the key to inheriting the earth. Jesus continues,

Read Scripture:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.”
(Matthew 5:6-9)

Say: Jesus is laying out how His followers, the Church, are to act. God calls us to be united by our identity as merciful, pure, and peacemakers. But then Jesus ups the stakes and reveals how different life should be for those who follow Him.

He goes on,

Read Scripture:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:7-12)

Ask: What do you think the relationship is between being persecuted for what you believe and how God will reward you? (Take a few moments for students to share.)

Say: With His words, Jesus is telling us how we can immediately recognize those who are following Him. They are the ones who will be meek and not self-promoting, they will be the ones who are gentle and not using their power to bully everyone, and they will be the ones who extend mercy because they have experienced God’s mercy for themselves.

An Old Testament verse sums up what it is to be a community that reflects God’s character.

Read Scripture: He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

Say: We are a community that should be known for our passion for justice for the overlooked and abused. We are to be a people driven by justice, but who are so well-known for our mercy that even those who disagree with us acknowledge it.

Ask: What examples of this way of life have you seen members of your church or even the Global Church display? (Take a few moments for students to share.)