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.

Jesus shows us examples throughout the New Testament about how to display radical hospitality in our lives. Like Jesus’ example, we are to display the love God has for all people to everyone. We show hospitality to others by sharing our lives with them. When we do this, they will be more receptive to hear about Jesus.

Take a look at this video from BibleProject as you prepare:
Fellowship – https://bibleproject.com/articles/fellowship-of-the-church-in-the-bible/

Main Point
When we share our lives with others, they experience the hospitality of God’s loving presence.

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 9:10-13
• Hebrews 13:2
• 1 Timothy 4:8-10

Materials Needed

• Balloons
• Permanent Marker
• Prayer Cards

(7 minutes)
Say: Welcome to First Priority. As we kick off our new month, let’s review the Mission and Vision of First Priority.

• Mission: To take the Hope of Christ to every student.
• Vision: Students Reach Students.

Say: Whether you have been a part of our meetings over the past few months or this is your first time, we’re so glad you are here.

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

Icebreaker Game: Balloon War
Supplies Needed: Balloons, Permanent Marker
Game Preparation: Prepare the room for the game by moving chairs and desks to give students a large space to move around in. Then, use a permanent marker to number each of the balloons.

There should be one balloon for every student in your group. 

Hand out one balloon to each student in the group and ask them to inflate them. Once everyone’s balloon is inflated, instruct the students to stand and spread out around the room.

Explain how you will be calling out numbers in sequential order. When a student hears the number written on their balloon, they must throw it in the air. Once a student’s balloon is in the air, it is now their responsibility to keep it from hitting the ground.

Continue calling out new numbers every 5 seconds until all the balloons are in the air. Students may try to knock down each other’s balloons, but, if their own balloon touches the ground they are eliminated. The game concludes when only one balloon remains in the air.

(5 minutes)
Ask: Think about the game for a minute. What happened when you only focused on your balloon? Did you lose focus on the other balloons in the air? Was it hard to accomplish the other tasks when your whole focus was on your own balloon? (Take a few moments for students to share.)

Say: The natural thing you may do is focus on your own balloon to try and keep it up. When you do this, you probably find yourself running all over the place, crashing into other people trying to catch up with your balloon. And often you begin to only focus on yourself and your task rather than on what is happening around you. When we focus only on ourselves, we aren’t displaying God’s love for others. But when we support one another, we display God’s love by our actions.

Think back to our game. While you were chasing your balloon, did you happen to reach out and tip one of your friend’s balloons back in the air? If you did this, you were supporting them by helping them keep their balloon up. When we look out for one another, and trust that they will do so for us, we might not have balloons hit the floor. But the game would have lasted forever too.

Say: Today we’re going to talk about what it means to support one another through something called hospitality. When we show hospitality to others, we treat them not as strangers but like friends. In the original Greek, hospitality is made up of two words: Philo (pronounced like the beginning of philo-sophy) which means love, and Xenos (pronounced like Zen-nos) which means stranger or foreigner.

Hospitality is love shown to strangers. Today, when we think of hospitality, we might first think of inviting people to our house or being generous with a friend. But true hospitality shows love and kindness to strangers, as well as to our friends.

Ask: What does it look like to show hospitality to strangers? Do you think it’s hard to do? Why or why not? (Take a few moments for students to share.)

Read Scripture: Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4:8-10)

Say: Throughout the New Testament we see examples of how we are to love others. Jesus showed us many examples of what this looks like in the New Testament. Often we see Jesus showing hospitality to people who were left out in society, such as the woman at the well found in John 4 or the blind man found in Mark 10.

In each of these examples, Jesus could have continued on toward his destination. Instead, He stopped and spent time with these people. He showed them hospitality by displaying God’s love to them when they desperately needed some hope. Another example is when Jesus actually invited Himself over to a man’s home to have dinner with Him. To Jesus, there was no one who was too unclean according to the religious law.

There was no one who had run too far away to be brought back to God through love. Jesus met people where they were and demonstrated true hospitality as He showed them that He was anxious to spend time with them.

Read Scripture: While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13)

Say: In much of Jesus’ ministry, we see that He looked for the outcast and the forgotten. He made a point of spending time with people who had turned away from God and/or were pushed out of society. He showed them that, unlike the religious leaders of the time, God was not pushing them away but welcoming them in.