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.

Temptation leads us to sin and away from God. But God has provided a way through Jesus for humankind to return to a restored relationship with Him. It is through Jesus that we can experience hope for the future, a restored relationship with God and an assurance that we will live in eternity forever with Him.

Take a look at this video from BibleProject as you prepare:
Sacrifice and Atonement – https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/ sacrifice-and-atonement/

Main Point
Through Jesus’ death on the cross, we have been restored in relationship to God and others.

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. 

Scripture References

• Ephesians 2:13-19
• John 3:16
• Romans 3:23
• 1 Corinthians 2:9

Materials Needed

• Painter’s Tape
• Pens
• Dry Erase Board or Chalkboard
• Markers
• Paper
• Prayer Card

(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: Listen and Leap
Supplies Needed: Painter’s Tape

Game Preparation: Make a 15-20 foot line on the ground using painter’s tape. Ask the group to stand in a single file on the line. Explain that the right side of the line represents what is right, and the left side represents what is wrong.

The Host will be yelling out situations with the answer of “right” or “wrong” to the group. When the Host yells out a command, everyone must leap to the side of the line they feel best matches the situation. It will be up to the Host to choose who is correct in each situation. Anyone who chooses incorrectly will be out of the game. The final student standing is the winner.

Example Situations:

• Putting pineapple on pizza.
• Wearing socks with sandals.
• Answering a call with a text.
• Using ChatGPT to do your homework.
• Eating cold pizza for breakfast.

(5 minutes)
Ask: In the game, you had to make decisions so quickly, you weren’t able to process whether they were right or wrong. You just had to react and hope you didn’t step on anyone’s toes in the process.

During our game, what caused a delay in your reaction or made you jump to the wrong side of the tape? (Take a few moments for students to share.)

Say: Temptation also functions this way in our lives. It can so easily confuse us about right and wrong decisions. Before we realize it, we may be headed down the wrong path and straight towards sin.

Sin leads us into shame, and shame can make us feel like we are unforgivable, like there is no hope for us. But if we turn away from our sin and toward God, He will forgive and free us. He’ll do it because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Ask: Why did Jesus have to die? And how did Jesus’ death on the cross provide forgiveness for our sins? (Take a few moments for students to share.)

Say: Many people have sacrificed their lives to save someone else. Police, firefighters, and soldiers live with the constant reminder that they may lose their lives to protect others. But Jesus’ death was different because of who He is. In the beginning, when God created the first man and woman, they enjoyed an incredible bond.

Nothing stood between God and his relationship with Adam and Eve until they chose to sin, placing a separation between them and the bond they had with God.Just as Adam and Eve experienced a separation in their relationship with God, we too have made choices that have driven us away from our true home with God. Like in the game, we have jumped to the wrong side of the line and are trapped there by our sin.

Read Scripture: You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

Say: But God had a plan for us to be restored to a relationship with Him and with others. He wasn’t going to leave us dead in our sins and enslaved to the enemy. Instead, the Scripture tells us about a great love God has for us.

Read Scripture: But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4-5)

Say: So how did Jesus “make us alive” through his death? His death freed us from the grip of sin, breaking the enemy’s only power over us. And now that that grip on us has been broken, all we have to do is step out of it. Then we can return to the relationship with God from which we receive life. But it was not only reconciliation with God that Jesus’ death made possible.

Read Scripture: But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. (Ephesians 2:13-16)

Say: On the cross, Jesus represented and died for all of humanity. And when He resurrected, He rose as the firstborn of a new humanity. That means that through His death and resurrection, Jesus not only made a way to heal our relationship with God, but He also made a way to heal our relationships with each other.