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.

The Gospel message is the Good News of Jesus that has reconciled us back with God while we wait for a future home in eternity. Because of our choice to follow God, we are equipped and strengthened to live resurrected lives here and for eternity.

Take a look at this video from BibleProject as you prepare:
Gospel – https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/ euangelion-gospel/

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

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.
   • “What does Jesus’ death and resurrections have to do with me?”
   • “How have I experience God’s resurrection life through the Holy Spirit?”
   • “How do I experience God’s presence in my life?”

Main Point
Jesus’ death and resurrection allow us to live in God’s Kingdom today.

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

• Mark 1:14-15
• Colossians 1:13-15

Materials Needed

• Container
• Scrap Paper
• Pens/Pencils
• Prepared Gospel Presentation or Student Testimony
• FP Bibles
• Student Response Cards

(7 minutes)
Say: Welcome to First Priority. As we experience the last few activities of this school year, we are so pumped that you chose to be here with us!

Icebreaker Game: I Choose You!
Supplies Needed: Container, scratch paper, pencils/pens. 

As students arrive, ask them to write down the most random superpowers they can think of on a scrap of paper without showing them to anyone.

Begin the game by asking two students in the group to be the Battle Masters. These students will each randomly choose another student to battle by calling out, “(name of student), I choose you!”

After each student is chosen, they will read the powers they wrote on their paper to the group. The group will then decide the winner of each battle by round of applause. The game concludes when every student has been chosen. The Battle Master with the most victories is the winner.

Say: What a wide range of superpowers you have! Unlike the Battle Masters, God doesn’t choose us randomly; He isn’t surprised or even disappointed by us. He knows us intimately, claims us as His own, and is actively pursuing a close relationship with us.

(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 Jesus, God’s Son, came to invite us to join the Kingdom of God. Many people talk about God’s Kingdom as something that we’ll see after this life is over. That is actually only part of the story.

Jesus promises that there is an eternity for those who choose a relationship with Him. But Jesus also declared that the Kingdom of God is right now. It’s right in the middle of your life. It’s in the fights with your sister, the pressure of dating, and within every part of our lives.

Read Scripture: After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15)

Say: One day John the Baptist finds himself in prison, and Jesus declares, “The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Repent is just another word meaning to turn around. Jesus essentially told people, “Hey, you are headed in the wrong direction. Turn around and go this way!”

His audience was not the first group of people to head the wrong way. Think about all the ways we have talked about this throughout the year.

Think back to the Old Testament when we read about how God’s people, the Israelites, continually disobeyed God’s commands. They would start out obeying God, but, after a few years or even decades, we see them following the world’s example instead of God’s. They continually turned away from God, but, even so, God still loved His people. Whenever we call upon God and repent, He listens.

The Bible shows us that God desires to draw near to His people. He has done this since the very beginning. And He desires to do that for each one of us right now. When we choose to put our faith in Jesus as our Messiah, our relationship with God has been restored. God has rescued us from where we were and brings us into a renewed and transformed life with Him.

Read Scripture: For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” (Colossians 1:13-15)

Say: God is holy and without sin. Remember the drawing we did two months ago to help us understand the reason for Jesus’ death? Our sins have created a huge gap between us that we can’t bridge. God became a man in the form of Jesus to bridge that gap and restore our relationship with Him. After generations of not seeing or even completely understanding God, Jesus is the image of an invisible God, and he came to show us all who God is and His incredible love for us. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, He ignited the Kingdom of God coming to earth!