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!

Scripture References

• John 3:16

Materials Needed

• Painters tape
• Prepared Gospel presentation or testimony by a student
• First Priority Bibles (to hand out for new guests and new believers)
• Student Response Cards

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:
   • “How has Jesus changed my life?”
   • “What is a time in your life when you have experienced God working in your life?”

Main Point
Jesus provided a way for us to know God, be forgiven of our sins, and live our lives for Him both now and into eternity.

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 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: Thumbthing’s Missing
Supplies Needed: Painters tape

Choose two volunteers to face off in a shoe tying challenge. (Be sure they are wearing shoes with laces.) Instruct them to take off their shoes and place them on the ground in front of them. Use painter’s tape to bind their thumbs to the inside of their palms.

The first volunteer to put on and tie their shoes is the winner! Repeat with new volunteers as time allows.

(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 the Gospel. The word “gospel” can be a church-y word but, in fact, it just means “good news.” So you might be asking, what is this “good news” that the Bible talks about? Great question. To find the answer, we start at the very beginning with the creation of the world.

In the beginning, God created a beautiful home for humanity where they could enjoy a perfect relationship with God and one another.

Sadly, the first people, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God. Their rebellion unleashed the curse of sin into the world and upon all of their descendants. Sin broke the relationship between God and everything He made, and it distorted our understanding of who God is and who we were created to be.

But we’re not just victims-we’re guilty too. Even though we inherited the curse of sin, each of us has rebelled against God in the way we live, think, and act. Even though we were made in the image of God, we try to live without Him and look to other things to find our meaning and purpose.

God wouldn’t leave humanity this way, lost and away from home. He promised to rescue His people from the curse of sin and bring us home again! The Bible tells us that this is how God loved the world.

Read Scripture:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection made it possible for us to know God and experience a relationship with him again. Jesus, fully God and fully man, lived a perfect life.
He never sinned. Yet, He paid the penalty our sins deserve: death.

But that’s not the end of the story: Three days later, Jesus came alive again! His victory over death means that we can have eternal life. Jesus took our guilt to the grave, and, because of His resurrection, we can live forever in His presence even after we die.

Instead of living in constant worry or fear, we live in freedom, knowing God isn’t far-off. He’s close, He loves us, and we can rest assured that we belong to Him as His children. We’re home again!

Let us not forget our main point for today: Jesus provided a way for us to know God, be forgiven of our sins, and live our lives for him both now and into eternity.