EQUIP WEEK
EQUIPPING STUDENTS WITH THE GOSPEL TOOL
WELCOME
Foundation Scripture
“Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” ~Matthew 6:9-13
SAY: “Welcome to First Priority! We are so glad you are here for the start of a new month. This month, our focus is going to be prayer – how to pray, why we pray, and the different types of prayer. Let’s open in prayer…”
OPENING PRAYER
DIG IN
SAY: “We know prayer can feel intimidating at times but to help us understand, prayer is really a conversation between us and God. Just like with our friends, sometimes that conversation is easy and fun and other times it’s hard and full of emotions.
And…there is really no wrong way to pray. The only way you can fail at praying is if you don’t do it. That’s it. Prayer can be messy, awkward, and difficult but it is the lifeline that we, as Christians, have to our heavenly Father.”
This month’s Foundation Scripture is the Lord’s Prayer. We encourage you to pray this together out loud with the whole club either at the beginning or end. (or both!)
SAY: “While there is no “right way” to pray, Jesus does give us a clear example as we can see in our Foundation Scripture from Matthew 6:9-13 “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Jesus makes it as simple as possible and He uses everyday language – maybe not to us but to His audience at that time. His example shows us that our prayers should include 3 basic things:
- Remember who God is
- Remember who you are
- Remember who we are to each other
Let’s take a closer look at our Foundation Scripture.
- Remember who God is: Out of all the names for God, Jesus refers to Him as “Our Father” when praying. That is powerful because we so often believe that God is angry, distant, and waiting to yell at us for something we did wrong. This often stops us from praying because we are scared or unsure how God feels about us. Jesus’ example shows us that when we pray, we aren’t praying to our judge or an angry God, we should pray to God as our good, Heavenly Father. Then, Jesus says “Hallowed be your name.”Another word for hallowed is holy. While we remember that God is our Father, it is also important we remember that He is not like us. God is holy, set apart, perfect. That is who we are talking to when we pray.”
- Remember who you are: Another important aspect of prayer is remembering who we are. Jesus shows us this in two phrases: “Our Father” and “forgive us our trespasses.” For some reason, we easily believe that God loves us but most of us don’t realize He also LIKES us! If Jesus tells us to approach our Father, then that means our Father wants to spend time with us. God likes you, He wants to hear from you. Another part of remembering who we are is to remember that we have all trespassed or sinned against God. While God is not some angry figure in the sky waiting to punish us, He is the only one who forgives our sins. This teaches us to be humble when we pray and to confess what we are struggling with and ask God to forgive us.
- Remember who we are to each other: The last part that Jesus models for us to follow in prayer is remembering who we are to each other. This may be the hardest part for us. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Jesus knew that those listening struggle with forgiveness and how unforgiveness disrupts our prayers. It is really hard to talk to a God who has forgiven us so greatly when we can’t forgive our neighbor. This reminds us that we are all on the same team and all in need of God’s mercy and grace. Because of that truth, we can and must pray for each other. “
This would be a good spot to Pray the Lords Prayer together if you have not done so yet.
TOOL TIME
SAY: “Again, there is no right or wrong way to pray other than not praying at all. But we know praying can seem hard and intimidating so we hope these 3 parts will be a great place for you to start. Remember who God is and thank Him for who He has been to you. Then, pray for each other from a place of forgiveness, remembering that we are all on the same team.
If you have been coming for several weeks, you may know about The Four that we have been talking about. The Four is a tool for us to help understand and spread the gospel. Let’s take a moment and look at the first icon of The Four, the heart. This Icon represents God’s love for us. God created us. God loves us. So of course he wants a relationship with us! Just as we talk to our families and friends every day, he wants us to talk to him every day. The last icon of the Four, the question mark, represents the question if we will choose to trust in Jesus. When we choose to trust in Him, we are beginning a relationship with God that we must continue to nourish. How do you typically hold onto a relationship with your friends? By talking to them! In the same way, when we trust in Jesus, we are beginning a relationship that we should be holding onto by praying every day.
(Pray in small groups of 3-4)
Now that we have some direction on how to pray, we should put it into practice. Let’s break out into groups of 3-4 and pray together. It can be a simple 1-2 line prayer or it can be much longer. Thank God for who He is, pray for yourself, and those around you. Remember, the only way to fail at praying is to not do it at all.
Our Student Leaders and Club Coach will be walking around praying over each group as well.”
(Close small groups)
SAY: “That really feels like a good, easy reminder of where to start in our prayer life. As we finish today, there will be a leader who is going to be passing out prayer cards. This week especially, as we talk about prayer, what it is, and how we do it, we want to invite you to think people you are going to be praying for this week. Remember the intercessory prayer we just talked about? This is a great example and use of intercessory prayer. We hope you’ll join us again next week as we dive further into learning about prayer!”
CLOSING PRAYER
Have a student leader ready to pass out prayer cards.
