Scripture Focus: Romans 15:1-3, Galatians 6:1-2, 1 Thessalonians 5:14-15, Colossians 3:23-24, Acts 2:42-47

Transcription

1 Lesson 3: Living It Out What we want students to learn: That living out the principle of stewardship means giving of yourself to serve others and God. What we want students to do with what they ve learned: To help students identify real, practical ways they can model a selfless stewardship of their lives to draw others closer to Christ by their example. Scripture Focus: Romans 15:1-3, Galatians 6:1-2, 1 Thessalonians 5:14-15, Colossians 3:23-24, Acts 2:42-47 Overview: Modeling stewardship looks an awful lot like living as Christ would live if He were us. When we have a solid grasp of what it means to be good stewards of our lives, we understand that this is lived out through sacrificing to serve others and serve God. It means that we put the needs of others before our own. And we devote ourselves to being used to bring glory to God. This is a vital message for our students to hear, as it is entirely countercultural to the world around them. This lesson will challenge your students to identify real, practical ways they can model a selfless stewardship of their lives to draw others closer to Christ by their example. Teacher Prep Video The elements Teacher Prep Videos are short videos designed to help you grasp the main points of the lessons as you prepare to teach. To access your Stewardship Teacher Prep Video, click on the URL below. teacher- prep Bible Background The Bible Background is designed to help you provide some context for the Scripture you ll be studying. The Details gives you background info for each book, while The Main Point gives you an overview of how the passages are used in the lesson. What do we mean by context? In every ym360 Bible study lesson, you ll notice we make a point to encourage you to provide the context for the passages you study. By context we mean at the very least helping students know who wrote the book, when it was written, and why it was written. What s The Big Deal? When we teach the Bible without giving context, students don t get a big picture understanding of the story of the Bible. But this view is vital to grasping the story of God s plan of redemption for humankind. As you teach, use the Bible Background to help summarize the context. The Details Acts Author: Acts has long been held to be a letter from Luke, a Gentile physician, to a man named Theophilus, possibly a benefactor of some sort. Time frame: There is some debate over when Acts was written. The suggested dates are between 70 AD and 80 AD.

2 Purpose: The Book of Acts is a second letter to Theophilus that tells the story of the early Church following Jesus resurrection. The book begins with Jesus ascension and His command of His followers to proclaim the Gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The rest of the book traces this journey as the early church leaders proclaim the Gospel and plant churches. Romans Author: Paul is the author of Romans. Time frame: Romans was probably written from Corinth in the winter of AD. Purpose: Since the church in Rome had not received comprehensive theological teaching on salvation and other implications of following Christ, Paul wrote Romans to ensure a good understanding of such things. In addition, since many Jewish Christians were rejecting some of the new Gentile converts, it was essential that a level playing field be given to all Believers. This is what Paul was advocating for in Romans. Galatians Author: Paul, the persecutor- of- Christians- turned- missionary, is the author of the Letter to the Galatians (see Acts 7:57-8:3 and 9:1-31). After his conversion on the road to Damascus, Paul set out on several journeys to proclaim about the salvation that is available through Jesus and His death and resurrection. Several churches were planted as a result of Paul s leadership, including the church in Galatia. Time frame: Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians sometime between 48 and 53 AD, most likely by 49 AD. Purpose: The primary purpose for Paul s letter to the Galatians was to respond to a particular issue: a group of Jews claiming to also be Christ- followers (many early Christians were Jewish Christians) had begun to argue that Christians are not just saved by faith, but that they also were required to keep the Mosaic Law. This, of course, went against everything Paul knew to be true about Jesus. The main thrust of Paul s teaching was that there is no work we could accomplish to be saved (Ephesians 2:8), including the keeping of the Law (Galatians 2:16). Colossians Author: The Apostle Paul identified himself as the author of Colossians. Time frame: Most people believe Colossians was written sometime between A.D. 61 and 63, during Paul s first imprisonment in Rome (Acts 28:17-31). Purpose: Ultimately, this letter s purpose is to emphasize the supremacy of Christ over everything. Paul was writing to combat the spread of false teachings among the church at Colossae. The exact heresy being refuted is not certain and may have been a blend of multiple influences. The legalism, mysticism, and asceticism corrupting the pure faith in Colossae were moving attention away from Christ, placing it instead on self- discipline and the awe of other spiritual things. 1 Thessalonians Author: The apostle Paul is the stated author of 1 Thessalonians, and his authorship of 1 Thessalonians has never really been disputed. Time frame: Paul wrote the letter some between AD from Corinth while on his second missionary journey. Purpose: 1 Thessalonians reads like the straightforward, heartfelt letter that it is. The Thessalonian church was doing fairly well. But they were relatively young in their faith and had some practical questions related to applying their newfound faith. Paul addressed a number of theological issues,

3 namely, what happens to Believers who die? Paul s letter helped the Thessalonians settle some of these important faith issues and encouraged them to continue to grow in their faith. The Main Point You ll start by helping students understand that living out stewardship of their lives means willingly giving of themselves for the good of others. Romans 15:1-3, Galatians 6:1-2, and 1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 will help you drive this point home. You ll make the case that practicing stewardship means being willing to sacrifice your interests to put others first. Then, you ll show students that living out stewardship of their lives means practically serving God. You ll use Colossians 3:23-24 to help point this out. Finally, you ll teach students that living out stewardship of their lives results in God being glorified and the Kingdom being served. You ll teach this by looking at Acts 2: Lesson Plan The Lesson Plan contains three elements: An introductory activity called The Lead In; the Bible study section called The Main Event; an application- focused segment called The Last Word. The Lead In Goal: To help students understand that the principles of stewardship sometimes go against the popular thinking of people in the world and their friends. Set- Up: You will need an open space and some play money, the kind you d expect to find in a board game or something similar. If you don t have any at home, you can easily find and download play money to print from the Internet. Gather enough pretend bills for each person to start off with five each. For some added fun print your picture on the front of your money. FIRST, ask if anyone has ever played Monopoly. Ask if anyone knows what a person has to do to win the game of Monopoly. (Accumulate all the money and real estate and drive all the other players to bankruptcy.) Tell the students that you have a game for them to play to start off the session, then pass out five of your pretend bills to each student. NEXT, instruct them to find a partner and follow the instructions you call out. You ll be calling out five sets of instructions and each time they are to find a new partner. If they run out of money they have to sit down. Here are your instructions: 1) Compare first, middle, and last names with your partner and the person with the most letters in all three names gives one bill to the other person. FIND A NEW PARTNER. 2) Compare ages and the younger person must give one bill to the older person. FIND A NEW PARTNER. 3) Tell them when you say go they are to start saying or singing Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.... without taking a breath. The person who holds the note the longest gets one bill from the other person. FIND A NEW PARTNER. 4) Tell them the taller person in the pair must give one bill to the shorter person. FIND A NEW PARTNER. 5) Tell each pair of students to tell how many books they think there are in the Bible (66). The one who is closest without going over gets one bill from the other person. CLOSE BY TELLING EVERYONE WHEN YOU SAY GO THEY MUST THROW ONE BILL IN THE AIR AND EVERYONE IS FREE TO GRAB AS MUCH MONEY AS THE CAN. SAY GO!

4 THEN, after the game instruct everyone take a seat and count up their bills. Then ask who has the most money. Ask if anyone wound up with no money. Explain that you did not tell them, but the goal of the game was to wind up with NOTHING! Tell the students they were probably feeling good when they were winning those individual challenges then at the end everyone was scrambling to accumulate as much money as possible while they goal was to give it all away. NEXT, help your students understand that there is nothing wrong with saving money for the future and accumulating certain things in life. Nothing wrong at all. But when it comes to stewardship the goal is to not accumulate what God gives us but rather to give it away. SAY: This is our final lesson on what the Bible has to say about stewardship. If you chose to live your life as a follower of Jesus Christ many times that will mean your actions will be very different from those of your friends or even the world. One example is related to stewardship. While society is all about getting, receiving, and accumulating, Jesus taught that good stewards give and invest their resources is bringing people to the Kingdom of God. At the end Jesus gave everything including His life so that God could be glorified. In today s lesson we are going to study some scriptures on this subject and look for some practical ways you, too, can model selfless stewardship through your life. The Main Event Goal: To help your students see how people in the Bible responded to God through stewardship and to challenge them to do the same. Set Up: Make sure each student has a Bible or a copy of the Scriptures used in this lesson. FIRST, begin by telling your students that this is the last lesson in the three- part Bible study on stewardship. Tell them you appreciate their eagerness to learn and that you hope this last lesson will be especially meaningful to them. In case someone missed one or two of the Bible studies briefly recap the main points from the previous lessons. Everything belongs to God because He created it all. God chose to make us stewards of what He created. As God s children, we re called to see every resource we have as belonging to God and coming from Him, and that our task is to utilize our resources to the fullest extent for God s glory. When we fail to give God our first and best, we take what is rightfully His. Jesus is the Son of God and Lord over all things. He set- aside His place of honor in Heaven in order to come to Earth and serve as a sacrifice for our sins. Jesus is the perfect model of stewardship. THEN, begin this Bible study by reading or having a student read Romans 15:1-3. Explain that the Apostle Paul is closing out his book of Romans with some instructions to the believers that go perfectly with the study on stewardship. Tell the students that Paul is urging the believers who are stronger in the faith to be patient with newer or weaker Christians and to bear with them. Many theologians believe this means to help them carry their burdens. Then Paul tells those who are stronger to not focus on pleasing themselves or thinking only of themselves all the time. Help students see that this means we are to live our lives not for ourselves but for others. This teaching is reinforced in verse two when Paul says to live your life to please or help build up our neighbors and again in verse three when Jesus is portrayed as one who gave His life completely for the good of others.

5 NEXT, keep this thread going by reading or having a student read Galatians 6:1-2. Tell the students that Paul also wrote the book of Galatians. We see a little of the teaching from the Romans passage reiterated here. Say: Christians are reminded to restore a fallen brother and also to carry each other s burdens. You should know that the phrase, fulfill the law of Christ, is interpreted many ways but most agree this refers to the law Jesus gave which is to love others. THEN, move on to the final Scripture for this section, from the book of 1 Thessalonians. Read or have a student read 1 Thessalonians 5: Again, explain that Christ- followers are urged to put others first by warning those believers who are idle to get to work, by helping those who are burdened by problems of the world, and by encouraging the spiritually weak. Help your students see that there are two words in the passage which are great descriptions of a person who is living a life of stewardship and those are the words kind and patient. You may want to lead the students to see that as they live their lives more for Christ and give their lives more to Him the result will be a person who is both kind and patient. Say: Both scripture passages are clear that living out stewardship of our lives means to willingly give of ourselves for the good of others. NEXT, move on to the next point, which is living out stewardship in your life means practically serving God. Then read or have a student read Colossians 3: Ask if anyone has ever heard the term doing something half- hearted. Explain that it means to go about a task with not only little effort but very little desire or emotion. Sometimes students may see this in the following ways: A band member who is marching because a parent wants them do and not because they want to. Working on a project for a teacher they don t care for. Students who think it is cool to go through life being lazy or unmotivated. Now ask the students to think about being asked to do something by someone they really love or admire. Say: Usually the quality of work goes up because we put our whole heart into the work. The Apostle Paul wants Christ- followers to work and serve God with all their heart and soul, and to always keep in mind they are serving the King of Glory. This alone should motivate us to practice stewardship with joy and passion. THEN tell the students you want to look in the Book of Acts which was written by Luke, the Gospel writer. Read or have a student read Acts 2: Remind your students that this is a picture of the early church right after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. Ask your students to first identify the things the people of the early church were doing. Studied the apostle s teaching, fellowshipped, observed the Lord s Supper, prayed, observed the wonders and miraculous signs of the apostles. Explain that these people were truly enjoying what was going on around them. Now ask what the Christians started doing in response to their faith. They gave willingly of their possessions. They gave willingly of their time. They gave up interest in their own lives and focused on the needs of others. Tell them two interesting things happened as a result of all of this: 1) People admired their way of life. 2) People came to know Christ through their example.

6 Give the students a few moments to talk about how the church in general is viewed in your community. Is it negative or positive? Is the church seen as a community helper or existing just for its members? The final point is today s lesson is this: living out stewardship of your life results in God being glorified and the Kingdom being served. Ask your students if that statement describes your church. Ask them if it describes them as a group or individually. FINALLY, close the Main Event section of the lesson by helping the students remember the key points in the lesson. Remind them that good stewards are constantly giving themselves for the good of others. Also remind them that when we really see the things we own as all belonging to God we will want to give Him back our lives in practical service and that service will be with all of our hearts and souls. Transition to The Last Word to wrap up your lesson by telling them that you want to help them come up with one practical way they can practice Biblical stewardship. The Last Word Goal: To guide the students to get involved in a project where they can all use their resources as good stewards to draw others closer to Christ and bring glory to God. Set- Up: Before the lesson look for several ministry projects your students could get involved in as a group, keeping in mind their unique abilities and talents. You will also need to provide a 3x5 index card and a pen or pencil for each student. You will also need a marker board or a poster board to write some responses. FIRST, tell your students that they have studied many scriptures on stewardship over the past three weeks and now it s time to move from learning to doing something for the Kingdom of God. Give each student a pen or pencil and a 3x5 index card and ask the following question: Based on our study of stewardship what are a couple of key resources God has given you that can be used in ministry and service? THEN, ask them to think about money they may need to give to God, or some talent or spiritual gift they have, and have them write those resources on their cards. After a few minutes collect all the cards and write the responses on the marker board or poster board so all the students can see the list. Make a comment like, Wow, look at all the resources God has blessed you guys with. Next ask them to look over the list and see if they can think of anything they can do as a group where the resources they have can be utilized to bring glory to God and draw people closer to Him. Consider the following ideas: If your group has a lot of financial resources or time resources, consider collecting money for a ministry and volunteering to serve at that ministry one Saturday. Also they could collect school supplies for needy children in the summer or collect clothes they don t wear anymore and set up distribution points in area neighborhoods. If your group has a lot of guys or students who just enjoy working, consider a day to do yard work for disabled people or a painting/building project. One group of students volunteered to paint an old school used by a group helping at risk students and the results were awesome. If your group has a hard time coming up with a specific project consider simply going into neighborhoods door- to- door and giving out Gospel tracts or invitations to events in your church. The possibilities are endless when it comes to helping students use what they have for God but remember to both encourage your students to get involved and then after the event have some time to talk over the results of practicing Godly stewardship. The actual involvement in a project will help to really drive home the teaching you have done during this series of Bible study lessons.

7 FINALLY, close the Bible study by reminding your students once again of what stewardship is: Stewardship is the idea that, as God s children, we re called to see every resource we have as belonging to God and coming from Him, and that our task is to utilize our resources to the fullest extent for God s glory. Remind them that they have learned that everything they have comes from God, and we give back to Him in order to advance the Kingdom of God by drawing people closer to Him. Explain that when we bring people to Jesus, God is glorified. Perhaps give an example of stewardship from your own life, helping the students see the joy of practicing stewardship. Close with a prayer, challenging each teenager to give their best and their all to the one thing that is worth their all, and that is the Kingdom of God. Don t forget to distribute the Stewardship Lesson 3 devotions to your students. If you re printing them, have them available for students as you wrap up class. If you re texting a link, posting them on Facebook, or some other means of electronic distribution, make sure you inform students of when they will be receiving them. Consider texting students a couple of times during the week to encourage them to follow through with reading the devotions. We Want To Hear From You... Do you have questions about a lesson? Something that worked particularly well you want to share? Something that didn t work you want to bring up? We value your feedback! Please do not hesitate to us with your questions, comments, or concerns, at feedback@youthministry360.com.