Lesso 9 83 Lot ad Abram Divide the Lad Geesis 13 s have relatioship problems as ofte as ad sometimes more ofte tha childre. Ayoe may have trouble relatig to a child, a spouse, a paret, a coworker, a eighbor, or a fried. Help people discover God s priciples for relatioships ad put those priciples ito practice i all their relatioships. LESSON WHAT ADULTS DO SUPPLIES EASY PREP Bible Poit God wats us to put others first. 1 Gettig Started 2 Bible Exploratio First Place (about 10 mi.) Trade papers i a attempt to get the lowest umber. Compariso Game (about 15 mi.) Write about comparisos where they feel others have better thigs tha they do. copy of the First Place hadout (at the ed of this lesso), scissors, paper luch bag idex cards, pes Cut apart the squares of the First Place hadout ad put them i the paper luch bag. You ll eed 1 square per perso, so make a additioal copy if you have over 25 people. Key Verse Do to others as you would have them do to you (Luke 6:31). Weavig Faith Ito Life s will place the eeds of others ahead of their ow. Bold text withi the lesso is spoke text. Lesso 9
84 LESSON WHAT ADULTS DO SUPPLIES EASY PREP 3 Weavig Faith Ito Life 4 Lastig Impressios Resolvig Coflict (about 20 mi.) Discover Abram s coflict resolutio techiques. Puttig Others First (about 15 mi.) Examie the Key Verse, ad discuss what it meas to put others first. Daily Challeges (about 5 mi.) Discuss how to apply God s Word. Weavig Faith at Home (about 2 mi.) Talk about how to dig deeper ito the lesso all week log. Bibles, paper, pes Bibles Hadbooks or 1 copy per perso of the Diggig Deeper hadout (at the ed of this lesso) Bold text withi the lesso is spoke text. Lesso 9
85 Lot ad Abram Divide the Lad Geesis 13 BIBLe BACKGROUND FOR LEADERS Abram ad Lot Go to Egypt Abram ad Lot had goe south ito Egypt because of a famie i the lad of Caaa (Geesis 12:10). I Egypt, Abram preteded to be Sarai s brother because Sarai was beautiful ad Abram was afraid Pharaoh would kill him ad take her. Pharaoh did brig Sarai ito his palace, but he treated Abram very well, givig him sheep, cattle, servats, ad a lot more. But the God bega to iflict diseases o Pharaoh s household because of Sarai. Whe Pharaoh realized what was happeig, he set Abram ad Sarai away. Abram Returs to the Promised Lad Abram ad Lot headed orth, back to the lad God had promised to Abram s descedats. This was aother log jourey of hudreds of miles. The travelers would travel from oe source of food ad water to the ext, but they would have to stay at each place log eough for the flocks ad herds to recover. As Abram retured to Caaa, he agai called o the ame of the Lord. Perhaps the icidet i Egypt remided Abram of who God is ad of how blessed he was to be chose by God. So Abram s offer probably shocked Lot. Abram, to keep peace withi his family, was willig to give up what was rightfully his. Lot, thikig oly of himself, made a choice his etire culture would have deemed uthikable. God Reaffirms Promises to Abram After Lot left, God spoke agai to Abram, expadig o the promise made earlier. God s commad to Abram to walk aroud the lad likely came from the custom that a ew ladower would walk the boudary of the lad he was purchasig. God was tellig Abram that he had give Abram that lad. The Jesus Coectio Jesus message of a uselfish ad servat heart is cetral to improvig our relatioships. Thak Jesus for showig us how to be servats to all, for his sake. Thik about a relatioship that s importat to you. How would it improve if you put each other first? Look for a opportuity i the comig week to put that other perso first, ad see if it chages aythig. You ca pray for that perso ad write your prayer here. Abram Cocedes the Best Lad to Lot I Geesis 13:5 we discover for the first time that Lot was wealthy. It became apparet that a sigle area was t sufficiet to support both of their families flocks ad herds. I this situatio ad culture, etiquette dictated that Lot allow Abram to take whatever he deemed was rightfully his, because Abram was the more powerful ad wealthy as well as the respected elder. Lesso 9
86 GETTING STARTED First Place Supplies copy of the First Place hadout (at the ed of this lesso) scissors paper luch bag First Place Easy Prep Cut apart the squares of the First Place hadout ad put them i the paper luch bag. You ll eed 1 square per perso, so make a additioal copy if you have over 25 people. First Place What You ll Do Greet everyoe warmly as they gather. Have everyoe pick a square from the paper luch bag. They may look at their square, but they may ot reveal what it says to ayoe else. Say: We re goig to play a game where the object is to get the lowest umber. If you re satisfied with the umber you picked, you may keep it. Otherwise, you may trade to try to get a lower umber. But you ca t see what the perso you re tradig with has util after you ve traded. At ay poit, you may stop tradig ad decide to keep the umber you have. Allow about five miutes for tradig. Say: If you were lookig for the umber 1, your tradig was for othig. Who has the umber 7? Pause. That s the lowest umber! You wi! If people are curious about the other umbers represeted, have people stad up to idicate what umber they have whe you call it. The umbers icluded are: 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 27, 34, 46, 50, 63, 75, 88, 94, 100, 117, 238, ad 1,293. Talk With s Lead everyoe i this discussio. Participats ca fid these questios i their Hadbooks. Ask: Describe your strategy i this game. What was wrog with gettig too focused o beig umber 1? What happes i your life whe you focus o tryig to be better or have better thigs tha others? Say: This game was a bit tricky, because you did t eve kow what the lowest umber was! Ad you did t kow if tradig with someoe would beefit you or them. We ofte have a atural tedecy to seek what s best for ourselves. We wat the best thigs, the most success. But ofte, this self-focus ca lead us off track. GOD WANTS US TO PUT OTHERS FIRST, ad whe we do, we ca seek what s best for them istead. Lesso 9
87 2 BIBLE EXPLORATION Compariso Game What You ll Do Say: May of us get caught up i a compariso game. Maybe your eighbor has a bigger house, your sister has a better figure, or your co-worker has a ewer iphoe. Whether or ot we mea to, we ve probably all had thoughts that focus o what others have that s better tha ours. Compariso Game Supplies idex cards pes Distribute idex cards ad pes. Say: O your idex card, write a compariso you ve thought of. I ll be readig these aloud, but o oe will kow who wrote what. Allow time. Say: Now it s time to play the Compariso Game! Collect the idex cards, ad shuffle them together. The pick two at a time ad read them i pairs, arbitrarily pickig oe as better tha the other each time, util you get through the whole deck. Ecourage everyoe to cheer for whichever oe you deem the wier each time. Talk With s Lead everyoe i this discussio. Participats ca fid these questios i their Hadbooks. Ask: What was it like for me to compare your aswer with someoe else s? I what ways ca comparig our stuff with other people s cause problems? How ca you be more cotet with what God has give you? Say: If we wated to, we could play the compariso game edlessly. There s always someoe who has a better somethig tha we do. But the biggest problem with the compariso game is that it keeps your focus o yourself. Istead, we ca lear to appreciate what we have ad thik of how we ca bless those who have less tha us. We re goig to look i the Bible at a ma who eded up with somethig that seemed like it was ot as good as the other guy s. But i the ed, he tured out to have a better deal. God blessed him because he did t play the compariso game he just put others first. Ad we ll see how GOD WANTS US TO PUT OTHERS FIRST, too. Lesso 9
88 3 WEAVING FAITH INTO LIFE Resolvig Coflict Supplies Bibles paper pes Resolvig Coflict What You ll Do Have everyoe form groups of four. Distribute a paper ad pes to each group. Say: Make a chart o your paper with these three colums: The Coflict, Abram s Choices ad Attitudes, ad Lot s Choices ad Attitudes. Pause. Ecourage everyoe to make their ow chart, ot just oe per group. The say: Read Geesis 13 with your group. As you read, write dow ay coflicts you otice i the first colum, Abram s choices i the secod colum, ad Lot s choices i the third. Be sure to look at how Abram s choices brought resolutio to the coflict. Work with your group to decide what to write o your charts. Allow about 10 miutes for groups to work. Whe groups are fiished, have them report their fidigs. Say: Later o, Lot had to flee his ew home whe God destroyed it. Abram, o the other had, flourished i the lad that had t looked as good. God blessed him for his great coflict resolutio! Talk With s Lead everyoe i this discussio. Participats ca fid these questios i their Hadbooks. Ask: What thoughts did you have about how each ma hadled the coflict? What room for improvemet did you see i how this coflict was resolved? Thik of a few coflicts you ve had, ad cosider a patter for how you ve hadled the coflicts. What s your patter? Say: Kowig how to hadle ourselves is the best way to deal properly with beig caught i a coflict. It s importat to cosider your typical respose ad whether that s a healthy oe. Remember, GOD WANTS US TO PUT OTHERS FIRST. The way Abram respoded to coflict demostrated that. Cosider how to make sure your default respose to coflict puts the eeds of the other perso first. We ca do that ow as we cosider real coflicts you ve faced. Lesso 9
89 Puttig Others First What You ll Do Have adults each fid a parter. Say: Sometimes puttig others first whe a coflict arises is difficult whe you re ivolved i the coflict. It s hard to be objective. So ow s your chace to get advice from a objective third party. With your parter, read our Key Verse, Luke 6:31. The tell your parter about a coflict you ve faced recetly or are i the midst of right ow. Give each other advice for how to deal with the coflict followig Abram s model ad the advice i our Key Verse. You ll have 10 miutes, so pla o five miutes for each perso s coflict. Allow time. After five miutes, give the sigal to switch. Puttig Others First Supplies Bibles Talk With s Lead everyoe i this discussio. Participats ca fid these questios i their Hadbooks. Ask: How was it helpful to get advice from a objective perso o how to put the other perso i your coflict first? How ca you lear to be more objective about your ow coflicts? How ca our Key Verse help you better put others first? Say: Whe you re i a coflict, you probably thik you re i the right. Ad maybe you are but that s ot really the poit. The poit is that GOD WANTS US TO PUT OTHERS FIRST. That meas you do to others as you would have them do to you. I Abram s case, his cultural right was to take the first pick of lad. He surredered this right, ad that s a great example of thikig through our Key Verse. The ext time you re i a coflict, cosider what you wat (that s the easy part). The thik of how you ca do or give that to the other perso. 4 LASTING IMPRESSIONS Daily Challeges What You ll Do Say: I this sessio, we ve see that GOD WANTS US TO PUT OTHERS FIRST. Let s thik about how we ca apply the priciples we discussed this week. Have participats tur to the Daily Challeges sectio of their Hadbooks, or distribute the Diggig Deeper hadouts. Have everyoe read the Daily Challeges ad choose at least oe to do this week. Have participats each tur to a parter ad say what challege they ll do this comig week ad share the specifics of how they pla to do it. Daily Challeges Supplies Hadbooks or 1 copy per perso of the Diggig Deeper hadout (at the ed of this lesso) Lesso 9
90 Weavig Faith at Home Say: If you have kids i Suday school, they should have a take-home paper from this week s lesso to show you. It has their Daily Challeges for this week ad ideas for weavig faith at home as a family. Please help your kids follow through with their Daily Challeges. If you do t have kids i Suday school, you ca still use your ow Diggig Deeper page to further reflect o puttig others first this week. Close with prayer. Have everyoe pray with their parter from the Puttig Others First activity about the coflicts ad resolutios they discussed. After a couple of miutes, pray: God, we wat to put others eeds before our ow. Help us do that this week. I Jesus ame, ame. Lesso 9
91 First Place 7 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 25 27 34 46 50 63 75 88 94 100 117 238 1,293! OK TO COPY Lesso 9
92 Lot ad Abram Divide the Lad Geesis 13 Bible Poit God wats us to put others first. Key Verse Do to others as you would have them do to you (Luke 6:31). DIGGING DEEPER Talk Topics Daily Challeges Discuss a coflict beig reported o the ews. Talk about how the situatio could be resolved based o what you ve leared today. What s the hardest thig about treatig others the way God would wat us to? How ca we respod hoestly but remai hoorig to God whe people treat us ukidly? What s the most importat part of coflict resolutio? Choose oe or more of these activities to do this week. Resolve the coflict you discussed i the Puttig Others First activity by tryig out some of the ideas you ad your parter came up with. Try to avoid the compariso game this week, wishig you had somethig others do. Istead, focus o how you have more tha others ad could bless them. Brig home the chart you made to compare Abram ad Lot s actios i the Bible passage, ad try to do at least oe thig to be like Abram. Through the Week Use the followig passages ad questios to explore additioal biblical isights about puttig others first. Moday Galatias 5:13-15 What acts of service have you doe recetly? How ca you show God s love through a simple act of service today? Tuesday Ephesias 4:2-6 What does it mea to maitai uity? I what ways does uity require puttig others first? Wedesday 1 Peter 3:8 Which of the five commads i this verses is most atural to you? most difficult? What ca you do to put others first by followig oe of these commads today? Thursday Colossias 3:12-14 How do forgiveess ad love require puttig others first? What do you eed to do to show forgiveess ad love? Friday 1 Joh 4:12 How ca people see God i you through the way you treat others? Saturday 1 Joh 3:16-18 What ca you do to show love i actios ad truth? What does it mea to lay dow your life for other people?! OK TO COPY Lesso 9