Lesson Objectives:
WHAT: God wants to give everyone a "new" life, both here on earth and someday in heaven.
WHY: Youth have the opportunity to experience the meaningful life God desires for them-and share the good news of that life with others.
HOW: We examined what it means to have a new life now and eternal life in heaven, and we considered ways to continue growing spiritually.
We looked at 2 Corinthians 5:17, John 3:16, 10:10 and Titus 3:3-7.
We also watched Matthew West's new song video, Day One , which sums up very nicely what we talked about tonight. Our key words this week were New and Grow.
We pulled our four flowerpots out again and talked about their representation of our four-part story...Creation (perfect pot), the Fall (pot in pieces), Redemption (pot glued back together), and New Creation (perfect pot). In many ways, these flowerpots represent our lives. We started out perfect and complete, like the first pot, but our lives became broken because of sin-even when we were little kids, we sinned. That's the second one, which is broken. But God gives us a remedy through Jesus to become fixed and repaired and redeemed, like the flowerpot we repaired in our last lesson. Still, you can see the cracks and the evidence of our brokenness. We remain imperfect. But that's OK because it doesn't mean we're worthless to God. We're still valuable, even with our flaws and imperfections. This pot still could be used for many things, just like our lives still have purpose and meaning, even if we aren't perfect.
We talked about changes we might expect to see in the life of someone who becomes a believer, changes they have personally experienced, and how they are different today from even just a year ago. God gives us a new life by helping us change and become more like Jesus. It's important that we focus on both the inside and the outside of our lives. Our actions and deeds matter, but God also cares about our hearts-our motives, our thoughts, and our attitudes.
One of the greatest truths about being a follower of Jesus is that you're never done growing. God wants to challenge you and help you to grow for the rest of your life. It's similar to being an athlete or musician or artist or writer-no matter how good you are, you can continue to grow and practice and learn. God wants to give you a new life through Jesus, but God also wants you to continue growing as you travel the journey of faith with Jesus.
Amen!
