In Sorrow and in Rejoicing

Note to the Teacher

The key idea in this scripture is, “Don’t receive God’s grace in vain.” The icebreaker invites youth to a tournament with a grace-filled outcome. The discussion encourages students to think about what grace is and how Paul exemplified grace in his ministry. The activity helps youth understand how God exemplified grace in the Bible and encourages youth to look at ways they can extend grace in their daily lives. Times are based on a fifty-five-minute lesson period but may be adjusted.

Rock-Paper-Scissors Tournament (15 minutes)

In this game, everyone finds a partner to play a traditional round of rock-paper-scissors. People play against each other until the first person wins. Instead of the losing player being eliminated, that individual instead become the hype person for the player who beat him/her. Those who win find a new player with their hype person in tow, cheering them on. The process repeats until there is an ultimate winner.

Modification Option:

As this game is easily scalable for size, pick a different way for someone to by “hyped.” This might be that the hype people can cheer only by whispering or making funny faces, and so on.

Read Scripture (5 minutes)

Our scripture reading today involves the idea of not “receiving God’s grace in vain.”

2 Corinthians 6:1-13

Discussion (15 minutes)

• How would you define grace, specifically God’s grace?
• How does your church, or church leadership, define and talk about God’s grace?
• How do we activate grace in our lives? How do we express it in our actions?
• How do we ensure that we have not accepted God’s great gift of grace in vain?
• Which of the examples of grace in this passage seemed the easiest to extend or share?
• How does Paul show his love for the Corinthians in this passage?
• Who are the people in your life who need to experience this kind of grace?
• How could you be the hands and feet of God in their lives?

Activity and Discussion (20 minutes)

Take this lesson to the next level by getting imaginations involved as youth consider the biblical idea of God’s graciousness. Click here to watch the video. Consider giving the students art supplies to draw while they watch the video.

Points for discussion:

1. Invite students who chose to draw to share what they drew and how the drawing relates to the video.
2. What would happen if we stopped trying to fix our churches, youth groups, and friends and started seeing all the people Christ calls us to reach?
3. How might you come together to extend grace in your church? Youth group? With your friends? What is the cost? Are you willing to pay that price?

TOTAL TIME: 55 minutes

NEEDED RESOURCES:

• Access to YouTube and an avenue to show a clip.
• Art supplies for drawing