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Imitator: Choosing To Follow God Small Group Outlines Small Group Session 1 • Session Title: Be An Imitator • Session Purpose: To build on the idea of being called to be imitators of God, and to help students grasp the motivation behind living as imitators. • Main Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-­‐2 • Supplemental Scripture: Luke 6:36, Romans 15:7, Ephesians 4:32, 1 Peter 1:15, 1 John 3:7, Philippians 2:5-­‐7, Ephesians 4:22-­‐24 • Session Snapshot: This lesson will provide a big picture overview of the call to be God-­‐imitators. Your students will understand the case Scripture makes to live as followers of Christ, choosing to imitate God’s ways and character. In this sense, it’s more of a foundational lesson for the rest of the study. The takeaway for your students is for them to consider the motivation for seeking to imitate God. You’ll have the opportunity to lead students to think about what it means to be a child of God, and to live out this identity in their daily lives. Small Group Session 2 • Session Title: The Call To Imitate • Session Purpose: To help students understand the fact that they will ultimately either imitate God or the world; there is no other option. • Main Scripture: 1 John 2:15-­‐17, 3 John 11, Romans 12:2 • Session Snapshot: As your students work through what it means to imitate God, they need to come to grips with the fact that their everyday lives reflect their response to this call. It’s not enough to say, “well, I haven’t really decided how I will respond,” or, “I’ll deal with this at another time.” Indecision is not an option! Why? Because their thoughts, actions, words . . . everything about them reflects either an imitation of the world, or an imitation of God. There’s no other option. Your students can’t somehow be neutral. They are either actively imitating God, or they are choosing to imitate the world. This lesson guides them to understand this, and to help them begin to see areas in their lives where they might be choosing to follow the world. Small Group Session 3 • Session Title: Show Some Love • Session Purpose: To help students paint a picture of what a God-­‐imitating life looks like in the world they live in, practically speaking. • Main Scripture: Colossians 3:1-­‐3, Matthew 12:33-­‐35, Galatians 6:7-­‐10 • Session Snapshot: Your students should be fully immersed in the concept of imitation by now. As such, it’s time to give students some real “hooks” to begin to grasp hold of. This session will help you and your students consider what it means to practically live out the call to imitate God. This is helping students bridge the gap between concepts they hopefully understand and agree with, and the application of these concepts in their lives. Students will think about their “imitation” in terms of a few different categories: their thoughts, their actions, their words, and their hearts. Small Group Session 4 • Session Title: Imitation With A Purpose © 2011 youthministry360, Inc. •
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Session Purpose: To help encourage and motivate students by reminding them that the Holy Spirit is the source of their strength and power when it comes to living a God-­‐imitating life. Main Scripture: Galatians 5:16-­‐25 Supplemental Scripture: Romans 8:14 Session Snapshot: As you close down the Imitator study, Lesson 4 leaves students with a powerful message: they aren’t alone, nor do they have to live God-­‐imitating lives under their own power. The Holy Spirit gives them the power to lead lives that are imitations of God’s. By drawing on this strength, and by seeking to follow the Spirit, their lives will be powerful examples of God’s own character. This lesson will both provide students with some tangible application points and guide them to a little introspective searching about how well they listen to the Spirit’s guidance. Large Group Session Outlines Large Group Session 1 • Session Title: Be An Imitator • Purpose: To introduce to students to the idea that they are called to be imitators of God. • Main Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-­‐2 • Supplemental Scripture: Ephesians 4; Genesis 1:26-­‐27; Exodus 19:5-­‐6, Ezekiel 37:27; Colossians 1:15; 1 Peter 1:15-­‐16 • Snapshot: This Large Group Session will kick off the theme of the event. Students will be challenged to consider the idea that most of them imitate someone. And even if they don’t, it’s not enough to chart your own course, contrary to this being a value of our culture. If your students are Christ-­‐followers, they should be seeking to imitate God. This lesson will use Ephesians 5:1-­‐2, the theme passage for the event, as a lunching point for a look at how the idea of us as imitators of God is seen throughout the Bible. Large Group Session 2 • Session Title: The Call To Imitate • Purpose: To take a deeper look at Paul’s call to live a Christ-­‐like life of love. • Main Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-­‐2 • Supplemental Scripture: John 13:34-­‐35, 1 Peter 1:22, 1 John 4:11; Romans 8:37-­‐39; John 15:12-­‐13; 1 John 13:35; 1 John 4:7 • Snapshot: This Large Group Session picks back up with Ephesians 5:2, using the verse as a road map for the remaining Large Group Sessions. In verse 1 Paul calls us to imitation. “Be imitators of God,” Paul says. In verse 2, we see Paul seemingly adding a new thought: “and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us . . .” But verse 2 is really just Paul expounding on the call to imitate God. He’s putting teeth to it. The clue? Those two little words: “just as.” As your students learned in Small Group Session 1, those words, “just as,” represent the language of imitation! Imitating God is living a Christ-­‐like life of love, just as Jesus did. This lesson will trace where else in the Bible we see this call to live a life of love; examine the proof that Christ did, in fact, live a life of love; and drive home the idea that this life of love is the defining characteristic of Christ-­‐followers. Large Group Session 3 • Session Title: Show Some Love • Purpose: To build on the call to live a life of love and flesh out exactly what this looks like from both a biblical and practical perspective. © 2011 youthministry360, Inc. •
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Main Scripture: Luke 15:3-­‐7, Romans 5:8, Supplemental Scripture: Matthew 9:10-­‐12, Philippians 2:3-­‐7 Snapshot: This Large Group Session picks up with where you left off and takes it to a much deeper level. Students know that they are to be imitators of God. And they know that living a life of Christ-­‐like love is how this call takes shape. In this session, you’ll help students really flesh out what living this life of love looks like on a day-­‐to-­‐day basis. You’ll do this by answering three questions: What was the nature of Christ’s love? How was it practiced? And how can we imitate this love? If your schedule calls for three Large Group Sessions, it’s a fitting place to end your time of Large Group teaching. Large Group Session 4: • Session Title: Imitation With A Purpose • Purpose: To look at the goal or the purpose of our living our lives as God-­‐imitators. • Main Scripture: Ephesians 5:2 • Supplemental Scripture: 1 Peter 2:9, Matthew 9:35-­‐38, 1 Peter 2:11-­‐12, 1 Corinthians 9:20-­‐22 • Snapshot: Plain and simple, this Large Group Session will tie up the last three sessions by helping students understand the “why” of imitating God. What is the purpose of our imitation? Students will be reminded that Christ’s love was selfless and sacrificial, but that the coolest thing is that our lives should be so, as well! The purpose for imitating God is really three-­‐fold. Scripture points out three main purposes for imitating God: to honor God, to serve others, and to draw others to Christ. Students will be challenged to take these three points as motivations for living lives as God-­‐imitators. © 2011 youthministry360, Inc.