COMMUNITY: the Call Large Group Talk 4

COMMUNITY: The Call Large Group Talk 4

Objective: The main objective of this lesson is to show students what we and our communities were made for: worshiping God. Moving past our preferences in community becomes truly “worth it” when we live in God’s ultimate purpose for our lives. When we connect to Jesus individually and start living different- ly, the next logical step is to start influencing others to do the same. Students will learn that our call to influence others requires us to remember that we—at our core—are reconciled people, that we are part of God’s ministry of reconciliation to the world, and that we are now ambassadors of Christ.

Speaker’s Note: These Large Group Talks are designed to give you a foundation to speak from. They are full of optional illustrations, object lessons, and anecdotes that you can use as much or as little as you’d like. * View any illustration video clips ahead of time to make sure they will fit well with your audience. * Also included in your Community download are presentation backgrounds to use with these Large Group Talks or any other place that will help make your DNow event great!

Recap of The Difference: Say Something Like: Now we know what it looks like to live in community the way Jesus called us to. We have a job to do, and it’s going to require the hard work of living with humility, gentleness, and patience. In the end, when we live this way, we’re living like Jesus. That sounds great, but have you ever asked yourself why that’s something to shoot for? Today, we’re going to dive into what makes all this, “worth it.” We don’t lay down our preferences just because we were told to, we do so because Jesus gives us a purpose for our lives and for our unity! He wants to make us into something beautiful. Let’s find out why.

Transition to The Call Large Group Talk: Ask: How can worship be more than just singing praise songs?

Say Something Like: When we think of worship, most of us think of dim lights, lyrics on a PowerPoint, and singing together as a church. While that is certainly one way we can express hearts of worship to God, often we get stuck on singing songs as THE way to worship. But bringing glory, honor, and praise to God is not limited to the songs we sing. We glorify and worship God by submitting to him and his will for our lives (Romans 12:1-2).

UNITY ©COMM LeaderTreks 1 Large Group Talk Outline 04.The Call

One of the best ways that we can bring glory and honor (worship) to God is in the way that we choose to treat each other in his church. We were made to worship God, to point back to him constantly. In the same way, our community with other believers is made to point back to God. He creates something beautiful out of us when we choose to live in unity. This isn’t something we keep to ourselves, either; he wants to display it to a world that desperately needs to see and experience God!

Teaching: 1. We’ve Been Reconciled Say Something Like: Living the way God created and designed us to live brings glory to God and points others toward him; it’s worship! For our communities, that means we now have a mission: to let our unity point back to the God that holds us together. In this letter that Paul writes to the Corin- thian church, he shows a group of people how to start living out this mission as a community. His audience is a young church struggling with disunity, so he encourages them to go back to the basics and remember that, at one time, they needed to be rescued from their sin, so Jesus gave up his life to save theirs.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-18a: For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once re- garded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.

Say Something Like: Listen to what Jesus has done for us! Do we live as thankfully as we should? Our lives are rescue stories of epic magnitude—we are saved from our sin so we can live with God forever! Imagine what our communities would look like if we made a point to remember this truth when we’re together.

2. Ministry of Reconciliation Say Something Like: In this passage, we find a big Bible word, reconciliation. The word “reconcile” has a basic meaning of “to change thoroughly,” referring to a changed relationship between God and the lost world. We’ve just been talking about how Jesus has reconciled, or rescued, us; he’s provided the possibility of a completely changed relationship with God. Now, he’s made us a part of that same mission to take his reconciliation to the world! Take a look at the kind of ministry we get to be a part of once we become followers of Jesus:

UNITY ©COMM LeaderTreks 2 Large Group Talk Outline 04.The Call

Read 2 Corinthians 5:18-21: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. There- fore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Say Something Like: When we treat fellow believers as others who have, like us, been reconciled or “made right” with kindness, gentleness, and humility, we’re following God’s plan to reconcile the whole world to himself. He’s given you and me this mission as believers: the ministry of reconciliation. That means, when it comes to the disunity in our own lives, youth groups, and churches, we can’t afford to be bystanders anymore; we’re a part of God’s action plan to restore unity. Pursuing unity with each other gives glory, honor, and recognition to God that speaks volumes to other believers as well as the world around us.

Living this way is going to lead us to do some crazy things. We will probably find ourselves diving headlong into some devastating situations. At the end of the day, our God is with us, helping build relationships and reconcile people to himself and to each other. We are redeemed people who need to start looking for ways to show the world, together, who our Redeemer is.

3. Ambassadors for Christ Say Something Like: Like we said in our first session, the world around us is not one that is marked by unity; it is also one that is often hostile to the message of Jesus. Look at the word that Paul uses to describe those who live out Jesus’ message of reconciliation:

Read 2 Corinthians 5:20: Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

Say Something Like: Do you remember, from the first session, when we talked about the early church in Acts 2? In this role as ambassadors for God, I can’t help but think about those people in the early church, and how hundreds and then thousands of people were inspired to become a part of the body of Christ because of the way that they were loved by Christians and the way that Christians treated each other. In a world that is frequently hostile to the kingdom of God, we’ve been called out into the world by God to declare his redemption. He wants to make something beautiful out of us! God wants the world to know that Jesus died to bring us unity with him forever, and one of the best ways to display that to the world around us is how we treat each other. Don’t underestimate how badly the world both wants and needs to hear this message; all creation was made by God to worship him this way!

Say Something Like: You and I were created for a relationship with God, to be in unity with our Cre- ator, which is only possible through Jesus. His sacrificial death and resurrection pave the way! It doesn’t end there, though. In the same way, we’ve been called to bring this same level of forgiveness and reconciliation to each other; we’ve been called by God to create unity in our churches, ministries, families, schools…everywhere…and when we seek unity, it brings glory to God and inspires those around us to seek after him.

Looking Forward:

[Speaker’s Note: The questions below will be discussed in the Small Group Session that follows this lesson. Remember to pose these questions and encourage students to write down their responses on page 28 of the Student Book.]

Question 1: If someone asked your best friends what your life is all about, what would they say?

Question 2: What do you want them to say?

Need to Know: As this DNow comes to a close, please take the time to pray a special prayer for people who are far from God. Challenge your students to look for opportunities to present the gospel. Remind them that the next small group session will be the last. Be sure to give them any instructions (or schedule info) they might need to go from here.

*Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.

**Any reference within this piece to Internet addresses of websites not under the administration of LeaderTreks is not to be taken as an endorse- ment of these websites by LeaderTreks; neither does LeaderTreks vouch for their content.