Curriculum About the 2017 Unshakeable Tour
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Pre-Conference Curriculum About the 2017 Unshakeable Tour Teenagers are often overlooked and underestimated, but God wants to use them to bring about incredible transformation for God’s Kingdom. Using the story of young David facing an immense giant, the Unshakeable Tour will inspire teenagers to find an unshakeable faith in Jesus Christ and equip them to answer Christ’s call to make disciples who make disciples. Register your group for the 2017 Unshakeable Tour today! REGISTER © Copyright 2016 Dare 2 Share Ministries. All rights reserved. Reprint permission is given for the attached handouts for use in the lesson. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. 2017 STUDENT EVANGELISM TRAINING CONFERENCE PRE-CONFERENCE CURRICULUM Lesson 1—Unlikely Big Idea: David’s youth and inexperience made him an unlikely candidate for taking down Goliath; but God loves to use the underestimated and overlooked to accomplish the impossible. And God has plans for YOU, too! Key Scripture: 1 Samuel 17:32 - 37 Advanced Prep and Supplies: • Video projection equipment and Unshakeable promotional DVD or online video available at http://www.dare2share.org/unshakeable/. • 2017 Unshakeable Tour information (including your group’s travel details) to pass on to your students and their parents. WARM UP Open with prayer. Invite your students to call out their favorite underdog characters from stories, movies or TV shows. Pair these underdogs off in a few head-to-head competitions and ask your students to vote for whichever is their favorite by moving to opposite sides of the room. For example, which is your favorite underdog, Katniss or Frodo Baggins? Everyone voting for Katniss go stand on the left side of the room; everyone voting for Frodo, move to the right side of the room. If your students get stuck coming up with underdogs, here’s a short list of examples: Katniss Everdeen Frodo Baggins William Wallace Rey (Star Wars) Rocky Balboa The Tortoise (“The Tortoise & the Hare”) Finn (Star Wars) The Karate Kid Rudy (from the Movie) Ron Weasley The Mighty Ducks Po the Panda (from Kung Fu Panda) 3 DISCUSS • How many of you agree with this statement, “Most people like to root for the underdog”? Why or why not? • There’s a certain appeal to the underdog dynamic of the unlikely, the “little guy or gal” winning out over the big, mean, nasty forces of evil. That’s why this theme frequently appears in movies and books. But one of the most famous, real-life, underdog stories of all time is found in the Bible. Any guesses on where I’m going with this? LESSON EXPLAIN I’m talking about the classic underdog story of David and Goliath. But before we jump into to- day’s Bible verses, let me give you a little back story here, so that whether you’re already famil- iar with the David and Goliath story or not, we’ll all be on starting on the same page. The Philistine and Israeli armies are at war with each other. But the war is stalled out, because for 40 days, every single day, the Philistine giant, Goliath, has been stepping out from the Philis- tine’s front line onto the battlefield hurling insults and taunting the Israeli army. Each day he’s challenged them to send one man forward to fight him with the expectation that whoever wins that man-to-man combat, their entire side will be the victors, and the entire loser’s side will become life-long slaves of the victor’s side. But Goliath is strong and HUGE and battle-tested. So for 40 days, no one on the Israeli side is willing to take him on, which is where we’re going to pick the story up in our Bible reading now. Young David—very likely a teenager at the time—happens to arrive on the scene, having been asked to deliver a supply of bread and cheese to his older brothers who are soldiers in the Is- raeli army. David hears Goliath’s taunts and insults and he’s outraged by the cowardly reaction of the Israeli soldiers, so he goes to King Saul—the king of Israel—with a proposal. Ask for a volunteer to read 1 Samuel 17:32-37. “Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!” “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.” But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!” 4 DISCUSS • What are some of the characteristics of this situation that make David an unlikely candidate for taking on Goliath? • Why did David have the confidence to take on Goliath when all of the adults aroundhim were afraid to? • What are some of the reasons why David—and teenagers in general—often look at situations differently from the adults around them? • What does the phrase “thinking outside the box” mean to you? • Do you think that some of the difficult circumstance in David’s past—for example, the animal attacks he describes here—helped prepare him to “think outside the box” as he came up with his plan for taking on Goliath? • How might having a close relationship with God help someone “think outside the box” and take bold steps others are afraid to take? EXPLAIN While David may have been young and inexperienced, he brought what little he had to God with a willing heart and a confident faith in the God he knew intimately and loved deeply. DISCUSS • God chose to use the unlikely teenaged David—a clear underdog in the faceoff with Goliath—instead of a bigger, older, more battle-seasoned warrior. Why do you think God chose to have things unfold that way? EXPLAIN God specializes in using the unlikely to accomplish the impossible! Did you know that God wants to use you too, to do amazing things for Him? Let’s take a quick look at just one of the extraordinary purposes Jesus has for each of us as His followers. He lays it out with a really interesting word picture for us in Matthew 5:14-16. Here’s what it says in The Message paraphrase: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. 5 DISCUSS • What do you think it means to “be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world”? • PaIr sHarE: Turn to someone next to you and answer these questions: Do you feel like God’s currently using you to be a light to those around you? Or do you feel like your faith is hidden “under a bucket”? • “By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” Do you think this verse is describing waiting for people to come and ask you about God, or is this describing you stepping out bravely and taking the initiative? APPLICATION EXPLAIN I want each of you to close your eyes right now and think about a couple of your friends who don’t know Jesus. Maybe their lives are full of hurt and pain and they are in desperate need of Jesus, or maybe they’re happy right now, but busy pursuing stuff that in the end will shrivel up and blow away, leaving them empty and distant from God. Wherever they’re at, if they’re far from God, they need to hear about His offer of grace and free gift of a close, personal relationship with God through Jesus. so start praying for them today and for an opportunity to talk about God with them. Based on the passage we’ve just looked at, the Bible clearly tells us that God has given us the opportunity to play an active role in telling others about Jesus and His free gift of salvation. But maybe you feel ill-prepared and unqualified to do this. Well, I’ve got good news for you! God loves to use the unlikely to accomplish the impossible! And here’s where you start: like David, it starts with bringing a willing heart—or at the very least, if you don’t have a willing heart now, then it starts with simply be willing to ask God to work on your heart and make you willing.