Monday, July 29, 2013

Jesus and the Rooms of Your Life - Neither Hot Nor Cold Youth Sunday School Lesson



Who’s Who?

Have students write down on a piece of paper their
            Favorite food
            Middle name
            Sports or hobbies
            Favorite movie
Students then pass them in and the leader redistributes them.  Students then read the paper they’ve been given and try to guess which person it describes.

In this passage, Jesus is in Heaven and He’s telling the disciple John what He wants him to write to the church in the city of Laodicea.

Revelation 3:14-21:
14"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
      These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. 21To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

What does it mean to be “neither cold nor hot”?  It means that you’re not on fire as a Christian, but you’re not a completely wicked person either.  You’re average, right in the middle, like most people of the world.  But that’s not what Jesus wants.  Jesus wants people who are on fire for Him, and you’re the kind of person that goes to church or say that you believe in Jesus, but don’t really live like you’re totally committed to Jesus, that leaves a bad taste in his mouth.  Jesus is warning us that if we don’t get our act together, He’s going to spit us out of His mouth.  When we spit something out of our mouths, what do we do with it?  We throw it away.  We forget about it.  We leave it where we spit it.  Let’s not make Jesus want to spit us out.

Why is Jesus warning us about spitting us out of His mouth?  Because those whom He loves He rebukes.  He’s telling us to get our act together, to get totally committed to Jesus, because He loves us and doesn’t want to have to spit us out.

The key to becoming a committed Christian, someone who’s on fire for Jesus, someone who pleases Jesus, is repentance, to turn from the sin and the wrong things that we do, and turn back to Jesus.  One of the ways that we can repent is by listening for Jesus to knock on your heart.  Do you hear Him knocking right now?  And when you hear Jesus knocking, open the door to your heart.  Let Him come in.

Draw a diagram of a house.  This house is your life.  Label all the rooms in your house as an area in your life.  Then label those rooms on a scale of 1 to 5 according to how hot those rooms, those areas of your life are for Jesus, 5 being the hottest.

Pray that Jesus will come into your life and help you to make those rooms, those areas of your life that aren’t so hot, more committed to Him.

 

Prayer Planes

Students write their name and their prayer requests on a piece of paper.  Then they fold the paper into paper airplanes and throw them around for a little while.  Then everyone picks up a plane that isn’t their own, unfolds it, and prays for whoever’s plane they have.

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