Week 3 Grace

Opening activity

Show your group this YouTube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNBpJN3Tmzw

Jimmy Kimmel Lie Witness News: Earthquake Edition

Discussion Starters

(Depending on the size of your group you may want to have them turn to a couple of neighbors to create small

discussion groups, or just have the discussion as a large group.)

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1. Be honest: if you were in that situation (TV camera and microphone in your face), would you have played

along and answered the questions as if earthquakes could really be scheduled?

2. What was the most ridiculous question or statement you heard? Which was the hardest one to believe they

went along with?

3. Are there any words, concepts, or activities that you hear or see often at church that you just go along with?

Even if you don’t actually know the truth of what they really are?

Main Lesson

Something that happens a lot in places like church, or Sunday School, or youth group, is that we use a lot of

Something that happens a lot in places like church, or Sunday School, or youth group, is that we use a lot of

words and just assume that people know what we’re talking about—when really we are mostly just nodding our

heads like we understand so we won’t be embarrassed (or at the most silly or most extreme, so we won’t have

God shoot lightning down right between our eyes!). These are words like redemption or atonement or like when we say that we are really excited about what God is doing or something like that., or even the word “grace.”

denominational or cultural word that is appropriate for your context), or even the word “grace.”

Grace is a word we could probably all use correctly in a sentence, but most of us would have a harder time coming up with an articulate definition. So, let’s try!

coming up with an articulate definition. So, let’s try!

Have your students turn to each other in groups of 3-4 and ask them to spend a few minutes attempting to define the word grace. It can be a formal, dictionary-esque definition or a more informal definition using everyday language.

define the word grace. It can be a formal, dictionary-esque definition or a more informal definition using

everyday language.

For example: our community came up with “something I benefit from but didn’t contribute to” as one working definition of grace.

definition of grace.

Once they have had a few minutes to collaborate and brainstorm, ask them to share their working definitions with the larger group. See if you all can find a definition, or two, you’d like to use as a community.

with the larger group. See if you all can find a definition, or two, you’d like to use as a community.

Bible Exploration

Have your students turn toward each other in groups of 3-4 (can be the same groups as earlier or newly formed groups). Within their groups, have one person read aloud from The Message version of

, The Message

28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with

me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with

me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. 30

groups). Within their groups, have one person read aloud from The Message version of

I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll

learn to live freely and lightly.”

. Once the passage has been read through the whole way, have a

second person in their group read it aloud from the beginning of verse 28 through the phrase “unforced rhythms

of grace,” and stop there.

Ask: What do you think Jesus, or at least the author of The Message, meant by the phrase “unforced rhythms of

grace”?

Again, give each group a few minutes to discuss the prompt and then invite them to share their ideas with the

larger group. Once each group has had a chance to share, then...

Say something like:

I think it’s pretty interesting that we are asked to learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Grace is a word and a

concept we’ve all heard mentioned a million times, but most of us haven’t truly learned how to recognize the

grace that is all around us.

One way, albeit a rather cheesy way, people have tried to explain the grace around us is by using the metaphor of

a river. Have any of you heard someone refer to “a river of grace”? In some ways that’s just an ultra-cheesy way of

describing something that has to do with God, but if we stop and think about it, this ultra-cheesy metaphor has

some good truth to it.

Rivers are constantly moving, constantly flowing. Grace is all around us, and in us—a constant part of the world.

There is a flowing river of grace, of unearned Jesus-y stuff, all around. We aren’t asked to create it, just to learn

it. To stop and see the river that was already flowing before we got to it, and will continue to flow long after we

leave. We just need to recognize it and jump in.

Grace is a gift, something we enjoy and benefit from, that is unearned. God’s grace means that all the beauty, all

the goodness, all the love, and all the healing that we get to experience are gifts freely given. Unearned. We are

surrounded by grace and it’s happening, whether we notice or not, from the moment each of us were born—even

before we were born!

Think about it: what did you do to earn life? Nothing. Even before you could think or breathe, you were living

in grace. It’s an act of grace that we grow up, that our brains become capable of new things, that we change and

grow at a pace we can’t slow down or speed up. Our ability to breathe, to consume food and water and turn them

into energy, to experience gravity, to feel love and pain and healing and newness—all of it is grace. The rhythms

of grace exist outside of us, in our planet, our solar system, our entire universe. All of it exists as it needs to, at

the right pace, at the right time, in the right way, without our intervention. Grace is all around us and we couldn’t

escape it even if we tried. There is a beauty to all of this, to the unforced rhythms of grace. It can only be a gift

from our Lord and Creator. Unearned.

We can’t earn it, but we need to learn it. To name it. To jump into the river flowing with grace and let it take usfor a ride!

for a ride!

Response

Invite your group to go and spend 5-10 minutes by themselves with a pen and paper. Encourage them to spend

Encourage them to spend their time first in silence and prayer—asking God to show them the reality of grace in their lives, whether it be a

their time first in silence and prayer—asking God to show them the reality of grace in their lives, whether it be a

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friend who has been incredibly forgiving toward them, a memorable conversation while witnessing a sunset, or

simply having ability to breathe. Once they’ve sat in silence and prayer for a bit, invite them to write down their

thoughts and responses on their papers.

If there are spaces where you meet that are more sacred or beautiful, encourage students to spend time there.

Once their solo time has finished, ask students to form groups of 2-4 and share their thoughts and responses

with each other. After giving them a few minutes to do so, ask them to choose one that stands out as especially

meaningful to the group. Once they have decided, ask them, as a group or individually, to create a “post-secret”

style card that represents the grace they see in their lives.

play contemplative music.

contemplative feel, you can play quiet or worshipful music and have dimmed lighting. If you’d like to create

a joyous atmosphere, you can play energetic music and encourage conversation (even if off-topic!) between

your students as they create.

PROMPTS:

, NIV

28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and

you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

, The Message

groups that regularly meet, use those!) and work through these prompts:

28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with

me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with

me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. 30

I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll

learn to live freely and lightly.”

• Go around and share what your “grace item” was and show off or talk about your “post-secret” card. Why did that particular item or truth come to mind?

that particular item or truth come to mind?

• What are some ways that “the rhythms of grace” are easy to see in your life? In what parts of your life is it harder to find grace?

harder to find grace?

• If you were around for the first lesson in this series on burdens, do you believe that recognizing grace can be a part of the answer to our tiredness?

a part of the answer to our tiredness?

• What do you think is the biggest roadblock or distraction keeping you from recognizing the grace that is all around you?

around you?

Once the discussion has finished, MAKE SURE TO COLLECT THE POST-SECRET CARDS and save them

for next week.

End your time together in prayer—whether prayer requests, prayer partners, or just a general prayer

thanking God for the ways in which we can know truths about him and about ourselves.