Following Christ

THESE STUDIES ARE USED FOR ALL AGES-TWEAKING NEEDED

Day 5 – Following Jesus

Objective: To have the campers leave camp with specific ways to grow in following Christ.

Lesson:

1) What’s the purpose of a Christian life?
Remind the kids of what you talked about in Day 3 or 4. Recap why God made us and what was brought up on the first day of lessons, second, and so on. God created us for relationship. The purpose of the Christian life is to grow in relationship with God.

Note: This is a great time to talk about your experiences lately as a Christian – share joys, successes, and how you get to know God. The following information is a guideline for explaining the Christian life, and each life is different. Speak from your experience.

Illustration Idea: Ask the kids – “How do you get to know your friends?” Have each kid explain how they’ve gotten to know their best friends. Because God is a person, we can get to know him the same way.

(Note: This is basically a look at the four main spiritual disciplines of the Christian walk. These disciplines can be taught at multiple levels and done at every maturity level. Speak to the kids where they are at, with language they’ll understand.

2) How to get to Know God –

Way #1 – Reading the Bible
- Recap the importance of the Bible as God’s word.
f. Seven Symbols to Illustrate
1. A sword – Heb. 4:12 – Get a sword, especially for the medieval theme. Use illustrations from old movies of the power of the sword
2. A Hammer – Jer. 23:29 – Get a hammer, explain its use. Sometimes the Bible will break us.
3. A Seed – 1 Peter 1:23-25 – Get a seed - Seeds come and go, but the seed of the living word of God lasts forever.
4. A mirror – James 1:23-25 – Get a mirror - We can see who we are before God in the Bible
5. A fire – Jeremiah 23:29, Jeremiah 20:9 – Get a lighter - As fire consumes and refines, so does the Bible refine us.
6. A lamp – Psalm 119:105 – Get a flashlight, and turn off the lights. The Bible is the illuminating word of God. Like headlights on a car, we can see where we are going, what we need to avoid.
7. Food – 1 Peter 2:2, Hebrews 5:12-14, 1 Cor. 3:2. The Bible is our spiritual food.

Illustration Idea: (You could go into the bush and act this out, after hiding a map) Tell the story of man walking through the jungle. He realizes he is lost! He thought he knew his way, but apparently not! He tries multiple paths and finds that he gets lost. After sitting by a tree, he mysteriously notices a map by his foot. Does he read the map? Does he look at what it says? Does he follow it? YES – it shows the way to home!
The Bible is that map – it is written by God – who knows the whole universe because he created it. He is the best map-maker. It tells us how to live and how to get to know God.

Way #2 – Being with other Christians: The importance of community

How do you get to know your friends? You hang out with people who know them. If you want to do well at hockey, you go to the hockey rink, you find a coach, and you play hockey all the time. If you want to get to know God, you go and be with people that also want to get to know God – church!

Church is a place where other Christians meet together to support each other in their relationship with God. It is very helpful to get to know God with other believers. While the church is not perfect, no one is. It is important to continue to go to one church in order to grow in that particular body.

Illustration Ideas:
The People of God – Pull out the army men, and liken the church to an army. It needs everything from young to old, new Christians to old Christian, and people with different skills in order to be effective.

The Body of Christ – Just as Jesus was here to do good and redeem the world, so the church is. The church is his hands and feet in the world. Have the kids look at their hands and feet. Ask them if a foot could do much on its own, or a hand, or a tongue. No, it needs the whole body. Jesus is the head (Ephesians 1:10), we are the hands and feet, obeying his orders. Col. 1:18, Ephesians 4:1-11, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31.

A Building– Take a look at the construction of your cabin. It has a foundation, walls, and rafters. Each plays its part. Jesus is the foundation that the church is built on. It needs every part, to function as a proper building – all relying on Jesus. 1 Peter 2:4-8

Talk about your experience at church, and what kind of things the kids can get involved in when they leave camp.

Way #3 – Praying: Talking to God

How do I get to know my friends? I talk to them. God wants us to talk to him. He tells us to pray to him. If the God in heaven asks me to talk to him, I should! God promises to hear us when we pray. If we ask for things that he wants, he’ll give them. John 15:7, 16:24. “If you ask in my name, you will receive”

ACTS
Adoration – Praise and worship to God. Tell him how good he is. Psalm 95:6
Confession – Repentance from every known sin. Psalm 32:5
Thanksgiving – Be thankful for everything Philippians 4:6
Supplication – Intercession, requests, petitions, desires 1 Timothy 2:1

Conditions of prayer
- Asking with motives for God – James 1:6,7, James 4:3
- No unforgiven sin – Psalm 66:18
- Asking in Faith - Mark 11:24,
- Asking in God’s will – John 16:24, James 1:6,7; James 4:3

When should we pray?
- Anytime – 1 Thess. 5:17, Phil 4:6,
- When in trouble, happy, or sick – James 5:16-17
- Keep repeating requests – Luke 18:1

What should we pray for?
- All kinds of requests – Ephesians 6:18
- Pray for sickness, pray for whatever you want, as long as it is in God’ will. How do you know God’s will, ask him to show you, read his word, and be with people who know God.

Finally, tell a story of how God has answered prayer in your life in a powerful way.

Illustration Ideas:
Ask the kids to think about something they have asked for Christmas from their parents. Remind the kids that God promises to look out for our interests as a father would to his children. Read the story of if a son would ask for a loaf of bread, which would give a stone (Matthew 7:9-11)? We can be sure that God will answer yes, no, or wait to our prayer requests as a good dad would.

Tell the story of the persistent woman – have the kids act it out. Luke 18:1-8 Remind kids that God hears our prayers, but teaches us to persevere in continuing to rely on him and “not give up.” Make a list of things that you could pray for everyday.

Have the kids pray through ACTS, as outlined above.

Pray through the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6) , Psalm 23, 66, 103, 100, or 117.


Way #4 – Talking to Others About God

Remind kids of the purpose of the Christian life – to get to know God. Ask how they might get to know a certain hobby, such as mountain biking or playing an instrument. They would get advice from others who have been before. There are three kinds of people we should talk to God about. You could talk about one or all of these things, depending on the maturity, age, and Spirit’s leading.

Group #1 – Older Christians

Have the kids guess how old you are. Ask them if they know as much as you do. Explain to them that it is important to be taught by people that are older than them. Give them a list of places where they can be taught – camp, Sunday School, Awana, kids clubs, youth-groups, even books

Group #2 – Christian Friends

Encourage the kids to be in a peer based environment. Mention places where they can be friends. Ask – how would you know if your friends were into biking if you or they never talked about it? Talking to Christian friends about your relationship with God strengthens each other in getting to know God. Heb 3:13, Heb 10:25
You could mention accountability, prayer partners, or just tell a story of a Christian friend that has helped you through a rough time.

Group #3 – Non – Christians

Ask the kids if they talk about things that are important to them to people. You can tell what is important to people by what they talk about. It is important to talk to people who don’t know God and have not asked Him to forgive their sins and are not living for Him. They need to know the good news that they can know God.


Respond:

God wants to be your best friend. Ask the kids, “How many of your friends would give up (bike, Gamecube, CD, Car… progressively get bigger) for you? Jesus gave up his life. What would you give up for your friends? Jesus asks that you live your whole life for getting to know Him better. It may mean giving up some things in order to do greater things. Have the kids go around the circle and say something they want to change in their lives. Pray about those things.