Youth Group Lesson on Temptation (cont.)
ACTIVITY
Say: I need a volunteer. Before you is the maze you went through earlier. This maze represents your life.
Next have the volunteer walk through the maze, hitting all the temptations along the way. As the volunteer approaches each temptation, hold it up.
For each temptation, ask:
• What is appealing about this temptation?
• What is dangerous about this temptation?
After you’ve gone through all the temptations, have the volunteer sit down.
Say: As you travel through the maze of life, you’ll face temptations of all kinds. So you’ll have to choose. Do you fall into the tempting moment or say no and move forward? It may be easy at first, but it will get more difficult over time.
Has someone ever lied about you? Do you remember how painful it was and how vulnerable it made you feel? When someone lies about you, it makes you feel horrible because people look at you differently.
And it may take a while for the truth to come out. That adds to your misery because you know in your heart that what the other person said about you was not true.
So you try to explain and justify yourself. But if you can learn to give these situations to God and ask him to reveal the truth, he will. It may take time and may not happen when you’d hope. But God will always allow the truth to be revealed.
Lust and envy derive from wanting someone or something so bad you’ll do anything to get what you want. Have you ever wanted someone or something so bad it drove you crazy?
YOUTH GROUP LESSON ON TEMPTATION: ANOTHER EXAMPLE
It’s Monday morning, second period, World History. Everyone is taking their seats. After roll call, your teacher passes out test papers. You didn’t study over the weekend, and you’re seriously thinking about cheating.
Instead of taking time to prepare for the exam, you went to the movies. You stayed up late playing X-box. You chose not to go over the material from last week.
Now it’s the day of the test, and you’re not ready. So you decide to cheat because you need a passing grade. In reality, all you had to do was buckle down and discipline yourself to study. Then you could have passed without taking the risk of cheating, maybe even getting caught and failing the class.
For the rest of your life, you’ll face the temptation to do things you know you shouldn’t do. But as you mature, you’ll come across different levels of tests. That’s a guarantee.
There’s no way around it. We are all tempted, but God is so faithful. He promised to help us along the way. We aren’t in this alone. We don’t have to fight temptations by ourselves. God’s Word is jam-packed with promises of protection.
If we take time to read the Bible and develop a relationship with God, we find that when we feel weak, he is always strong.
YOUTH GROUP LESSON ON TEMPTATION: SMALL-GROUP QUESTIONS
1. Have you been tempted to do something wrong lately?
2. How did you handle it?
3. Did you notice or recognize God’s escape plan during the temptation?
4. What does it mean to hide God’s Word in your heart?
5. (optional question) Have you seen the movie “The Maze Runner”? If so, can you relate to Thomas and his friends trying desperately to escape the maze and the Grievers?
6. Have you ever felt like you were trapped in a maze of decisions?
7. What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make?
8. Which temptations that are common to mankind have you experienced?
9. What does it mean that God won’t allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear?
10.Do you believe that having a relationship with God will help you during moments of temptation? If so, how?
