HOOK
1. Have each person finish this sentence: “I like my church / youth group because…”
2. What is a habit?
3. Have each person write on a note card some habit that no one in the group would know he/she has. Leaders, mix them up, read them, and have kids guess which habit belongs to which person.
4. What is habitual sin? Examples?
LOOK AT THE BOOK
1. Read 1 John 3:1-7
2. In verse 1, what are we reminded about God? (God lavished love on us and we are the Children of God)
3. How should being children of God make us different from people who do not know God? (Our lives should reflect God presence (love, joy, peace, patience, compassion, forgiveness, faithfulness, more consistently etc. / we should live our lives for God, and not for ourselves)
4. When we sin, what message are we sending God? (I wanna live for myself, forget you. Your sacrifice for me was not enough)
5. What are two truths about God in verse 5? (God does not sin, Jesus died to take away our sin)
6. What does Jesus mean in verse 6 when he says a Christian does not sin? (Read verse six out loud.) Is this true? Is it saying Christians have to be perfect? (Thankfully, no. It’s meant to state that it’s not ok to sin and pretend its ok with God. Habitual sin and Christianity do not mix. We need to be less satisfied with our spirituality and be willing to raise the standard.)
7. What percentage of your day is spent “living in Christ”? 10, 20, 30%?
8. If we truly take sin seriously, what should be our goal? 100%
TOOK
1. How does God feel about our sin?
2. How do we feel about our sin?
3. To break the pattern of sin, what must we do? (Admit to God we need help, raise our standards, surrender our sin to God, and do the things we need to do to live in Christ)
Read 1 Cor 10:13 / James 4:7 if time – what are they telling us?
