Bible Lessons for Youth Spring 2021 Leader: Holy

By Jacob Fasig, Julie Conrady, Mary Bernard and 2 more

This trust curriculum has been refreshed, while keeping everything you love about the resources. Bible Lessons for Youth is a comprehensive 6-year Bible-to-life curriculum that helps teens apply the Bible to their real-life. Its teacher-friendly format is built around a step-by-step sequence with thought-provoking activities designed to help youth understand Scripture and apply it to their individual experiences.

Designed to make teaching Bible Lessons for Youth to your youth easy with each session broken up into small segments. The student book is reproduced as the center piece of each session in the leader guide and is surrounded by the minute-by-minute teaching plans printed in the margin. The instructions are provided for student book activities, discussion questions, illustrative games and short drama skits. Complete Scripture texts are printed in all books. (No need to pause while everyone hunts for the appropriate verse.) At anytime during the quarter you can refer back to the convenient Overview section found at the front of the guide and also take a moment to read the “Teaching Tools” article provided at the back of the guide. Don’t forget to check out the “Out and About” activity that will allow your students to take what they learn in Sunday school outside the classroom, enhancing their faith journey.

Begin
The Bible Lessons for Youth format of “Explore,” “Focus,” and “Connect” is an intentional learning approach to help teens FOCUS on the original context, EXPLORE how the passage speaks to their lives, and CONNECT with how to live out God’s Word in their daily lives and in the world.

Key Verse
Taken from the passage printed in the student book, this verse can be used to emphasize Scripture memorization in your class.

Take-Away
This is the basic point of the lesson and is summed up in a short sentence. It’s the big idea you want your teens to grasp from each week’s session.

Bible Lesson
For easy access, the Scripture passage your class or group will explore is taken from the Common English Bible, and are coordinated with the Uniform Lesson Series. Contains options for younger and older youth.

Spring Theme: HOLY

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cokesbury
• Release date: Jan 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781501895159

Jacob Fasig

Jacob Fasig has been working in youth ministry since 1997. He is a coauthor of Now What: Next Steps for Your New Life in Christ, and he enjoys playing music and cycling. Jacob is married to Allison, has two daughters, and currently serves as minister of discipleship at Gladeville United Methodist Church, on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee.

Book preview

Unit 1

Holy Living

Unit Overview

The people of God were called to be holy throughout both the Old and New Testaments, and this call to be holy remains true today. Though holiness is often misunderstood as moral perfection or flawlessness, it is more properly viewed as the connection between God and God’s people and a measure of how much God’s people take on the qualities of God. This unit invites students to encounter a holy God and to become God’s people by pursuing holiness through prayer, service, and fasting. Students will come away with not only a better understanding of holiness but also the tools to pursue holiness.

1 Living as Holy People

Key Verse: Say to the whole community of the Israelites: You must be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy. —Leviticus 19:2

Take-Away: God calls us to be holy. This means we are unique and united with God.

Bible Snapshot:

Immediately after rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, God continued to draw the people closer by giving them the Law. The Book of Leviticus serves primarily as a code of law. While Leviticus describes a culture that is very different from our own, it provided a map and a mirror for the Israelites and helped to shape the basis for life in their society. The laws found in Leviticus served to establish who God is and who God desired the Israelites to be. Throughout the book, God gives laws that remind the Israelites about God’s nature and what it means for them to be holy as God is holy. Leviticus establishes the concept of holiness—the condition of being unique and united to God—for the people who follow God.

2 The Pursuit of Holiness

Key Verse: Therefore, get rid of all ill will and all deceit, pretense, envy, and slander. Instead, like a newborn baby, desire the pure milk of the word. Nourished by it, you will grow into salvation. —1 Peter 2:1-2

Take-Away: Holy people pursue a holy God by embracing God and rejecting sin.

Bible Snapshot:

As the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection spread, people from all walks of life declared themselves followers of the risen Messiah. Peter, Jesus’ closest friend, assumed a role of leadership in the early church. In this capacity, Peter wrote to ancient Christians to remind them of their new identity in Christ. Peter reminded his readers of the history of which they were a part, a rich tapestry of faith that reached back all the way to Creation. In the midst of possible persecution, Peter reminded his readers they are God’s people and are uniquely united to God. Peter also provided them with instructions about how to live their lives as holy people.

Holiness is a direction and a destination—more caught than taught. As the leader of your group, how are you helping your students pursue holiness?

3 Holy Body

Key Verse: Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves? —1 Corinthians 6:19

Take-Away: Our bodies can help us pursue holiness in heart and mind.

Bible Snapshot:

Paul drew on the history of Judaism to create a powerful image for Christians: their bodies are the new temple of God. Jewish Christians would have understood the powerful implications of Paul’s words and made the connection that God’s presence had moved from the temple to take up residence in the individual believer. This reality creates a ripple of ramifications and responsibilities, including how one uses his or her body to interact with the world. Jewish Christians were reminded of the ritualistic cleansing of the priests to become pure and holy, while all Christians would recognize the call to flee from sexual immorality. Paul expanded the truth of holiness beyond a building or a select population and re-applied it to those who would follow Jesus.

4 The Path to Holiness

Key Verse: But when you pray, go to your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is present in that secret place. Your Father who sees what you do in secret will reward you. —Matthew 6:6

Take-Away: Prayer connects us with God, leading us toward holiness.

Bible Snapshot:

From the moment when Adam and Eve first sinned and were expelled from the garden of Eden, God has been working to provide God’s people a way to connect again. Throughout history, this reconnection has taken on many forms, yet prayer remains a consistent source for connection throughout the Bible. If Jesus’ death provides the road back to God, prayer is one of the primary vehicles on that road. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches his disciples (both past and present) how to pray and provides them with a template for how to connect with God. Ultimately, this connection with God is what God desires for us and for God’s people throughout history. Jesus’ prayer outlines how this spiritual discipline helps us cultivate holiness.

Leader Link: The Bible Project creatively and succinctly breaks down books of the Bible as well as concepts at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9vn5UvsHvM.

The pursuit of connection is found throughout the entire Bible. In Genesis, Adam and Eve are cast out of the Garden, resulting in lost connection. In Revelation, God and the people are reunited.

Check out pages 62–63 for information about the Spiritual Disciplines.

Session 1:

Living as Holy People

Engage

A List of Laws

• If you could proclaim one law that everyone in our community is required to follow, what would that law be?

• What laws govern your daily life?

Scripture

Levitucus 19:1-18 (Common English Bible)

¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² Say to the whole community of the Israelites: You must be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy. ³ Each of you must respect your mother and father, and you must keep my sabbaths; I am the LORD your God. ⁴ Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves; I am the LORD your God. ⁵ When you sacrifice a communal sacrifice of well-being to the LORD, offer it so that it will be accepted on your account. ⁶ It must be eaten on the day of your sacrifice or the following day; whatever is left over on the third day must be burned with fire. ⁷ If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is foul; it will not be accepted. ⁸ Anyone who eats it will be liable to punishment, because they defiled what is holy to the LORD. That person will be cut off from their people. ⁹ When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest. ¹⁰ Also do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the grapes that have fallen there. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the LORD your God.

¹¹ You must not steal nor deceive nor lie to each other. ¹² You must not swear falsely by my name, desecrating your God’s name in doing so; I am the LORD. ¹³ You must not oppress your neighbors or rob them. Do not withhold a hired laborer’s pay overnight. ¹⁴ You must not insult a deaf person or put some obstacle in front of a blind person that would cause them to trip. Instead, fear your God; I am the LORD.

¹⁵ You must not act unjustly in a legal case. Do not show favoritism to the poor or deference to the great; you must judge your fellow Israelites fairly. ¹⁶ Do not go around slandering your people. Do not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed; I am the LORD. ¹⁷ You must not hate your fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your fellow Israelite strongly, so you don’t become responsible for his sin. ¹⁸ You must not take revenge nor hold a grudge against any of your people; instead, you must love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.

Key Verse

Say to the whole community of the Israelites: You must be holy, because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

—Leviticus 19:2

Take-Away

God calls us to be holy.

This means we are unique

and united with God.

Bible Background

• After the Israelites’ flight from Egypt, Leviticus is a formational text for the people and outlines a new way of living.

• Leviticus was referred to as Torat Kohanim or The Priest’s Manual. Although priesthood is