Just Do It :: GPS

• Use the lead app to check in students and make sure any students not listed fill out a connect card digitally.

• Do not move on until check-in has happened and any students not listed have filled out a connect card.

  Extended Small Group

  Last semester we started having these extended small group nights where we as a group explore some biblical truths. Our first go around we tackled some crazy hard questions people have about God in a series called IDK. Anybody able to remember any of those questions?

  
  How can I know God exists? , Can I trust the bible? , What’s up with evil?

  
  This semester our series is called “Just Do It” . We are gonna have 4 separate weeks this semester focused completely on what to do with our bibles. The bible is the infallible word of God given to us by God so that we can know him better. Infallible means that it is incapable of containing mistakes. It is completely trustworthy and the most powerful tool we have access to when it comes to growing our faith. Having the skill set and the tools to not only read but digest our bibles is our hope at the end of this series.

  
  Let’s start with a game. Each of you grab a map and a pen. This is a map of Henry County. We are zoomed in to the McDonough area.

  
  This is a simple game. I will call out a road and the first person to find and circle that road name wins that round. (Celebrate your winners.) Click here if you need the answers.

  
  Rounds:
  Laney Road
  Schnever Court
  Walker Drive
  Libby Lane

  Great Job!

  Okay now Who can give me directions from here, our small group room, to the intersection of Laney Road and Creek Drive.

  Maps are helpful tools, they are the easiest way to get from one place to another. They get you from where you are to where you wanna be. And the thing is there are lots of different ways to get from one place to another just like directions to Laney and Creek.

  
  And then there is GPS. GPS is a game changer. It's like a system that takes a look at where you are and where you want to be and it finds the safest, fastest, most beneficial route to take. It gives the best directions.

  
  But maps, directions, and GPS are only as useful as the person using them. You gotta know how to use 'em. It’s the same with the bible.

  The bible itself tells us how important it is for us to read it.

  Have different students read each of these verses from the bible:

  • Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

  • 2 Timothy 3 16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

  • Hebrews 4:12”For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

  • Romans 15:4”For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

  
  This truth shows up over a hundred times in scripture and this is just a few of the times we are told of its importance. So with that in mind let’s spend some time getting to know the basics. Just like GPS you gotta know what you are looking at for it to get you where you are going.

  
  The basics.

  The bible is made up of 66 different books. 39 are in the Old Testament, and 27 of the books are in the New Testament. 

  When it comes to media, you have different categories or different genres. I’m going to say a few things and you tell what genre or type of media you would associate with it.

  
  Frozen - Cartoon or like animation
  Boba Fett - Sci-fi or fantasy
  Taylor Swift - Music or Pop
  Madden 22 - Video Games or sports

  
  Just like songs, movies, games, etc. have different types, the books of the Bible have different types, different genres, and different categories. The next thing we’ll do is map out the different categories for the books. 

  
  Books of the Old Testament

  
  The Law

  The first category of books is called the Law. This is the beginning. You see how God creates everything, you see how Adam and Eve fall and even though that relationship has been broken, you see how God takes interest in the affairs of humans by making a promise to Abraham. And then beginning with Abraham, God makes Israel his people. It’s called the law because God establishes the law that makes Israel his people. The law is, if Israel obeys God, he will bless them. The Law is the first 5 books of the Bible. It is also called the Torah among Jews.

  
  Have them open the paper bibles and read out the names of the first 5 books. 

  OT History

  The next category is OT History. These books tell the story of Israel’s history as a nation. 

  Ask - What are some milestone moments or people in this section of the Bible?(clues for the students are most of the bible stories they have learned as children) 

  Here are a few:

  • In Joshua, the Israelites are finally done wandering in the wilderness so they enter the Promised Land .

  • You see how the kings rule over Israel and Judah. 

  • Israel was overtaken by Assyria, and by Babylon and the people were brought into exile. 

  • Eventually Israel is allowed to return to their homeland. 

  Wisdom

  The next category is wisdom. These are poetic writings of praise, wisdom, and love. Solomon wrote many of these. He wrote down some of his fabulous wisdom, but he himself didn’t always follow it. Much of Psalms contain David’s Psalms of praise to God. Job is an account of a man wrestling with the question of why bad stuff happens to good people. 

  Major Prophets

  The next section is Major Prophets. They are called Major because they are larger books. The Major Prophets are the larger books covering God’s messages for Israel.  Men who were prophets to Israel wrote these.

  They were specifically called by God to deliver messages from God to the people. They kept the people on the right track. They reminded people to follow God’s ways and reminded people of what God wanted. 

  Minor Prophets

  The last section of the Old Testament has a lot of books in it. It is the Minor Prophets. They are the smaller books covering God’s messages for his people. These are the same type of thing as the Major Prophets, but they are just smaller. This category finishes out the Old Testament. 

  
  Books of the New Testament

  Gospels

  Now we move on to the New Testament. The New Testament begins with the Gospels. The gospels are four different perspectives of Jesus’ life and ministry. Each one of these men offers a different account on the life and ministry of Jesus. It’s essentially the same story told in four different ways. You don’t just experience the story of Jesus through one person, you experience it through four people. We essentially have four different points of view on Jesus’ life. 

  NT History

  The next section is classified as NT History. This section only contains one book, the book of Acts. Acts tells the history of how the church began and spread. Don’t forget that the church didn’t begin until Jesus ascended into heaven. There was no church yet in the Old Testament. Acts is exciting. People are literally doing everything they can and giving everything they have to bring the message of Jesus to the world. 

  Paul’s Letters

  Paul’s Letters make up the biggest section of the New Testament. These are Paul’s letters to Christians in the early church. Each one of these is a letter written by Paul to people. This is old school texting. You are picking up Paul’s phone and looking at his texts to these churches and these people.

  Have the students open their bible to Colossians and ask: Who was the letter of Colossians written to? It was written to Christians in the city of Colossae. 

  Letters

  The next section is just simply letters. This section contains letters to Christians in the early church. These are letters written by different people to Christians in different places. They’re the same type of thing as Paul’s letters they’re just not written by Paul.

  Apocalyptic

  The last section of the entire Bible contains only one book, Revelation. This category is called Apocalyptic. Apocalyptic is a fancy word for stuff that happens at the end of time. It gives us pictures about what will happen when Jesus returns. It deals with God bringing His plan to completion.

  
  Keys to Understanding

  In an effort to get as practical as possible, the last thing I want to do today is to give you some keys for understanding each of the different sections. These are things to think about as you read the different genres of books. 

  Genesis, Exodus, Joshua-Esther

  The people and situations in these stories are examples for us of godly and ungodly behavior. When we read the story of Solomon, he did good things and bad things. When we read these books we should read them and then think about what was godly and what was ungodly. 

  Leviticus – Deuteronomy

  Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy can make for really tough reading. A lot of these books detail the laws for the Israelites and it can be very boring. The important thing to realize when you read these books is that these are Israel’s law. That being the case it’s not like they don’t mean anything for us. They paint a picture of faithfulness to God and you can see how Israel tried to pursue that faithfulness. (Pretty much failing the whole way lol.)

  Job – Song of Solomon

  Job through Song of Solomon are classified under the heading “wisdom” but each brings something unique to the table. Job deals with the question of evil and suffering.  The Psalms are praises to God. Proverbs is full of wise sayings. Ecclesiastes talks about the value of following God’s ways. Song of Solomon deals with sexuality. The thing to say about these books is to read these books as an act of worship seeking understanding. As you turn to these books to pursue godly knowledge, make that very act an act of worship.   

  Isaiah – Malachi

  The prophetic books are reminders of right belief and right living. Just like the prophets reminded Israel of what God wanted, today they remind us to make sure we believe what is right and that we live in the right way. 

  Matthew - John

  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the called the gospels because they teach and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. There’s so much we could talk about here but to get you started I’d say when you read the gospels you should notice it’s all about Jesus. Pay the closest attention to him. He’s who it is all about. He is the fulfillment of God’s plan, he establishes the Kingdom of God, and He’s the way to salvation. 

  Acts

  Acts is classified as New Testament history. It tells the story of how the early church and the gospel of Jesus spread like crazy. When you read Acts I think we ought to marvel at the spread of the gospel. Then we ought to want to be a part of it. To me Acts says, this is the power of Jesus, now you come and experience it too.  

  Romans – Jude 

  Romans through Jude are all letters written by someone to Christians in the early church. The nice thing is that at face value, they’re often easy to understand and apply. As you begin to study these letters, put yourself in the shoes of the original recipients. Deciphering what the message of the Bible was to the original recipients is crucial. 

  Revelation

  Last is Revelation. This book is extremely difficult and don’t feel bad if you have no idea what’s going on when you read it. Revelation is full of pictures of the end. But that’s perhaps the most important part, the pictures are just that – pictures. It is unwise to think that what’s recorded in Revelation is exactly the way everything will go down. It is full of images of the end. So my practical advice for Revelation is the pictures of the end are pictures of the end.  

  
  Those are the basics. Now here is the thing. Once you know the basics there is one other thing that has to happen. You have to use this knowledge. Knowledge is useless without putting it into action. That is how you turn knowledge into wisdom.

  
  You can know how the GPS works and if you never have a destination, if you never pick it up and use it to get somewhere then what's the point.

  
  So we are finishing this night and stepping into the rest of this series with a challenge. 

  Each of you will go home with a Life Book. These are a pretty phenomenal resource. They have four sections. Your challenge/ our challenge is to read acts 1 and 2 of the book before our next week of this series which is March 2nd. That’s a whole month! And we don't mean just read, but really read. Anytime it references a scripture or chapter and book of the bible take a moment and crack open your bibles and read those along with the book. Use the basics we learned tonight to really step into what the book has to say. And bring it back with you March 2nd.

  
  You also are gonna get a really simple cheat sheet about the bible you can hang in your room as a reminder of this challenge and a reminder of what we learned.

  
  One last thing. One of the most valuable things in the life of a Jesus follower is the people they do life with. So let's help each other. Keep each other accountable and check in with each other.

  
  Finish by praying as a group.

We will know we have hit our target if:

-Everyone leaves with a Life Book and a Books of the Bible Print.

-Everyone has a general knowledge of the structure and categories of the bible.

-The students have understood and accepted the challenge to read Act 1 and 2 of the Life Book they recieved over the next month.

-The students are pumped about The Foundry and Radiant.

-We followed up with anyone interested in being baptized.