Sunday Bible Study | January 22, 2017

Grades 9-12 | How Would People Get Ready for Jesus? 
We’re continuing our look at Old Testament prophecies about Jesus. This week, we explored Isaiah 40, where the prophet Isaiah worked to prepare people for the coming Messiah. After exploring what it takes to get ready, we looked at Mark 1, where John the Baptist fulfilled Isaiah 40.

This encouraged us to embrace a deeper, awe-filled understanding of Jesus’ identity and discuss how we can respond to him as a result

This week, try to spend a few minutes talking with your teenager about this topic. You might want to begin your conversation with these questions:

• How did the Old Testament people view the Messiah? Why would it have been easy or hard to trust that he’d arrive?
• What does Isaiah say the Messiah would offer people?
• In what ways do you think we need Jesus today?
• What are some ways we can prepare ourselves to receive Jesus?
• How might we be able to act like John the Baptist, encouraging people to open their hearts and lives to Jesus?

Grades 6-8 | Love. Give. Serve. 
We’ve finished our three-lesson look at the book of Romans. Obviously, there is a TON more in this amazing book than we could cover in three conversations. But I hope our fly-over of this book has given our teenagers a sense of some amazing, life-changing truths.

Our final conversation focused on the importance of loving genuinely, giving generously, and serving enthusiastically. All of these can naturally flow from us when we’re following Jesus and centering our lives on him.

All three of these habits can be hard to live out, especially for a young teenager, but they’re all rewarding and help point people to Jesus.
Here are some questions that could help fuel conversation with your teenager this week:

• When do you find it most difficult to genuinely love other people?
• What are some specific ways people can be generous without giving money?
• Talk about a time you served someone in a specific, meaningful way—maybe on a mission trip, or in your neighborhood, or somewhere else. What was most rewarding about that serving experience?

​Have a great time exploring these topics. Thanks for your prayers and support!