IYM Year-Long Curriculum (YLC) Guide
Theme: Doing Life
Theme Verse:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
Lesson 3: Full Truth
Opening Questions:
1. Have you ever been on a trampoline? What is fun about them?
2. What role does gravity play in how a trampoline gets used?
3. What would happen if we didn’t have gravity?
4. Is there anything that is not affected by gravity? Explain.
Video
Take a look at this video: (NOTE…there is one curse word in this…we edited it out in the Lesson Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otFYYqNVbAI
About the Video:
1. I don’t know if I have ever laughed harder at a movie scene than I did with this one. What makes this so funny?
2. What kind of hill must this have been for him to keep falling like that?
3. Have you ever rolled down a large hill like this? What do you notice about your speed, the more you roll?
According to the website physics.info or The Physics Handbook, when objects fall, they accelerate as they fall.
In this principle…there are two things of note. First, everything falls. There is no getting around gravity. It takes it’s toll on the smart, the silly, the fat, and the thin. We can’t outsmart it. We can’t outjump it (for long anyway). We can’t out-gravity it. It just is.
The second principle is that not only does gravity make everything fall back to the ground, it also makes things fall faster the more they fall.
Think Through It:
1. What are some other things that are true?
2. How might these principles of gravity compare to our Spiritual Lives?
3. What is true about God?
4. Are there any truths about God that are really hard for you to believe?
READ:
John 8:31-32
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Breaking Down the Passage:
1. Let’s break this verse down. First, what do we know about the Jews that are mentioned here (they were believers)?
2. What does this mean, “If you hold to my (Jesus’) teaching? (Take some time with this one…may be a good point of discussion in and of itself)
3. THEN… Whenever there’s a then in the scriptures, be sure and take a close look…look to what is before the then and what is after.
4. What does the truth do for us? What does it mean to be ‘set free’? What are we being ‘set free’ from?
Final Thoughts:
Truth can be a difficult concept to wrestle with. There is so much that should be true all the time…but it just doesn’t fit together sometimes. The people who love us shouldn’t hurt us, but they do sometimes. Things like cancer and divorce are way too common, and it seems like a loving, all-powerful God should be able to make them go away, and yet they still happen. Wouldn’t it be great if some of the things that seem to be true some of the time were true all of the time? Even though it may not make sense, and things are still messy and hard, God’s love really is real, and really is true. Try giving it a shot, and see what happens.
Prayer:
Use this prayer exercise:
*Read:
Romans 8:38-39
(38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.)
-Try to let your mind go to a place where you can see this as being entirely true…NOTHING separates us from God’s love
-Spend some time in silence with this. Read the passage again. Talk to God about any struggles or victories that might pop into your mind
-After some time has gone by, designate someone (or maybe a couple of people) to voice their prayers on behalf of the whole group