Jesus meets...

We looked at John 3:16 as it’s part of the story of Jesus and Nicodemus. We are also learning the verse using the cards from last week and the Rizers John 3:16 song. We learned that God loves us so much that he sent his son to earth to save us. We also looked at how being good and following the rules won’t get us into heaven but we need to believe in Jesus and when we choose to follow him the Holy Spirit comes to lives in us and help us.

Continuing the conversation

Singing the John 3:16 song is an easy way to learn the verse – the lyrics are pretty much word for word. The verse also pretty much sums up the gospel message so it’s a great starting point for discussions. We didn’t use the 4Points in the Glow lesson but it’s a good way to open up the gospel message.

•God loves the whole world and every person in it. This means that we don’t need to earn his love – we already have it

•We all do wrong things which means that we can’t be God’s friend or go to heaven. Even if we try really hard to be good we can’t be good enough by ourselves

•God wanted to make a way so we could be with him forever so Jesus came to earth. Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that we can be forgiven and be his friend.

•We need to choose what we will do about this – to be sorry for what we have done, believe in Jesus and follow him

We don’t need to go through the whole gospel all the time but maybe drop bits of it into prayers or conversations: mentioning how much God loves us, or wants to know us; dropping bits of the gospel into prayers e.g. ‘Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus, who paid for our sins’; pray together (and thank God) for forgiveness when appropriate; thanking God that he helps us.