Synopsis
The fastest-selling album of 2013, full of feelgood pop anthems and love-inspired ballads is probably already owned by at least half of your youth group.
Introduction
Your young people will have a variety of experiences of ‘home.’ Some will still live in the place where they were born while others may have moved many times. For most of us home is a happy, safe place, but others long for that place of security. This session is designed to explore some of these themes while discovering what the Bible has to say about Heaven as our home.
PREPARATION
You will need to gather together a number of craft materials for the first activity.
THE SESSION
Begin your session by explaining that we are going to be looking at ourselves and thinking about what God sees when he looks at us.
Track: Don’t Forget Where You Belong (track 6)
Introduce the session theme and play the track, providing copies of the lyrics. Ask your young people what ‘home’ means to them. What does it mean to have somewhere you really belong? Invite your young people to share some of their experiences and what really gives them a sense of being at home.
Tell your young people that the Bible has much to say about this idea. In the Old Testament, God’s people spent many years separated from the place he wanted to give them as their home, taken as slaves to lands far away. Jesus himself spoke about his experience of ‘home’ when he said, ‘Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head’ (Luke 9:58, NLT).
Invite your young people to look at Philippians 3 where Paul explains what this means to us, as followers of Jesus. Draw their attention to verse 20, in particular, which reminds us that our true home is not on Earth; but in Heaven. Whilst we experience what it means to belong in community here in our lifetime, we also live knowing that we truly belong in Heaven.
As you draw the session to a close remind your young people that our time on Earth is only temporary, and all this will pass; the things we should place our hope in are the things that will last - an eternity in Heaven. Challenge your young people, in the week ahead, to look out for the things of God that will last longer than the things of Earth and to think about how we should live differently whenwe know we are merely passing through.
