Watch God’s Not Dead (Start time-0:23:21-End Time-0:32:32) (9:11 min.)
*(Clip not available with lesson. Watch God’s Not Dead to take advantage of this lesson.)
Discussion Questions
1. According to Josh, what was the decision he faced? (Whether to defend God, drop the class, write, “God is Dead,” on a sheet of paper or commit academic suicide.) Do you think this was a hard decision for Josh to make? (Answers will vary.) Would this have been a hard decision for you to make? (Answers will vary.) Kara said the following to Josh: “The decisions you make have real consequences.” What were some of the consequences for Josh that came from his decision to defend God? (His decision caused problems between him and his girlfriend, eventually leading to their breakup. Additional stress and workload at the start of his freshman year.) Do the decisions you make come with consequences? (Yes.)
2. Pastor Dave said, “You’re here because that still, small voice inside you isn’t happy with the choices everyone else wants you to make. All you have to decide is whether you’re willing to listen…It’s not easy, but it’s simple.” What do you think Pastor Dave meant when he said, “It’s not easy, but it’s simple,” when talking about Josh’s decision? (Answers will vary, but may include something such as the following: Just because something is simple to do doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. There is nothing hard about sitting down and taking a test, but preparing to make a good grade on that test isn’t easy.)
3. Name some of the people who were trying to influence Josh’s decision. (Pastor Dave, Kara, his parents.) Is having others influence our choices and decisions a good or bad thing? (It can be both.) Explain. (It all depends on who we allow to influence our decisions.)
4. Making decisions that are pleasing to God is a four-step process. Read James 1:5. According to this verse, what is the first step in the process of making decisions that are pleasing to God? (We should ask God for guidance. This is done through prayer and study of His word.) Read Proverb 15:22. Step two in the biblical decision-making process includes soliciting advice from others. Should we solicit advice from just anybody when making decisions? (No.) Name some positive characteristics of a person who would be good to turn to for advice in making God-pleasing decisions. (We should solicit advice from people who are strong in their faith and have made good decisions in their lives. We also need to be able to trust that person.) Read Luke 14:28-30. What is the third step in making good decisions? (We should gather information that will help us make a good decision.) Read Proverb 3:5-6. What should be the last step we take in making decisions that please God? (We should trust in God and follow His will.)
5. We have learned that to make God-pleasing decisions, we should do the following four things: Seek the guidance of God through prayer and His Word; seek godly counsel from godly people; gather information that will help us make a good decision; and finally, we should trust God and follow His will concerning our decision. Did Josh follow these steps as he made his decision to defend God? (Yes. Josh followed all four steps.) Do you always follow this plan as you make everyday decisions in your life? (Answers will vary.) Do you think you would make better decisions if you did follow these steps for making decisions? (Answers will vary.) Is God normally a part of your decision making process? (Answers will vary.)
6. Read Genesis 35:1-15. What decision did Jacob have to make in these verses? (Whether to follow the Word of God and move.) What did Jacob choose to do?(He chose to follow the Word of God and move to Bethel and build an altar there.) Did he make the right decision? (Yes.) Did Jacob benefit from the decision he made? (Yes. The people in the surrounding cities did not pursue them due to their fear of God. God also blessed Jacob and said nations and rulers would come from his descendants.) Do you benefit from the good decisions you make? (Yes. Many times, good decisions spare us pain and heartache. Others also may trust us more because of the good decisions we make.) Can you name some other good decisions that were made by people in the Bible? (Some good decisions from the Bible include Ruth’s decision to stay with Naomi related in Ruth 1:15-16; David’s decision to spare Saul’s life in 1 Samuel 24:4-7; Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s decision not to serve the king’s gods or worship the image of gold he had set up in Daniel 3:16-18.) What’s the common thread we find in these stories where good decisions were made? (Ruth, David, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego’s faith in God played a big part in the decisions they made.)
7. Read Genesis 3:1-24. What decision did Adam and Eve have to make in these verses? (To eat or not eat the forbidden fruit.) What did they choose to do? (To disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit.) Did they make a good or bad decision? (Bad.) What were some of the consequences of their bad decision? (Pain in childbirth (v. 16); a cursed ground with thorns and thistles (vv. 17-18); death (v. 19); animals had to be killed to make clothing for Adam and Eve (v. 21); they were banished from the Garden of Eden (v. 23)). What are some of the consequences of the bad decisions you make? (Bad decisions can lead to pain, heartache, punishment and lack of trust from people we love.) Can you name some other bad decisions made by people in the Bible? (Sarai’s decision to offer her maid Hagar to Abram to sleep with so he could have children; Abram’s decision to sleep with her (Gen. 16:1-3); Aaron’s decision to make the people of Israel a golden calf to worship (Ex. 32:1-4); David’s decision to sleep with a married women, Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:2-4). What don’t we find in these stories where bad decisions were made? (God was not a part of these bad decisions.)
8. Christian author Elizabeth George said, “Little choices determine habit; habit carves and molds character which makes the big decisions.” Do you believe the little choices you make affect the bigger decisions you make in your life? (Answers will vary.) If the little choices we make everyday affect the bigger decisions in our lives, are the little choices we make a big deal? (Answers will vary.)
9. Read Acts 3:19. Many times in life, our bad decisions lead us down the road to sin. Does God forgive our bad decisions that lead to sin? (Yes.) Though God forgives you, do you still suffer earthly consequences for your bad decisions? (Yes.)
10. Will you commit to make sure God is involved in the little and big decisions in your life? (Answers will vary.) Will you commit to encourage others to make their decisions after turning to God for guidance? (Answers will vary.) When your bad decisions lead to sin in your life, will you choose to turn to God for forgiveness? (Answers will vary.)
Closing Thought
Your decisions are such important parts of your life. The decisions you have made in your past have made you into the person you are today, and the decisions you are making today will affect the person you become in the future. God wants you to make good decisions and gives you the tools to do so. Prayer, God’s Word, advice from people of faith, and trust in God and His will for you always should be part of your decision making process. May God continue to guide you as you make decisions that bring glory to Him and make you into the young person He wants you to be.
“For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 2:6).
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5).
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” (Prov. 15:22).
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish'” (Luke 14:28-30).
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Prov. 3:5-6).
“Then God said to Jacob, ‘Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.’ So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.’ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. So it was named Allon Bakuth. After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.’ So he named him Israel. And God said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.’ Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him. Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel” (Gen. 35:1-15).
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”‘ ‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’ The man said, ‘The woman You put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’ So the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’ To the woman he said, ‘I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’ To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,” cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’ Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’ So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After He drove the man out, He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:1-24).
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
