WDIGFH Knowing What You Believe (leader sample)

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e v ie l e b u o y t a h w g in w o kn This book will introduce the new student believer to six topics to help them begin to focus on the foundation of their faith. It is thorough but not exhaustive in its content. The goal is to provide some stability to their personal relationship with Christ.

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Did I really join this adventure?

Too often new believers become discouraged because of uncertainty about their faith. In this chapter, we will examine the facts and fiction of salvation.

Doubting

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How do I let others know I’m changed?

Baptism

Identifying with Christ in baptism is more than a ritual. New believers need to understand that baptism serves as a reminder, a testimony, and a promise.

3 Is He really that “Big”?

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God

The Christian life should never cease being a life of discovery about God. Discipleship should help young believers experience more than a cursory view of Him. We want to create a desire within the new believer to know God better every day.

s u c o f in e r u t n e v d a e th 4 Religion or relationship?

Jesus

New believers desperately need to understand that they now have a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe. This is not a religion or ritual, it is a vibrant relationship.

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Who is going to be my guide?

Holy Spirit

It is not uncommon for the new believer to feel alone and overwhelmed. Understanding Who the Holy Spirit is and what He does can give comfort and courage to faint hearts.

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Where’s my map?

Bible

So is the Bible just an antiquated book of do’s and don’ts as some would have us to believe? No, and the sooner the new believer realizes the Bible is the Word of God and the road map for life, the sooner they will begin to walk in victory.

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HoW to use this book A good pair of binoculars can enhance any scenic trip. Whether you are standing on the top of a mountain or viewing a city from a skyscraper, they can bring distant objects into focus. Binoculars are a great piece of equipment when used properly. However, there are a couple of requirements, such as removing the lens caps and looking through the right end.

Our family still laughs about the time one of my sons handed his mother a pair of high-powered binoculars to view some breathtaking mountains in the Lake Tahoe region. She kept adjusting the focus but complained that she could not see anything. My son who was enjoying the moment, refused to tell her that she had not removed the lens caps.

This book is designed to help you remove the lens caps and bring the new convert’s personal walk with Christ into focus. Knowing What You Believe—The Adventure in Focus is the second book in a four-book series called Where Do I Go From Here? Each book answers questions believers need to understand on their adventure of faith.

Book one, First Steps—The Adventure Begins, is written for new believers who have said “yes” to Jesus and need to understand the beginning concepts of their new faith adventure. It answers questions about matters such as what it means to have a relationship with Jesus and how to begin growing in that relationship.

If you are not familiar with book one, you can order it from www.wolstore.org.

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In this book we are going to begin building upon the foundation of the believer’s decision to say “yes” to Jesus. This book will help bring into focus strategic truths they will need for this adventure.

They will face many challenges and potential detours so it is imperative for them to know what they believe.

The Student Guide could be used by new believers without assistance but the preferred plan is for you, as a more mature Christian, to disciple them as they discover what they believe. This Leader’s Guide can be used by a parent, pastor, or youth leader. The bottom line is that you help the new believer bring their faith into focus.

The Leader’s Guide you are reading contains all the content from the Student Guide, plus additional helps and insights.

Each student believer will need their own personal copy of the Student Guide as it contains personal questions and action steps for them to complete.

The goal is not to simply 9

have them learn six new aspects of their faith but to engraft these into their lives. This Leader’s Guide may be used multiple times with multiple students.

Plan to meet with the student personally to discuss each topic.

You may choose to meet them in their home, at the church, or another natural location. Here are some points to consider both in preparing for the meeting and during your discipleship time together.

• This book may be used in one-on-one discipleship or in a group.

• Read and familiarize yourself with all the Bible verses and passages within the study. Take some time to read them in context and to research them in your favorite Bible commentary.

• Review all the “Action Steps” listed in the Student Guide.

• Prepare any personal questions or comments you wish to use in your discipleship meeting.

• Allow the new believers to express themselves as it relates to each topic. Do not use this as a time to lecture.

• If you discover that the student has not prepared for the meeting, do not over react. Simply read the material together and encourage them concerning your next meeting.

• Pray specifically with them concerning at least one of the “Action Steps” and ask them to commit to following through on that commitment.

• Make sure you record their prayer requests or struggles so you can pray for them. It will be highly encouraging to them to know that you remember and pray for them outside of your meeting time.

At the beginning of each topic, you will find a “Study in Focus” page to be used as a worksheet in preparing for the meeting. Remember you have the exact lesson found in the Student Guide but this is an additional help. It provides the following points: 10

• Study in Focus—the title of the lesson.

• Focus Points—these are highlights or key points of the lesson, including key verses.

• Focus Notes—as you prepare for the meeting, you will want to make some personal notes to aid in the discussion.

• Focus Questions—you may select some of the questions from the student notes for your focus or can record you own personal ones.

• Focus Follow-up—this section may include any research you promise to do before the next meeting, prayer requests to remember, or just personal notations from the meeting.

The Leader’s Guide and Student Guide are tools to help you disciple teens. With the help of these tools, determine to: • Guide them to maturity in their faith.

• Instruct them to grow in their relationship with Christ.

• Model for them the reality of living the truth.

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STU D Y IN F OCUS :

n i o j y l l a e r I d i D this adventure?

Doubting

Focus Points: • Dealing with doubt • The Facts: What is salvation?

• The Fiction: What salvation is not • The Final: Salvation’s ultimate test • Key verses o John 1:12 o John 3:36 o 1 John 5:13

Focus Notes: • • • • •

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Focus Questions: • • • • •

Focus Follow-up: • • • • •

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1 Question:

n i o j y l l a e r I d Di ? e r u t n e v d a s i h t Topic:

Doubting

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Answer: I have always hated taking tests. Maybe you can relate to this. It seems that no matter how much I study, I either freeze up and my brain turns to mush, or I question every answer I have recorded. Perhaps you can feel my pain. If you can’t because you are always confident, at least give me a little sympathy.

Usually I go through the test, complete the answers and then as I review the exam, the doubts begin to consume me. So I go back through each question and begin to change them. I do not have any scientific data on this but a high percentage of the time I am erasing the right answer and replacing it with the wrong one. I doubt myself and my abilities even though I may have spent hours studying for the exam.

Doubt is a normal human emotion; it is a feeling. Maybe you do not share my phobia of tests but you doubt other things or people.

Doubt usually rises in us when we are confronted with a decision. It may be deciding which road to take, which team to join, which friend to pursue, or even which piece of clothing matches the best. But at some time in our life, doubt will play a role.

So if you are just a little unsure about your decision of saying “yes” to Jesus as personal Savior, then do not despair; you have plenty of company. It is natural to ask questions like, “Did I really mean it?” or “Did I pray the right words?” So I want to take a few minutes and help you understand your decision. The key to overcoming doubts about your salvation is basing your salvation on the Word of God and not your feelings.

We are going to examine personal salvation by looking at it from several perspectives. God does not want us to live a life of doubt, so He has given us clear direction in His Word about salvation. I believe that you can answer the question, “Did I really join this adventure?” with a confident “yes” when your decision is founded on God’s unchanging Word and not your changeable feelings.

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The Facts:

What is Salvation?

1. Admit that you are a sinner. Look at this verse from Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” God clearly states that we are all sinners, but before we can know Him as personal Savior, we must admit our sin or, in other words, agree with God about it. It is because of our sin that we need a Savior. So the question is: Do you admit that you are a sinner?

2. Believe that Jesus paid the price for our sin with His own death, burial, and resurrection. Here are a couple of key verses to consider. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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In this verse we are reminded that the payment for our sin is death.

This is not just referring to physical death but also “spiritual death.”

Spiritual death is being separated from God for eternity. But we are immediately given the good news that God offers us a gift and that gift is forgiveness of sin by the death of His Son. Jesus paid the price in full for our sin. So the question is: Did you accept that free gift?

First Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

Here we are given the Gospel (good news) in a concise form. The Gospel is not just that Jesus died, but that He was buried and rose again. Jesus came back to life. Through His death and resurrection, He conquered death, Hell, and the grave. So here is the question: Do you believe He died and rose again for you?

Call on Him to be your Savior. We do this through prayer, but another way of saying this is: “Saying ‘yes’ to Jesus.” I know this may still sound a little too easy but remember Jesus did the hard part.

Look at what God tells us in Romans 10:13: “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

So here is the question: Did you say yes to Jesus and give Him a personal invitation into your life?

Often we try to complicate salvation. At other times, Satan may distort the true message of salvation so that we become confused.

Salvation is not a test of yes and no questions. But as you reviewed these questions, could you answer yes? This is the process of basing our new life in Christ on facts and not on feelings.

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The Fiction:

What Salvation is

not!

It is not just a “spiritual experience.” Today Christianity seems to be out and Spirituality seems to be in vogue. But knowing Jesus personally is not accomplished through any spiritual experience; it is all about Him. Look at the words of Jesus in John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”

1. It is not based on our works or words. We are saved, reborn, redeemed, regenerated, or whatever term you use by putting our simple, childlike faith in what Jesus did for us. It is not based on anything that we can do for ourselves. It is a gift and when we say “yes” to Jesus, it is ours. We cannot gain it by being good, going to church, or anything else.

Now that is good news because most doubts about salvation arise from us questioning what we did rather than resting on what Jesus did for us. See, the fact is that our salvation is based solely on what Jesus did and we cannot add anything to it. We just accept His gift. We are reminded of this in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

2. Salvation is more than believing in anything or anyone.

There are many people who are sincere in their belief but the object or focus of that belief is something or someone other than Jesus.

One of the most familiar verses in the Bible is John 3:16. There we are reminded that God loved us so much that He gave Jesus, His only Son, so we could have eternal life rather than eternal death. He is the only way to salvation.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

So we do not have to doubt because we question our spiritual experience, our words, our works, or how much faith we had if our 18

faith’s foundation is Jesus alone. Don’t complicate salvation; bring it down to the irreducible minimum and that is Jesus and what He did, not what we do.

The Final:

, Salvation s

Ultimate

Test

1. Did you say “yes” to Jesus? As we have discovered by examining the Scriptures, salvation is a gift. We cannot earn a gift; we just have to receive it. There is nothing we can do that could ever pay for the gift of salvation. And why would we even try knowing that Jesus has already paid the price in full.

It would be a bit absurd if someone gave you a million dollar gift and you then tried to pay for it. Our free gift of salvation is worth much more that any monetary gift and it would be just as absurd if we insisted on paying for it by adding our works or words. It is a free gift that is given by God. All we can do is receive this incredible gift.

Look at the words of John 1:12: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”

Now you have to admit that this is a gift like no other: we become the children of God. So here is question one on this final exam: Did you say “yes” to Jesus?

2. Are you saying “yes” to Jesus right now?

This may sound a little strange after asking if you did say yes. But I remember as a teen struggling with the assurance of my salvation.

I kept wondering if I prayed the right words, 19

was sincere enough, broken enough, or good enough for salvation. I was confused and maybe you can relate to how I felt.

Finally one day in church one of the deacons talked and prayed with me because I was struggling again with doubts. I will never forget that day because it changed my life. He simply handed me an open Bible, pointed to a verse, and asked me to read it aloud.

The verse was John 3:36, which says, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Then he asked me this question, “Do you right now believe on Jesus Christ to be your Savior?” I responded with something like, “I do not know if I prayed the right words.” To which he said, “Are you right now this moment believing on Jesus Christ to be your Savior?”

I said something about sincerity or brokenness and he repeated his question once again, “Are you right now believing on Jesus Christ to be your Savior?”

Finally he asked, “Why are you so worried about what you did last week or last year?” The question is, “Do you believe on Jesus to be your Savior today?” Then it hit me like a truck and I said, “I do believe in Him as my Savior right now and I am trusting in His finished work for me!”

Then he told me that every time Satan puts thoughts of doubt in my mind, to just read John 3:36 to him and remind him that I am right now believing on Jesus and I do not have to question. What a great day that was in my life because I changed my focus from what I did to what I believed Jesus had done. I quit basing my salvation on me and based it on Jesus and His Word. Now I am not saying that you have to reaffirm every day that you trust Him. I am just saying stop looking backwards and questioning yourself. Take Jesus at His Word because you can count on it!

So here is the last question of our final: Right now do you believe on Jesus as your Savior?

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Action Steps: Well, how did you do on this little quiz? Here are some practical action steps designed to cement this decision in your heart and mind.

• Talk to your pastor, parent, or youth leader about your decision.

• Have them pray with you and make sure this is settled.

• Review the verses we just discussed or even better, try to commit them to memory.

• You will find that prayer will help your focus as you move forward in the adventure of faith.

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