This includes: 1. Leader Preparation 2. Lesson Guide

1. LEADER PREPARATION

LESSON OVERVIEWMany Christians are intimidated by the idea of starting a spiritual conversation with a friend. We immediately think of excuses, many of which are rooted in fear. In this lesson, your students will be challenged to think about the reasons and excuses they might give for avoiding these important conversations. God wants to use us to “knock” on the hearts of people who aren’t yet followers of Jesus—they might just need us to start the conversation.

LESSON OBJECTIVES 1. WHAT: Initiating a Jesus-centered conversation with a friend can seem tough, but the Holy Spirit will guide us as we share. 2. WHY: God will help us overcome our fears about sharing our faith.3. HOW: Students will examine some common excuses for not sharing their faith and ways they can overcome those excuses, and they’ll spend time practicing Jesus- centered questions and conversations.

PRIMARY SCRIPTUREActs 8:26-40

SECONDARY SCRIPTUREColossians 4:3

TEACHING PREP

Read Acts 8:26-40.

evangelism Week 3:Knock, Knock

The short overview below is designed to help you prepare for your lesson. While you may not want to

convey this information word-for-word with your teenagers, you’ll definitely want to refer to it as you

lead your lesson.

In this passage, we read about Philip’s life-changing conversation with a man who had great authority under the queen of Ethiopia. This eunuch was reading passages from the book of Isaiah but was unable to understand it. Led by the Holy Spirit, Philip initiated a spiritual conversation, asked questions, and listened to what this man had to say. This story is a great illustration of how God will bring us into contact with people who are searching for answers.

This lesson re-emphasizes teachings from the two previous lessons. This will allow you to reinforce the ideas of asking and listening to friends, as well as knowing what Christians believe and how to explain their faith. The lesson also includes a role-playing activity in the Application section that will allow students to practice what you’ve talked about during the series.

THE BEFORE & AFTER [optional]

Text Message Questions

We’ve provided a couple of different text message questions to send out to your students prior

to your meeting. Feel free to use one or both of the questions below. As with the rest of the

curriculum, edit these questions to fit the needs of your ministry.

•WhyisithardforsomepeopletotalktoothersaboutGod?Let’stalkabout it at small group tonight.

•Haveyoutalkedwithanyfriendsthisweekaboutwhatitmeanstobea followerofJesus?Tellusaboutittonightatsmallgroup.

Parent Email

We’ve provided you with an email below that you can send to your parents following the lesson.

Our hope is to encourage parents to continue the conversation at home. Feel free to edit and

customize the email to fit your ministry needs.

Dear parents,

This week, our small groups finished their three-lesson series on evangelism. Our goal is to help our teenagers confidently and effectively tell their friends about their faith in Jesus and what it means to become a follower of Christ.

In this final lesson, we examined Acts 8:26-40. In this passage, we read about Philip’s life-changing conversation with a man who had great authority under the

queen of Ethiopia. This eunuch was reading passages from the book of Isaiah but was unable to understand it. Led by the Holy Spirit, Philip initiated a spiritual conversation, asked questions, and listened to what this man had to say. This story is a great illustration of how God will bring us into contact with people who are searching for answers.

This week, I’d encourage you to find a few minutes to talk with your teenager about our lesson. You might want to use these questions to generate some discussion:

•WhataresomeofthecommonreasonsorexcusesChristiansgivefornot talkingtootherpeopleabouttheirfaith? •Areanyofthosereasonsvalid?Howmightyouovercomethese? •Doyouthinkit’simportanttoshareaboutGod’slove—tosharethegospel— withpeoplewhoaren’tyetChristians?Whyorwhynot?

Have a great week!

2. LEsson guide

GETTING THINGS STARTED [optional]

Welcome your students and invite them into your meeting area. Open in prayer, and then SAY

SOMETHING LIKE:

When we knock on a neighbor’s door, we’re asking for permission to enter and spend time with that person or that family. Today we’re going to talk about taking the step of sharing the good news about God’s love with our friends. Unfortunately, we often have excuses and reasons for NOT sharing our faith, but God wants to use us to “knock” and have those life-changing conversations with people who aren’t yet followers of Jesus.

TEACHING POINTS

SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Let’s spend a few minutes discussing what might stop us from talking to our friends about God.

If you came up with an opening activity, movie clip, or game that worked well with your group,

and you’d like to share it with other youth workers, please email us at

ideas@simplyyouthministry.com.

evangelism Week 3:Knock, Knock

Read Acts 8:26-40 together as a group. Consider allowing one or more of the teenagers to read

the text.

Remember: All throughout these lessons, it’s up to you to choose (1) how many questions you

use, and (2) the wording of the main points—keep ours, or change the wording to make it

clearer for your audience.

The goal of the Teaching Points is to help students capture the essence of each lesson with

more discussion and less lecture-style teaching. The main points we have chosen here are

(1) Examine the excuses, and (2) Overcome the excuses.

1. Examine the excuses

ASK:• If you found out about an amazing deal that [insert name of local student

hangout or restaurant or store at the mall] was giving away $1,000 to every person who bought a [insert one of the store’s items], would you tell your friends? Why or why not?• If your friends found out that you knew about this amazing deal but didn’t

tell them, how do you think they’d respond?• What are some of the common reasons or excuses we give for not talking to

other people about our faith? • In Acts 8:26-29, how do you think Philip felt when God told him to talk to

the Ethiopian?• How would you have felt if you were in Philip’s shoes?• If Philip had decided he didn’t want to talk with this man, what excuses

might he have given?

SAY SOMETHING LIKE: The news about Jesus is more than an amazing deal—it’s a life-changing gift from God! When someone accepts the gift of forgiveness through Jesus, they receive the gift of eternal life and gift of the Holy Spirit as their daily counselor—a support in tough times, as well as a direction-giver. Just look at how the Holy Spirit directed Philip in Acts 8!

2. Overcome the excuses

ASK: •Let’sthinkaboutsomeofthereasonsorexcusesyoumentionedafew minutes ago. Are any of them valid? How might you overcome these reasons or excuses? •Inthefirstweekofthisseries,wetalkedabouttheimportanceofasking questions and listening. If Philip would have just started telling the eunuch what he thought before asking and listening, how might this story have turned out differently? •Doyouthinkit’simportanttoshareaboutGod’slove—tosharethegospel— with people who aren’t yet Christians? Why or why not?

SAY SOMETHING LIKE: We need to seriously examine our excuses, especially when we recognize that without a relationship with Jesus, our friends and family members will spend eternity separated from God. We may see limitations, but God is able to help us and guide us through these conversations. It’s important to remember that as much as you care about your friends and family members, God cares more and wants you to help others know about him!

ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION [optional]

ASK:• Read Colossians 4:3. What does this verse say to do?

• What are some opportunities to talk to your friends about God that you can easily overlook or miss?

• What happens if you’re talking with a friend about faith and that person asks you a question you can’t answer? What are your options?

APPLICATION

Optional ActivitySAY SOMETHING LIKE: I want you to think about what it might look like to “knock on your friend’s door” and start a conversation with that person about Jesus. Let’s brainstorm some opening questions. You tell me what questions might work well, and I’ll write them down.

Give your group a few minutes for this activity. Then SAY SOMETHING LIKE: Now we’re going to role-play. I want you to ask me some of these questions I wrote down. When you ask, I’m going to give you some responses that will indicate if my “interest” door is closed, cracked open, or wide open.

Vary your responses to indicate you are uninterested, slightly interested, or very interested in more conversation. Try to lead the students to continue the role-play. Then after a few minutes, stop and evaluate what happened.

ASK:• What kind of answers did you get?

• How did you know whether to continue the conversation or not?

• What are some ways we can help each other have the courage to talk to our friends about our faith?

Ask each student to find a partner for this next group of questions.

ASK:• You probably have reasons why it’s hard to start that important conversation

about God with friends. What are some of your reasons, and what steps might you take to overcome these fears or concerns? • HowcanIprayforyouthisweektorejectexcusesandbeginconversations with people who aren’t yet followers of Jesus?

SUMMARY

FOR KEEPS [MEMORY VERSE]

Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ (Colossians 4:3).

Encourage and/or challenge your teenagers to memorize the verse below.

End your small group lesson here. Provide your teenagers with a quick summary or take-home

challenge based on (1) the content of this lesson, (2) the dialogue that took place during the

lesson, (3) your understanding of the issues and struggles your teenagers are facing, and (4) the

big picture of your youth ministry and what your leadership team wants accomplished with the

teaching and discussion time.