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Bible Study

Artist: Jon Foreman
Song: Education
Album: Departures
Featured In: MVL 111

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Jon Foreman

Leader Guide

Artist: Jon Foreman
Album: Departures
Label: Lowercase People
Song: Education
From: MVL 111
Writer: Doug Ranck | Free Methodist Church | Santa Barbara, California

Theme(s): Love: Sacrificial

Objective
Students will discover the characteristics of sacrificial love and the value of letting Jesus be our example in learning how to love the people God places in our lives.

Warm Up

Distribute the Student Guide and point to the section “Education in Words.” Give your group around five minutes to complete this first section.

Invite students to share their words with brief explanations if needed. Ask others to look at their page and cross off duplicates as they hear them. The person with the most original words wins.

What is one example of why a particular word jumped out at you?
Were you surprised by some of the words most common to everybody? Why or why not?
If your grandpa or grandma were writing these words, how might their words have been different than yours?

Transition
Say something like, “To love and be loved by another individual truly is a gift. To learn how to love is one of the hardest lessons we are taught and is not gained by taking classes or going to seminars. In this lesson, we are going to discover the characteristics of sacrificial love and the value of letting Jesus be our example in learning how to love the people God places in our lives.”

The Video

Turn to the “A Priceless Education” section of the Student Guide. As the video plays, have students respond to the prompt. Play the video for Education performed by Jon Foreman, lead singer of Switchfoot.

Have students share their responses

What is meant by “When you love someone, you lose yourself?”
Is this good or bad? Why?
How do scars and pain teach us how to love better?
Why would things worth doing potentially “kill you?”
How does this line fit with the rest of the song’s message?

Transition

Say something like, “What we learn through the act of genuinely loving others cannot be bought. There is pain and sacrifice and the reward of reaching out to someone on a deeper level, knowing we live out God’s purpose in our lives to love Him, others, and ourselves. We want to take a look at a passage of scripture which helps us to discover the characteristics of sacrificial love and the value of letting Jesus be our example in learning how to love the people God places in our lives.”

Bible Study

Read 1 John 3:13-24

Have your students go to the “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” section of their Student Guide. Divide them into groups of two or three and give them about five minutes to complete the exercise. Allow each group to report their findings, especially if the responses are different from the groups before.

Why does loving one another help us to know we have passed from death to life?
The greatest love comes from Jesus laying down His life for us. What does it mean to lay down our lives for someone else?
How does this relate to “losing ourselves?”
When do we display God’s love is not abiding in us?
What does it mean to love in “truth” and “action?” How can this bring scars, pain, and reward?

Wrap Up

Say something like, “Learning how to love sounds great but is not easy. To love is to sacrifice whether in a friendship, as son or daughter, as a spouse, or as a parent. All require giving of oneself.

As we have learned today, Jesus has given us the example. Now it is up to us to follow and encourage one another on the journey ahead.”

Close your time together by asking each person to identify silently and privately one person they could love more sacrificially. If your group feels comfortable, have each person share one first action step they need to take (without giving confidential information). You as a leader can model this as well in your sharing. Be sure each person gets prayed for, specifically mentioning their action step.

Playlist

This song is featured on “The Linc: Love; Sacrificial” Spotify playlist – which is the perfect way to remind your students what you’ve taught them in this session. To share it with them, click the live link on the web version of this study.