Leader Guide

Objective
Grant hope to those who find themselves trapped in the mess of their lifestyle.

Warm Up
Ask a volunteer to come up and hold out their hands like they are going to be handcuffed. Ask for a good habit they have that they do every day, like brushing their teeth, flossing, etc. Once you have identified it, wrap the masking tape around their hands binding them together. If it is something they do once every day, make one wrap around, two for twice a day, etc. Keep going until you have thirty or forty wraps on their hands.

• So as a good habit this will be hard to stop doing right?
• Now imagine if this was a bad habit, how easy would it be to stop?

Have the volunteer try breaking the bonds that are holding them. You may have to make sure they don’t hurt themselves trying. Offer to help and have some scissors ready to cut them free.

Transition
It’s easy to get caught in bad habits or the way our family does things even if we know there is a better way. Let’s listen to this song from Zauntee and see how things turn out for him.

The Video
Play the “Jesus Called My Name” music video by Zauntee.

Transition
It sounds like maybe Zauntee has some experience in this “bad habit” thing. The Bible understands the challenges of life. The song’s lyrics are very similar to some verses in the Bible describing the same type of experience.

Bible Study
Read Romans 7:19-25

• How many of us can relate to this?
• What are some of the areas where we “want to do good” but instead do the “evil instead?”

Some of them can be as simple as procrastination to other things more harmful. Make list on one side of the “things we want to do” but on the other side “what we do instead.”

Read Romans 7:25

• How does that happen? Is it just a zap prayer or going to church regularly? How?

For Zauntee, it sounds like he had a personal experience with Jesus, “Jesus called my name.”

• That often changes things, but does it necessarily change everything?

Read Romans 12:2
Upgrading your thinking is another way of change, knowing God’s Word is like knowing how to live life. Most of us have some things that are normal at home that probably need to change before we are on our own. They won’t work well at the workplace or in a marriage.

• How do we upgrade our thinking? (By being “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Knowing God’s Word and putting it into practice helps mold our future in the right direction.)
• Are we doing that? Do we have a plan for that?

Here are ten very helpful Scriptures to help get the brain moving in the right direction. Let’s look at each one that way as we go through them.

Matthew 5:23-24
Matthew 6:14, 25
Matthew 7:1, 12
James 1:5, 19, 25-26
James 2:9

• How would these ten Scriptures change things if they were the way we thought and acted?

Wrap Up
Have you had that personal experience with Jesus? Let’s pray and receive that now.

Lead your students in a salvation prayer.

To continue the reality of change, let’s start working on the list of ten Scriptures to mold our lives the right away.

Playlist
This song is featured on “The Linc: Freedom; In Christ” 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.