Leader Guide

Theme
Victory

Objective
Students will learn about battling and overcoming the darkest part of human nature through the redemptive work of Christ.

Warm Up
When your students arrive, greet them and let them know that in this session they will be looking into deepest and darkest parts of their lives. Doing so may be a bit frightening, but it will help us understand who we really are. Hand out the Student Guides and ask the students to answer the questions in the True Or False section. After everyone is finished working, score the quiz. Ask how many students had all true answers? ...Nine answers true? ...Eight answers true? ...and so forth. Then ask how many answered some questions “False”? All of your students should indicate that they answered all of the questions false. Say, “congratulations, you have all joined the "I am a monster’ club!”

Transition
Explain that we need to admit that we like to do things our way and really struggle with doing good each and every day. Just because we are christians does not make this struggle go away – the struggle is actually hard- er. let’s see what a band called skillet has to say about this struggle.

The Video
Show the video.

Transition
Do you sometimes feel like someone or something else controls you? Christians must be always aware that we fight a spiritual battle against the sin that resides in our human nature. Let’s go to the Bible and we’ll see that this is not a new problem.

Bible Study
Read Romans 7:14-25; 8:1 dramatically to your group. Ask the students to make a note of the key words they hear and write them down on their student Guides. In verse 17, the Bible says that the sin that “indwells” us (nasB), or is “living” in us (niV) is the cause of the problem. In the video, how was this symbolized? (Experimentation, restraining, and injections by medical team.) Ask, “If you were being held against your will and forced to be something you didn’t want to be, how would you react?” Allow for discussion.

God does not leave us stuck in sin, but tells us there is hope from the monster that wants to take over our lives. Read verses 7:24 through 8:1. Even though left to ourselves we can be monsters, Jesus brings us new life and binds the monster within. Romans 8:1 states that we are never condemned because of what Jesus has done for us. There is no condemnation – zero, nada, zippo, not gonna happen. That is great news!

Wrap Up
We can live free because of what Jesus does for us in helping battle the mon- ster! At the end of the video, the couple finally escapes their monster of sin and walks into the light of Christ. Play the video once again for the group. Close in a prayer that thanks God for the ability, in Christ, to win over our sinful desires and beat the monster that lurks within all of us.