God crazy loves us

Last night we talked about God's crazy love for us. The concept for the lesson is from Francis Chan's book Crazy Love. We talked about the three kinds of love talked about in the Bible (Eros, Philos, and Agape), what that looked like, and how it's expressed.

I spent some time talking about Jakob. I started by showing that video above, because we talked about how God loves us as a father. It was cool hearing what characteristics the students felt would make a father awesome, and how those great characteristics were good descriptive words for God. I compared what it is like to have grown to love Sarah with an unconditional love, versus unconditionally loving Jakob based merely on his existence. I explained that this is how God loves us. He loves us unconditionally, despite our being unlovable at times.

The climax of the message started with me telling the story of my dad and a teenager in our church. This kid came up behind Dan and sucker punched him right in the face, taking him quickly. Did Dan deserve it? Mostly. My dad didn't care, though. He went after Jimmy, put him on the ground, and held him there until he was able to explain the pros and cons of attacking my dad's kids, especially with a punk move like that. My dad doesn't have the capacity to watch someone hurt his children. I was asked if I would attack someone for Jakob. Of course, the answer is yes, but I do hope the opportunity never arises. We agreed that this was a good instance of my dad losing his mind, but I explained that I felt it was okay. He only went crazy, because he crazy loves his kids.

I followed that story with this: "Now, imagine how God must have felt. He sent His Son, Jesus, to save us. They punched him in the face. They mocked Him. They whipped Him. They called Him a liar. They spit in His face. God sat there and watched that. He didn’t intercede for Jesus, because of His unconditional love for you, me, and everybody. He didn’t intercede, because He loved people who would still reject Him. He did it because He loved people that would accept Him, but continually let Him down. Wouldn't you think that He would intercede for the one He loved most? (many mumbled a yes). Well, that person He loves most is you, and so He couldn't intercede."

We reflected on God's crazy love for us, and how that should compel us to return His love by the way we seek Him and live our lives. Next week we're going to look more specifically at how God's love for us should lead us to love Him back, and in doing so, show unconditional love for His other kids.

Main Scripture Passage
Matthew 7:11

Attendance
Students: 34
Adult Leaders: 14

Game/Activity

We did not have a game. We started with an awesome video made by Dan Sherman. I will get it uploaded soon. It was a video of the song It's Love, by King X, with lyrics and cool video clips of our YG. Then the new youth band played "How He Loves." It was amazing. I have heard the song by three different groups lately, and our kids outplayed and out sang all three. Am I being bias? No, but I would be if I had to be.