Week 3- Honoring God as Redeemer

MONDAY — Read the passage with your team.

   7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 John 4: 7-21

What does this passage have to say about honor?

Why is that important?

TUESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

 1) Verses 9 and 10 describe another incomprehensible act of God — one that gives us great reason to honor Him.  What is that?  If you honor God (recognize who He is) and rely on Him, what will happen (v. 15-16)?

2) Have you acknowledged Jesus as your Savior?  What can enable and motivate you to love and honor Christ (v. 19)?  How silly is it to resist loving someone who has loved you enough to die, in order to take on the penalty for everything you’ve ever done wrong?  Why would a person ever reject that love?

WEDNESDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

3) God not only redeems us (saves us and makes us right in His eyes), but He also gives us great gifts that enable us to honor him genuinely.  What are some of those gifts (v. 13, 16, 17)?

4) How do these gifts make you able to live (v. 17)?  Can you ever be completely “like Him” during your time on earth?  Why, then, does He want you to try to imitate Him?  (We can understand another form of honor in understanding that God desires for us to surrender our lives to His authority.  This involves not just our words, but our actions.)

5) Is there any aspect of your daily living that God doesn’t care about?  Any area in which you should not seek to honor God, or about which He is indifferent?  How about athletics?  As an athlete, are you committed to being “like Him”?

THURSDAY — Discuss the passage with your team.

5) Because God lives in us and makes us able to love, what is another way in which He commands us to honor Him (v. 7-8, 21)?  Is love a feeling or an action?  (We see that God has given us the ability to love, and He commands us to do so.  Loving others is not always easy and doesn’t mean you have to feel “warm fuzzies”.)

6) How, then, does honoring Christ lead you to treat others on your team?  Do you and your teammates consistently put this into practice?  How could you put this command into practice in response to bad calls by the officials, correction from your coach, or your attitude toward another player who doesn’t treat you with respect?

FRIDAY — Discuss sport applications of honor, and pray together.

· Ask your athletes to briefly reflect on what they’ve learned about honor this week, and to repeat some of those things.  (Remind them of some of the Biblical truths about honor you’ve discussed, if necessary.)

· Ask your team, “Based on what we learned about honor this week...What does an honorable athlete do?”  Do not settle for vague answers; challenge your athletes to go beyond general qualities of an honorable athlete, and to determine what those qualities look like in action.

· Add the results to your team’s list of descriptions of the “honorable athlete”, and be sure the list is displayed somewhere that is constantly visible, as a reminder to the team.

· Pray together as a team.  Encourage your athletes to pray for your team’s growth in regard to the discipline of honor — especially in relation to some of the issues and challenges that you discussed together this week.  Challenge them to also ask for forgiveness, when applicable.  Give time for athletes to request prayer (regarding honor or anything else), and pray together.