Jail Break - Optimizing Growth

 Objective - Students will learn their new life in Christ produces change and will take steps to grow to be more like Jesus.

Key Scripture - Colossians 2:6-7 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Summary - Today’s lesson was the fourth lesson in a four-part series called Jail Break: Set Free From Sin. This series has focused on the doctrinal truth of sin, but more importantly, how we can be free from it. A simple definition of sin is this: “Anything we think, say, or do that disobeys God.”

 In this final lesson of the series, we discussed how we can grow and change in our spiritual lives. There are two different ways that people try to make changes in their lives: doing it in their own strength or allowing God to make those needed changes. The truth is, trying to grow and change in our own strength doesn’t work. As a way to connect with the truth we learned in this lesson, read Colossians 2:6-7.

We discovered that growth is only possible if life is present. Dead things don’t grow. For those who have received Jesus as Savior, we were instructed to walk in Him. We do that by being rooted in Him and allowing Him to build us up, establish us, and help us abound in the faith.

Your student was challenged to decide to grow by being dependent on Christ not on their own strength. But they were challenged to help create the right environment for growth to happen by embracing the spiritual disciplines of attending church, having a personal quiet time, memorizing Scripture, reading Christian literature, serving others, bringing friends to church, sharing the Gospel, or discipling others.

You can ask your student which area of growth they want to grow in, and what plan they came up with on how to do this. Ask them if they would like you to hold them accountable for their plan.