WARM-UP:
True-False –Run: have all your athletes line up in the center of your area. You will call out a few true/false statements and the athletes will run to the right if they think the statement is true or they will run to the left if they think the statement is false.
Q: When you were running to the right, what were you running away from?
Q: What about when you were running to the left?
In sports and in life, we have to determine which way we are going to run. Are we going to run toward what is true, or are we going to run toward what is not true? Today we’re going to learn about pursuing truth.
WORKOUT:
“But you, man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11)
Our verse from 1 Timothy explains that we should pursue righteousness. What familiar word do you hear in there? You are right, Paul is telling Timothy (and us) to pursue right things.
What do you think “right things” are?
There is a Bible story about a man who was not pursuing right things until something changed that.
“There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.’ So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully. All who saw it began to complain, ‘He’s gone to stay with a sinful man.’ But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.’ ‘Today salvation has come to this house,’ Jesus told him, ‘because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.’” – Luke 19:2-10
Q: Why did the other people not like Zacchaeus?
Q: After his time with Jesus, what does Zacchaeus want to pursue?
Jesus tells us in John 14:6, “‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” When Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus, he was pursuing truth. When Jesus went to Zacchaeus, he presented the truth and Zacchaeus decided to pursue it.
WRAP-UP:
The one thing we need to remember from today is that Jesus is the truth. So when we pursue truth we pursue Jesus.
Let’s pray!
“Lord, thank You that You are the truth and that You pursue us. Help us to learn from Zacchaeus’ story that even if we have done things wrong You still bring truth into our lives. Help us to pursue truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.”