This Week:

If you're like most people, you know what it's like to want to be included in a relationship.

This week, we'll look at a story from Jesus' life when he chose to invite and include

an unexpected group of people. From this story of Jesus including kids, we can know

that from now on, Jesus gives you a place to belong.

Verses:

1 Corinthians 12:12–31

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[a] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[b]? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

Questions:

1. When you hear Jesus loves you, what do you think that means? Have you ever experienced that to be true?
2. What do you think about how Jesus describes love in John? What would it take for you to trust what he said is true?
3. If you knew that the next day, Jesus was going to be arrested and killed, how would you have interpreted what he was saying differently?
4. How have you experienced or witnessed the kind of love Jesus describes?
5. Read Ephesians 3:18–19. What barriers make it difficult for you to experience God's love? Have there been times or places where you are more likely to experience God's love? Why do you think that is?
6. Today, what is one step you will take to practice trusting Jesus loves you?