The purpose of this session is to explain that basic interests and physical/mental abilities are tools that God has given each young person to be a light -- a witness in this world. There is also risk involved. We can just be ordinary, and use our interests and abilities in average, dull ways. Or, we can be risk takers, and come out of our comfort zones, and use our interests and our abilities to do the ministry that God has called each of us to do. Ministry always involves risk!

Activate Your Audience

I Dare You To...
Have everyone sit as if you were about to start the Bible study. Then, challenge individuals to come up to the front, all alone, and respond to the following safe but risky dares. Be sure and ask someone to come up first, before you explain what the dare is. If possible, have prizes to give away to the daring souls that rise to the challenge. To increase the risk, have someone videotape each person who responds to a dare.

1. Sing the Entire National Anthem Off Key
2. Sing all that you know of one of your favorite "SchoolHouse Rocks"
3. Crawl on your hands and knees to a person that WE (the group) selects and ask him/her to marry you
4. For 30 full seconds, show us what you would do if you were stranded on a desert island an you saw a plane above
5. Two people come and make up a poem as they go along -- the first makes up a sentence and the second must rhyme it -- for five verses or more

Optional - Who's Bedroom is This?
Before the meeting, obtain permission from a youth parent to come and videotape the inside of the youth's bedroom. Go through several things and areas, filming what you find. Focus on trying to discover what kinds of things this person is interested in. Then, show the video, and let everyone try to figure out who's bedroom this is. Discuss the person's interests/abilities based on the items you recorded.

Bring them Closer

What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?
Have everyone stand, and tell everyone to get in groups based on what they want to do the first year after high school. Break everyone up into categories (four-year college, two-year college, trade school, armed forces, travel, nothing, etc.) If more than 5 end up in any single group, split that group so that the groups are no bigger than five. Have each person in each group complete the following sentences and discuss:

1. My main interest in doing this is because...
2. My abilities that I think will help me to accomplish this goal are...
3. I already started to plan for this goal by...
4. I am ____% confident that I will meet this goal because...
5. I pray about this goal about ______ minutes/hours per week.

Music
Praise God for all He has done for us.

Communicate the Word: It's Your Thang -- Interests and Abilities

1. Introduction
   1. Interests are things that you have a strong desire to do/study/experience
   2. Abilities are natural or developed skills that you possess
   3. God is the source of and reason for both
      1. God put you in the time and place you live so that you would have your interests/abilities (Acts 17:26)
      2. God created you with your interests/abilities to do His work (Ephesians 2:10)
      3. God wants you to use your interests/abilities to their fullest and beyond (John 10:10, 2 Corinthians 8:3)
2. Examples of people in the Bible who used their interests/abilities for God -- taking risks
   1. The woman who poured perfume on Jesus' feet (Luke 7:36 - 50)
      1. Interest: Perfume, of which she had a special jar full
      2. Risk: She was a sinful woman, uninvited to this man's house, but she came in anyway and did something no one had ever thought of doing with perfume before -- pouring it on Jesus' feet
      3. Results
         1. Her actions are recorded eternally in the Bible
         2. She did something totally unique
         3. Jesus honored and forgave her in the presence of all the people who had condemned her
   2. Zaccheus, who returned more than he stole (Luke 19:1 - 10)
      1. Ability: To make and manage money
      2. Risk: He gave money away to be happy. People thought he was nuts for sure.
      3. Results
         1. His actions are recorded eternally in the Bible
         2. Though short and perhaps looked down on, Jesus honored Him in front of everyone
         3. He received forgiveness and made a lot of other people happy (those who got money back)
   3. Peter, a fisherman who became a fisher of men (Mark 1:16 - 18, Acts 2:14, 40 - 41)
      1. Interest/ability: Fishing
      2. Risk: He left his way of making money to follow an unknown teacher
      3. Results
         1. Many of his actions were recorded eternally in the Bible
         2. He caught many people as a fisher of men for God (see Acts 2:14, 40 - 41)
         3. He was crucified upside down for his beliefs (traditional -- see John 21:18 - 19 for allusion)
3. Why use my interests/abilities for God? Why take risks?
   1. It's God's plan for our lives (Ephesians 2:10)
   2. Jesus did, and we are to imitate Him (1 John 2:6)
   3. Your life will be the most fulfilling (John 10:10)

Do Something About It

Explain: Everyone divide up into groups of no less than three and no more than five. Each of you share your interests and abilities with the group. Have everyone else offer at least one way that each interest/abililty could be used in ministry.

Pray and dismiss.