Session
4: V for Virtue
1.
Icebreaker: Have 2 sacks of costumes, kitchen
items etc. Teams have to put together a
short skit and present it.
2.
Teaching: Virtue
What is
virtue: Defined as moral excellence;
goodness, righteousness.
2 Peter 1:5-9 But also for this very reason,
giving all diligence, add to your faith VIRTUE, to VIRTUE knowledge, to
knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness
to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you
will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. For he who lacks these things is
shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from
his old sins.
When I think
of “virtue”, I think of just a life that walks in excellence and strives to
always please God in all things. Not
just when it’s easy but always. A life
that is holy, and that when she makes a mistake, she runs to God asking for forgiveness
and asking Him to continue to make her more like Him.
Example: Doing what is right even when it doesn’t
matter to anyone except God. Give a
personal example
Listen to the
Spirit of God within you. Obey in the
small things and He will honor you to be over bigger things.
Let’s talk
about a woman in the Bible who lived a morally excellent life…Ruth
She was from Moab. She married a man that was from Bethlehem and his brother
also married a girl named Orpah. They
lived about 10 years in Moab
with their husbands and mother in law named Naomi. They died and the women were all still
alive. Naomi decided she is going back
to Bethlehem
and the girls can stay in their hometown and just marry again.
Ruth decided
that she would stay with Naomi. She
said…Read Ruth 1:16, 17. So they went to
Bethlehem and
Naomi was kind of sad and grumpy about her life. Ruth decides to do something
to get food for them. She asks if she
can go gather the gleanings of the field (explain). So she gathered the leftovers to take home
for food.
As she is
doing this, Boaz comes along and is observing his fields. He notices Ruth 9when you walk in moral
excellence the world will take notice).
He speaks with Ruth and tells her to not go to any other field and that
he has told his workers to not bother her and that she can have fresh water
whenever she is thirsty.
Ruth is
surprised that he is so nice to her, a foreigner. We walk in the favor of God when we live a virtuous
and morally excellent lifestyle. He even
asked her to eat with him and Ruth saved some for Naomi! She had a pure heart.
Boaz goes on
to tell his workers to leave extra gleanings for Ruth. When Ruth brings her grain home, Naomi is
extremely surprised by how much she has gotten and asks whose field she went to
and who took notice of you. Ruth
explains that it is Boaz and Naomi is thrilled and realizes that God’s hand has
been in all of this.
She goes on
to glean until the end of barley harvest then wheat harvest. Do you think Boaz was watching Ruth during
this time? Absolutely!!
Naomi tells
Ruth that Boaz is part of their family.
Back then, it was the family’s responsibility to care for women whose
husbands had died. Many would marry them
so that they could have children and continue the family. Since Boaz is part of the family, it is the
first place they should go for Ruth to marry.
Naomi tells
Ruth what to do and she goes to Boaz whiles he is sleeping and uncovers his
feet. Some say that this was to wake
him, perhaps. For whatever reason, he
does awake and she asks that he cares for her now. Boaz is so very honored because she came to
him instead of some young punk kid in Bethlehem. He says..
Ruth 3:11 Any
now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do
for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a
virtuous woman.
How did the
town know she was virtuous? She lived a
life of moral excellence and goodness by caring for Naomi and honoring other
before herself.
Ruth went on
to marry Boaz and have a son named Obed, who had a son named Jesse, who had a
son named David. Ruth was the great grandmother of King David.
Many, many
years later, Jesus came from this family line.
There are no limits on what God can do through you when you choose to
live a virtuous life.
Ruth was very
responsible. She was thorough and
orderly and things were done in a timely manner.
She could’ve
said, “I'm too tired and do not fell like going to the fields today. But would she have had anything to eat? NO
What if she
would have said I’ll do it later? Just
let me finish this TV show. If she would
have, all the gleanings would have been gone from the fields.
Read Prov
31:10-end
Look at all
that she does in the home. That is what
we are doing this for with you girls.
That you all will grow up to be virtuous women who love God with all
their hearts and love and care for your families with all that is within you.
Object
lesson: Virtue is what is on the inside
of us. (2 milk jugs with picture of two different faces of pretty ladies)
Look at this lady
(milk jug) she is pretty on the outside but what is on the inside? It is what is on the inside that counts. It eventually spills out. (Let them smell the spoiled milk or vinegar, something that stinks)
Let your
heart be full of virtue and moral excellence so that it leaves a pleasant
fragrance wherever you go. (Smell other
jug with perfume)
3.
Spotlight of Honor
4.
Cooking project: Make pizzas out of biscuits/tomato
paste, cheese, pepperoni, and pizza cookies with icing and sprinkles and
fruit.
5.
Snack: Eat the prepared snack.
