No Greater Love

Discussion starter: Hold up a penny and ask them what it is. Then do the same thing with a twenty dollar bill and ask them which one they would rather have and why? A penny is considered to be worthless by many Americans. It is the lowest amount of money that we can have. A lot of times when we drop one, we keep going and don't even stop to pick it up. The Bible says the same thing about us before we get saved and became a Christian. Read aloud and discuss the following verses.

Romans 3:10-12: The word righteous means good. There is nobody in this room who is good in God's eyes. We all do good things sometimes, but most of the time we are not very good. Verse 12 says that we are all unprofitable, which means worthless and good for nothing like the penny. Sure a penny is good to use, but over all it is not worth much. Isaiah 64:6: Can anybody think of something that is filthy or unclean? That is exactly how you and I are to God if we are not saved. Ecclesiastes 7:20: This verse says that there is not a good person on this earth who does good and does not sin. Ezekiel 18:20 Because of our sins, we are guilty before God and must be punished. When you guys get in trouble at home, what do your parents do? They punish you don't they? The punishment for our sins is to spend forever away from God in a dark and scary place called Hell. There is good news though, even though we are worthless or of little value like a penny in God's eyes, he loved us and sent Jesus to die on the cross. Romans 5:8: God showed us his love, even when we were sinners and worthless like this penny, he died for us. He had to punish us, but instead of punishing us he choose to send his son to die in our places so we do not have to go to that dark and scary place called Hell. John 15:13 The bible says that there is no greater love then the love that drives us to give our lives for friends our friends. That is just what Jesus did for us. He loves each of us and wants us to go to heaven. All we have to do is believe that he died for us and to call on his name to save us. When we do that we become more valuable to God than all the money in the world and he rewards us with good things in this life and the promise of heaven when we die.

Note:  Joshua Busby is an Internet Youth Minister. Visit Totally Teen Ministry for help in ministering to teens.