Five Truths That Change Everything
Week 1 lays the foundation for all 52 weeks. If your group walks away grasping one thing, let it be this: God is infinitely great AND intimately personal. The God who spoke the universe into being knows each of them by name. Most people quietly believe one or the other - that God is big but distant, or loving but small. Your job this week is to help them hold both truths together, because everything that follows is built on it.
Note on the "Going a Little Deeper" sections in the participant study (God outside time and space; the hypostatic union and its five reasons): teach only the short core of these aloud - a few sentences each - and point participants to read the full sections during the week. The depth is meant for personal study so the meeting stays on schedule.
Welcome warmly, especially anyone new. Then open in prayer, asking God to reveal Himself through His Word.
Sample opening prayer: "Father, thank You for not hiding Yourself from us, but showing us who You are in Your Word. We don't have to be scholars or perfect people to know You - You welcome anyone who seeks. Meet us here today. Open our eyes to see how great You are and how personal You are. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Open by naming the tension the whole lesson resolves. Say something like:
"Most people, deep down, believe one of two things about God. Some think He's big and powerful - but distant, too busy running the universe to care about them. Others think He's loving and close - but kind of small, more like a nice feeling than the Almighty God. This week we're going to discover that both halves are true at once: God is greater than we ever imagined AND more personal than we ever dared hope. Hold onto that, because it changes everything."
Walk through the "One God, Three Persons" box from the participant study. Keep it simple and confident. The key points to land:
God is one God who exists eternally as three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three share the same "God qualities" fully and equally - none is greater or lesser. So when we see Jesus do things only God can do (coming up in Mark 5), that's proof He is God the Son.
Reassure them: we don't have to fully figure out the Trinity today. We'll spend a whole week on it in Week 3. Right now we're simply learning what's true of God Himself.
Teach each truth simply, using the illustration from the participant study. Below is the focus for each, plus a discussion question to draw them out. Don't rush - but keep moving so all five get their moment.
"Your hard season is temporary; God is not." Key verses: Psalm 90:2; Hebrews 13:8. Use the parade-from-above picture.
"What situation in your life feels like it's been going on too long? How does it change things to know the eternal God sees the end of your story, not just the middle?"
"He knows everything about you and loves you anyway." Key verses: Psalm 139:1-2; Matthew 10:30. Use the parent who "just knows."
"What do we try to hide from God, even though He already sees it? How does it feel to know He knows your worst and stays?"
"Your biggest 'ocean' is a thimble to Him." Key verses: Jeremiah 32:17; Job 42:2. Use the thimble-and-ocean picture.
"What have you quietly decided is 'too hard even for God'? What would it look like to hand that to Him this week?"
"Closer than your own breath, everywhere you go." Key verses: Psalm 139:7-8; Matthew 28:20. Use the fish-in-water picture. Remember to connect back: God made space itself, so He's not stuck in one spot.
"When do you feel most alone? How does it change that memory to know God was fully present there?"
"He never changes His mind about you." Key verses: Malachi 3:6; James 1:17; and Romans 5:8 for the anchor. Use the friend-who-never-lets-you-down picture. Land the grace point: His love was never about how good you are - it was always about how good He is.
"What change in your life makes you afraid God's love for you might change? How does Romans 5:8 settle that fear?"
This is the emotional and theological high point of the lesson. Read Mark 5:21-43 together, then walk through the layers below. The goal is for the group to see the great-and-personal God in action and feel the weight of it.
Jairus is a synagogue ruler - respected, powerful, religious, at the top of society. The bleeding woman is broke, ashamed, unclean, at the very bottom - she isn't even named. Yet both end up in exactly the same place: at Jesus' feet, desperate. And Jesus gives Himself fully to both.
Draw it out: "It doesn't matter whether you feel like the important ruler or the overlooked outcast - everyone comes to Jesus the same way, and everyone is received."
Jesus is rushing to save a dying girl when the woman stops Him - and to us, that delay feels like a disaster, because the girl dies during it. But Jesus is never in a hurry and never has a "more important" person. The overlooked woman was not less important than the ruler's daughter.
Draw it out: "What feels like an interruption in our lives is never an interruption to God. He has time for the one person everyone else would tell to wait."
Under the Law (Leviticus 15), the woman's condition made her unclean - everything and everyone she touched became unclean too. By the old rules, when she touched Jesus she should have made Him unclean. Instead, the opposite happens: her uncleanness doesn't flow into Him - His wholeness flows into her. The same thing happens when He takes the dead girl's hand: touching a corpse meant uncleanness, but death doesn't contaminate Jesus - life pours the other direction.
Draw it out: "Jesus is so holy and so full of life that our brokenness doesn't stain Him - His goodness overwhelms our brokenness. That's the God we're getting to know."
The woman tried to be healed in secret and slip away - she'd been invisible for twelve years, and invisible felt safe. But Jesus stops everything and calls her out - not to shame her, but to see her. And He calls her "Daughter" (Mark 5:34), the only time He ever calls a woman that in the Gospels. He gave her more than a healed body; He gave her dignity, relationship, and a name in front of the whole crowd.
Draw it out: "He didn't just heal her. He restored her place among people, and called her family."
After raising the dead girl by the power of God - "Talitha cumi," Little girl, arise - the very next thing Jesus says is, "Give her something to eat" (Mark 5:43). The God who had just conquered death also noticed a little girl was hungry. Almighty power and tender, caring attention - in the same breath.
Draw it out: "That single verse is the whole lesson: the same God who raised her from the dead made sure she got dinner. That's how big AND how personal our God is."
"Which of the five truths do you see most clearly in this story? Why?"
"If you were the bleeding woman, what would have gone through your mind when Jesus stopped and called you out?"
"What does it tell you about God's heart that He had time for both the important ruler and the overlooked woman?"
"Where do you need to know, this week, that God sees you and has time for you?"
"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." — 1 Peter 3:15
"If God is so big and runs the whole universe,
why would He even care about someone like me?"
This isn't only a skeptic's question - it's the quiet ache many people carry. A discouraged parent, a lonely teenager, someone who feels small or overlooked. Often the first person who needs this answer is the one in the mirror.
The same God who counts and names the stars (Psalm 147:4) also numbers the hairs on your head (Matthew 10:30). In Mark 5, the Lord of all power stopped everything for one overlooked, ashamed woman - and called her "Daughter." God's greatness is exactly what makes His personal care so amazing: He doesn't care about you because He has nothing better to do. He cares because that's who He is.
"A God big enough to make the whole universe is also big enough to love every single person in it - personally, all at once. His size isn't the reason He'd ignore you. His size is the reason He can know and love you completely."
When someone asks this - or admits they feel this - don't rush to fix them. Listen. Then gently point them to Mark 5 and to the truth that the God who made them has never once overlooked them. Be tender; this question usually comes from a wound.
Have participants practice answering this for themselves first - speaking the truth over their own hearts - so it's ready when a friend, or their own doubt, brings it up.
Put participants in pairs. One plays the friend and asks, in their own words, "Why would God care about someone like me?" The other answers gently, in their own words - no scripts, no pressure to be perfect. Then swap roles. Before they start, give them the one rule: the goal is not to win - it's to love the person asking. Afterward, ask the group: "What felt natural? What was hard?" This little rehearsal is what turns knowledge into readiness - a truth you've practiced saying kindly is a truth that's ready for real life.
Ask: "Which of these five truths do you most need to hold onto this week, and why?" Let a few share.
Introduce the week's challenge: the Scripture Treasury, with its memory verses, daily readings, prayer guide, and reflection. Remind them gently but honestly - real change happens not in this meeting but in the daily time with God across the week. The work is where the reward is.
Close by praying for the group based on what was shared. Where possible, pray for people by name.
Acknowledge it as a real and important question. Note that we'll explore suffering more fully in later weeks (Week 44). For now: the same attributes that make the question hard - His power, His knowledge - are also what give us hope, because a God big enough to question is also big enough to trust. Don't feel pressure to resolve it fully today.
Simple doesn't mean shallow. These truths are simple enough for a child and deep enough that we'll spend a lifetime growing into them. Ask: "Which of these truths is hardest for you to actually live as if it's true?"
A great question - and we have a whole section coming on exactly that (the Word of God, Weeks 10-12). For now, point them to the consistency of Scripture and the person of Jesus, who shows us what God is like.