Youth Group Lesson on Temptation

Over the last few years, I have started to eat healthy for the first time in my life. As a result, I’ve lost about 10-15 pounds of fat and have a lot more energy. Overall, I feel great.

My approach to resisting unhealthy food is the same approach many students in your preteen ministry take when resisting the temptation of sin.

However, that approach doesn’t work.

I created a five-minute video unpacking this idea. I share what that approach is, and why it isn’t effective. I also talk about what approach works and why it works.

After you watch the video, be sure to scroll down and check out the free preteen ministry lesson on resisting temptation. It includes a fun opening game and great discussion questions.

Enjoy!

Nick Diliberto, Creator of PreteenMinistry.net

Youth Group Lesson for Preteens on Temptation

DOWNLOAD THIS LESSON IN PDF FORM FOR FREE

Bible: I Corinthians 10:13, Psalm 119:11, Galatians 5:19-21

Bottom Line: Temptation is a part of life, but God is faithful and will always help us to overcome it.

OPENING GAME: Maze of Choices

Supplies/Preparation Needed

• Using blue painters tape, create a maze on the floor.

• Write down temptations preteens might encounter on a blank sheet of paper. One temptation per piece of paper. (ex: lying, cheating, being mean to your brother, etc).

• Place the sheets of paper throughout the maze.

Give students a few minutes to go through the maze (stay between the lines). The goal is to exit the maze within the time allowed.

After the game say:

Life can be like a maze. It can be confusing and we can sometimes feel lost. Today we’re going to be talking about how to overcome temptation.

You might have noticed many temptations throughout the maze. We’ll talk about those in just a minute.

TEACH

The Maze Runner—The Movie

On September 19, 2014, a 20th-Century Fox movie came out titled The Maze Runner (the sequel came out in August/September of 2015).

Note: The Maze Runner movie is rated PG-13, so be careful about mentioning the movie to preteens. It all depends on your comfort level of talking about the movie. You can use this lesson without referring to the movie.

In this action-packed adventure film, a teenage boy wakes up in an elevator (called the Box) with no memory of his name, where he comes from or where he is. As he exits to an outside field, he finds himself in a confined community with other teenage boys, living in a compound, prisoners inside the center of a gigantic maze that completely surrounds them.

The boy starts to slowly remember things, and during a campfire fight one evening with another teen boy, he somehow recalls his own name, Thomas. Through reoccurring nightmares and various strange events, Thomas soon finds out that there are things about this weird place of confinement that are beyond his imagination.

The other boys, who are also held, have been trying for three years to escape, but every time someone tries, they meet their deadly fate with the Grievers, which are venomous monsters that literally eat them alive.

There is only one way out of this compound, and it is through the maze, which has twists and turns that shift and change directions every night. This has made it impossible to escape. Any boy who has ever tried to escape the maze has run into the Grievers. Most of these boys did not survive.