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s t r I ke f o r C e ( t u r n t h e o t h e r C h e e k )

What it’s all aBOut

Everyone has a tough day. You feel like everyone else is picking on you. Maybe you get gos-siped about. You have something stolen. Or maybe it’s the accumulation of a lot of little things gone wrong—it’s just a bad day.

God can use days even like these. In fact, there are plenty of times he can use days like these more than the others. It’s when we’re facing the tough stuff that we can actually smell the best to others, the fragrance of Christ emanating from our lives.

get it started

What’s needed: A few blindfolds; as many normal, funky, or downright nasty smelling things as you can get together (just remember, they must have noticeable odor)!

Something smells fishy? Tonight you get to test students on the old olfactory system. Call up a few volunteers—maybe three to five—and blindfold them. Tell them you will put different items under their noses, and they have to guess what they’re smelling.

Don’t let the students touch the items. Start out simple at first with things like oranges, coffee, hot cider. Then move on to things that are a bit more difficult, like fish, slightly rotten eggs, mustard. Get as many odd objects as you can and finish with the downright strange: things like dog food, fish food, hot salsa—whatever works.

Have someone keep score round by round. See whose nose knows the best. Give the winner the pick of any of the smelly items; you’ll get plenty of groans there!

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O n t h e a lt a r : O f f e r

Where It’s found in the bible

Luke 6:29-32, 35-36If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. . . .

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

y O u t h t a l K O u t l i n e

1. That Hurts

a. Dodgeball

Many kids who grew up with gym class have played some form of dodgeball (some places call it battle ball). The idea is to divide students into teams and put them on opposite sides of the gym with a “Do Not Cross!” line in the middle of the floor. When the whistle blows, it’s a rush to the center of the gym to grab a ball and throw it at another student to get them out. The object is to not get hit and to hit as many people on the opposing team as you can. Now, if you’ve played this game, you have, at some point, taken an unsuspecting body shot. It can be a nasty blow.

There are ways, and days, that life can be like that game. We all take unsuspect-ing shots from time to time. Someone calls us a name, steals from us, gossips about us, or ridicules us in front of others. What we too often do in return is not exactly what God calls us to do—we adopt the same rules as we use in dodgeball: don’t get hit again, and hit as many other people as you can.

God, on the other hand, calls us not only to take shots in life but also to be wiling to take a few more for the team. This team is God’s team, the kingdom of believers who can influence others by how they handle the difficult stuff from the world.

“But that’s not fair.” Have you ever said that? Have you ever prayed that? God knows that life isn’t fair; the fact that it isn’t is one of the prime rules in life. But how we respond to the unfair stuff is the key.

It’s not an easy proposition: God calls us not only to not strike back but also to be willing to take even more shots from others.


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s t r i k e f O r c e ( t u r n t h e O t h e r c h e e k )

b u r s t:

b r a n d e d :

b. Responding like Jesus

God says that if you get hit once, be willing to turn the other cheek. Does this seem fair, right, even wise? But first, ask yourself why someone would strike you on the cheek—whether literally hitting you, or figuratively, by how they treat you. Typically, people don’t walk up to someone and just punch them in the jaw. But even if someone would, it’s wise to ask why. Simply put, hurt people hurt people. So if you do take an unfair shot in life, ask yourself why that shot was leveled in the first


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place. Why is this person hurting? What can you and others do to help him or her get over the pain in their life?

What’s the best way to respond? It could be to simply say “I’m sorry” and to stand your ground, allowing the other person to come at you again if they wish. This will show those who persecute you that you serve a greater cause, that you’re more interested in helping their life than getting some sort of payback.

On second thought . . . what if you deserved to be hit? What if you blew it, and out of anger the other person hit you? You might have to ask yourself if you provoked the act, even if it was wrong (which it almost certainly was). If you did provoke it in some way, this is a great time to respond by asking for forgiveness. And get this: the person may not forgive you but might strike again. We see this in Christ’s life throughout the gospels. Jesus came to continually serve those who ultimately crucified him! How does this look in comparison to how we might respond?

Let’s tie all this back into our opening activity with the smelly stuff. This is all about how we come off to others, how we smell, the aroma we put off with our lives. This is a critical concept in the Bible. Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 2:14-16:

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.

f o r d I s C u s s I o n W I t h y o u r G r o u p :

• What are some ways you’ve experienced life being a bit like the gamedodgeball?

• Whyistheprincipleofturningtheothercheeksodifficult?• Whatdoesturningtheothercheeklooklikeinyourlife?

2. How Do You Smell?

a. You’re a portrait of God to others

Maybe, just maybe, you’ve spent some time striking others. How did God respond to you? Most of us are glad that God doesn’t strike back when we blow it. But what if he did? What if God had this huge list up in heaven in which he kept a precise and detailed account of everything we did wrong, and he saw to it that we got paid back in full, every time? Would you want to serve such a God?

We are God’s representatives here on earth. So we need to know that our response, if inappropriate, can make it difficult for someone to come to know the


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one true God. And how we respond might make the difference in whether another person responds to God at this point in their lives.

b. The higher road

Lunchtime in grade school is when some of the greatest trades take place. You always have that one kid who wants to trade his chips for your sandwich or his Twinkie for your cupcake. But we all know we never traded unless we felt like the deal was fair. No one is going to trade her jelly donut for a liver sandwich. The deal has to be a fair one (or maybe even a little better for us!).

We practice this principle throughout our lives. It’s called reciprocation, and it is exactly what God warns us about. It means you do good only if you get good back. You do wrong to others when they do wrong to you.

Christ taught us that even the worst of sinners lives this way. God holds us to a much higher standard. We’re to do good even to those who do harm to us. It would be like giving your favorite lunchtime snack to the kid who just cut you down, and seeking nothing in return. Now that is an act of love.

If you’re a normal human being, living this way may seem impossible. In fact, it is—without God’s help. He says to be merciful even as he is merciful. This means that when we don’t feel like we can be merciful, we must call on him and depend on his mercies for us to be merciful to others. It is a genius way for us always to be dependent on him. We will always have people who treat us unfairly, so we will always have to rely on God in order to treat others with goodness. Not only that, but God has some great stuff in store for us as we pass these tests. Luke 6:35 says that if we do this, not only will we be sons of God, but God will also pay us back in some great ways.

f o r d I s C u s s I o n :

• WhatdoesittellusaboutGodthatheisaGodofmercyandnotpayback?• HowdoesshowingmercymakeusmorelikeGod?• WhataresomepracticalwaystorelyonGodwhensomeonedoessomething

hurtful to us, to choose to answer with love instead of payback?

b u r s t:


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b r a n d e d :

Wrap It up

Tonight it’s time to think “payback”—but not in the way we typically think of payback. This week, when someone does you no good, you can think: It’s payback time! If I do good back to this person, God will pay me back in a greater way than I ever could have imagined. So bring on those who do you harm—it’s payback time!

a lt e r e d

What’s needed: A few sticks of incense burning near the front area; some soft, reflective music


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In this meeting you talked about how smell is a powerful thing. The volunteers who opened the meeting by smelling food and gross things found out the negative side of the power of odor. The meeting also focused on how our lives ought to be a pleasing fragrance to God.So end with a focus on how our lives can put off a pleasing aroma.

Tell your students something along these lines: “At the altar, you’ll find a few sticks of incense. As we play some music, we invite you to come forward, smell the incense, and pray for God to show you how you can be a pleasing aroma this week—both to him and to those around you.”

End the night with prayer in small groups.


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