Lakita Garth - The Naked Truth Leaders Guide

SESSION 1

The Naked Truth

Getting Started

Before the Meeting

1. Pray for students you know will be attending and for friends who might be invited.

2. Watch session 1 of the DVD.

3. Work through the entire session on your own, answering the questions and thinking through how the material impacts you and your views of sexuality. As you prepare, ask God to give you creativity and a heart to listen.

4. You may want to prepare slips of papers with Bible references to be read during the meeting. When folks arrive, hand out the passages. Be sensitive to folks who may not like to read out loud.

5. Keep your eyes open during the week for messages in the media about sexuality.

6. Gather materials for study and be sure that all the technology is working. Check out the DVD player and arrange seating so that everyone will be able to comfortably see the TV.

7. Have Bibles and pencils or pens available for the students.

8. Hand out the Student Guides a few days in advance to each student who will attend. Be sure to have a few extras on hand, just in case they invite a friend.

9. Play music and offer food to welcome the students when they arrive.

Starting the Meeting

1. You will want to create an atmosphere of trust and honesty. This study will include some very personal material. Make a point to greet everyone and begin to learn names.

2. Ask everyone to grab an index card and search through a magazine for two or three pictures or phrases that describe an aspect of their personality. Tape the pictures to the cards and use them as name placards for the meeting.

3. Another option is for each student to choose another person in the group to introduce. Give the students a couple of minutes to find out something about another person and then have each student tell about the person they interviewed.

4. Open the study with prayer. Be sure to pray for Gods guidance and grace as you begin the study.

Before reading the introduction together, talk briefly with the group about why youve decided to lead a study on Gods plan for an amazing sex life. Ask each person to tell the group their expectations for the next eight weeks. Also, ask the group if they have any concerns about what the group will be talking about.

It will be important for you to establish an atmosphere of trust and openness. You can do that by sharing a story about an experience you had learning about sexuality and Gods plan for abstinence in your life.

Read the introduction together as a group.

Introduction

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and the woman were both naked, and they felt no shame.

GOD (GENESIS 2:24-25)

Pick almost any movie made for teenagers and adults (PG-13 or R) and you are guaranteed to see someone in bed or in the shower with someone else. Most of us have watched intimate encounters on television and in the movies for much of our lives.

By the time most of us are in high school, we begin to wonder, What would it be like to have an intense romantic relationship? Will I ever fall in love and have great sex?

Theres a reason sex is such a big part of our culture: God made us not only to want sex but also to enjoy sex for a lifetime.

From the very beginning, God created man and woman to enjoy each other. We were shaped to find pleasure in the opposite sex: their bodies, their minds, and their spiritual lives. We were created to fully know someone and to be fully known.

Gods plan for you includes a great, satisfying andyes!amazing sex life. Do you want to know Gods plan for a great sex life?

The Naked Truth with Lakita

Now its time to meet Lakita! In each lesson you will have a chance to hear from Lakita Garth, who has lived her life following Gods call to abstain from sex until marriage. As you watch this video, write down any questions or thoughts that come to you in the journal space provided below. Enjoy the video!

Take a moment to talk with your leader and others in the group about questions and comments you have after watching the video.

Here are some discussion starters for after the video:

What did you think of the Naked Truth analogy?

Can you think of examples from life, besides sex, where it would be helpful to practice self-discipline, self-control and delayed gratification?

Review the four steps to making good decisions.

There are a lot of questions and optional activities in this study, so review them ahead of time and choose those questions you would like to highlight with your group. Also, be open to how the Holy Spirit might want you to focus on one section that might apply more specifically to your group.

The Hook-Up

Whether we realize it or not, all of us have an opinion about sex. Below are some typical comments you might hear people say about sex before marriage:

Other people may contract a sexually transmitted disease, but it wont happen to me; Ill be careful.

Sex is just for having babies, its not something to enjoy.

Oral sex and touching are a safe way to show love physically without actually having sex.

Condoms are the best way to practice safe sex.

If Ive already had sex, theres really no good reason to not have sex before marriage since Im no longer a virgin.

If Im dating the person I know Im going to marry, then its okay to have sex because they will eventually be my spouse.

Everybody, except for really religious or ugly people, enjoy sex.

Sex just happens.

After reading the list above, ask the group if they can think of more ideas and assumptions that people have about sex. You may ask them what they think their parents and grandparents thought about sex when they were teenagers.

Are these statements, ideas and assumptions true? Yes, no, maybe? The problem with discovering truth is that sometimes a lie wears a mask that looks a lot like the face of truth. In fact, a really good lie needs to have some truth in order for it to be believable.

Check out the situations below and think about what seems true and what seems like a lie.

As you begin this section, break into three groups and have each group work through a situation. The point is to help the students to begin thinking about how lies often look like truths. After each group has worked through this section, summarize the commentary below and move into the Bible study.

Situation #1

Bobby and Sharon were celebrating their one-month anniversary since they began dating. One night, after going to see a movie, Sharon told Bobby that her roommate had gone home for the weekend and that they had her dorm room to themselves. Bobby and Sharon started making out and pretty soon found themselves wanting to go all the way. Sharon said they had better not because she didnt want to get pregnant. Bobby said, We wont do this all the time. We love each other and this is our anniversary. After all, its not likely that youll get pregnant if we do it just once. It cant happen to us.

What seems true about Bobbys opinion?

What seems untrue about his opinion?

Situation #2

Katrina had lots of questions about sex. She had just attended a Christian retreat with her church group and the speaker told them to just say no to sex. In fact, he told them that listening to hip hop, watching music videos and viewing R-rated movies was evil. The problem was, Katrina was curious about sex even though she knew that God intended for her to wait until she was married. So, she talked to her older cousin, Regina, who was living with her boyfriend. Regina laughed when Katrina told her about the guest speaker at the retreat. Regina pointed out, Having sex before you are married prepares you to have a better and more satisfying sex life with your future spouse because you have more practice.