Free Youth Group Games — youth group lessons on identity

YOUTH GROUP GAME ON IDENTITY

Bible: Colossians 3:1-3 (NLT)

Bottom Line: You discover your true identity by understanding who God is and by becoming who He made you to be.

Supplies:

• Stack of blank looseleaf paper
• Marker

GAME PREP

Come up with your own list of celebrities or famous people. 

You can even include fictional characters from popular movies or TV shows.

Write the name of each person in big bold letters on one sheet of looseleaf paper. 

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

Break up students into groups of 6-8.

Say: Today, we’re talking about identity—who we really are.

We're going to play reverse charades. 

Instead of one person in each group acting out the person for everyone to guess, it's reverse.

Each round one person from your team has to guess the famous person, celebrity or fictional character from a movie or TV show.

Everyone else in their group acts out the person. No words can be spoken.

Before we start each round, I will show the name of the person to all the groups, while the guessers look the other way.

All the teams have the same person for each round.

The team that guesses correctly first, wins.

The team with the most points at the end of the game wins!

TEACH

Ask: 

Was it easy or hard to guess the correct answer for each round?

Which one was the hardest? Which was the easiest?

Allow a few responses from students.

It was interesting to see how you described others without using words.

In the game, someone from your team had to guess the identity of a famous person. 

Today we are going to talk about your identity, who you really are, and what it means to become who God designed you to be.

I’m going to tell you something today that you might already realize—You’re at the age that people are starting to ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

And they expect a real answer.

Ask: How do you feel when people ask about your plans for the future?

Do you have something to say, or do you just give them a blank stare?

Allow a few responses from students. Share your personal experiences of how you felt during that time in your life—did you know what you wanted to “be”?

Here’s the thing, people are going to ask you questions about your future plans for the rest of your life:

• Are you dating anyone?
• When are you getting married?
• Are you going to have kids? And then, when are you going to have more kids?
• When will you retire from your job?

It never ends!

But, there’s something important you need to remember throughout every stage of life - who you are has nothing to do with what your career is, who you are married to, or how many kids you have.

Your identity, or how you view who you really are, is wrapped up in who you are in Christ.

Read Colossians 3:1-3. (NLT)

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Ask: Have you ever known someone who has gone through an “identity crisis?”

That typically means at some point, they took a look at their life and thought, “I have no idea who I am anymore.”

Even at your age, you might already feel like that.

Maybe you’ve gone through some changes in your personal life, your family, at school, or in your friendships that have made you question what you’re all about.

It’s okay!

Everyone works through some form of those feelings in their lifetime.

It’s actually very normal.

That might be why Paul (and possibly Timothy) addresses this topic to the Church in Colossae.

He’s reminding these believers that they have died to this life and now, their real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Ask: So, what do you think this verse means by, “hidden with Christ in God”?

Allow a few responses from students. Share how your own life changed when you made a commitment to Christ.

Our identity, our very own life, is no longer ours, but is found in who Christ is and what He has done—it’s an amazing gift to us.

No longer should we struggle to discover who we are, because our character and whole self is wrapped up in who Jesus is.

That is, unless you want to struggle—and some people choose to do so.

Ask: Why do you think someone would continue to struggle with identity, even after they have given their life to the Lord? How is that possible?

Allow a few responses from students. Share your own personal struggle with allowing God to help you with your identity in Him.

Answer: Because we are human, and throughout our lives we will continually have to make the choice to be who God wants us to be, and not just follow our own path.

The whole world is telling you who you should be.

We hear it on social media, and at times, it can seem to bombard us every time we turn around.

Your friends and loved ones have opinions about what decisions you should make, what career path you should take, and on and on.

And while we need their godly guidance, it really comes down to a choice you will make for your own life.

So, take some of the pressure off of yourself by remembering the only way to figure out who you really are is by understanding who God is and by becoming who He made you to be.