As I read through the following events, picture they are happening to you. You're at home watching your favorite show on TV while sitting on the sofa. Your mom enters the room and asks you to tum off the TV.
You can tell she has something important to tell you by the tone of her voice. She tells you that your friend has died in a car accident.
Your friend's death troubles you deeply-you are sad, mad and confused.

You are at the funeral a few days later when all of a sudden someone notices the casket is empty.

The family starts to complain to the funeral home only to soon realize an amazing miracle has taken place.

Your friend is alive.
In fact, she enters the room appearing to be quite normal.

Question: What would you be thinking & feeling at that moment?

When Jesus died on the cross, his closest friends and family were devastated. They loved and cared for him deeply.
When they discovered he was alive, they were thrilled!

Their thoughts and feelings were probably similar to what you would experience in the same situation.

Read Matthew 28:1-10 (KJV).

1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead .
5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.
9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.
10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

The women left the tomb quickly. They were afraid, but they were also very happy. They ran to tel Jesus' followers what had happened. Suddenly, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings."

The women came up to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.
Then Jesus said to them, "Don't be afraid. Go and tell my followers to go on to Galilee, and they will see me there."

Say: You may have heard this story before, but have you ever thought about why it is so important that Jesus came back from the dead?

Today we are going to explore that question, and you might be surprised at the answer.

(Hold up the donut)

*Note: feel free to use something else that your group would really like if donuts aren't appealing enough.

Who likes donuts? Who is a really big fan and would like to eat this one?
(Pick a student to come upfront.)

Hi there, what's your name? Great, before you eat this.

I am going to put it right under your nose, but you can't have it yet.

(Put it under the student's nose.)
Now, smell this yummy donut.
Smells good, doesn't it? I want you to hold it now, but you still can't eat it.
(Hand the donut to the student.)

What's going through your mind right now?

(Get response.)
I bet your mouth is watering and you can't wait to eat it. Well, you can't have it yet. But you will soon, so hang on. I’ve got a few more things I want to share with everyone.
So, while I do that. You just hold up the donut. But don't eat it yet. I have a love-hate relationship with hot, warm donuts.
I love them because they're soooo good (especially when they are warm and gooey),but l hate them because they aren't very healthy.
I try to eat a healthy diet, and donuts aren't on the list of good things to eat. But once I smell and see yummy donuts, I simply can't resist.
A certain kind of power comes over me.
I will try with all my strength to not eat one, but I just got to have it. So warm, tasty and soooooo gooooood!
(Talking to the volunteer with the donut) Has it been difficult not eating the donut? Why or why not? (Get a response)
You've done a great job, go ahead and eat it.
Let's give him a round of applause. You can go sit down now. It’s hard to resist what I call, the "power of the donut".

Donuts are a great illustration of the power of sin.
For many of us, we can't resist the tempting power of the donut. Like the donut, sin has power over us.

In fact, its power is much stronger.
Before we surrender our lives to Jesus, we can't break the power of sin. In some area of our lives, sin will control and overpower us.
And that sin blocks us from having a forever friendship with Jesus. SIN was powerful enough to kill Jesus.
Although Jesus was whipped, wore a crown of thorns, nailed to a cross and stabbed on the side-none of those things killed him.

What killed Jesus was the weight of all the sins of the world. The Bible tells us that SIN crushed and killed Jesus.
The good news is that Jesus came back to life. Why is that so important?
Because he broke the power of sin!

Sin killed him, but God's power raised him from the dead! With God's help, the power of sin in your life can be broken!
Jesus broke the power of sin in his life when he came back from the dead.

When we surrender our lives to Jesus and follow Him, we are given the same power to overcome sin in our lives.

What does that look like in everyday life?

God gives you the power to say no when all your friends are going out partying and drinking, and they want you to join them.
God gives you the power to say no when you're all alone online, and are tempted to go to that website you know you shouldn't.
God gives you the power to say no when you and your boyfriend/girlfriend are all alone late at night....and you really want to have sex.
Who can give some more examples? (Get responses)(Hold up the skateboard)
Who likes to skateboard and is pretty good at it?

I need someone to show us a skateboard trick. Who wants to do that? (Pick a volunteer)Okay, thanks for coming up here. Go for it.
(Allow the volunteer a few minutes to show everyone a trick.)Great job!
I have a few questions for you.

How long have you been skateboarding? When you first started, did you fall down a lot?
When learning a new trick, do you still sometimes fall down?
Thanks for sharing! You can have a seat now. (Volunteer goes back to his chair.) When you first learn something new, such as skateboarding, you're going to fail a lot. But over time, you get better.
Like how you saw (name of volunteer) do those cool skateboard tricks. At first, he probably messed up a lot.
Even when you get really good at something, you're going to mess up some.

You will never be perfect at anything. But you do get better over time with practice. It is the same with sin.
The first step is to surrender your life to Jesus.