EXTRA! Ideas for Adults – Character Counts – Session 3

Date: August 10, 2025 

Humility 

The Point: Consider the needs of others before your own.

Get Into the Study

Share the following after discussing the opening question.

At Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, pride sometimes comes before a fall—very literally. Recent years have seen an increase in visitors’ ignoring warning signs to capture extreme photos of themselves near lava to post on social media. They dangle cameras over ledges, cross barriers with selfie sticks, and walk near craters at night with just their phone lights. Sometimes they fall into volcanic craters.

A visitor from Boston stepped off the trail near Kilauea Crater late one night to look at the lava, despite posted warning signs. He fell thirty feet into brush, which narrowly saved him from falling one hundred feet into a volcanic crater. The tourist escaped with only facial injuries. The hubris of ignoring warning signs is a real danger, according to Beat of Hawaii, a travel news website.

“The warnings are everywhere,” Beat of Hawaii stated. “What’s changed is the mindset: too many visitors believe the rules don’t apply to them. They assume they’ll be careful, that nothing will go wrong, and that getting a slightly better photo is worth the risk.”

Close calls at Kilauea abound for those who ignore barriers to pursue self-promotional photos. A toddler nearly fell 400 feet when parents lost track of the child too near the barrier. In 2018, twenty-three people were injured when a tour boat went too close and was hit by a lava explosion. As with active volcanos, turning from pride in the spiritual realm can minimize injury and improve life.

https://beatofhawaii.com/hawaii-visitor-warnings-dont-work-thats-why-he-fell-into-crater-zone/

Get Into the Study (Option from Adult Leader Guide)

In advance, play a video clip showing someone who just keeps wanting more. Then ask Question #1.

Study the Bible

As you discuss Question 2, share the following.

Love laid a foundation for humility in Kerr County, Texas, when Baptist volunteers launched a ministry to families who lost children in the Texas Hill Country flooding July 4. A team from Texans on Mission is packaging Bibles and handmade blankets with personal items of children who died in the flooding. The team then gives the packages to the children’s grieving families.

“Our prayer would be that God would give them comfort and assurance, and they would feel the love and the covering of Jesus as we do this for them,” said Jeannie Stover, a Texans on Mission volunteer from Taylor’s Valley Baptist Church in Temple, Texas. “It comes from the bottom of our hearts.”

The ministry began when volunteer Lacy Daves connected with search and rescue teams and realized personal items were being recovered of children who succumbed to the flood. Volunteers from other churches added the ideas of blankets and Bibles, each of which is signed by Texans on Mission volunteers. The items are put together in baskets, prayed over, and sent to the children’s parents.

Stover pointed to Romans 15:13 as the team’s prayer for their basket ministry: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The love displayed in this ministry both humbles those who receive it and reflects the humble character of those who exhibit it.

Texans on Mission gives grieving parents baskets of blessing | Baptist Press

The week’s writer for Extra is David Roach. David is pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Saraland, Alabama. He and his wife Erin have three children.

Additional Questions

Icebreaker

• When did you last give some kind of care to an animal?
• What’s a household task that’s so big or cumbersome you can’t do it by yourself? 
• When have you been reminded that pride comes before a fall?
• What do you try to never run short of and why?
• Growing up, what was an activity that allowed you to express your independence?

Philippians 2:1-2

• How do believers’ expressions of love produce joy in others?
• Why is Christian love inseparable from an attitude of humility?
• How does disunity in a church detract from the gospel?
• What are some of the ways love is connected with humility?

Philippians 2:3-4

• Why is considering others more than ourselves necessary for humble service?
• What are some of the ways that selfish ambition undercuts love?
• When do you find it most difficult to put others ahead of yourself?
• How do we navigate the tension of putting others first but not getting run over ourselves?

Philippians 2:5-11

• How did Jesus’ death demonstrate that meekness and humility are not signs of weakness?
• What aspect of Christ’s example stands out to you?
• How could Jesus’ attitude toward the Father encourage you toward an attitude of humility in this coming week?
• What do you find most remarkable about Jesus’s humility?
• How can we follow the example of Jesus in displaying humility?

Podcast

Click here for a 20-minute podcast for both the group member and the leader.

Podcast (adultsleadertraining): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS