Scripture: for teacher background:
Genesis 3;Romans 3 and 6; Luke 4:1-13
Making contact:
Have a beautiful apple and take a bite in
front of the children. Then pretend to see half a worm and dramatically spit
out the piece of apple!
Speak about how sad it is when something so
perfect is rotten inside. Maybe make a cake that looks beautifully iced but
there is cotton wool under the icing to make it look good.
Exploration:
God made a perfect world but something went
wrong and it was spoilt. What happened? (The children might come up with the
story of Adam and Eve.)
The first people God made had a perfect world and lived
in friendship with God. But one day their greed for power and their disobedience
spoilt everything and they and the earth were cursed.
It is the story of what
happens to all people all the time, so we can’t blame Adam and Eve. The same
thing would have happened if it were you and I.
Show the children a fork with 3 prongs. You
could even give them a plastic fork each to remember the lesson.
What is sin? Sin is disobeying God. We are
tempted to sin in 3 ways. –
1. Point to the first prong of the fork.
Who spoke to Eve and told her the fruit on that tree looked good and had God really
said she couldn’t eat it and she would be like God if she did?
Satan.
Satan is the
Tempter and he still tempts all people today. It is always the same pattern –
doesn’t that certain thing LOOK GOOD? FEEL GOOD? Won’t it make us POWERFUL?
Look at how Jesus was tempted by Satan in
the wilderness – very similar tactics.
So we need to be aware of that voice
whispering into our ears and promising us it will be so nice to steal that
money – which no one will know. ……Or to lie………. We all know the tempter’s voice,
don’t we?
2. The next way we are tempted is by people
and things in the world.
Other sinners tempt us. There are
friends and others always trying to get us to sin.
We call this worldly
temptation. The temptation just to get rich and to have lots of pleasure even
if it is bad for us.
“Come on, don’t be a spoil sport, or a ‘goodie goodie’!
Come join us!!!”
We all know what that is like and we need
to watch out for people trying to tempt us.
We need to be careful of worldly
possessions- always wanting more and more things. There is also the temptation
of alcohol, smoking and drugs and eating too much.
3. The third way is temptation that comes
from our own hearts inside us – self.
We cannot blame the devil or the world.
Because of being born into a sinful world we all have a natural pull towards
sin.
It is like the balls that you bowl with on grass – those big wooden balls
go crooked when you roll them. Often a reason to sin just comes up from inside
us and we just want to sin.
Look at a 2-year-old saying “No!” to mommy and
stamping that foot. Where did that disobedience come from? Inside.
It is because of all this that Jesus came
and died on the cross.
He has taken away the power of the sin over us. It’s
like someone taking away the magnet inside a magnet or whatever is inside a
bowling ball to make it go crooked.
We can live straight lives with Jesus helping
us. Jesus not only broke the power of sin on the cross, but He washes us clean
and gives us the power to say “No!” to sin.
Application
Next time you want to
be naughty, stop and think a bit. Where is the temptation coming from? Is it
from Satan, the world or your own heart? What can you do about it?
Call on your
Bouncer – Jesus – He deals with it straight away and you don’t have to sin. Say
a quick prayer –“Lord I am feeling the temptation to do the wrong thing. Please
help me.”
Remember temptation
isn’t a sin. Jesus was tempted and never sinned.
You can say yes or no to
temptation. If you say “Yes” – then the fork goes in and you sin. Satan wins a
meal! If you say ‘No!’ then you have resisted and Satan loses.
Challenge to Mission
There are people and even youngsters in
jail who have fallen into sin and been caught.
We have all sinned but they got
caught.
Their sin might be bigger than ours but in God’s eyes all sin is the
same. If you break the law by a millimeter or a kilometer, you have still
broken the law.
Find out if you can help these prisoners in any way. They need
to hear the Good News about Jesus. There are organizations like Kairos and
others that take the message in. Maybe you can do something to help, or if you
can’t then say a prayer for these people.
Consolidation
Worksheet: There is a
picture to colour and the memory verse and extra Scriptures.
Belief Statement: We believe that
people have fallen away from God because of sin
Memory Verse
“Resist the devil and he will run away from
you.” James 4:7
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