Scripture: for teacher background: 2 Cor 2:14-16, 2 Cor 3:18 Romans 12:2
Making contact:
Talk about different smells – good ones and
bad ones.
You could play a game where you have
containers with different things and blind fold the children and then they come
up and smell them and try and identify them. E.g. marmite, peanut butter,
tomato sauce, after-shave, vinegar, coffee, detergent……………
Another idea is to have incense burning or
have a lovely vase of sweet smelling flowers.
Also in the class have a dustbin.
Exploration:
Have you ever had a rat die somewhere in
your house and you smelled a terrible smell? The smell of potatoes rotting is
also a terrible smell. It is the smell of death.
If you ever tried to keep a
dead animal you would know how awful the smell of death is.
The Bible tells us that before Jesus
forgives our sins and washes us, before we are saved, that we are to God the
smell of death.
He says we were dead in our sins and Jesus came to die on the
cross to save us and make us alive with Him. Even though people seem alive and
are walking around, if they don’t believe in Jesus, they smell like death to
God.
“In the past you were spiritually dead
because of your disobedience and sins.” (Eph 2:1)
Things that are dead like rotten potatoes
we throw in a dustbin – so you could say that before we become Christians we
are very much like dustbins.
We are full of death and rubbish.
Jesus died on the cross and something
wonderful happens – if we accept His free gift, we can be changed to be like
Him. We can change from a dustbin in to a vase of flowers.
This change happens instantly in some ways
and gradually in other ways.
We don’t become perfect, beautiful people
over night.
The Bible says we are being changed from one degree to the next.
Some of the change is gradual, just like a fruit tree takes a while to bear
fruit and the fruit takes a while to get ripe, so the fruit of the Spirit begins
to grow in us.
We need to allow Jesus the Gardener to weed
the bad thoughts that pop into our heads and wash out our mouths with the
hurtful things we say every day. Gradually each day we become to look more like
Jesus.
It is like a street orphan coming and living
in a beautiful home. Yes, he is saved and washed, but now the bad habits from
the street need to slowly be changed until he looks and speaks like a beautiful
family member.
I know of new Christians who still swore
and did other very hurtful things, but as God worked in their lives and they
read their Bibles, prayed and mixed with wonderful Christians, those bad things
started dropping off their lives and they became more and more like Jesus every
day.
Even if we have followed Jesus for many
years, we still have a lot of changing and a lot of growing to do.
Application
If we are Christians already, then we need to allow God to change us every day
to be like Jesus.
We often learn about
the fruit of the Spirit because it is so important.
That is how we should be
smelling – beautiful fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
faithfulness, humility and self-control. (Gal 5:22)
“In everything we do
we show that we are God’s servants………by our purity, knowledge, patience and
kindness we have shown ourselves to be God’s servants.” 2 Cor 6:5,6
Challenge to Mission
We can’t go and be missionaries if we smell
of sin. We will put people off and they will say – “Look at those Christians!
They are so awful!” Let us be careful that we smell good and are letting God
change us. Then even without a word we can attract people to Jesus.
(1 Peter 3:2-4)
Consolidation
The worksheet has a
picture of a bin and a vase of flowers to summarize the lesson.
Belief Statement:
We
believe we are being changed to be more like Jesus
Memory Verse
(Write these words on pictures of flowers
and fruit.)
“For we are like a sweet smelling incense
offered by Christ to God.” 2 Cor 2:15
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