Tonight's lesson moves into the second "part" of God's Big Story, building on the first week's focus on how God created the world as it ought to be, and He saw that it was good. This week, we see that God, in His perfect love, gave humanity the capacity to love him back. The first humans-Adam and Eve-chose to disobey God. Through that decision, sin entered the world, and now everything is broken, including the relationship with God.
Lesson Objectives:
WHAT: When Adam and Eve chose to sin, our world became a broken place.
WHY: The pain and brokenness we experience in life are rooted in the choice Adam and Eve made and in the continuing effects of sin in our world.
HOW: We examined the choice Adam and Eve made, how our world now suffers the consequences of that choice, and how our choices affect our lives and the lives of people around us.
We started by watching this great Francis Chan YouTube, "Two Scariest Lies in Our World Right Now" .
We also re-visited the object lesson of our clay flower pot from our last lesson. Last lesson when we introduced this pot, we saw in Isaiah 64:8 that God is the potter and we are like the clay. God is forming and molding each of us into something awesome. In the first part of God's Big Story, we focused on the words "creation" and "good" to help us remember that God created our world perfectly. But tonight, in part two of God's Big Story, God's good creation is broken because of a choice. We took out a hammer then and, with our pot wrapped in a towel, proceeded to break the pot into pieces.. Sin enters the world, and the world becomes broken, just like this pot.
This week's key words to focus on that help sum up the lesson's big idea are CHOICE and BROKEN.
We discussed things like:
- In the beginning, Adam and Eve were perfect and sinless. What do you think it would be like to be perfect and sinless?
- Why do you think God would give Adam and Eve the capacity to choose-even though it meant they might make the wrong choice?
- What does this tell you about God?
- How do you define the word "sin?"
- What are some of the real, deep, underlying reasons we choose to sin?
Adam and Eve chose to sin. They disobeyed God's instructions. But perhaps the most remarkable truth in this whole story is that God made a choice before Adam and Eve made their choice: God, in His perfect love, chose to give humanity the capacity to love Him back. If God forced us to obey, it wouldn't be true love. We display our love for God by choosing to obey and honor and worship and follow and trust God. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve's choice had some big-time consequences.
When Adam and Eve sinned, evil was introduced into the world-the world became broken. It was no longer "good" like God had originally created it to be. When things break, they lose their ability to function as they were intended. And when you look at our world, you see so many reminders that things don't function the way God intended. It can leave us wondering if there's any hope and if there's an answer or remedy to our problem.
We asked the kids then:
- What are some ways your choices have negative consequences on your life-or on other people's lives? Give some examples.
- What are some ways your choices have positive consequences on your life-or on other people's lives? Give some examples.
Each day, you make tons of choices. In fact, if you tried keeping track, you'd probably lose count of all the big and small choices you face in the span of just 24 hours! Here's something to think about: Every choice has either positive or negative consequences-it all depends on the kind of choice you make. As a follower of Jesus, you have the opportunity to become a person who makes better, wiser choices. Being aware that ALL of your choices have some kind of consequence helps you in this process.
A lesson for ALL of us! Amen!
