Our lesson tonight moved our group into the third "part" of God's Big Story, building on the previous themes of how God created the world as something good, and how Adam and Eve made a choice that caused the world to become broken. This week, we saw how God provided a way to fix our brokenness, but the remedy of Jesus is one we must receive for ourselves. God does the fixing, and we can only receive it-we can't do it ourselves.
Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 2:8-10 - God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Lesson Objectives:
- WHAT: Although our world is broken, God has a remedy to fix things.
- WHY: Redemption adds purpose to our lives as we join God in His plan for the world.
- HOW: We examined God's plan to fix our broken world through Jesus and saw how each of us must decide if we will receive the gift God offers.
We started with a game that involved the youth dropping clothepins while standing on chairs into cups on the floor. For each clothespin they made into the cup, they received one ticket. They then were able to redeem those tickets for pieces of candy....and an example of something being redeemed for something else of greater value.
There were two main points to tonight's lesson.
1. God provided a way to FIX the world.
- God created the world, and it was good. Adam and Eve chose to sin, and the world became broken. How is Jesus the solution to the world's brokenness?
- How has Jesus fixed problems or challenges in your life?
- Earlier, you redeemed your paper tickets for something better-some cool prizes. What's the similarity between that experience and Jesus helping you and me experience something better in our lives?
Being a "slave" to sin is like having sin as your boss; that's why the Apostle Paul talks about the "wages of sin" in this verse. When you work at a job, you receive money-wages from the boss. So, if we're working for sin as our boss, we'll receive the payment of death-eternal separation from God. But God's remedy for our sin and for our broken world was to send Jesus to pay the price for our sins by dying on the cross-and then coming back to life again. God redeems through his Son Jesus-but it's a solution we must choose to accept and receive.
2. We must choose to RECEIVE God's remedy.
- Romans 6:23 says that "the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." How would you explain this to your friends?
- Explain in your own words what it means to "become a Christian" and how you make the choice to receive God's remedy of forgiveness and redemption through Jesus Christ.
When we talk about God "fixing" the world, we're really talking about God's plan of redemption-that which was broken can now be fixed, restored, redeemed through Jesus Christ. And the word "receive" is important because God is the one who does the fixing. We can only receive His gift of being "fixed" or redeemed through Jesus-we can't do it ourselves.
We let a few kids attempt to "fix" a clay flower pot that had been broken. As you accept the gift of God and see that your life is redeemed from a broken mess and restored to something useful again, the next step is to join God in His plan for fixing the brokenness in our world. When we live the way God intended us to live, we bring small pieces of redemption to the world we live in. This is what God intended us to do.
We ended with some take-home challenge questions for the kids to think about and work on during the next week as they continue to reflect on Romans 6:23 and Ephesians 2:8-10.
