1 East Bode Road Streamwood, IL U.S.A. (630) awana.org 2016 Awana Clubs International

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1 1 East Bode Road Streamwood, IL U.S.A. (630) awana.org Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (ESV ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2011 esv

2 1.3 GOD IS JUST: LESSON OPENER (5 MINUTES) OPTION 1: CANDY JUSTICE SIMULATION WHAT YOU LL NEED: Bowl, piece of candy, or another treat for each kid, watch or timer LEADER PREP: Beforehand, fill the bowl with candy or another treat. Choose a kid in advance to help you with the simulation and tell him or her what to do. (See Step 2 below.) STEP 1: Welcome the kids and hold up the bowl of candy. Let the kids know you will give a piece of candy to everybody who remains seated for the next 30 seconds. them. Let one or two kids share briefly or share from your own experience.) God is always fair to everyone. C. The Bible says He is a just God, which means God will always give people what they deserve. STEP 4: Open in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to guide you and the kids into God s truth through the lesson. Transition to main lesson. STEP 2: Start the timer and remind the kids that they only get the candy if they remain seated. Shortly after you start the timer, the helper you chose should stand up and whine that he or she wants the candy right now. Tell the helper he or she won t get a piece of candy because he or she didn t follow the rule. If another kid stands up for any reason, don t give him or her candy either. STEP 3: After the time is up, distribute candy to those who earned it and talk about the activity. Let the kids know they just saw an example of justice. A. Justice means that everybody gets what they deserve. B. Everyone who stayed seated deserved and got a piece of candy, because they followed the rule. That was fair. C. Everybody who stood up didn t deserve and didn t get candy because they didn t follow the rule. That was also fair. If they haven t already figured it out, tell the kids that you asked the person to stand up while you were timing the group. Give this person another chance to earn a piece of candy by having him or her sit for 30 seconds. A. They were all treated fairly today during the activity. B. Sometimes people aren t fair and don t treat us fairly, because they are sinners and make mistakes. (Ask them if they can recall a time when someone wasn t fair to

3 OPTION 1: DRAW A PICTURE OF JUSTICE WHAT YOU LL NEED: Bible with bookmarks placed at Deuteronomy 32:4, Romans 3:10-12, Romans 3:23, and Romans 6:23; dry erase board; red and black dry erase markers; bowl of candy (in addition to the bowl of candy you may have used above) LEADER PREP: Beforehand, set up the dry erase board and markers where all the kids can see them. Keep the bowl of candy within your reach to use at the right time. STEP 1: Tell the kids that they are going learn what their verse this week says about God and His justice. Open in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to guide you and the kids into God s truth through the lesson activities. Read Deuteronomy 32:4 from your Bible. Inform the kids that you will read the verse two more times, and if they have the verse memorized, they should say it with you from memory as you read. STEP 2: Ask the kids to call out all the words or phrases from the verse that describe God. As they answer, write the words or phrases on the board: the Rock, His work is perfect, all His ways are justice, faithfulness, without iniquity, just and upright. Define any hard words. (For example, explain that God is called the Rock because like a big rock or mountain, He is strong and doesn t change or move. Just as a big rock protects us when we hide behind it, God protects us.) A. This verse says that all God s ways are justice, which means that God always gives people what they deserve. B. If a person does something right and deserves a reward, God will give it to him or her. C. If a person does something bad and deserves to be punished, God will punish him or her. D. God may not reward or punish the person right away, but we can be sure that He will do it when He thinks the time is right. E. Sometimes people pick their favorites and give them special attention. But God doesn t pick any favorites! (Bible references: Job 34:10-19, Romans 2:11, Colossians 3:25) He treats all of us the same. F. He loves all of us the same. John 3:16 in the Bible says, For God so loved the world and that means ALL people in the world. G. God will give everyone what they deserve, no matter who we are! God is just. STEP 3: Now you will draw a simple picture on the board to illustrate God s justice. In the upper left corner of the board, draw a few clouds to represent heaven and write the word heaven below them. In the center of the board, draw four stick figures in a row and draw one stick figure above them. Then share these key concepts: A. In the Bible, God has told us what people deserve. B. God says that anyone who always does good and obeys everything God says deserves to go to heaven someday and live there with God forever (Bible references: Matthew 5:20, 7:21, 19:16-26, 25:31-46; Romans 2:6-7). STEP 4: Ask kids if they can think of anybody who has done good all the time and never sinned. Do they know anyone who has obeyed every single one of God s words? Let the kids answer. They should mention Jesus Christ. When they do, write a red J above the top stick figure to represent Jesus. (If the kids mention other people besides Jesus, challenge them. Ask: Do you really think that person has never, not even once, had a mean thought about somebody, or told a little lie, or had a bad thought?) A. Jesus is God s Son. B. God sent Jesus down from heaven to live on earth. When Jesus lived on earth, He was perfect and never sinned. C. He always did what was good and right; He obeyed ALL of God s Words. STEP 5: Display the bowl of candy. Ask everybody who is wearing a hat with fruit on it to come up and take as much candy as they want. (On the off chance that you have a kid wearing a hat with fruit on it, pick something else that nobody has, like everybody currently sitting on a goat.) When no one comes forward, say that this activity with the candy bowl reminds us of what God said about heaven. Share these key concepts with the kids: PAGE 1 OF 2

4 A. God has promised life forever in heaven to anybody who has never sinned. But just like there is no one who is wearing fruit on their hat, there isn t anybody who has never sinned. There just isn t. B. Nobody can get to heaven by being good because nobody has ever lived without sinning! C. Only Jesus deserves to be in heaven with God, because there is no one else like Him, who always does what is good. D. All the rest of us have sinned. STEP 6: Tell the group, Here is what the Bible says about us and choose two kids who are good readers to read Romans 3:10-12 and Romans 3:23 from your Bible or read the passages yourself. STEP 10: Draw a large red cross next to the Jesus figure and then erase the Jesus figure. Explain that when Jesus died on the cross, He took the punishment of death that WE deserved because of our sin. Jesus is the only one who could take our punishment because He was perfect and never sinned. Draw the Jesus figure again in the heaven portion of the board. Say that after Jesus came alive again, He went back up to heaven. Share this key concept: A. When you put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are allowed into heaven, too. STEP 7: Ask the kids to tell you what sin is. After they share their answers, remind them that sin is anything we think, say, or do that disobeys God. We also sin when we don t do good things that God wants us to do. Emphasize that we are all sinners who were born in sin. Sin is a part of us and we can t get rid of it! STEP 8: Tell the kids that in the Bible, God has told us what we deserve for our sin. Choose a kid to say Romans 6:23 from memory or read it from your Bible. Define the word wages as what we earn or deserve. Ask them what Romans 6:23 says we deserve for our sin. When kids answer death, define death as being away from God forever in a terrible, fiery place called hell. STEP 9: Draw red flames in the lower right corner of the board to represent hell and write the word hell below them. A. Since God is just, He must give us the punishment we deserve for our sin. B. It wouldn t be just for Him to let us into heaven, because we sin and don t deserve to go to heaven. PAGE 2 OF 2

5 1.3 GOD IS JUST: LESSON OPENER (5 MINUTES) OPTION 2: A SHORT STORY OF INJUSTICE WHAT YOU LL NEED: Nothing STEP 1: The following story can be read to your club or acted out as a skit: Life isn t fair! Hailey Jones exclaimed after bursting through the door of her house. She slammed her backpack down onto the table. Hailey s mom went over to sit next to her daughter at the table. Tough day at school? she asked. The worst! Hailey said. I wish I could go to a different school. Maybe people are nicer there! Tell me what happened, said Mrs. Jones. Mr. Hernandez was writing a math problem on the board when Dylan Sodaro threw a paper ball. It hit Mr. Hernandez in the back of the head. What did your teacher do? Mrs. Jones asked. He turned around and demanded to know who hit him, answered Hailey. One kid said Dylan did it, but Dylan wouldn t admit to it. Another kid said Isabella Evans did it. And Jacob Chen said I did it. Mr. Hernandez didn t know what to do. So he made Dylan, Isabella, and me sit on the bench when all the other kids got to play on the playground. It wasn t fair! Oh, that s too bad, sweetie, said Hailey s mom. Maybe I should talk to your teacher and tell him what happened. STEP 2: After you read the story, start a discussion using questions like these: Do you think it was fair for Hailey to have to sit on the bench during playground time? Why not? What should have happened instead of this? Was it fair that her team lost the game? Why not? What should have happened instead of this? STEP 3: Explain that Hailey didn t deserve to be punished and sit on the bench, because she didn t throw the paper ball. Hailey s team deserved to win the game because she made the winning point in time, and the game rules say her team should have won. A. Sometimes things like this happen to us too. When we don t get what we deserve, we might feel upset like Hailey. We might be mad. We might try to get what we deserve. B. But there is some good news! People may be unfair to us, but God is always fair to everyone. C. The Bible says God is a God of justice. This means God will always give people what they deserve. STEP 4: Introduce the main lesson, letting them know that they are going to learn more about God s justice. Open in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to guide you and the kids into God s truth through the lesson activities. Yeah, and there s more! Hailey said, taking off her purple tennis shoes. In gym, our class played one of the other classes in basketball. We were losing by one point. There were only a few seconds left to play. Logan Lewis passed the ball to me, and I made a basket just before the buzzer sounded to end the game. We should have won by a point! But one of the two referees thought I shot the ball after the buzzer sounded. They talked it over and decided my basket didn t count. We lost the game! It wasn t fair.

6 OPTION 2: PUSH-UP ILLUSRATION WHAT YOU LL NEED: Ball, basket STEP 1: Tell the kids that they are going learn what their verse this week says about God and His justice. Open in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to guide you and the kids into God s truth through the lesson activities. Read Deuteronomy 32:4 from your Bible. Inform the kids that you will read the verse two more times, and if they have memorized the verse at home, they should say it with you from memory as you read. STEP 2: Ask the kids to call out all the words or phrases from the verse that describe God. Define any hard words. (For example, explain that God is called the Rock because like a big rock or mountain, He is strong and doesn t change or move. Just as a big rock protects us when we hide behind it, God protects us.) A. This verse says that all God s ways are justice, which means that God always gives people what they deserve. B. If a person does something right and deserves a reward, God will give it to him or her. C. If a person does something bad and deserves to be punished, God will punish him or her. D. God may not reward or punish the person right away, but we can be sure that He will do it when He thinks the time is right. E. Sometimes people pick their favorites and give them special attention. But God doesn t pick any favorites! (Bible references: Job 34:10-19, Romans 2:11, Colossians 3:25) He treats all of us the same. F. He loves all of us the same. John 3:16 in the Bible says, For God so loved the world and that means ALL people in the world. G. God will give everyone what they deserve, no matter who we are! God is just. STEP 3: Now set the basket away from kids at a reasonable distance. Give the first kid volunteer a ball. Say, We re going to play a short game. I am going to give some of you a chance to throw the ball in the basket. The first person who misses the basket will have to do 10 pushups as a punishment. Let a few kid volunteers try to make a basket. When the first kid misses the basket, remind him or her about the punishment. Just then, a leader, whom you have talked to in advance, steps up and says that he or she will do the push-ups. Say, Kids, the leader took the punishment that this kid who missed the basket deserved. That is like what Jesus did for us. He chose to take the punishment for the sin of everyone in the world. Then share these key concepts: A. In the Bible, God has told us what people deserve. B. God says that anyone who always does good and obeys everything God says deserves to go to heaven someday and live there with God forever (Bible references: Matthew 5:20, 7:21, 19:16-26, 25:31-46; Romans 2:6-7). STEP 4: Ask kids if they can think of anybody who has done good all the time and never sinned. Do they know anyone who has obeyed every single one of God s words? Let the kids answer. They should mention Jesus Christ. When they do, write a red J above the top stick figure to represent Jesus. (If the kids mention other people besides Jesus, challenge them. Ask: Do you really think that person has never, not even once, had a mean thought about somebody, or told a little lie, or had a bad thought?) A. Jesus is God s Son. B. God sent Jesus down from heaven to live on earth. When Jesus lived on earth, He was perfect and never sinned. C. He always did what was good and right; He obeyed ALL of God s Words. D. God has promised life forever in heaven to anybody who has never sinned. But there isn t anybody who has never sinned. There just isn t. E. Nobody can get to heaven by being good because nobody has ever lived without sinning! PAGE 1 OF 2

7 F. Only Jesus deserves to be in heaven with God because there is no one else like Him, who always does what is good. G. All the rest of us have sinned. Remind them that sin is anything we think, say, or do that disobeys God. We also sin when we don t do good things that God wants us to do. Emphasize that we are all sinners who were born in sin. Sin is a part of us and we can t get rid of it! When Jesus died on the cross, He took the punishment of death that WE deserved because of our sin. Jesus is the only one who could take our punishment because He was perfect and never sinned. A. Since God is just, He must give us the punishment we deserve for our sin. B. It wouldn t be just for Him to let us into heaven, because we all sin and don t deserve to go to heaven. C. Thankfully, Jesus took the punishment of death that we deserve for our sin and we are allowed into heaven if we ve trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior. PAGE 2 OF 2