T H E B A S I C S PRIMARY TRUTH Salvation is a precious gift that only God can give.

Transcription

1 CORRESPONDING LEVEL WEB #s Defenders: Detectives: Developers: GOD S GIFT SALVATION MATERIALS NEEDED Bible; Teacher Preparation Guide (optional supplements: K4T songbook and PowerPoint files of lyrics) SUGGESTED ORIGINAL KIDS 4 TRUTH SONG Salvation in His Name SUGGESTED HYMNS Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed? ; My Song Is Love Unknown OTHER SONG SUGGESTIONS Older kids: A Sinner Like Me, At Calvary Younger kids: Gone, Gone, Gone, Gone [Yes, My Sins Are Gone]! ; Rolled Away! T H E B A S I C S PRIMARY TRUTH Salvation is a precious gift that only God can give. PRIMARY SCRIPTURE PASSAGE Jonah 2:9 WHAT THIS DOCTRINE REVEALS ABOUT GOD Salvation is of the LORD means that only God has the ability or the right to save sinners. None of us could ever be good enough or work hard enough to pay for our own sins. The price of salvation from sins is so high that only God could ever pay it, and yet He gives salvation freely to anyone who comes to Him believing on Jesus Christ by grace through faith. One reason that salvation glorifies God is that He is the only One Who can give it! KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES By God s grace... The child will gain a better understanding of what is meant by the word salvation. The child will consider the significance of salvation as a gift rather than something that could be earned. The child will understand that God designed salvation, and that it is His work alone. The child will begin to understand that the gift of salvation comes by grace through faith in Christ. The child will see how God s plan of salvation rightly brings Him much glory. ATTITUDE OBJECTIVES By God s grace... The child will grow in appreciation for the inestimable value of salvation. The child will acknowledge God as the only Giver of salvation. The child will be humbled, realizing that if God had not acted to provide salvation, there would be no hope for sinners at all. 1

2 P R A Y E R T E A C H I N G P H A S E I N T R O (about minutes) OPENER Over the last several weeks we have been learning about Jesus Christ. Now, we will learn specifically what this God-Man has provided to us: Salvation. When Christians use the term salvation, they are talking about something that only God can give. Salvation means deliverance from sin and from the penalty of sin. It carries the idea of being rescued from destruction. We all deserve to be destroyed because of our sin, and we all desperately need salvation! So where can we get the salvation we need? Or, a better question would be, from Whom can we get it? Salvation is a precious gift that only God can give. Because God is gracious, He gives salvation freely to all those who believe by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. What does the word precious mean? Can you think of an especially meaningful or memorable gift that you have received? [Take answers from several children.] What was it that made that gift so special to you? Did it cost a lot? Was it something you had really been hoping to get? Was it something you never would ve been able to get on your own? Was it something that you thought nobody knew you wanted? What makes one gift more precious to us than another gift? What are some reasons that salvation is such a precious gift? *NOTE: In the intro, we want to recap the primary truth and set the stage to use the primary truth to point the learners back to God. I N S T R U C T I O N & R E I N F O R C E M E N T (about minutes) ILLUSTRATION Let s imagine that you are very sick; your heart is diseased, and you need a heart transplant in order to live. But there are no hearts available, and your situation is getting very desperate. Now pretend you have a relative (maybe an uncle or a cousin) who loves you very much so much, in fact, that he decides to give up his life so that he can give you a precious gift: the new heart you need his heart. Your relative lays down his own life just so that he can save your life. Why would a gift like this be so amazing, so incredible, and so precious? #1 It is precious because it is priceless to you. You needed a new heart! Without it, you would have died! #2 It is precious because it was an unbelievably costly sacrifice for your relative. In order to keep you alive, he gave up his own life. Why is salvation the most precious gift ever? How badly do we need salvation? Are we able to save ourselves? Could anyone else but God save us? How much did God give up in order to provide salvation? Was it a cheap sacrifice for Him? 2

3 Now, think back to the imaginary story about the relative who gave up his heart so you could live a healthy life. Perhaps this is the most important question of all to think about: What does giving such a precious gift like that say about the person who gave it? How would a gift like that make you feel about the giver of the gift? COMMENTARY God has given us the most precious gift ever: salvation. It is the most costly and the most priceless gift that ever was or ever will be! and yet God gives it freely to sinners who do not deserve it at all. Sinners who receive this gift of salvation are the most blessed individuals who ever lived or ever will live. No other gift can compare to salvation. God has provided salvation for sinners in order to demonstrate what a glorious and gracious God He is. Nobody else could ve done what He did, and nobody else would ve done what He did. Nobody else was good enough to save us. Nobody else was great enough to save us. Only God was able to rescue us, and only God was willing to rescue us! He chose to do so! He did not have to do it. God is under no obligation (no duty or command) to save anyone! He chooses to save sinners. Why? Because He loves to magnify His own glory, and because He loves sinners. What does a gift as precious and valuable as salvation say about the One Who paid the high price to provide it? ILLUSTRATION Remember back to those wonderful gifts you told me about earlier. [Remind the children of a couple examples that they gave you.] Do you remember how you actually got your favorite gift? Did you unwrap it, or maybe take it out of a bag? Was it left somewhere for you to find? Was it a surprise waiting for you in the garage or under a Christmas tree? Did you simply have to reach out your hands and take it? Whatever the gift, there was a change of ownership, a switching of the gift from the giver s possession over into your possession. You accepted it, you took it, because it was given to you. And when you took that gift, it became officially yours. BIBLE DRILL (#1) How does the Bible describe how we were saved? What does the Bible say it is? Ephesians 2:8-9 [Answer: This gift comes by grace through faith in Christ.] BIBLE DRILL (#2) What does the Bible teach is the end (the goal or intended outcome) of our faith? 1 Peter 1:8-9 [Answer: the salvation of our souls] If there were something you could do to earn your own salvation, how would that take away some of God s glory? AWESOME QUOTE [Note to teacher: You might need to paraphrase this further!] From Charles Spurgeon s sermon titled Forgiveness : Did you never hear of a physician visiting a man upon a sick bed, when the poor man said, I have nothing to give you for your attention to me? But, says the doctor, I did not ask for anything; I attend you from pure benevolence; and moreover to prove my skill. It will make no difference to me how long you live. I love to try my skill, and let the world know that I have power to heal diseases. I want to get myself a name. And so God says, I desire to have a name for mercy; so that the worse you are, the more God is honored in your salvation. 3

4 BIBLE DRILL (#3) Isaiah 43:25 ( ) (Here would be a great place to insert what you learned from your Teacher Truth Study.) GETTING BACK TO GOD* {Recap WHAT THIS DOCTRINE REVEALS ABOUT GOD: Salvation is of the LORD means that only God has the ability or the right to save sinners. None of us could ever be good enough or work hard enough to pay for our own sins. The price of salvation from sins is so high that only God could ever pay it, and yet He gives salvation freely to anyone who comes to Him believing on Jesus Christ by grace through faith. One reason that salvation glorifies God is that He is the only One Who can give it!} [Also recap the following concepts, pulled from an earlier COMMENTARY section on page 3.] God has provided salvation for sinners in order to demonstrate what a glorious and gracious God He is. Nobody else could ve done what He did, and nobody else would ve done what He did. Nobody else was good enough to save us. Nobody else was great enough to save us. Only God was able to rescue us, and only God was willing to rescue us! He chose to do so! He did not have to do it. God is under no obligation (no duty or command) to save anyone! He chooses to save sinners. Why? Because He loves to magnify His own glory, and because He loves sinners. Sinners cannot stand before God on our own, because we could never be holy enough on our own. Only God is holy on His own, and only God is able save unholy sinners. In giving Jesus Christ, God provided the only Sacrifice Who could possibly have paid for everyone s sin. God has invited whosoever will to come to Him and accept His free gift of salvation. Salvation has been made possible only because of what God alone could do, so He deserves all the glory and praise! *NOTE: Teachers, please remember that this section should include the fruit of your Teacher Truth Study and one or two personal illustrations or anecdotes from the Personalize It! activity in the Teacher Preparation Phase. A P P L I C A T I O N & A S S E S S M E N T INTERNALIZE IT! from Teacher Preparation Phase (about 5-10 minutes) You might begin this section with: Boys and girls, as I ve been preparing for this TruthTime Lesson, here s what God has been showing me... You might continue by saying: Because of what God is teaching me, here s what is going to be different in my life during this next week... You might conclude with something like this: Finally, here s what God has taught me about Himself through these truths... TIME QUESTIONS Why would salvation be impossible without God? Why is salvation better than any other gift? How do we receive the gift of salvation? Is there anything we can do to earn salvation on our own? Why do you think so many people want to believe that we can earn it on our own? 4

5 A P P E N D I C E S O R I F T I M E (optional) ACTIVITY Challenge the children to write down a list of all the gifts that God has given them. See which child can think of the most, and use the time to get them thinking and talking about the goodness and greatness of the Giver, rather than just the gifts He s given. 5