Our Sunday school topic for today
focuses on the wickedness of man. If
there is one thing we can say about the Bible in the way it presents man it
is simply that it never presents man as righteous. There may have been men
whom the Lord commended such as Enoch and Noah but man as a whole lived down
to his fallen nature. In this passage we are around 1,550 years after the
fall of Adam and things are in an un-alterable mess. Why is this so?
Ask the students - Do you think that God has always been happy with the
men and women He created??
Ask the students - Do you think Gd is happy with men and women, you and
I, today?
It may be surprising to find out that God does not see men and women as
righteous creatures, and this has always broken God's heart.
What does it mean in Jeremiah when the Bible says... "It is only
when a man is filled by the Spirit of God will he be something other than
what his nature dictates." (Jeremiah 17:9)
What else does the Bible say?
Describe the joy and personal reward of worshipping God and fighting bad
thoughts that we have
Challenge students to serve others in humility this week
Prayer
activity:
Bring a picture of a crowd of people to class for students to view
discussion:
Think on this for a moment about the nature we inherited from our first
parents and then every
parent since. Those of us who have children have
had to correct our children is that not so?
From the earliest years we
saw a tendency toward self centeredness is that not so? Have we not
seen
the tendency to tell a little lie as they grew older? Have we not seen
them have the
tendency to take something that was not theirs? Who taught
them that? Have you ever had to
stop your very young children from
fighting? Isn't it true you never taught your child
disobedience and yet
they have that tendency? Why is it written "Train up a child in
the
way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
(Proverbs 22:6) From man's earliest years he has a tendency to
go contrary to God.
Now think of one more thing on this vein. Aren't
they much like you were? The truth of the
matter is yes and children
need training because it is not natural for them to be obedient
all the
time. Our children need the same correction and training we received.
You raise your
child without correction and see what you wind up with.
They will break your heart. Even with
correction many times children
bring sorrow to their parents but without correction they
will almost
certainly be lawless and uncontrollable.