Pointing Fingers and Throwing Stones

Start with prayer—

Skit—Put on a skit (using a few of the children, if possible) of either the Pharisee’s bringing woman caught in the act of adultery to Jesus taunting Jesus to condemn her.  In the alternative, you can do a skit where one student has "allegedly" stole or broke something and another student is his/her accuser.

Scripture text—John 8:1-11

There are several different points this story brings up.  We could discuss the techniques of religious leadership in Jesus’ day v. today.  We could discuss the sin of adultery, and we could also discuss God’s mercy and how wonderful he is to forgive our sins, but today we are going to talk about pointing fingers and throwing stones.

Sometimes (as a matter of fact, very often) those of us who are apostolic, especially those of us who are females, tend to be a little critical at times of those around us.  Not only are we critical of the worldly people whom we know are sinners, but we also even criticize those we go to church with.

All of us  who have been filled with the Holy Ghost and live a holiness lifestyle know  what the bible says about modesty in dress and we also have somewhat of an understanding of what living a holiness lifestyle means so we often use those things and our own personal standards to be critical of others if their standards don’t quite match up with ours.   It’s almost like we carry around a big bag of stones and every time someone goofs up, or don’t meet our standards per se, we begin blasting them with stones.

We often act out the scriptures we just read.  We’re eager to point out other’s failures and then seek to have them stoned for their alleged wrongdoing.

Let’s see what the bible says about this type of behavior.

Scripture text—Matt. 7:1-5—everywhere you see the word brother, replace it with sister.  Why beholdest thou the mote (splinter) in thy “sisters” eye, but considerest not the beam  in thine own eye?  Or how wilt thou say to thy “sister”, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

The bible has a word for this type of attitude.  It’s called “judging”.  The problem with judging is this...

Example:  Stick out your finger and point at the person next to you.  How many fingers are pointing back at you.  (4 that’s right).

The bible says judge not that ye be not judged (Matt. 7:1).   We must be careful when we start pointing fingers at someone else for what we think they’re doing wrong.  Why do you think that is?  It’s because when you point your finger at them, you always have 4 pointing back at you.

You see just like in our little skit, the bible tells us “he who is without sin can cast the first stone”.  Are any of us completely without sin, fault or failure?  In other words, are any of us perfect?  No, and for that very reason we have no right to ridicule or criticize anyone else.  When we point our finger at someone because of their faults, failures or even because of our own misconceptions of what we think they should be or do, we are not only judging them, but we are really condemning ourselves.  (Romans 2:1).  Those four fingers are pointing back in our direction.  God is to be the judge of everyone according to their deeds, not us.

Now yes the bible does tell us to use righteous judgment.  However, righteous judgment is not pointing fingers at someone because we are right and they are wrong.  It’s not telling someone that they have sinned or that they are a sinner and pointing out their problems (to them or anyone else).  Righteous judgment is for our benefit, it’s not to hurt someone.  To exercise righteous judgment is to make the right decisions in regards to ourselves.  It is to judge right from wrong.  It’s never to judge another human being to their hurt.  It’s never beneficial to be judgmental of another person.  We need to only be concerned about whether or not we are right in God’s eyes.

We apostolic’s (all of us) tend to be judgmental of our peers because we think we are alright.  We need to check to see if there’s a beam in our own life first before we start throwing stones.  You see it’s really none of our business if Alicia wears a slit in her skirt everyday that’s clear up to her belly button.   It’s not our business if Miranda, Kayla or anyone else at this church wears short sleeves.  Those are modesty and holiness issues but the bibles says...

Phil. 2:12—each person must work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.  In other words we must worry about ourselves and whether or not we are following God’s word and let everyone else work out their own salvation as well.  It’s up to each individual to make sure they are doing what’s right according to God’s word.

Besides, I can assure you that if there is anyone in this church doing something wrong that will cause them to go to hell or that hinders someone else especially in the areas of modesty and holiness, the pastor will address the issue.  

God has called us to be peacemakers not finger pointers.  The devil is the accuser of the brethren.  Are you a devil?  Think about it!

Memory verse— Matt. 7:1–Judge not, that ye be not judged.

Navigating the Bible

Start with prayer---

Over the next few weeks we are going to learn the different parts of our Bibles and how to use them.  We are going to learn some interesting facts about the content of different books and the writers of those books. 

Although you all probably know most of this stuff, it’s always good to refresh your memory.

Remember when we talked about the Bible containing hidden treasure?  Well it does but we need to learn how to find that hidden treasure.  We are going to learn how to navigate the Bible so that we can search it for the hidden treasure buried within it’s pages.

Print and enlarge this chart to either hang on
the classroom wall or give a copy to each student

The Bible is a very complex tool.

I not only contains the hidden treasure but it is also the map by which to find the treasure?  You say “huh?”.    It’s kind of hard to explain but over the next few weeks hopefully you will understand this riddle so to speak.

Let’s start with the basics.

Does everyone here know all the books of the bible in order, or at least for the most part?
This is very important.  If not, we will have to learn them soon.

Print and enlarge to hang on classroom wall or give a
copy to each student

—The bible is one large book that is made up of how many small books?  66
It is like a whole library contained in one book!

—It is divided into 2 sections?  What are they?   The Old Testament and The New Testament.

The Old testament contains how many books?  39
The New Testament contains how many books? 27

How do you know where the Old Testament ends and the New Testament begins?

Well lets take a look at the table of contents in the front of your bible.  It lists the 2 different sections (Old and New Testaments) then it lists each book contained in that section.  It also has the beginning page number for each book listed.  Page numbers are usually found at the top of each page in the middle of the page.  However some bibles are different so lets look at your particular bibles to find the page numbers.

Okay now let’s all of us find the Book of Luke.  Now each books is set out in (book) chapter and verse format so that particular passages of scripture are made easier to find.  It makes it easier also to tell others where to find a particular reading.  So now that we are in the Book of Luke lets see if we can find chapter 10.  The chapters are usually marked by a large bold number at the beginning of each.  Okay now that you have found chapter ten lets look for verse 41.  Verses are usually marked by smaller numbers next to each.

Okay now that’s the easy stuff and I’m sure you probably already knew, but’s let’s look a little deeper so we can learn where to find particular words or passages.

Each bible has a small condensed version of a concordance.  A concordance has a list of the different words in the bible and then shows a portion of the different scriptures that word is found.  Most condensed versions like the ones found in your Bible has a small list of some of the most important words used.  The concordance is usually found in the very back of bibles.  See if you can find yours.  They are usually in alphabetical order.  Let’s look up a word.  What word do you think we should look up?  Not sure?  How about—Scripture!  Can any of you think of a verse right off the top of your head that uses the word scripture?  How about our memory verse?  Let’s see if either of our concordances can show us where to find our memory verse.

Memory Verse:

2 Timothy 3:16—

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Also maybe there is a particular parable or passage of scripture that you would like to read but you don’t know exactly where it is found in the bible.  Most bibles now days have a section either before or after the concordance that has a listing of some of the most popular or most read stories in the bible and shows where to find them.  It’s kind of like an index.  Maybe you want to read the story of Samson and Delilah.  Do you know where to find it?  Let’s see if we can find it in your bible index.

If your bible does not have one I will show you another way to find it.  There is usually a subheading at the top of each page that tells what is contained on a part of that page.  If you know that the story of Samson is found in the book of Judges you can turn to Judges and start looking at the top of each page until you find a subheading with the story of Samson and Delilah.  Maybe you aren’t looking for a particular story but are just thumbing through a book.  You can determine what topics or subjects in the book by the page subheadings.

Your bible also might have a listing of the miracles & parables of Jesus which are found in the 4 gospels (which are Matthew, Mark, Luke & John).  Some of the same parables or stories of Jesus were recorded in more than of the gospels and they are listed so that you can find each version of a particular story.  Maybe you want to compare each story of The Last Supper.  This index will show you every where that particular story is.

I think that’s enough for today.

Next week we are going to take a deeper look into some of the books, who wrote them and what is contained in them.

Lunch at the Well

Start with prayer— 


Note:  This lesson is better if done outside.  Kids love to travel outside when the weather is nice.  For this lesson I created a "well" out of cardboard boxes just as display.  I also brought things for a picnic lunch (i.e. a blanket to sit on and a picnic basket with a snack for the kids to enjoy while listening).

LUNCH AT THE WELL

A long while back, as I was getting out of bed one morning, the Lord spoke to me and said “Let’s have lunch at the well” today.  I was a little befuddled.  I said Lord whatever do you mean, let’s have lunch at the well?  I thought to myself, is he speaking of a place to go have lunch.  Does he want to meet with me at a special place today on my lunch break.  What does he mean “Let’s have lunch at the well”?  Maybe there is something about a well in the bible he wants me to read about?  I thought to myself, what are some places in the bible that talk about wells? I turned to the passage of scripture where Abraham’s servant went to get a wife (Rebecca) for Isaac and found her at a well where she watered his camels, but nothing I read there spoke to me that day, nor did it speak of any kind of lunch.  I thought about Jacob’s well and read that passage of scripture too, but still nothing there spoke to me.  Then I turned to our scripture text for today about the woman at the well and the voice of God was very clear as he spoke to my heart about my purpose in life.  We truly had lunch at the well that day and I want to share with you what the Lord fed to me.

Scripture text: John 4:3-30

You are all familiar with this story.  Here we see Jesus conversing with a sinner woman, his disciples were appalled because they knew the jews had nothing to do with the Samaritans so why in the world would Jesus be talking to her.  However, Jesus was not appalled by her even though she was a horrible sinner.  Jesus was not just conversing with her, he was witnessing to her.  He was sharing with her, a lowly Samaritan, the way to everlasting life.  He could read her like a book.  He knew that she was a sinner.  He knew all about her and I like that he told her “all things that she ever did”.

You might be asking what does any of this have to do with having lunch at the well.  No one is eating at all here, and what does lunch have to do with anything?  Well, let’s read on...

John 4:31-38

Ahh here we go, lunch.  Remember at the beginning of the story the disciples went into town to get food for Jesus and themselves.  They got the food and brought it back just in time to see Jesus witnessing to this lowly woman.  Not only were they appalled but they were focused on making sure that they and Jesus had something to eat so their bodies could be refreshed and strengthened.  I really like the way Jesus answered their carnality.  He said, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.  He said...

Pay attention here because this is your memory verse this week: (John 4:34—My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.)

This is where the Lord God of glory spoke to my heart and I hope he speaks to yours too.  Our purpose in life, just like Jesus’ is to seek and save the lost.  Our meat in this life is not (or at least should not be food).  The meat that fills our soul should be to do the will of the father and to finish his work.   He gave us the perfect example of how to seek out and to witness the words of eternal life to those around us.

Unlike Jesus we may not know whether or not someone has had 5 husbands, or if they are shacked up with someone they are not married to or every exact detail of their life, but we can look at them and recognize that they are sinners, that they have issues in their lives that need to be fixed, and we do know that coming in contact with Jesus is the only thing that can fix them.  Guess what, we have the words of Jesus to share with them.  It doesn’t matter who they are or what they’ve done.  It may be the drug addict, or pusher down the street, maybe the pregnant teenager, whoever or whatever.  We have what will help them.  Jesus.  Let us be about the masters’ business.  In the business of seeking and saving the lost.  That’s our purpose or reason for being.  That’s why God saved us so we could share this wonderful Holy Ghost filled experience with others that they might be saved also.

We often miss out on opportunities to witness because maybe we don’t know someone.  Maybe we are shy.   Maybe they scare us.  Maybe like the disciples we are appalled because of their lifestyle, nationality or background.  We need to put our carnality aside and do what Jesus did, seek and save the lost.

You might say, “I don’t know how to witness.  I don’t know what to say to people.  How can I witness?”  Let’s look to the scriptures here.  Jesus used an everyday, ordinary issue to talk to the woman about.  He was thirsty and she was coming to draw water from the well.  This was something she did every single day, and I’m sure Jesus could have gotten a drink for himself , but he noticed that she came to the well alone at a different hour than most women fetched water and struck up a “how’s the weather” type conversation with her.  Nothing extravagant or celestial but before long he was sharing with her the fountain of living water.  I know, I know, Jesus makes it look easy.  The apostle Paul had some insight about this type of witnessing.  He said,  “...unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” (1 Cor. 9:20-22).  All he’s saying here is that he related to people’s situations.  No matter what their situation, social status or background was in life, he had sympathy, compassion and a willingness to listen and help.  He put himself in their shoes, so to speak.  That’s all Jesus did, that’s all Paul did and WE CAN DO THAT TOO.  People are always ready and willing to talk about themselves.  Almost always will they share their problems or just stuff from their life with someone willing to listen.  So really, we can do this if we are truly interested in saving the lost.  Oh sure, some people might go away uninterested and thinking that you’re weird, but what about the one who doesn’t?  They might just take a sip from that fountain of living waters and be filled with the Holy Ghost unto salvation.  How wonderful!

I hope the Lord spoke to you today as we shared lunch at the well.  Please don’t forget this lesson.  If you forget all the other lessons I’ve taught, please don’t forget this one.  Come back to and draw from this well often because it’s soooo very important that we continue to be about the masters business and to finish his work.

Remember, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work!