To Believe Or Not To Believe...That is the Question

Start with Prayer---

Faith v. Doubt—Trial by Jury

Note:  This is a very fun, interesting lesson that leaves a lasting impression.  We had a mock trial...Faith v. Doubt.  If you have a large group of children, you should have one attorney (child) who represents the side of faith and another attorney (child) who represents the side of doubt.  The rest of the children can be jurors.  Teacher is the judge.  The setting is the Gospel Courtroom.  The Judge (teacher) is Hon. Ima Notshur.  Set up the room like a courtroom.  Teacher sets at desk (put a name plate on desk (with judges name), wear a black robe if possible and use a gavel).  Court is in session.  The Judge is not sure if there is a god or not and if the Bible is really His word.  The attorney on the side of faith uses scripture to convince the judge there is a god and that the bible is His word.  The attorney on the side of doubt uses scientific theories such as evolution, big bang theory to attempt to convince the judge there is no god and that the bible must have been written by mere men.  FAITH MUST WIN THE ARGUMENT.  You should give each attorney a file folder.  Faith's folder contains bible evidence (scriptures) proving God and His written word.  Doubts folder contains googled "evidence" (documents) of no god and erroneous word.  Teacher, ad lib.  Be like a judge deciding what is good and acceptable evidence and determine at the end that there is a God and the Bible is His infallible word.  (pound your gavel a few times in objection to the "doubt" attorney's case).

Faith v. Doubt—Have the trial now...ask the attorneys to present their cases (give them each 3-5 minutes to do so.  In the end the judge (and jury) must be convinced that there is a God and that the Bible is His word. 

After your short (10 min. or so) trial, do the following object lesson (optional) or skip to the lesson below it!  

Object lesson—water and air---explain that faith is believing in something that you cannot see.  State that although you cannot see God (Jesus) because he is a Spirit, you can still know that He is real.  Explain that something else you cannot see, but is real is the air.  State that you are now going to prove that the air in the room is real.  

You will need two glasses for this experiment.  One clear glass (which you will fill 3/4 of the way full of water)  and one opaque (not see through) glass with a small sponge glued inside the bottom.  You also need one piece of cardboard cut slightly larger than the mouth of the clear glass of water.  

Pour water into a glass until it is almost full.  Place the piece of cardboard, over the top, shiny side down.  (An old breakfast cereal box is an ideal source of suitable cardboard)  Hold cardboard in place, and invert glass (turn glass with cardboard upside down).  Take away your hand from the cardboard.  Explain that gravity is still at work trying to make the water fall on the floor, but that the air air - which we cannot see - is stronger than gravity and is keeping the cardboard in place.  Invite a few of the children to put their faith in the air - which they cannot see - and walk under the glass.  As they are doing so, reinforce the truth that they are trusting in something that they cannot see.

If you wish, you could conclude this illustration as follows:

State that you are now looking for someone with GREAT faith.  Choose a volunteer.  State that you are now going to hold the glass of water over their head as before and tip it upside down, but this time you are not going to use any cardboard!  Say you wouldn't want them to get too wet if things went wrong, so you will pour some of the water out of the glass.  Pour out water until about 2 or 3 cm. remains.  State that you still don't like the idea of wetting their hair-if things did go wrong-so you will hold a cup between the glass and their hair. Pour the water out of the glass and into the cup.  Act surprised that the water came out of the glass.  State that you have worked out the problem.  You weren't really using faith, because real faith in Jesus is trusting in Him alone.  Therefore, real faith in the air is trusting in the air alone.  Therefore you are now going to invert the cup (now containing the water) over the volunteer's head, but with nothing in between.  Do this.  The will not come out of the cup, because you had previously placed a SPONGE in the bottom!

This little object lesson is to simply prove that you can believe and trust in a God that you cannot see.

To Believe Or Not To Believe...That is the Question

I have heard many people tell me, even recently, that they just don’t believe the Bible is God’s word.  That it’s a great book and that it’s got a lot of good principles for living in it, but that it was written by men and therefore there is no need to take it seriously.  I recently had a friend of mine tell me that he didn’t believe the whole bible was the word of God and that furthermore it was not even understandable by most people.  He said, that the interpretation of the scriptures was at the discretion of the reader.  That no one could say for sure what exactly was meant in the scriptures.  Basically, what he was saying is that he believes there is a God, but that there was no way that God would speak to men so his word could be recorded for all generations to have and understand.   I told him that it was very understandable.  That is was not left up to individual interpretation but that one must believe and follow God’s plan for salvation and allow the Holy Ghost to lead him and guide him into all truth and understanding.  The main point is believing (faith).

2 Peter 1:20—Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

John 1:11-12—He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

Hebrews 11:6—But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

John 14:26—But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

John 16:13—Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth...

Do you believe what the bible says is true, or not?  Do you believe what it says about God, or not?  Do you believe that it’s God’s word and not mans; or, like some, do you believe God said only the things that you like, but that the rest of the bible was written by selfish, egotistical men? Do you even believe in God?   

What it all comes down to is faith v. doubt.  Just like in our little trial.  You have faith on one side that believes that there is a God and that he really did inspire men to write his word for us to have and to live by and that he really does love us and wants to save us from our sins.  

2 Tim. 3:16—All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness:

On the other side is doubt (which includes pride). Those doubting that there even is a God because they can’t see him and that if there was such a being he would never lower himself to save humanity or that he would allow us to come into his presence.  

Then we have extreme doubter (which is really pride) who don’t’ want to believe there is a God.  They don’t believe they need one.  That they can do everything without him.  If they can persuade themselves that there is no god then they are persuaded that they can live however they wish and there is no punishment for it.  They can’t fathom a being who is bigger and better than they are.  One who would inflict judgment on them for their unrighteousness.  

Then there are also those that believe in God but they don’t take his word at face value and only do or believe those things they want and those things that make them feel good about themselves and of God.  They also really don’t believe in his judgment. 

 All doubters, regardless of what type they are, have placed themselves in a position above God and resist him simply because they can’t fathom his vastness, they believe they don’t need him, or they don’t want him meddling in their business and they doubt that if God is so loving and good that he will punish them eternally for not obeying him.  They resist God on all counts.

Acts 7:51—Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

1 Cor. 2:13—Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

That’s wherein the problem lies.  They are comparing spiritual things to natural things.  They are comparing God to natural man and not as God.  They can’t explain the spirit world so they dismiss it as false or nonexistent.  They really can’t fathom that there is a God and that he is what he says he is, and that he will do what he says he will do. That he will save or he will punish because they can’t see him or understand him.  But, you see that’s where faith comes into play. The bible says that we must walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corin. 5:7).  Faith is believing in what we can’t see,  fathom or understand.  No one has proof that God breathed every word of the bible to the men of old who wrote down his words on paper (or stone) (except for the bible which tells us it is) (2 Tim. 3:16).  No one has proof that God framed the worlds just by speaking the word because no one saw him do it (Heb. 11:3).  No one can see that their sins have been forgiven when they ask and remitted in baptism except for by faith.  

We can only choose to believe or choose not to believe.  Believing is faith.  No man has ever seen God at any time so does that mean he doesn’t exist?  In John chapter 14 Jesus says to Philip and doubting Thomas, if you don’t believe me because of what I say then believe me because of my works. Saying that, we can have proof of God because of the works he has done.  We have seen the evidence through creation and other natural forces (tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, birth of a baby) that there is a being bigger, smarter and more advanced than we are (we can’t do those things, although egotistical scientists have tried). We have the proof that God’s word has never been able to be disputed. The walls of Jericho really did fall.  Sodom and Gomorrah really was destroyed by balls of fire. It must be truth.  We may not have seen our sins forgiven or washed away but we have the evidence of speaking in other tongues as proof that he has given us the gift of the Holy Ghost which he promised.  Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  We may not see God but there is evidence that he exists.  

Faith is the key to everything.  Faith that God exists (Heb. 11:6).  Faith that he did come to earth in the form of lowly man to become the pure sacrifice for our sins (that is grace).  One can only be saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8) (this is believing in the grace of God unto salvation (1Pet.1:5)).  We must have faith that he does forgive and remit sins within the constraints of the Acts 2:38 plan of salvation.  Those who doubt are missing out.  They will not receive the grace that God sent unto salvation because they simply do not or will not believe.  

So where does faith come from?  The bible says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  So does that mean that if someone has not heard they cannot have faith and so maybe that’s why there are those who doubt?  I guess we could say that to a certain extent, but the bible also says that God has given to every man a measure of faith.  So you see there really is no good excuse for doubt especially to those who have heard the word. 

The problem with man is that everything has to be proven, visible, reasonable and understandable.  We have a need to rationalize things and make sense of things but that’s precisely why God operates in the realm of faith.  If we could understand everything we would have no need for God.  You see God is not a man and his understanding is unsearchable (Isaiah 40:28).  His ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts greater than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).  They can’t understand that His abilities are not limited like ours are, but you see God limited us on purpose so that we would have a need for him and that we would look toward him for answers.  So that we would trust and depend on him and so we would respect his power and authority.  Instead because God is unexplainable some have become as fools who have said in their heart that there is no God (Psalm 14:1).  THOSE OF US WHO ARE BELIEVERS NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM THOSE WHO WOULD DISPUTE GOD WITH US.

1 Tim. 6:20-21 says—O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith.

2 Tim. 2:16 also says—But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

It’s important that we don’t entertain the thoughts and ideas of men disputing God’s supremacy, power or existence.  We should take God at his word then there will be no doubt in our hearts. 

Just like our little trial where we had two sides disputing over God, that happens all the time in the real world.  People debating where one side is defending their faith and the other side is defending their non-faith.  However, God’s word is not up for debate and it is unwise to do so and God does not want us to do so.

Remember the story of Peter cutting off Malchus’ ear with his sword when the officials came to arrest Jesus?  Jesus rebuked Peter and told him to put his sword away.  Jesus did not need for Peter to defend him then and He don’t need for us to defend him now.  He doesn’t need us to defend his existence or his word, so when those around us come to crucify the God we believe in, we need not pull out the sword (the word) in defense of God.  He can and will take care of himself.

So, to believe or not to believe, that is the question?  Here’s my thought on the whole matter, I would rather spend my life believing in God, living the way his word says and find out when I die that there is no god, than to live how I wish now only to find out that there really is a God and be judged by him according to his word.  Truly those who don’t believe are fools!!  Case closed!

Choose your memory verse—

Hebrews 11:1               Hebrews 11:6 Psalm 14:1

More Subtle Than Any Other Beast

Start with Prayer---

Scripture text: Gen. 3:1-7

The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.

Let’s talk about some key points of this scripture passage:   

First, Eve probably was familiar with this serpent.  She wasn’t all of the sudden convinced after one conversation with him to disobey God.  There must have been more than one encounter with this creature.  Just as the devil used a snake in this incident, I want to stress this point.  The devil is not an individual person such as Jesus Christ was.  The devil uses people and objects to try and cause us to sin.  He is good at his job.  

Why do you think the devil chose Eve to deceive instead of Adam?  The devil always preys on the weaker vessel.  He always preys on the one who cannot defend themselves (who can’t defend themselves because they don’t have enough knowledge of God’s word).  So guess what the is preying on children such as you all every single day.  If he can kill you early, before you become strong, then he wins.  Eve got the Word of God second hand from Adam.  She didn’t hear it from God for herself.  That’s a problem.  We must hear God personally.  Eph. 6:11—Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  In Ephesians it talks about putting on the armor of God.  We have to have our own armor.  We have to get it for ourselves.  Your friends armor is not going to fully protect you.  Your mother’s armor is not going to fully protect you.  

Their nakedness was an expression of innocence, naivety and purity.  They were out in the open.  There was nothing hidden about them.  

Their eyes were opened.  Before they tasted of the forbidden fruit, they had been spiritually one sighted.  They could only see God.  They had Singleness of vision.  Remember the scripture that says (the light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light, but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness However, when they tasted of sin their eyes were then opened to sin.  The devil always tells us that God just doesn’t want us to have any fun.  He is holding back on us.  He knows that we would enjoy “it” and then we would find out just how much we have been missing out on.  The devil knows that once you taste of the fruit of sin you are changed forever.  God has mercy but you can never be like you were before.  You are no longer pure and innocent.  

The leaves that they put on after sinning was “to cover or hide their sin” isn’t that just like us.  Always trying to cover and hide what we’ve done wrong.  However, we can’t hide from God. 

I know we have all heard this lesson before, and I don’t want to bore you, but there are many important lessons to learn from this one little passage of scripture.  You see the devil is still doing this very same thing today.  He may not appear to you in the form of a serpent but the devil is still using this same technique to try and destroy you.  We need to be able to recognize his tricks so that we don’t fall prey in his trap of destruction.  

Subtle—deceitful, that is the devil’s business and he’s good at it!  In this record of the downfall of man (or woman) we see that the devil can and will use whatever he has to in order to overthrow our faith, our walk with God, our spiritual one sightedness, he is looking destroy us and that’s what I want to talk about today.  The wiles of the devil.  Wiles meaning the tricks he uses to get to us.  Our question is, who or what does the devil use to get to use? 

In the case above he used a piece of fruit and a serpent.  Okay we can understand him using a piece of fruit to tempt Eve.  Just the same as he uses worldly things to tempt us.  Clothes, entertainment, etc.  The fruit was tempting to Eve.  She had never tasted it and it looked good. The befuddling question; however, is why would the devil use a serpent to speak to Eve? After all doesn’t he know that every women is scared to death of snakes?  Of course he does (well at least they are now), but here’s the thing, I don’t think Eve was afraid of snakes.  God had not yet put enmity between the woman and the serpent.  That came later.  The serpent and Eve coexisted together in the garden and I bet she was pretty familiar with this particular serpent.  I bet she was comfortable with him being around and she trusted him.  He might have even been one of her pets, and I can almost bet that he had spoken to her (or beguiled her) many times prior to this day.  I mean there’s no way that Eve would have let just one conversation with a strange snake cause her to disobey the God that she and her husband had known intimately for some time, not over one measly piece of fruit.  She had to have known this serpent.  She must have trusted that the serpent was friendly and that he was not a threat to her (or at least she thought he wasn’t).  You know, the devil is doing the same thing to us.  Although he is not using a serpent to talk to us (as I said woman hate snakes), he is using something or someone to beguile us.  It’s the someone that I want to talk about today.  We all know the what(s) that he uses.  But we often fail to recognize the who(s) that he uses.  

I can tell you for a fact that the devil has not stopped his attempts to destroy women or men, or even children.  The devil is still using a something or a someone in his attempt to destroy every single one of us.   The thing is it’s usually not an inanimate object that he’s using.  I can guarantee there is almost always a someone involved.  That’s scary!  He almost always uses someone we trust, love or admire to influence us.  It’s imperative that we find out today the who behind Satan’s ploy to destroy our lives.  

You see I recognized this past week that the devil was doing this very thing with someone in my family.  My daughter, Kayla.   The devil has been using her aunt Cindy to downgrade church, our doctrine and beliefs and to persuade Kayla that the Bible is not true.

The devil has tried this same things with me.  My best friend LaDonna tried this stuff shortly after I started coming to church.  She was unsuccessful because I kept referring to the word of God as my answer to her (remember the lesson of how Jesus was tempted?) That’s what I did.  It’s our only defense against him.   However, Kayla is not as versed in the Word of God as I am and so the devil is using her aunt Cindy to confuse her.  Thank God that he showed me what was going on so now I can protect her.  Now Kayla is not allowed to hang around with her aunt Cindy without me.  

Do either of you have anyone in your life that you love, trust or admire who is trying to take away the Word of God out of your heart?  Let’s think about it.  Let’s talk about it.

The Right Fit

Start with Prayer---

Scripture Text—1 Samuel 17:38-40

Here we see young David as he prepares to fight Goliath.  Saul, the king, had given David his armor to protect David.  However, David couldn’t wear Saul’s armor.  Why?  Well, David was just a child and Saul was a big man.  The bible says he stood head and shoulders above all the other Israelites.  David was only about 12-14 years old when he fought against Goliath.  There was no way Saul’s armor would have fit him.  David would never have been able to fight because he would have been too weighted down by the armor. 

That kind of like us today.  Sometimes when we are in a battle with the devil we try using Mom’s armor, or dad’s armor, well, because they are more skilled in fighting against the devil than we are.  They are spiritual warriors, bigger than us and we are just lads; but, just like David we must stop trying to use armor that’s not ours and that’s not our size in order to have victory over the devil.   We have to fight the battle on our own.  We need armor that fits. 

*****Do the pots and pans armor example (gather things from kitchen to use as examples of different sized armor: bowls as helmets, cookie sheets as breastplates/shields, pancake turner as swords, etc.)

You see just like the pots and pans that fit me but not you, we have to have armor that fits good.  It has to be the right size in order to protect us effectively.  If David had worn Saul’s armor he would have never been able to even walk to the battle field, much less fight.  He would have been defeated.  He would have died.  Thankfully David chose not to wear Saul’s armor and all went well.  Today, although we are not fighting a physical war like David did against Goliath, we are fighting a spiritual war.  Everyday the devil comes against us with temptations, evil thoughts and trickery to cause us to lose our spiritual life.  He is like Goliath; big, bad, and ugly.  He makes horrible threats, and there is always someone around like Saul who offers us their armor.  Oh do things this way, or that way.  Oh, don’t worry those things.  They don’t bother me so they won’t hurt you either.  However, we are each individual people.  Each with our own temptations.  Each with our own problems and situations in life.  Other people’s armor is not the right size for our situation. 

Fortunately God has provided all of us spiritual armor that always fits perfectly no matter what our physical size is and no matter what kind of Goliath we have in our lives.

Ephesians 6:11-18—He gives us everything we need to protect us against the tricks of the devil.  

Discuss the different pieces of armor and what they are used for.  

*Gird about loins with truth.  We need to put on the belt of truth.  The devil is always trying to hit us below the belt (the waste).  You know in a boxing match it’s an illegal move to hit someone below the waste, but as usual the devil never follows the rules and is always taking swipes at us where it would hurt the most, however, if we protect our most vulnerable parts with truth then we will not be deceived.  The bible says that God’s word is truth and that the truth will make us free.  We have to have truth!

*Breastplate of righteousness.  In a soldier’s uniform the breastplate is the one piece that protects the heart.  You see the devil is always trying to accuse us of wrong doing and pin us down with the heartaches and sorrows of our mistakes.  However, doing right and living right is our breastplate that protects our heart.  The devil can’t accuse someone of doing wrong if they haven’t done anything wrong. 

*Shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace.  Where we go is important.  It’s important that we don’t let our feet take us to places that God wouldn’t go or want us to go.  It’s the devil’s trick to try to get us to go to bad places where bad people hang out, but that’s not all.  Remember, Mark 16:15–says “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  The Apostle Paul said follow me as I follow Christ.  We need to take the message of Christ to every creature and we cannot do that if we haven’t prepared ourselves with what exactly that gospel is.  

That gospel is...Luke 24:46-49—Christ suffered and died so that repentance and remissions of sins might be preached in his name and then the comforter (holy ghost) would come.  Sounds kind of like Acts 2:38 don’t it.  (Peter preached exactly what Christ said should be preached.  That is the whole reason that Christ died, that people everywhere might be saved) This is the gospel that we need to take everywhere we go that everyone we meet might be saved. 

What does this have to do with armor and protection?  Well, if you don’t know the gospel you can and will be tricked into believing any other gospel besides the one that Jesus said to believe.  The apostle Paul said, that if the gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost and in Galatians 1:8 he said—that if any person or even an angel preach any other gospel to you than the gospel that Jesus and the apostles have preached to you, let them be accursed.  He said BEWARE!  THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUE GOSPEL AND IT’S IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW IT AND TAKE IT WITH YOU EVERYWHERE YOU GO.

*Shield of faith.  Everyone knows what a shield is.  It is the one thing that you can move back and forth to stop the enemies darts/spears from hitting you.  Faith is our shield.  We talked before about faith vs. doubt, and that’s exactly what faith is.  Believing in something you cannot see.  The devil is always going to try to say that there really is no god.  How can you believe in God.  You’ve never seen him.  Your sins haven’t really been forgiven because you didn’t see God forgive them, did you? Those are the darts the devil is throwing.  He throws them at us everyday either by using other people (like what we talked about a few weeks ago) or puts these thoughts in our minds (which we will discuss next). That’s where faith comes in.  Faith is believing.  Believing in what? The bible says there is only one faith, and that is to believe in God.  That he is (that he exists), and that his word is truth.  The bible also says that God cannot lie and that when we ask he is faithful to forgive us our sins.  When we have the faith to believe these things it is our shield against the darts of the devil.

*Helmet of salvation.  Here we go.  The helmet protects our head (brain, mind).  Oh the devil is always trying to play mind games with us.  Like I just said he is trying to persuade us that God’s not real.  The bible is a lie. Our sins haven’t been forgiven.  He doesn’t love us.  Who is Jesus, there’s no way God would ever come down from heaven and give himself for your sins.  He have to put on the helmet of salvation.  To know you are saved because you have followed God’s plan for salvation protects your mind against these thoughts the devil tries to put in there.  You can know that you are saved, simply because you followed the plan of salvation (which is the gospel that we spoke of earlier). We will most likely have a lesson on that topic soon.

Finally, the our scripture passage says.  Take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  God has not only provided us with protective armor, but he has also provided us with a weapon (the sword of the Spirit) which the bible says is the word of God.  The bible says the word of God is quick and powerful, than any two edged sword.  God’s word is our weapon against the devil.  Remember how I taught that when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert that he always used scripture to defeat him.  It still works today for us.  The devil is always trying to pervert God’s word, but we need to know the scripture so that we can use it against him.

Memory Verse:

Eph. 6:11—Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

So there you have it.  Everything you need to fight the devil (your Goliath), and it will always fit right.  The word of God is the right fit every time.  It’s up to you to put it on.  Know the word!!!