Leaders please refer to the previous lesson (Day 1 Where Love and Justice Meet) for this sunday's lesson (31st July)

-Day 2 Honest Hearts (7Aug)

Also take note, Ahlegs would like to meet the Gofish leaders after class this sunday (31st July) for a short meeting on our plans for our sec2 kids :)

Key takeaways:
1) God demands our full honesty
2) Confession helps to clear the spaces in our heart for God to come in

Honesty
- Start by asking your kids if they have any secrets they feel they are unable to share with anyone.
Ask them how they would feel if you would know about the secret.
Jesus however, knows all our deepest and darkest secrets. And it is impossible for us to hide it from him. Every good deed, wrong actions, bad decisions, God knows them all.
- Ask the kids why we should continue to tell God about our lives and our actions good or wrong.
Read Acts chapter 5:1-11
This is the story of Ananias and Sapphira
- Why did God strike them down?
- Why does God still want our full honesty even though he knows everything about us?
- How do we come clean and be honest to God?
Do question 1: Read through the verses and tell your kids that confession is how we own up and be honest to God.
Confession
Read the passage on Charles Robertson in the guide if you want to. (Optional)
- Ask your kids if they know what confession is. Or if they have ever confessed to God before
- If your kids have confessed to God before, ask them how do they feel after that? Do they feel rejuvenated? Do they feel relieved? Or maybe they do not feel any change?
Do question 2
Do question 3 : Flip to Psalm 51 and read verses 1-5, 10-14. Explain to the kids that this is the psalm that King David wrote when the prophet Nathan came to him when he had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
Verses 10-14 tells us that confessing our sins is not just telling God about what sins we have committed but asking God to really clean our souls inside out. By confessing our sins, God takes away all the residue of the sin away. The guilt, the pain, the lingering memory of the sin, the fear of committing the same sin again, God will take all these things away and replace them with a clean heart, the holy spirit, Joy, Peace and Love.
Many times when we confess our sins we merely tell God what we have done wrong but we have not let God take control of the Sin. If God does not take control of the sin, the residue (mentioned above) from the sin will still remain in you and eventually it will cripple your relationship with God. Therefore it is vital to come to God with a prepared heart and an open soul to let God take over the sin.
Do question 4
Read the passage on Honest Worship (Compulsory)
Read Mark 14:66-72
- What do you think caused peter to deny Jesus?
- How do you think Peter felt after he realised what he had just done?
Read John 21:15-19
Jesus knew what peter had done. But he also knew how sorry and how upset peter felt about it. Although not recorded in the bible, Peter most likely confessed his sins to Jesus or talked to him about it. When Jesus asked Peter if he loved him 3 times, it was not to make fun of Peter or to insult his faith but rather to reaffirm Peter that Jesus still loves him and trust him to take care of his sheep (us).
Read Acts Chapter 2: 22-24
This is Peter after Jesus reaffirmed him. See the difference? After the cleaning of his soul and the confession, Peter became a lot stronger, more convicted and even more determined to do Gods work. This is what confession can bring out from us. It clears the guilt from us and empowers us to continue doing God’s work.
When we confess our sins, God also reaffirms us that he still loves us all the same and that no sin could ever break you apart.
However if we do not confess our sins, God cannot come back into our lives to continue to rectify the sin or issue that we are facing. When that happens we, our relationship with God will cease to grow and eventually we might find ourselves spiralling down away from God in the worst case scenario. Just like what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. (Although you most likely will not die like them)
Do Question 5
Do question 6

Sometimes when we sin, we feel absolutely terrible and even though we confess our sins to God we still feel like there is a chain attached to the sin. There is a feeling that you cannot let go. A fear of committing the same sin again and that if people knew about the sin you committed, they would think really badly of you. But Jesus sees pass these sins. Because of the God’s Grace and his Love for us, the chains of each sin has been broken, you do not have to feel the fear of that sin anymore. Let God Break the chains of sin for you do no continue to live in fearing the same sin or ashamed of the sin. God’s grace and love is all that matters and nothing you could ever do could make him love you any less.

- Reflect with the kids on having an honest heart with God
- Encourage them to consistently confess their sins to God so that God can continue to work and mould their soul.

by Alden

Hm I’ll start off with the key points I hope the kids can take home. But if you feel there’s more, do add in your own.

1: We’ll saved by God’s grace through Jesus and His grace is where love and justice meet to provide our salvation.

2: God will always love us, no matter what, we can’t earn it.

3: Knowing we didn’t do anything to earn God’s love reminds us not to live in fear of losing it either.

Pray!

Hook: Today’s hook will be a piece of paper. I mean not just a piece of paper, but there’ll be a maze on it. Like you know those mazes where you start off at one point, and then you trace your way through the maze to get to the ending point? Yup. It’s not uploaded here but I’ll provide it for you on Sunday! Just remember to bring 3 different coloured pens. I’ll explain what the maze is about.

Um so there’s 2 starting points here, one titled Love and one titled Justice. The ending point is titled Salvation. There’ll be an empty landmark somewhere in the middle. The landmark will be known as Grace and the leaders are supposed to fill it in later.

Group your kids in 3s and get each of them to use a different coloured pen. 2 kids will start off at either Love or Justice and they are to start tracing at the same time. Remember to tell your kids no cheating with their eyes by looking ahead for smooth paths! Just tell them to follow their pen or pencil!

Anyway, eventually both kids will end up at the empty landmark. When that happens, the leaders fill it in with Grace (haha you can draw a cross beside it if you want to). Then the 3^rd kid takes over and finishes the maze till they reach the end, which is Salvation.

Okay, so the hook will launch you into the first key point which is under the part God’s Gift from Heaven in the book.

Lesson Start:

Key point 1: We’ll saved by God’s grace through Jesus and His grace is where love and justice meet to provide our salvation. (God’s Gift from Heaven)

Ask your kids if they know what justification means. Justification is being made right with God. But we are only justified if we accept the truth that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. We are justified by faith in Jesus. Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”

Do question 1

God is a just God. He won’t leave any sin unpunished. Bearing this in mind and remembering previous lessons where we’ve learnt that our salvation is by God’s grace, its God’s gift to us, not by our own works (Ref Ephesians 2:8-9), ask your kids why they think God sent His son to die on the cross for our sins. (do question 3 in book but don’t read verse yet)

Possible answers from them might be because Jesus is the only perfect sacrifice that can pay the price for our sins and God cant leave any sin unpunished; God is full of grace and God is good.

All are true but an important answer I’m hoping will surface and probably will, is because God LOVES us. Read Romans 3-25-26

God is motivated to save us both because of his love for us and his responsibility to deal with sin. His grace is where love and justice meet to provide our salvation.

Key point 2: God will always love us, no matter what, we can’t earn it. (Can’t Help but Love)

Ask your kids whether there are times in which they feel God cant possibly love them because of something they have done wrong or maybe they feel God cant possibly love them if they’re so weird that other people don’t like them or laugh at them etc.

If they’ve never felt that, then great! But if not, we can refer to a verse that can comfort them and reassure them that God’s love is not dependent on anything we do or anything we are. Deut 7:7-8 “The Lord did not choose you and lavish his love on you because you were larger or greater than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! It was simply because the Lord loves you!”

He’s God and He doesn’t need anything from us. He loves us because He chooses to. 1 John 4:10 “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us”

He loves us because it’s His very nature. Refer to the 2^nd part of the verse for 1 John 4:8 “…God is love”

Do question 4 and learn more about God’s love J

Key point 3: Knowing we didn’t do anything to earn God’s love reminds us not to live in fear of losing it either. (Our Response)

Ask the kids if they’ve ever worried about losing God’s love.

Do question 6

Read Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing can separate us from the God’s love! Tell your kids that!

End of with the new memory verse. For those who’ve been to Tacklecamp 2010, it was part of the theme verse!

Ephesians 3:18-19 “may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Hope this helps

Done by Cheryl and edmund will thank her by buying her lunch :)

1. Kenn (done)
2. Alex (done)
3. Cheryl (done)
4. Alden (done)
5. Mund (Day 3 The Heaviness of Hatred- 14 Aug)
6. Rayner
7. Clarence
8. JJ
9. Gaily
10. Pet
11. Alicia
12. Joanna
13. Elvie
14. YY
15. Ariel
16. Justina
17. Caitlyn
18. Joel
19. Zhan Feng
20. Heng Guang
21. Leroy

Please take note of your position on the roster, I did not set sepcific dates because it changes sometimes so after that it gets a little messy. Anyways same things apply, ahlegs and I will try to remind you again during that week who is supposed to prepare lesson and if its your turn please try to send it to either one of us by fri night :):):)

Open with a word of prayer :)


Almost Home

To start, we shall have a drawing activity. Inform your youths that there is no right or wrong answer, as we do not really know exactly how heaven is really like. Instead, get them to do this based on their true opinions and perception. Take a piece of paper and ask your youths to draw out what they imagine heaven to look like. After which, they are to describe and write down how they think being in heaven will be like. E.g. what they will be feeling or doing in heaven. Get them to share their answers with one another, identify similarities and differences among answers.

After which, ask them what their definition of “home” is, and see if there is any similarities as to how they perceive heaven to be.

A home is supposed to be a place of rest, acceptance and belonging. A place whereby we feel comfortable being in. The text describes heaven as our true and eternal home; Upon our passing from this Earth, we return to where we truly belong- By God’s side.

The Best is Yet to Come

Do question 2.

Life on earth can be both good and bad for us, filled with both happy and sad memories. While life might seem worth living during the happy days and a waste of time during the sad ones, the fact remains that there is something even better that awaits us. A world without pain or suffering, face to face with our Dearest Creator, worshipping Him every single day of our lives forever. Good news- Whatever the youths and you perceive heaven to be, it’s actually a lot better. Our minds can’t perceive truly how great heaven is. But what we do know is that heaven is a place whereby you won’t regret being in, since it is a place we belong and experience God fully. No death, suffering, illnesses, sin or whatever.

Get your youths to share about the happiest memory they have. Share yours too! The joy you experience in heaven is even greater than that feeling experienced during the happiest memory. And imagine experience that feeling every single day.

Do question 3 and 4

Eternal Joy

Question 4 tell us this: Whatever happens in this life, in Faith, focus on the joy and eternity that is in heaven, and hold on and turn towards it during the saddest and most demoralized moments in life. While the temporary might seem overwhelming, the temporary will and always is, temporary. Our true focus is heaven. Thus, rather than storing up things on this earth, store up your treasures in heaven.

The Incomparable Value of Joy

To end, ponder on these questions

What is this treasure worth to you? What will you give up to reach this prize that has been granted unto us by God? And, in the end, do you want to go to heaven?

by kenn

Today's topic is about the wonder of Joy. lol i can hear all the sniggering

Hey guys sorry that the lesson is not up yet.

Hook

1. Fold a paper heart! (This paper heart will be used at the end of the lesson too)

Materials: Square paper, preferably not too small

Video on how to fold a paper heart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqAbig-unUY (There are other videos out there so you might want to check them out!)

2. Everyone will take turns to share what they think the word “heart means”

Lead into the lesson proper by sharing with them the biblical idea of “heart

What is the heart? (The wellspring of life)

Basically, we need to communicate the idea that the heart is pretty much “the totality of an inner person”. It is a lot more than what the origin of our emotions. It also determines our character, which in turn influences our conduct.

Do Question 1

There is the idea above all else, our heart is of importance in the Christian faith.

1. It reflects our state of being – good/evil, obedient/disobedient, christian/non-christian etc..

2. It reveals what we love, not just in an emotional intangible sense, but also in a tangible way. What we speak of most often, what we spend most of our time doing etc…

What is the state of your heart? (The heart of the problem)

Ask some hypotheticals that may reveal your students’ hearts, this will depend on what you know of your students.

For the muggers:

When you have an assignment due the next day and you are in the midst of completing it, are you very highstrung? If your mother asks you for a little time, or somebody needs help, what do you do?

For the socialites:

When your friends don’t like a certain person in your group, do you join them in badmouthing her?

When you are told a juicy bit of gossip, or someone badmouths another to you, do you pass this information on to your good friends?

For the gamers:

When you are spending time with your family, or even with God (in church), does your mind drift to the newest game? Or are you in fact playing that game with your psp/iphone/techthingy?

For the self-absorbed/apathetic (most):

When you see a person in need or who are less blessed than you (maybe the uncle who sells tissue paper at the mrt station), does anything even cross your mind? Do you think of them as an opportunity for God to use you to bless others?

You are encouraged to share with your students some of your experiences too.

Do Question 2

Now that the students know how important the state of their hearts is to their faith, lead into the next segment of the danger of trying to change your heart on your own.

Problem: Trying to change from the outside in

Question: Since you know that your heart isn’t right in these areas, have you tried to change before? (Try and get everyone to share)

Read the passage below Question 2, which links the beatitudes to this danger.

Emphasise the idea that change has to happen from the inside out, and only God can change our hearts. If we try to change our conduct with the aim of changing our hearts, we will only fail sadly.

Solution: Looking to God (Make a change)

So how do we go about asking God to change our hearts?

Read the segment under “Make a Change” and do Questions 4 and 5 sequentially

Ending activity: Ask them to unfold the hearts that they folded just now, and have them write on the paper a prayer to God to change their hearts.

Encourage them along the week to ask God to change their hearts daily and allow them to change into people that God wants them to be. For those who are clueless as to what they think God wants them to be, ask them to pray to become loving Christians, and link this to the TTB production. If they want to serve God through the production, first, their hearts should be changed and set right so that they can serve God joyfully.

Done by Ariel