You Will Need:
- Coffee Filter
- Lemon Juice
- A highlighter
- A Bible marked at 1 John 1:9
If you don’t have these items: You can do the following activity to make the same point: Use food items or shaving cream to make a beard and mustache on your child—it’ll make a mess on them, just like sin makes a mess out of our lives. Then see how fast they can clean up their faces. Read 1 John 1:9 and continue with the DISCUSSION below.
STEP 1
Use a highlighter to write different sins on a coffee filter.
STEP 2
Put a few drops of lemon juice on the filter and watch your sins disappear.
DISCUSSION
Read 1 John 1:9 from your Bible.
SAY—Sin always makes a mess in our lives but if we confess our sins and tell God we’re sorry for the wrong things we’ve done, He’ll forgive us. We can’t clean up ourselves. We can’t forgive our own sins—we need a Savior. This doesn’t mean that we won’t have to deal with the consequences of the wrong things we’ve done, but when God forgives a sin, it’s gone for good.
SAY—That’s great news…and news like this ought to be shared with others. Jesus doesn’t want us to keep this a secret but to share it with the whole world.
ASK—This week with whom can you share about how Jesus can forgive sins?
PRAY—Give thanks that God has made a way to clean up the mess of our sins.
BREAKFAST BITES
ASK—What do you think the world would be like if there was no sin? (We would be perfect. No one would lie or steal or cheat. You could trust everyone, etc.)
ASK—In what ways do you think sin hurts people?
Read Galatians 6:7-8
(The point of this verse is simply: what you plant in your life is what will grow in your life. If you plant the things of God, you will grow things that last forever. If you give in to sin, however, the hurt of that sin will destroy the life that God intends for you to have.)