SINS Cannot Be Removed By Good Deeds

Icebreaker: Tower Building Competition

Ask for 8 volunteers for this up front game. Divide them into two teams. Give each team a set of Jenga blocks. The goal is to build the tallest tower.

Flip a coin to see which team takes the first turn. Have teams alternate turns as they build their own Jenga tower by stacking the blocks one by one onto their own team’s tower. The tallest tower wins.

ALT-ternative Teaching

Settle your students and transition to the lesson time.

Explain

We’re going to be talking today about how we humans often try to build a different kind of tower—a tower of good deeds to get to heaven.

But before we jump into today’s topic, let’s quickly review from the last couple weeks.

So far, we’ve been talking about how God created us to be with Him. But then sin came in and infected our world and our own souls.

Most all of the religions in the world agree that there’s something wrong with us, but not on how to fix the problem.

Ask

• What does it take to get to heaven?

Does our actions determine if we will end up in heaven or not?

Let’s open in prayer.

Here’s a sample prayer:

Dear God, we ask for Your help today as we try to understand the Bible.

Help us not see Christianity as a list of do’s and don’ts.

You call us to a deeper place. You want our relationship with You to be about so much more than that. Help us get that.

Play the video “Sins.”

Explain

Both inside us and around us we see the evidences of sin…so how do we address this big, glaring problem that affects the whole human race and each of us personally?

Open your books to page 17. There’s a sketch there that was drawn by Propaganda to get you thinking. Take a minute or so and write your own caption for the sketch.

Ask for volunteers to share what they wrote.

Explain

This sketch shows a tower of people stretching into the sky. Many religions have created all sorts of different strategies for earning your way back into God's good graces.

Ask

• Let’s talk about some of those…can you think of any examples of things people do to try to earn God’s love and go to heaven?

• Do these kinds of efforts make someone holy and perfect?

Explain

You may or may not be familiar with the story from the Bible know as The Prodigal, but either way, let’s take a closer look at this story. Flip to page 18, there you’ll see a summary of two of the most common ways that we humans try to solve the problem of sin ourselves—

• The younger brother says: “I don’t like your system. Leave me alone. Let me do my own thing.”

• The older brother says: “I’m determined to earn my own way back into God’s good graces. I’m a good person. I can make God like me.”

Ask

• What are some modern day behaviors that demonstrate how people live out the younger brother’s attitude today?

• Can you think of any present day examples of how the older brother’s attitudes and behaviors might show up? (i.e., judgmental attitudes, legalism, holier-than-thou comments)

Explain

So you see, whether you’re a rebel like the younger brother or a “goodie-goodie” like the older brother, Jesus says you have problems when it comes to your relationship with the Father that you can’t solve by yourself.

Which brings us to our Theological Term of the Day: DEPRAVITY.

And here’s what the term means: A complete inability to produce any good works that could merit salvation based on your own strength or merit.

Let’s all go to Romans 3:10-12 and after that we’ll go to Ephesians 2:8-9. Can I have a couple volunteers read these verses out loud for us.

Romans 3:10–12 CSB

as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.

Ephesians 2:8–9 CSB

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.

Ask

• Why are all our human efforts to earn our way to God like “spraying cologne on a corpse”?

Upward

Explain

One example sometimes used to illustrate this point is putting frosting on a burnt cake. But if the cake is burnt, no matter how pretty you make it look on the outside, deep down inside when you bite into it, it’s still going to be burnt cake.

The Bible tells us that our best efforts can’t build a tower back to God or make our burnt cake taste good. Which leads us to the third word of our Life in 6 Words: SINS. SINS CANNOT BE REMOVED BY GOOD DEEDS.

For this week’s Inward and Outward applications, divide your students into groups of 2-3 to discuss the following.

Inward

Explain

Now take a look on page 19 at the Inward section. Like we talked about earlier, Jesus’ story of the Prodigal describes two distinct human tendencies when relating to God. Which best describes you? Share your response with the others in your group and talk about how knowing your own tendency might help you cultivate a healthier relationship with the Father.

____ The younger brother—setting out on your own to find happiness and satisfaction apart from God.

____ The older brother—trying to earn God’s acceptance and approval through your good deeds.

Outward

Explain

Last week we talked about reporting back and sharing any conversations we had with someone about a current news story. I want to give you time to share in your group. Did anyone try to do this? What happened? … First, let me share my own experience to get you started.

Allow a few minutes of sharing time. If there are groups who don’t have any stories to share with each other, ask them to spend the time praying for their friends who need Jesus and for an opportunity to start the conversation about God.

This week I want to encourage you to try again with a friend who needs Jesus. Ask them what they think God wants from them. Listen, ask questions, get the dialogue going. Share what you believe about Jesus’ teaching that we can’t earn our way into God’s acceptance—that the price is too high to be paid by good deeds.

Closing

Close the meeting by allowing time for questions, praying for friends who don’t know Jesus and challenging students to get the conversation going with their friends.

Give a clear invitation to trust Christ by saying something like:

As we’ve been discussing these issues, maybe you’ve realized that you’ve been trying to “earn your way to God,” rather than simply trusting in Jesus’ work on the cross for your salvation. If that’s true for you, then I invite you to step out and put your faith and trust in Jesus alone as your only hope of a restored relationship with God. By simply putting your faith and trust in Him alone, you receive this free gift of life with Jesus, a life that starts now and lasts forever.

Invite students who made a decision to trust Christ to come see you after the meeting or to tell the friend who invited them.