2. You Can Run but You Cannot Hide

KEY VERSE Proverbs 28:13

STICKY STATEMENT God knows all and sees all

LESSON OBJECTIVE experiment before class to help you determine how much cola you will need and how long it Children will see their natural tendency to hide will take for the buttons to surface. sin but God knows all and sees all. LESSON OVERVIEW The emphasis in our lesson today is that sin CHECKLIST and death entered the world through Adam. 1. Rock with the word “SIN” written on it. The first sin occurred when Adam and Eve 2. Items for object lesson: clear drinking glass, chose to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of cola, small plastic buttons, spoon. Good and Evil and disobey God. At that moment they knew they sinned and 3. A PowerPoint is available for this lesson. immediately tried to hide from God because Teacher’s note: For the object lesson, explain they were ashamed. At the moment of sin, that you will use the glass to represent a person. Adam and Eve were separated from God. As you pour in the cola, tell them that this will be Even though God sees all our sin, He chooses like the dark places where we hide our sin. As to always love us. you name different sins, drop in a small plastic button. The cola hides the sin. While we think our sins are hidden, God knows our sins and Younger Adaptation sometimes others will also see our sins. The Instead of the object lesson, you can choose buttons will eventually float to the top. When you to do this activity for younger children. Ask a explain that when we ask God to forgive us, He child to name a sin (disobeying, stealing, removes our sins, use the spoon to take out the lying...) Give that child a rock with the word buttons. We recommend that you try this “SIN” written on it. Have the child hide the “sin You Can Run but You Cannot Hide (Module 1 – Beginnings) - 1 rock” while the rest of the children cover their turn to hide “another sin.” Have a few children eyes. They may hide it anywhere in the room. take turns hiding the rock. Have the other kids open their eyes and search for the ‘SIN’ rock. The child who finds it gets a

2 INTRODUCTION Have you ever done something wrong and tried to hide it?” You all look a little guilty, so I guess that’s a yes. You may have some secret sins that you think no one will ever find out about. However, even if you are the best pretender in the world, God knows all and sees all. You cannot hide your sins from Him. Teacher’s Note: You can choose to do the object lesson or the younger adaptation of hiding the “sin rock.” If you choose the younger adaptation, continue teaching at the last paragraph of the introduction (do not mention the buttons) before the body of the lesson. Teacher’s Note: Have all your items on a table for the object lesson: a clear drinking glass, cola soda, small plastic buttons, and a spoon. Show the glass as you pour in the soda. Pretend this glass is you. The cola will represent the darkest place in your life where you think no one will ever find out about your sins. [Show the buttons.] We’ll use these buttons to represent sins. [As you mention each sin, toss a button in the glass of cola.] Maybe you lied to your parents, or you called your sibling an ugly name to make them mad, or went on a computer site which is not allowed for you. Perhaps you cheated or copied someone else’s work, and said it was your own. Since I’m not sure what sin you may be hiding, let’s just drop all the rest of the buttons in the glass. Can you see them? The dark soda has hidden them. [Watch for the buttons to surface.] Although your sins may be hidden from others, God always knows, and they are never hidden from Him. Even if you are good at hiding your sins, they may come to the surface just like these buttons. Look, here they are. You might be able to hide your sins longer than these buttons in the cola, but sooner or later your sin will find you out. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 28:13, “Whoever covers or hides his sin will not prosper.” Hiding your sin keeps you from having the joy filled life that God wants you to have. That would be awful news for each one of us, but Proverbs 28:13 also goes on to tell us the cure for our sin. [Take the spoon and remove the buttons.] “Whoever confesses or forsakes their sins will have mercy.” God promises to remove your sins just like we removed these buttons from the glass.

Younger Adaptation Instead of the object lesson, you can choose to do this activity for younger children. Ask a child to name a sin (disobeying, stealing, lying...) Give that child a rock with the word “SIN” written on it. Have the child hide the “sin rock” while the rest of the children cover their eyes. They may hide it anywhere in the room. Have the other kids open their eyes and search for the “SIN” rock. The child who finds it gets a turn to hide “another sin.” Have a few children take turns hiding the rock.

BODY In our lesson today, we will see two people in the Bible who made a very bad choice. Last time we learned that God created the whole world. Now we want to continue the story. Open your Bible and follow along with me in Genesis 2:15-17. [Read] God had created a perfect garden, the Garden of Eden and put Adam and Eve in it to take care of it.

God gave just them just one command. [Reread Genesis 2:16-17] That is a pretty clear command, right? They could eat anything they wanted to in the garden except NOT from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As we continue our story, a sly character enters the scene. [Read Genesis 3:1-4]. Satan disguised as a serpent begins talking to Eve. He asked Eve questions about what God had said. The serpent You Can Run but You Cannot Hide (Module 1 – Beginnings) - 3 sounded very convincing when he told Eve that she would NOT die if she ate the fruit. Can you believe that the serpent actually accused God of not being truthful with her! Does anyone remember EXACTLY what God said to Adam? What was God’s command? [Wait for children to answer.]

Do you think Adam and Eve understood God’s command? [YES!] Do you think Eve knew she was being tricked? [NO!] But she chose to believe the lie from Satan. Do you think Eve knew the consequences of disobeying? Do you remember what God said would happen if they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Eve knew the consequences because she just told the serpent what they were! Eve knew that she would die if she ate it. The serpent convinced Eve to believe him instead of God, so she listened and chose to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve chose to disobey God and then shared the fruit with Adam. Adam chose to it eat.

The very instant that Adam and Eve took a bite, their eyes were opened. They realized they were naked and quickly strung leaves together to cover themselves. Adam and Eve tried their best to hide from God. They were ashamed and did not want God to see what they had done. However, they knew that God knows all and sees all. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they became afraid in their perfect, beautiful garden. Fear and shame are some of the consequences that we may feel when we sin. We cannot hide our sin from Him.

APPLICATION Sin is anything you say, do, or think that displeases God. Sin may be telling a lie, hitting your brother or sister, or having a bad thought. Sin separates you from God. It is natural for you to feel ashamed when you sin. Adam and Eve were so ashamed that they tried to cover their sin and even hide from God. However, there was no place for them to hide because God knows all and sees all.

Let’s read Proverbs 28:13. [Read Proverbs 28:13a.] It is very clear that Adam and Eve were not happy about what they had done. In the same way, when you try to cover your sins, you will not be happy. However, there is hope. Let me read the rest of Proverbs 28:13. [Read Proverbs 28:13b.] Whoever means any one of you can confess your sin, and God will give you mercy.

For those of you who can’t remember a time in your life when you put your faith in God, you should know that God sent His Son Jesus for you. He lived a sinless life, and took the punishment for your sin. Jesus died in your place and rose from the dead so you can be forgiven. You simply need to trust that He did that for you. You can trust Jesus today. If you have questions about this, please talk with one of our leaders before you leave.

Teacher’s note: Have children’s salvation tracts ready to give out to those who may come and talk with you and also have leaders ready to talk with children.

If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior there is a way for you to deal with your sin as well. You need to confess your sin to God and stop trying to hide it. You know you can’t hide it anyway, so why not just come to God and say, “God I sinned by . I know this is wrong, and I ask you to forgive me.” Let me read 1 John 1:9 [read]. Instead of hiding your sin, do what God wants you to do. Confess it. Now would be a great time to get that settled. Close in prayer.

4 PERSONAL TRAINING TIME Goal of this Personal Training Time The children will understand that God knows all and sees all. They cannot hide their sins from God, but they should confess them to God.

Discussion Questions

1. Why do people hide their sins? (People hide because they are ashamed and don’t want anyone to know, especially God. We feel ashamed and are afraid we will get into trouble if our sin is known.)

2. How do you confess your sins? (Talk with the children who are saved about confessing their sins. Confession is telling the truth about the wrong choices we made. Walk them through how to confess a sin like lying to God. “God, I know you saw me when I told that lie, and I know that this is sin. I ask you to forgive me for lying and help me to tell the truth.”)

If there are children in your group that do not have a personal relationship with Christ, take time to share the Gospel. Make sure you have a children’s Gospel tracts you can give to them.

PARENT CONNECTION Today your child learned that sin is anything they say, do, or think that displeases God. It is natural to be ashamed of sin and try to hide it. When your child makes the right choice to tell the truth about their sin and not hide it, make sure you make a big deal out of it. Praise them because this is a BIG DEAL!

You Can Run but You Cannot Hide (Module 1 – Beginnings) - 5