Lesson 7: What is Sin?

Aims:
1. To learn that God wants to see a world of goodness and to get rid of sin

Materials:
* Bible passages – Genesis 19:1-29
* large pictures of the story
* worksheet
* coloured pencils, white paper
* Clothes pegs, glue, cotton balls, white pipe cleaners
* coffee filters and washable markers

Key words
sin – to do something that is against God’s laws, such as stealing and lying
pillar – a tall vertical structure made of stone or wood to support a building
Sodom and Gomorrah – two sinful cities at the time of Abraham

Lesson Outline
1. Introduction
2. Story
3. Questions about the story
4. Activities – worksheets, drawings, make a pillar of salt, coffee filter sin
5. Review the aim
6. Prayer

1) Introduction
…………………….
* What kind of world does God want to see? – a world of love, happiness and peace where all people can live as one big family together.
* Is the world the way God wants it to be? – No
* What kind of things does God not like? – When people go against his laws and do such things as lie, steal and murder, etc… This we call sin.
Today’s story is about a time when people did a lot of sinful things and what God did about it

2) Story
Genesis 21:1-19
Now, back in the days of Abraham, there were two cities named Sodom and Gomorrah. The people who lived there had turned away from God. They didn’t care about God. They didn’t care about
doing what was good and right. In fact, they did just the opposite. They thought it was great fun to do what is wrong.

Abraham had a nephew named Lot. Lot and his family lived in the city of Sodom. They cared about God, and tried to do what pleased him.
Now, the evil in Sodom and Gomorrah was so bad that it was like a terrible, rotten smell that reached all the way up to heaven. And so God decided to put an end to it. and told Abraham what he
was about to do.

Abraham was afraid because his nephew lived in Sodom, so he spoke to God.
“What if there are some good people living there,” Abraham said. “If you destroy the city, they will die too. That wouldn’t be right.”

So God said, “If you can ﬁnd ﬁfty good people there, I won’t destroy the city. I will save the whole city for the sake of the ﬁfty good people.”
Abraham took a deep breath, “You are God, and I am just a man,” he said, “And you don’t have to listen to me at all. But,” he said, “what if there forty-ﬁve good people living there. Will you destroy the whole city just because of ﬁve people?”

“If I ﬁnd forty-ﬁve good people there,” God said, “I will not destroy the city.”
Then Abraham said, “What if there are only forty good people there?”
God said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
Then Abraham said, “Please don’t be angry with me, Lord. But what if there are only thirty good people there?”

God said, “I will not do it if I ﬁnd thirty there.”
Abraham took a deep breath again. “What if there are only twenty good people there?”
And God said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

Then Abraham said, “Let me speak just one more time. Please don’t be angry with me. But what if there are only ten good people there?”
God answered, “For the sake of even just ten good people, I will not destroy the city.”
So God sent two angels to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, to see if there were just ten good people there. Abraham’s nephew Lot met the two angels at the gate of the city. (The angels looked
like ordinary men). Lot bowed to the ground. “Please come to my house and have dinner with us and stay the night.”

The angels said, “No. We will spend the night in the city square.”
Lot said, “No, please, come and stay with us.” Lot knew how evil the people in Sodom were, and that they would try to hurt them. So the angels went to Lot’s house and Lot made dinner for them.
Later that evening, in the dark of the night, the people of Sodom began to surround Lot’s house.
“Lot! We want to meet your guests,” they shouted from outside the door. “Send them out so we can say hello.” But they were lying. They really wanted to have fun doing terrible things to Lot’s guests.

Lot stepped outside the door to plead with his neighbors. “Please go away and leave us alone,” he said.
But these evil people crowded all the more around Lot’s house. They were laughing and shouting horrible things. They pressed so hard against the house; they were about to break down the door.
The angels reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door with blindness so that they couldn’t ﬁnd the door.

Then the angels said to Lot, “You and your family must leave this place. God is about to destroy it!”
Early the next morning, in the pale light before the sun had risen, the angels said to Lot, “Hurry!
Take your wife and your two daughters and leave this place, or you will die with everyone else!”
But Lot was so afraid he couldn’t move. So the angels grabbed him by the hand, and they grabbed the hands of his wife and of his two daughters, and they led them out of the city. As soon as they
were safely out of the city, one of the angels said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
And then God rained ﬁre onto the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Thick, black smoke ﬁlled the air like smoke from a ﬁery furnace.
But Lot’s wife looked back – even though the angels warned her not to – and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

3) Questions about the story
* What was the name of Abraham’s nephew? – Lot
* Where did he live? – Sodom
* What was wrong with Sodom and Gomorrah? – People were very sinful
* What did God want to do to these cities? – destroy them
* What was Abraham afraid of? – He thought good people, like Lot, would die as well as bad people
* What did God say to him? – “If you can ﬁnd ﬁfty good people there, I won’t destroy the city.”
* What did God ﬁnally promise Abraham? – “For the sake of even just ten good people, I will not destroy the city.”
* Who did God send to Sodom? – two angels
* How many good people did they find? – four, Lot, his wife and two daughters
* When Lot and his family fled the city, what did the angels tell them not to do? – look back
* What happened to lot’s wife – she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt
* Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? – to get rid of the evil in the cities

4) Activities
* Draw Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt.
* Draw a picture of a ﬂame – Write Sodom and Gomorrah. The pictures will serve as a reminder to do what is right.
* Make a pillar of salt from a clothes peg. Glue cotton balls to the clothes pegs. Twist one pipe cleaner to each clothes peg for arms to make a pillar of salt..
* Illustrate how sin invades our life – bring coffee ﬁlters and washable markers. Let the children mark on the ﬁlters. Now dip them in water. The water will cause the marks to blend together.Share
how sin in our lives grows until it is blended into everything. It may look pretty from far away, but sin trips us up and causes much damage.
* Worksheet – colur the picture, answer the questions

5) Review the aim
1. To learn that God wants to see a world of goodness and to get rid of sin

6) End with a prayer