Loving God as a Family Lesson Seven

Loving God as a Family

Because We Love God, We Turn Away From Sin


Read: Luke 19:1-10
Questions for Discussion
Describe Zacchaeus’ life before he met Jesus?

(Was he rich or poor, do you think he was generally happy and so on?)
How did Zacchaeus change when he met Jesus?
What caused the changes in Zacchaeus’ life?
What does it mean to turn away from sin?
How can Jesus help you turn away from sin this week?
What are some sins that we need help turning away from?

As a family using an etch-a-sketch take turns drawing a simple shape. Discuss how using the knobs to draw can make it difficult to get the exact shape that you would like every single time, especially if you want to draw a circle. Although mistakes are likely on an etch-a-sketch, the good news is that it is easy to start over. All you have to do is turn it upside down and shake it a bit and then you have a clean slate! Option: you can look at pictures of some incredible etch-a-sketch art online (try http://www.gvetchedintime.com/set.html) talk about how much time these artists spend creating the etch-a-sketch art, and yet it could all be erased with a shake. Discuss how we can do the same thing, spending a great deal of time creating a life that looks the way we want it to look to others, yet can easily be undone when things shake us up. Our lives must be built of the clean slate that Jesus gives us when we get saved and then be shaped by him according to his plan.

Key Thought: When Zacchaeus met Jesus, he turned away from his sin of stealing from people by giving his money to the poor. Life is not easy, and while trying to follow God we may find our selves making mistakes, but God loved us so much that he gave his only Son that we can be saved from our sin, and because we love God, we can, with Jesus’ help, turn away from our sin As we grow and mature in Christ, our lives conform to the image of Christ, and we make fewer mistakes. That is the key to a successful Christian life: Not controlling our lives so that we don’t sin, but allowing ourselves to be controlled by God so that he directs our lives in the plan that he has for us.


Pray together and thank God for the sacrifice he made of his only son so that we can be forgiven, and for his great love for us that spurred on that gift. Also, pray that, in the days to follow, Jesus would not only help us turn from sin, but also conform us to his image through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Activities

Preschool:

Teach your child this song to remind them that Jesus helps us turn away from sin. Encourage your child to spin every time you sing the word “turn.” This song can be sung to the melody of “I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy.”
“Jesus helps turn, turn, turn, turn me from sin (what?)
Turn me from sin (what?)
Turn me from sin.
Jesus helps turn, turn, turn, turn, turn me from sin (what?)
Turn me from sin today.”

Collect 4 large lemons, ½ cup of sugar, 2 ½ cups of cold water, a pitcher and a spoon. Ask your child to taste a bite of unsweetened lemon, and talk about the sour taste. Squeeze the juice from the other lemons to make ¾ cup of lemon juice. Combine the lemon juice, sugar and cold water in the large pitcher. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Drink the lemonade with your child and talk about how the sugar turned the sour lemon sweet and about how this is like when Jesus turns us from our sin.

Lower Elementary:

Help your child decorate a pair of plastic sunglasses with small stickers or paint. Make sure to leave the lenses clear enough to see out of! After the paint has dried, take a walk on in the sunshine letting your child wear the glasses. Talk about how Jesus helps us turn away from our sin, just as our sunglasses help turn the sun away from our eyes.

Collect three small bowls of water colored with food coloring (one yellow, one red, and one blue), an eyedropper, a paper towel, and newspapers. Lay the newspaper over the surface of the table to protect it. Let your child drop different colors of food colored water on the paper towel using the eyedropper. Notice how the color changes when two drops run into each other. Let the paper towel dry, and think about how Jesus changes us and turns us away from sin, just like the food coloring changed and turned a different color when the spots overlapped.

Upper Elementary:

Collect three bowls, syrup, grass, dirt, and soap. Set up the three bowls near the kitchen sink, the first bowl with syrup in it, the second with grass in it, and the third with dirt. Let your child dip their hand into the first bowl and coat their hand with syrup. Then let them dip their hand into the second and third bowls sticking grass and dirt to the syrup. As they do, explain that the grass and dirt are like sin, that dirties our life. Then use soap to wash their hand in the sink. Discuss how Jesus makes us clean from our sin, just like the soap did for our hands. Let them share this project with others in the family later.

Show your child how to carefully carve a bar of soap with a dull butter knife. Let them carve a bar of soap into the shape of a cross. Smooth the edges with a bit of water. Encourage your child to use the bar of soap every time they bath until it runs out. Remember, every tie they use it, that while they are getting themselves clean, Jesus cleans up their heart by helping them turn away from sin.

Teens:

Try playing this game with your family, add friends if you would like. Sit in a circle and count, each person saying the next number from the person who went before them. Every time the number seven is used in any form (as in seven, seventeen, twenty-seven) say the word “buzz” instead of the number. Do the same for any multiples of seven (such as fourteen, twenty one, twenty eight). Try to keep the counting going quickly, it is a game of speed. After you are finished, discuss why it was difficult to substitute a new word for all of the numbers. This game is difficult because it deviates from what is normal for us. We are accustomed to using the number seven, and to replace it with the word “buzz” feels awkward. It requires extra concentration and is against what is natural for us. Some times our Christian walk can feel the same way. We have to develop new habits and standards that go against the natural and sinful man. At first these can take a considerable amount of concentration, but as we grow in Christ and allow him to turn us away from sin we will be changed into his image.