A Big Fall Created The Pothole

Start by passing around the bag of jelly beans instructing each kid to choose only one color and to NOT eat it. 

Ask the kids why they chose which color they did.  Did they pray about it?  Why not? 

Have someone read Genesis 1:28-30

Briefly describe the pre-fallen world in terms of land space & tree/fruit variety.

Tell about agnostic student assistant who thought God was a malicious God for putting the tree of life in the Garden in the first place.

Have someone read Genesis 3:1-6

Isn't it interesting that the first recorded thing out of Stan's mouth was a question. Questions seem benign and safe, but when someone maliciously questions God's Word (in our case, the Bible), nothing good comes of it.  Notice that Satan cleverly did three things:

1. He got Adam and Eve to take their eyes off all God had given them and focus on the one thing God had said they couldn’t have.
• They had the whole world to travel, perfect bodies, no imperfections anywhere and a mandate to eat, sleep and have sex.  There was only ONE stupid tree that they were not able to eat from.
• Isn't it interesting how they were close enough to the tree to even be tempted by Satan.  Why were they in such close proximity to it?
• Do you find that whenever someone tells you not to do something, you automatically become attracted to that thing? 
2. He got them to doubt God’s goodness, wisdom and love.
• Share how drinking isn't attractive to you because you want to be in control and how that relates to difficulties in your spiritual walk. 
3. He convinced Adam and Eve that they could do a better job of being in charge than God.
• This belief and mindset is at the core of EVERY sin we make. 
• Ask for some examples of how this mindset can spawn a wide variety of sin.

The very moment that they made the choice to live independently of God, evil of every kind entered the world. Adam and Eve started to grow old, as death came into the world for the first time. Where there had been a perfect environment, there would now be ugliness, pain, suffering, sickness, and sorrow.  Romans 8:22

As horrible as all that is, the real tragedy of their fall is two-fold: First, the human race that was created to express the glory of God was perverted and became offensive to Him. It would no longer be able to live as an extension of God’s life or to reflect what He is really like. Secondly, mankind, now spiritually cut off from God, was left with a strange emptiness and lack of purpose in life. When Adam and Eve fell, that fall created a pothole of self-sufficiency on the road of life that mankind has been falling into ever since.

• Have someone read I Timothy 2:12-14.  Briefly describe what that's all about and how Adam knowingly and willingly sinned and why that was worse than Eve sinning.

Sin is basically choosing to do certain things on your own when you know you should be listening to and following God.  God tells you not to do something and you say, "no, I know better than you so I'm going to do it anyway".  Evil is nothing more than that.  To live apart from God is to be in the worst state imaginable.  Have someone read Galatians 5:19-21.

The first thing God did after Adam and Eve sinned was to kill an animal (Genesis 3:21).  The skin from the animal covered their nakedness and the animal’s blood was a sacrifice--a payment for their sin.  Note how God killed the first creature for the sake of humanity.  He didn't tell Adam to go kill it, but did it on his own out of love for Adam & Eve. 

God chose blood to be the payment for sin, and thousands of years later, in Leviticus 17:11, God explains in part why He did. Blood represents life and God knew that one day a resurrected life would conquer death, so God chose blood to pay for man’s sin.  This is the reason why, in order for our sins to be paid for, the price is either our blood or Jesus' blood.  Human blood needed to be spilled in order to make the payment, but the human in question had to be perfect.  The only solution was for a perfect God to become fully man while still remaining fully God.  Christ's perfect life and obedience in death fixed the problem caused by the first man's choice to willingly try and do things on his own.

So what's the gist of this entire lesson? What's the ONE THING that you should take home from this lesson?  Trust and obey God no matter what!!  We cannot do anything on our own (John 5:19).  If Jesus acknowledged that He can't do anything without God, how could we?  He really does know best and choosing anything other than Him or other than His will is nothing that will ever bring you happiness or fulfillment!