CLEAN SLATE
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llustration option:
Say: Today, we're beginning a brand-new series called "Clean Slate."
A new year brings about new ways to create a fresh start, and this time of the year always signifies new beginnings.
Traditionally, at the turn of a new year, people make up resolutions to improve upon their lives, accomplish bucket-list dreams, and even give up bad habits.
Perhaps many of you have your own resolutions.
By a show of hands, how many are going to bring up their grades? Be kinder? Eat more healthy? Read your Bible? Attend church more regularly?
To engage your students, share with them a story about one of your past resolutions.
Did you know that the practice of making resolutions for the new year has been around for over 4,000 years?
Making resolutions at a new year was a religious ritual that began with the Babylonians and has changed throughout the years. Still, the concept of the practice remains the same.
For early Christians, the first day of a new year was the traditional day to think about their past mistakes and resolve to do and become better in the year ahead.
When we think about having a clean slate today, there are probably specific times of the year that come to mind, the new year, the start of a new school year or semester, or maybe even a new job.
Sometimes we seek a clean slate, and sometimes we don't.
Each of us needs a clean slate, spiritually speaking.
Today we're going to dive into what this means for us and why we need it.
Sin causes our relationship with God to be broken and in need of a fresh start.
Without addressing the sin in our lives, our grief, guilt, and failures begin to add up, and eventually, the weight of those will prevent us from hearing the voice of God and accomplishing the plans he has for us.
But there's good news!
We do not have to carry the burdens of our past failings, sins, and griefs throughout our entire lives because God offers us a clean slate.
Jesus died for our sins to bring us new life.
Because He died for us on the cross, we can have a clean slate, a fresh start.
There's no specific timeline for when we can have a clean slate.
There's not a right time in our lives, the year, week, or day.
People at any age can come to know Christ and accept the free gift of salvation, which offers us a clean slate.
Jesus is available to give us a fresh start at any time.
Let's look at a time in the Bible when God needed to wipe the slate clean…literally!
Do you remember hearing about the story of the great flood?
Maybe it is more familiar if we describe it as the story of Noah and the ark.
The story of Noah building the ark is probably one of the few stories in the Bible that most people recognize.
If you've been around church for any length of time, it's probably come up in conversation or in a sermon.
It's one of the childhood Bible story-time favorites!
Let's read the story and look at how God chose to give His creation a clean slate.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Clearly, creation needed a clean slate!
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
As the Bible continues to unfold the story, we learn that God told Noah to build an ark and instructed him precisely how to fill it.
Noah endured harsh ridicule for his obedience, but God worked even in that to accomplish his plan to rid the earth of sin and corruption.
Then, the flood began.
The fountains of the deep broke open, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Rain poured for forty days and forty nights.
The waters rose until every high hill on the earth was covered.
Everything that lived on land perished in the raging floodwaters.
Water covered the earth for 150 days without end.
That's a really long time to be in a boat!
When the rain stopped, and the water subsided, the earth was left barren of people and animals apart from those who were on the ark.
God used the flood to wipe the earth clean of sin, leaving behind a clean slate.
As humans, born into sin, we must recognize our need for Christ's redemption.
When He transforms our lives through salvation, He wipes the slate clean, and we are given a fresh start.
We don't have to weigh ourselves down with the burden of the mess our sin leaves us in.
Over time, if we don't allow Christ to transform our lives and relieve us of the weight of sin, it will get heavier and heavier and eventually be too heavy to carry.
Living in sin, without the hope of Christ, is like continually carrying the weight of heavy baggage.
Have you ever had to carry something with some weight for a distance?
No matter how strong you are, eventually, the weight becomes too heavy to carry, and we need to set the load down.
The failings of our past and the grief associated with that can also create a heavy load for us.
God invites us to lay it down and allow him to give us a clean slate.
Optional Illustration:
Leaders: Invite a student to volunteer.
You will need to have several heavy or awkwardly shaped objects such as blocks,
books, large bean bag chairs, a broom, even items of different weights…get creative!
Ask the student to stand and begin to hand them the objects one by one.
Instruct them that the objects may not touch the floor, and the item of the illustration is
to keep them from falling.
You can really play it up and make it a fun spectacle for your students.
As you place each item on the student, name a sin, area of failure, or grief that your
students may struggle with.
Regardless of the journey each of us has taken to get here, we need to realize that eventually, the baggage adds up, and we run out of space to carry it.
It can weigh us down and prevent us from doing what God has called us to do.
We do not have to carry the burdens of our past failings, sins, and griefs throughout our entire lives because God offers us a clean slate.
Jesus came to set us free and offer us a fresh start.
There is hope in that!
There is freedom in a fresh start!
What does that look like?
When we ask Jesus into our heart, He wipes away our sins and gives us a new start.
Or maybe you have asked Jesus to be your Savior at one time, but you need to rededicate your life to him and start again.
Rededication is a refocusing of our priorities.
It means that we recognize we've become lax, or lazy, in fervently seeking God and living for him.
Sometimes it can be easy to get distracted and be drawn away, but there is always hope in Christ.
Jesus's death on the cross gives us access to come to him for help.
All we have to do is ask.
The request is as simple as what Psalm 51:7
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. In what ways does sin weigh us down?
2. Talk about a time you felt heavy or weighed down by a past failure.
3. What things in life might distract you from recognizing that God wants to give you a clean slate?
4. What are the consequences of not allowing God to give us a fresh start?
5. If you were Noah building the ark, describe how you would've felt.
6. What lesson can we learn from God flooding the earth?
7. God said that he would never flood the earth again. How can we make this story relevant to us today?
8. Describe what you think living on the ark was like for 150 days.
9. What would prevent you from allowing God to wipe your slate clean?
What are the rewards of a clean slate? How would this look in your life?