T&T Evidence of Grace 3.2 -- Satan
A new responsibility that I have taken on involves teaching the T&T kids at our church's Awana program.
I love this.
I have not taught the Bible to a group of kids in a while. Such a privilege.
The topic in their books this week just happened to be Satan, so I jumped right in.
Most of the material comes from Awana's online resource bundle for T&T, but I made a few additions that I thought I would blog about weekly in case they are helpful to other Awana T&
T teachers as they teach this unit (or anyone teaching on Satan in this case).
Intro (with this picture on the screen):
Start by making mashed potatoes at home ahead of time. However, I made them with a twist.
Instead of milk I used water (no biggie)
Added a 1/2 cup of salt to the 4 serving portion
Then, I added a 1/2 cup of cocoa.
Lastly, scooped them all in a large glass bowl and they looked and smelled like amazing chocolate ice cream. But, they tasted inedible.
For the full effect, I put them in a little cooler and carried them to club that way. Of course, since they were just mashed potatoes I prepped this in the morning when I had a few minutes and stored them in the fridge until we left.
Started the teaching with, "Who likes ice cream?" and "Who likes chocolate ice cream?"
Hands up all over the place. :)
It was amazingly easy to find volunteers without any further explanation.
I gave a teeny tiny bite on a plastic spoon and had my garbage bag nearby for the inevitable.
The kids still eagerly volunteered, although the number of hands greatly diminished. I let the charade continue for 4-5 more kids before moving on to the point of the illustration:
Things are not always what they appear, and sometimes things look way better than they really are.
Remember that as we move along.
Next, I posted this list of phrases (taken from Ezekiel 28:12-15):
You
were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty
You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you
You were anointed as a guardian cherub
You were blameless in your ways
In asking who that was describing people guessed Eve or God. Someone who had done their study this week realized it was Satan.
I stressed that Satan is the Father of Lies and one of his lies is making sin look good, fun, easy, painless. Just like the ice cream looked amazing -- it was awful. Satan might have looked like an angel of light, and act like a powerful lion, but God is truth and complete power
From there I had volunteers read the following verses and describe Satan further:
Ezekiel 28:15-17
I Peter 5:8 (I shared a thought from John Piper here to help them understand how Satan is a roaring lion. He doesn't want to physically eat you - hopefully that's obvious - but he does want to eat your faith).
2 Corinthians 11:14
Satan does not look like a little red guy with horns and a pointed tail.
One more dip into who Satan is using Isaiah 14:13-14.
Then we move onto the encouraging and important topic that Satan will be defeated, and how we can ward off his attacks:
Ephesians 6:10-11
James 4:7
Revelation 20:10
John 17:17
Psalm 119:11
Each verse, a volunteer would read and we would talk briefly about its significance.
We wrapped up with the memory verse, Genesis 3:1 and a few discussion questions.
To close, I reminded them that Satan is still up to his same tricks, still making things look like ice cream when they are nasty, salty mashed potatoes.
As they left I gave each leader a sheet of stickers to give one to each clubber to put in their book. Each sticker said, "This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book."
Praying those tidbits or tips help someone else prepare a meaningful lesson to help kids understand more about Satan -- God's adversary and ours as well.
I love this.
I have not taught the Bible to a group of kids in a while. Such a privilege.
The topic in their books this week just happened to be Satan, so I jumped right in.
Most of the material comes from Awana's online resource bundle for T&T, but I made a few additions that I thought I would blog about weekly in case they are helpful to other Awana T&
T teachers as they teach this unit (or anyone teaching on Satan in this case).
Intro (with this picture on the screen):
Start by making mashed potatoes at home ahead of time. However, I made them with a twist.
Instead of milk I used water (no biggie)
Added a 1/2 cup of salt to the 4 serving portion
Then, I added a 1/2 cup of cocoa.
Lastly, scooped them all in a large glass bowl and they looked and smelled like amazing chocolate ice cream. But, they tasted inedible.
For the full effect, I put them in a little cooler and carried them to club that way. Of course, since they were just mashed potatoes I prepped this in the morning when I had a few minutes and stored them in the fridge until we left.
Started the teaching with, "Who likes ice cream?" and "Who likes chocolate ice cream?"
Hands up all over the place. :)
It was amazingly easy to find volunteers without any further explanation.
I gave a teeny tiny bite on a plastic spoon and had my garbage bag nearby for the inevitable.
The kids still eagerly volunteered, although the number of hands greatly diminished. I let the charade continue for 4-5 more kids before moving on to the point of the illustration:
Things are not always what they appear, and sometimes things look way better than they really are.
Remember that as we move along.
Next, I posted this list of phrases (taken from Ezekiel 28:12-15):
You
were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beautyYou were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you
You were anointed as a guardian cherub
You were blameless in your ways
In asking who that was describing people guessed Eve or God. Someone who had done their study this week realized it was Satan.
I stressed that Satan is the Father of Lies and one of his lies is making sin look good, fun, easy, painless. Just like the ice cream looked amazing -- it was awful. Satan might have looked like an angel of light, and act like a powerful lion, but God is truth and complete power
From there I had volunteers read the following verses and describe Satan further:
Ezekiel 28:15-17
I Peter 5:8 (I shared a thought from John Piper here to help them understand how Satan is a roaring lion. He doesn't want to physically eat you - hopefully that's obvious - but he does want to eat your faith).
2 Corinthians 11:14
Satan does not look like a little red guy with horns and a pointed tail.
One more dip into who Satan is using Isaiah 14:13-14.
Then we move onto the encouraging and important topic that Satan will be defeated, and how we can ward off his attacks:
Ephesians 6:10-11
James 4:7
Revelation 20:10
John 17:17
Psalm 119:11
Each verse, a volunteer would read and we would talk briefly about its significance.
We wrapped up with the memory verse, Genesis 3:1 and a few discussion questions.
To close, I reminded them that Satan is still up to his same tricks, still making things look like ice cream when they are nasty, salty mashed potatoes.
As they left I gave each leader a sheet of stickers to give one to each clubber to put in their book. Each sticker said, "This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book."
Praying those tidbits or tips help someone else prepare a meaningful lesson to help kids understand more about Satan -- God's adversary and ours as well.
Comments