If you’ve got God . . . you’ve got forgiveness
Posted by: Buffalo Dream Center
Topic: got God
Verse: “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:13
Props:
clean pennies
dirty pennies
secret solution (vinegar, salt, red food coloring)
dry erase board
dry erase markers
dry eraser
Instructions:
Discussion:
Introduction:
a. Last week we talk about having God’s love in your life.
b. God’s love is never-ending, unbreakable, and we can never be separated from it.
c. How can we show others God’s love?
d. Today we are going to talk about God’s forgiveness.
e. What does the word forgive mean?
f. To forgive means “to excuse” to “grant relief from debt”.
g. Jesus excused our sins. He granted us relief from our debts.
1.The Lord forgave you.
a. This penny represents our life before Jesus.
b. It is all dirty. Sin makes our heart dirty before God.
c. Jesus forgives our sins. Jesus excused our sins and granted relief from our debts.
d. How did He do this? When he died on the cross. He took our place.
e. We should have been on the cross because sin deserves death. Jesus took our place.
f. Now we can look like this penny (hold up a clean penny and pass it around a little so everyone can see how shiny it is)
g. (Put the pennies in the secret solution- scrub them and swish them around) Pull them out and dry them off.
h. The blood of Jesus washes away our sin just like this secret solution cleans the pennies.
2. The Lord forgives forever.
a. Have someone come and draw a picture on the dry erase board.
b. Comment on their picture, and then erase it.
c. Will we ever be able to see that exact same picture again? No
d. The Bible says that when Jesus forgives our sin, they are gone forever just like that picture.
e. The Bible says that He doesn’t even remember our sins anymore. That is hard to understand because we can remember the bad things we have done.
f. Jesus takes away our sins forever and doesn’t even remember them.
3. Forgive as The Lord Forgave you.
a. The Story of the Unforgiving Servant (you will want to learn this story and then tell it in your own words.)
Once upon a time in a far off land, there lived a happy king who had many servants. Everyone loved him. The king was working hard, trying to figure out who owed him money. Things just did not add up until he discovered that one of his servants name (Joe) owed him millions of dollars. So the royal prison guards volunteered to find Joe.
The king waited for the prison guards to return with Joe. When they arrived, Joe fell on his knees and begged and pleaded with the king to forgive him of his debt. Joe could not pay back the king the millions of dollars he owed the king.
The king thought and thought about it. He was a good and kind ruler. Everybody loved him. The king finally decided he would forgive Joe of the debt he owed. Joe was so excited, and so was everybody else in the kingdom because everybody knew the king was good and kind.
Not long after Joe left the palace he ran into another servant named Sam. Sam owed Joe about $100.00. It was not really a lot compared to the millions Joe had owed the king. Joe ordered Sam to pay his debt immediately. Sam could not pay the debt. He was flat broke. Sam begged Joe to forgive the debt. Joe wouldn’t hear of it. Joe ordered that Sam be thrown in jail.
As soon as the king heard about what Joe had done to Sam, the king became very angry. He sent the prison guards to get Joe immediately. The angry king ordered that Joe be put in prison for his actions.
The angry king had forgiven Joe for so much debt. However, Joe could not forgive Sam for such a small debt.
Conclusion:
1. Jesus died on the cross to forgive the debt of our sins.
2. We must forgive others just like Jesus forgave us.
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