Christ Integration Camp

To GOOD To Be True

YOU WILL NEED SWEET CANDY AND SOUR OR ROTTEN CANDY FOR THIS LESSON

Read Philemon 1:13-14

  • I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.

SAY:

  • I wanted us to read this verse because it reveals to us an important thing about the Fruit of the Spirit. This is a letter from Paul to a church. He wants them to free a slave from punishment, but he says he does not want them to do this out of “compulsion.”
  • This means he does not want them to do it because he is making them do it. He wants them to do it because they want to do it.
  • When we abide in Jesus Christ, come to know Him more and more, the Fruit of the Spirit become part of who we are. We begin to want show the fruit in our lives, like goodness and kindness. Your parents will not have to tell you to be good or to be kind, but you will do it on your own. This is what happens when we allow Jesus Christ to completely change us from the inside out!

Read Galatians 6:9 and Ephesians 2:10

  • Galatians 6:9 – And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
  • Ephesians 2:10 – For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

ASK:

  • What do we learn about goodness based on these two verses?
    • Allow them to give their thoughts.
    • God has created us to do good. Doing good may be difficult and challenging, but it is also rewarding. We grow more like Christ, we learn how to be compassionate and loving to the poor and needy. We experience the love of people we may have never talked to before.

Say:

  • Only God is truly good. To say that God is good means that he always does what is right. There is nothing bad or evil or dark about God, so he always chooses to do the right thing. He is GOOD, all the time.
  • Can you imagine being good all the time? That means never lying, even a little bit. It means never saying something mean, or taking a cookie without permission, or yelling at your mom or feeling sorry for yourself. Wow, that would be hard.
  • It is hard. In fact, it’s impossible to be truly good. That’s why Jesus said “only God is good”. But Jesus IS God, so when we look at Jesus’ life, we see the only human being who was ever truly good. Jesus was good even when no one was looking. He was good when people tried to kill him, when his friends turned away from him, and even when he was flipping over tables in the temple.

Activity:

  • SUPPLIES
    • Candy that’s sweet and sour

Directions:

  1. Give each child one of the snacks and
  2. ASK: Does this look good to you? Let’s try it!
  3. After they try the gross food
  4. SAY:
    1. It looked good on the outside but it was gross on the inside. Humans can be like that too. We can look really good on the outside when we’re actually really gross on the inside.
    1. Goodness isn’t just about what we do. It’s about who we are when no one is looking. God knows how easy it is for us to pretend to be good. We can do all the right things, but if we do them while angry or disrespectful or whiny, it’s not God’s goodness.
    1. The world’s goodness and God’s goodness often look the same, but you have to look at the inside, at the heart, to know if it’s really coming from God or not.
  5. Feel free to give kids an actual good-tasting fruit or jelly beans before continuing.

Leave a comment