I am special

Genesis 1:27-31; Exodus 20:14; Psalms 119:9; Matthew 5:27-28; Ephesians 5:3-4

To help students understand that God wants them to stay pure in his eyes.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mark 12:30-31a, NIV*).

Our students are at a changing age. Every day they experience something new in their life, including their body and emotions developing. In this stage, they are discovering that the opposite sex is not as undesirable as they originally thought, and they may actually want to start relationships with them. It is a normal part of the growing process. That is why it is important that they learn what God’s point of view is regarding sexuality.

Through all means of communication, your students will be continually bombarded with inadequate information about relationships, sexual or otherwise. Many of these communications treat these subjects in a way that is impure and improper. The enemy even gives this inappropriate information to children and youth to assist them in making bad decisions in the realm of sex.

God wants us to live a holy life. Therefore, your students should learn that the sexual immorality that is promoted is not acceptable before God. They need the teachings from the Bible.

Read Genesis 1:27-31. God created man and woman and blessed them with sexuality. Sexual intimacy is a gift from God to human beings and it is something we should enjoy within the confines of God’s ordinances. Sex becomes something dirty when you start using it in ways for which it was not created. Your students need to know that God wants us to stay pure in his eyes. He wants to keep us from sexual sins, but in order for him to do that we need to seek his guidance and direction.

Read Ephesians 5:3-4. In his letter to Ephesus, the apostle Paul talks about the importance of living a pure life. There he presents a list of six sins that should be far away from the life of a Christian. Several are fornication, impurity, greed, lying, foolishness, and cursing.

In his Word, God warns us about the dangers of living out the things of this world and forgetting his precepts.

It is our prayer that God uses you to plant a seed in your students’ hearts so that they, too, will wish to maintain purity.

Select one of these activities to help introduce the lesson.What are they selling?

Ask the students, “Do you remember some of the commercials you’ve seen on television?” Let them answer and then ask, “How can we remember these so easily?”

After listening to a few examples, ask your students to make a list of 5 commercials that they like.

Then ask them, “Why is it so easy for us to remember these?” Listen to their responses and write them on the board. “Are the people in them attractive? Are they dressed modestly? How do you feel when you see such images?” Be ready to help them define “modestly”.

Have them look at the illustrations on the worksheet page and have them circle the ones that use sexual immorality to promote their product and a ‘?’ by the ones that do not.

While they work, say, “In our last session we studied the influence of violence in our lives and how the things we watch and play make it seem like something normal. What we see and hear can give us the wrong idea about sexuality as well. Many commercials use images and messages that promote impure sexual conduct. But, the Bible teaches us something very different.”

Clean water and dirty water

For this activity, you will need two glass vases, two cups of purified, clean water and two cups of dirty water.

Before the students arrive, put the two vases on a table and have the cups of water close by. For the dirty water, we suggest you add two spoons full of dirt or dark food coloring.

When the students arrive, have them sit in front of the table and start the class with a prayer.

Then, empty the clean water into a vase and the dirty water into the other. Tell them, “I want to share some water with you. Choose which one you’d like to drink.” Obviously, everyone will choose the clean water. Ask them why they chose that one and listen to their answers. Say that when the water is dirty, no one wants to touch it, much less drink it. However, when the water is pure with nothing contaminating it, we can drink it with confidence.

In today’s class, we will talk about something that contaminates mankind. Also, we will see what the Bible says about living a pure life.

Put the vases away to use them again later.

Your students will learn the biblical truth much easier by getting into smaller groups and investigating, rather than just listening. We suggest you divide into three groups and have each group answer the following questions after reading the passages of Scripture.

The Bible says

GROUP 1: Genesis 1:27-31 and 2:20-24

According to the Bible, where did sex come from?

How would you describe God’s attitude about sex?

What makes you think that?

GROUP 2: Exodus 20:14, Matthew 5:27-28, Romans 1:18 and 26-32

What warnings does the Bible give about sex?

GROUP 3: 1 Corinthians 10:13 and 1 Thessalonians 4: 1-5

What can we do when we are tempted to sin?

Provide them with Bibles, dictionaries and any other resources you may have available. Help them clear up any doubts that come up while working together and ask that they record their answers. When everyone is finished, have the groups share their answers with everyone else.

Careful with the spider web!

For this activity, you will need a spool of thread, yarn or wool.

Arrange your students in a circle and place yourself in the center holding the spool/skein of thread/yarn/wool. Hand one end to a student and be sure it is held firmly, while you circle around the group, entangling them in your ‘spider web’.

While you do this, tell them that sexual temptation is much like a spider web. Although they probably only think it is an inappropriate thought or word, little by little, it become a sin that eventually envelopes them so that they are trapped. Explain to them that the web that the spider weaves is made out of a very sticky substance so that insects will stay stuck in there when they contact it. That makes them easy prey for the spider.

The same thing happens with sexual temptations. So many people are drawn to them like a dangerous magnet. The end is a disaster.

Let the students try to get out by themselves, but if they cannot, help them BEFORE you start the next activity. (You may need to use scissors.)