Approved

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of teaching the lesson on a Wednesday night to a room full of 4th-6th grade students. Let me begin my mentioning that I absolutely love that age group. They are old enough so that they mostly understand the message with the way I teach normally but still young enough to question. Any speaker that has to work on being more charismatic or keeping the attention of an audience should be forced to speak to a room of 4th-6th graders. If the speaker is not adequately holding their attention, the speaker is usually the first to know because they do not fake it like audiences more advanced in years.

Presentations tips aside, the lesson that I used was one from Ephesians 1. The overall point was to discuss what people had to do to be approved by God. We began the lesson by talking about different people. The question that I put forth was one asking the students to think about people that their parents would feel good about them emulating. I said that any person was fair game. Some named famous musicians, one named Jesus, and others named family members that they admired.

Next, we turned the tables. I wanted to get them thinking about people that their parents would not feel good about them emulating. Again, several famous musicians were named, several kids told about relatives, and others named their own parents as people that they did not want to be like.

The point was this. For most of us, it is fairly easy to get on our "approved" list, regardless of how high of standards we believe ourselves to keep. There are lots of people who hold a standard low enough to include anyone who is considered attractive by society. Many people are drawn to a sharp mind or a sparkling personality. More so than anything else, we are drawn to people who are like us. That is not necessarily a negative thing but simply how we are wired. It's much more appealing to be around someone who laughs at your jokes, follows your thoughts, and believes the same way that you do. Most of the students readily agreed. But to stop there would not be much of a lesson so we moved on.

I continued to point out that, although it was fairly easy to get on our approved lists, God's list was not so easy. That is not to say that God does not love everyone because I firmly believe that He does. His standards, however, are not nearly as low as ours tend to be. We went through Galatians 3 and Romans 1 to see that it is only through faith that a person can please God. But faith alone is not enough.

Hear me out on this one. My wife and I spent part of our vacation last week discussing religion with our lovely hosts at the bed and breakfast. It seemed like any time a tough question came up about what they believed, it was simply "a matter of faith." But the Bible teaches that faith in something specific is the only way to get onto God's approved list. Galatians and Romans showed us that it is only through faith in the only-begotten Son of God. Without faith in the right thing, it is completely wasted.

The lesson was a lot of fun to teach. So fun, in fact, that I just had to write it out in a post. Thanks for taking the time to read. Even if it was something you already knew/had thought about, the message of the Gospel is a good reminder for all of us. Until next time, stay classy.

-Andrew