When teaching Sunday school, there are two main pillars to the class time: teaching and application. Application is an essential step to apply truths from the Bible lesson to a child’s everyday life. The Small Group Application section of each lesson provides small group leaders with specific questions to discuss with the children in their group. These questions help children understand and clarify what they heard in the lesson and lead them towards three responses:
- The Head: What the children know and understand.
- The Heart: What the children feel, such as emotions, desires and convictions.
- The Hands: What action the children will take, such as a response, commitment, etc.
One of the major updates we made to the revised version of Faithful to All His Promises, was to rework the application section. The questions were expanded and finessed to equip small group leaders with material that is age appropriate, integrated with workbook activities and targeted towards the heart. Here is a sample application section from Faithful to All His Promises, along with the matching workbook pages so you can take a look inside the curriculum and see the changes!
Lesson 7 Promise: God Will Forgive You
Main Ideas:
- If we confess our sins, God will forgive us.
- When God forgives sin, He blots
Small Group Application
Choose one or more of these application ideas as time allows.
Confession
What is “sin”? In what ways do you sin? What does it mean to “confess” our sin? [Help children to see that confession means to agree with what God says about our sin and to admit our sins specifically. Walk the children through a few examples of how to confess sin.] What should our attitude be when we confess our sin? We must confess our sin when we come to Jesus for salvation. Is that the only time that we must confess sin? [Help children to understand that there is a confession of sin that happens at salvation, but even for the Christian, confession is daily and ongoing because even Christians sin.]
Not Remembering Sin
When God blots out our sin, does He forget it? [Help children to see that when God does not “remember” our sin it doesn’t mean that He doesn’t know about it, but He chooses not to think about it; He doesn’t blame us for it.] When we forgive someone, we don’t keep remembering the bad thing they did to us. We don’t try to hurt them back. We think good thoughts about that person, not bad thoughts. Can you think of a time when you forgave someone or someone forgave you? How do you keep from thinking about the bad thing a person did to you?
Repentance
What does “repent” mean? [To grieve over sin and stop sinning; to turn away from sin—make sure that children understand the difference between being sorry for getting caught, or being sorry about consequences, and having grief over the offense our sin is to God and the sinfulness of our hearts.] Give an imagined yet realistic situation to your group (e.g., being selfish: eating all your candy and not sharing it with your brother). Then help the children to see what confession of that sin would look like and what repentance would look like. If there is time, talk through a few more situations.
Workbook
Forgiveness
Why is God the only one who can forgive our sins and blot them out forever? Read the works of the Hymn Amazing Grace to the children. Then help them match words from the hymn to their meaning, drawing lines to connect the two. Finally, they can find their way through the maze from sin and blindness to the sweetness of amazing grace and heaven. Promise: God Will Forgive You
Amazing grace,
What is grace? [God’s kindness to undeserving sinners] Why did John Newton think that grace is so amazing? Grace is amazing because it is so good and so undeserved.
How sweet the sound,
Why do you think that John Newton said that grace is sweet? Grace is sweet…grace is sweet because it is so good; we should easily love it in the same way that it is easy for us to love sweet candy. (Pop a piece of candy in your mouth and smile.) Optional: I will give you each a piece of candy so you can think about how sweet grace is—how sweet and how good it is to be forgiven by God.
That saved a wretch like me.
What is a “wretch”? [A wretch is a terrible, awful person, a wicked person.]
Saved from
What is a person who is trusting in Jesus for forgiveness of sin saved from? [The anger of God at sin and the punishment for sin.]
Saved for
What is a person who is trusting in Jesus for forgiveness of sin saved for? [To live forever in heaven with God.]
I once was lost, but now am found.
What did John Newton mean about being “lost”? [He couldn’t find his way out of sin and into heaven.] What does he mean by saying that he was “found”? [Jesus found him and took away his sins; he could not find his own way out of sin but Jesus rescued him.]
Was blind, but now I see.
What did he mean by saying he was “blind?” Did he mean that his eyes didn’t work and he couldn’t see? [He couldn’t see how sweet and amazing grace is; he couldn’t see how to be saved.] “But now I see…” What does he see? [How sweet and amazing grace is; he sees that Jesus saves sinners. (Thank God for amazing grace and forgiveness that saves sinners and blots out sin forever.)
Learn More about Faithful to All His Promises
See more examples of complete lessons in the revised Faithful to All His Promises Sample. Place your order for the revised Faithful to All His Promises. Learn more about small group leading and application with our training seminars.
