The Misbehaving Doggy

Tuesday:	The Misbehaving Doggy
Bible Passages:	[Needed]
Objective:	Our sin alienates us from God.

Introduction: Nice Doggy

Zeke is a nice doggy. He's cute, and cuddly, and lovable. He has nice doggy ears, and a cute doggy nose, and he does nice doggy things. He eats his dog food, and he likes to go on walks, and he doesn't bite, and he always goes potty outside. He's a good doggy.

Explanation: Misbehavior

But sometimes Zekiel (Zeke) doesn't do what he's supposed to do. Sometimes he does wrong things that he knows he's not supposed to do.

Sometimes early in the morning, when nobody's watching, he sneaks into the bathroom, grabs some toilet paper, shreds it into little pieces, and scatters them all down the hallway. Zeke knows that he's not supposed to do that, and when he gets caught he hangs his head or runs away. He knows that he'll be in trouble. But he does it again the next day anyway.

Zeke also likes to get yucky things out of the trash and drag them around the house, like old butter wrappers and dirty napkins. He knows he's not supposed to. He knows he'll get in trouble. He hides when he does it, so that the people won't find out. But he still does it.

Application: Sin

Zekiel is just a dog. When Zeke misbehaves, that's bad doggy behavior. But dogs aren't the only ones who ever misbehave, are they? Sometimes people misbehave too.

When people misbehave, we call it sin. Sin is the wrong things that we do, and it makes God very sad. Because we're people, and because we can know God, we're supposed to be able to do better than the animals. God made us to be like him. We're not supposed to sin. When we do sin, it keeps us from being with God. We're in big trouble.

When you do something that you know is wrong, even though you know you're not supposed to, you're choosing to sin, to disobey God. Even though most of the time you do the right thing... most of the time you don't hit your brother... most of the time you don't lie to your parents... but when you do, that's sin, and it's bad, and it keeps you from being with God.

In other words, it's because of our sin that we're at the pound, and God had to pay to get us out. Our sin is a big problem, and we need to ask for God's forgiveness.

Invitation: Repentance

Invite any children who want to turn away from their sin to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.