/ September 30, 2018 Separated from God Focus: Sin separates us from God. Bible Basis: Genesis 3:8-17, 20-24 By Carol Wilde Memory Verse: So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. Genesis 3:23 Students explore how choosing to sin separates us from God. OPENING ACTIVITY: A Great Gulf Fixed On sheet of paper or on a classroom board, draw what look like two cliffs facing each other with a large space between them. On one of the cliffs write Us and on the other write God. Ask your students if there is any way that this great gulf fixed (Luke 16:26, KJV) between sinful humankind and a holy God can be bridged. They may immediately suggest Jesus, and if they do, draw a cross that makes a bridge between the two cliffs. This week, we will look at the choices Adam and Eve made that broke their relationship with God, and how faith in Jesus became the only way to reach our final destination of life in Him, and with Him, forever. OPENING STORY: [Read aloud or hand out copies for student to read and share] EX-KKK, NAZI MEMBER BAPTIZED BY BLACK CHURCH JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Nearly one year ago, Ken Parker joined hundreds of other white nationalists at a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. That day, he wore a black shirt with two lightning bolts sewn onto the collar, the uniform of the National Socialist Movement, an American neo-nazi group. In the past 12 months, his beliefs and path have been radically changed by the people he has met since the violent clash of white nationalists and counter-protesters that led to the death of Heather Heyer, 32. Now he looks at the shirt he wore that day, laid out in his apartment in Jacksonville, and sees it as a relic from a white nationalist past he has since left behind. As he lays out more paraphernalia on his living room coffee table, Parker s cramped apartment starts to look like a museum not just of the modern hate movement, but of his life for the past six years.
He picks up a green robe from his time as a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, a title he earned by recruiting new members, first in Georgia where he lived after joining the Klan in 2012, and now in Florida. Parker said he felt the need to be in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017, to stand up for my white race. It was thinly veiled [as an effort] to save our monuments, to save our heritage, he said about the rally. But we knew when we went in there that it was gonna turn into a racially heated situation, and it wasn't going to work out good for either side. For Parker, the day ended up taking a different path. Hours before Heyer s death, he and his group of neo-nazis headed back to the parking garage to regroup after the rally was declared an unlawful assembly. There, he met a filmmaker, Deeyah Khan, who was filming the event for a documentary on hate groups called White Right: Meeting the Enemy. I pretty much had heat exhaustion after the rally because we like to wear our black uniforms, and I drank a big Red Bull before the event. And I was hurting, and she was trying to make sure I was OK, Parker says. In the film, Parker is still unabashedly racist, vehemently stating his hatred for Jews and gay people. But as he interacted with Khan more, his proclamations became less certain. Then, over the next few months, he started having doubts. She was completely respectful to me and my fiancée the whole time, he says of Khan. And so that kind of got me thinking: She s a really nice lady. Just because she s got darker skin and believes in a different god than the god I believe in, why am I hating these people? A few months later, Parker was still weighing those doubts when he saw an African- American neighbor having a cookout near the pool of his apartment complex. As the sun set and the crowd thinned, Parker and his then-girlfriend approached the man, William McKinnon III, a pastor at All Saints Holiness Church. Parker didn t know McKinnon was a pastor at first, but says he knew there was something different about him. They sat down, McKinnon recalls, and [his girlfriend] said they had some questions for me, and I just asked them what were some of the questions that they had. They kept talking, then decided to meet up for more discussion. Soon after, McKinnon invited Parker to the church s Easter service. And on April 17, 2018 six years after he joined the Klan and just seven months after Charlottesville Parker decided he d had enough. A month after that, he stood before the mostly African-American congregation of his new church and testified. I said I was a grand dragon of the KKK, and then the Klan wasn t hateful enough for me, so I decided to become a Nazi and a lot of them, their jaws about hit the floor and their eyes got real big, Parker recalls. But after the service, not a single one of them had anything negative to say. They re all coming up and hugging me and shaking my hand, you know, building me up instead of tearing me down. From there, the transformation sped up. On July 21, wearing a different kind of white robe, Parker waded into the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by members of that same church. McKinnon embraced him, and then dipped his head down into the water to baptize him.
He rose up, blinking and wiping water from his face, then walked toward a line of fellow congregants waiting for a hug. I want to say I m sorry. I do apologize, Parker said at the time about all the people he has hurt. I know I ve spread hate and discontent through this city immensely probably made little kids scared to sleep in their own beds, in their own neighborhoods. Pastor McKinnon, who baptized Parker, explained what role forgiveness and redemption have to play, in God s eyes. When we make it to Heaven, Heaven s not just gonna be one race. There s gonna be all kinds of races up there, he said. Now ask your students to form small groups to discuss their answers to these questions. Why might some people believe that Ken Parker was too much of a sinner for God to change Him? Who have you known who had a similar dramatic life change when he or she found God? Why does sin separate us from God? (When you are finished with the questions, go on to Step 2 in your Adult Teacher s Guide.) News Sources: By Stoyan Zaimov, https://www.christianpost.com/news/evangelists-praise-change-in-ex-kkknazi-member-baptized-by-black-church-226987/ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-kkk-member-denounces-hate-groups-one-year-afterrallyingn899326?utm_source=facebook&utm_m.edium=social&utm_campaign=focusonthefamily
/ September 30, 2018 Separated from God Focus: Sin separates us from God. Bible Basis: Genesis 3:8-17, 20-24 Memory Verse: So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. Genesis 3:23 LIFE OR DEATH CHOICES AND CONSEQUENCES One of the hardest choices we make every day is what to eat. If we choose healthy food, then we benefit from that choice by nurturing and balancing our body s needs. If we only choose foods that we passionately crave, then we suffer the consequences in our physical body. Selfish desires lead to bad choices, and bad consequences follow. God confronted the sin and rebellion of Adam and Eve head-on. Both would suffer death and separation from God physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Children born into this broken relationship would inherit the harsh conditions of a sinful world and suffer death like Adam and Eve until God offered another choice. Through Jesus, His Son, God made a way for us to be born again, to restore our spiritual relationship, and experience eternal life with Him. But we have a choice. We can choose to humble ourselves, bow before God, confess our sins and receive forgiveness, new life, and adoption into God s own family. Or we can choose our own way, remain separated from God and suffer the consequences forever. What is your choice? Have students return to the groups they had in Step 1 to discuss the following questions: Who do you know who has chosen to go their own way, instead of God s way? How can you help them consider God s offer of redemption and forgiveness? End with a brief time of silent prayer. Before you pray, encourage those who have not given their life to Jesus to admit right now that they have sinned, to pray for forgiveness, and to commit to following Him from now on. Ask those who are His followers already to confess their sins as well and ask Him for forgiveness, so they can have a restored relationship with the Lord. After a few minutes of silence, say, Lord, we thank You for hearing our prayers, and for making a way for us to be forgiven and receive new life through Jesus. May we choose to walk closely with You through this rough world until we see You in heaven, face to face. In Your name we pray, amen.
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