Leader Guide

Teaching

Rope—several feet
Headphones
Running shoes
Fifth or sixth grade helper to participate in a tug-of-war demonstration
Bible—printed (hard) copy

Discipleship Challenge materials for children who missed Lesson 1:

Jesus in the Wilderness Spirit Headphones Craft—one per child plus extras
Craft stems
Cellophane tape
Sample craft made in Lesson 1

Locate and mark Galatians 5:16 and 1 Corinthians 10:13 in a Bible for volunteers to read.

Discipleship Challenge (for children who missed Lesson 1):

Give each child a copy of the Spirit Headphones Craft and a chenille craft stem. See Lesson 1 for details.

Resistible! Discuss how we can overcome temptations with Jesus’ help.

In Large Group, you were asked to watch for the answer to this question: The devil offered to give Jesus all of the kingdoms and glory of the world if Jesus would do one thing—what was it? Kneel down and worship him.

Did Jesus give in to this temptation or any other temptation in His life? No! He never sinned!

Temptation is the desire to do something that you know is wrong. Jesus refused to give in to temptation and do anything that wasn’t pleasing to God. Even though His human body was weak from not eating for 40 days in the wilderness, He was strong in God’s Spirit and His Word!

Temptation is not something you will grow out of, or that will go away when you are older. It is an ongoing battle that will not stop until we leave this world. As humans, we are tempted by the devil and by our own evil desires inside! This struggle is described in Galatians 5:16–17:  

¹⁶So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. ¹⁷The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

Raise your hand if you have played tug of war. Call the helper up and give him/her one end of the rope. Have them resist and pull back and forth with you as you speak. When we pull back and forth, it represents the struggle between our sinful human nature and God’s Spirit. The Spirit is always pulling us toward God, giving us power to stay in step with His will and Word. Our sinful nature pulls us in the opposite direction, away from God and toward our own sinful desires. James 1:14 says,

Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.

We all face this struggle every day! Yet Jesus gives us power to beat temptation and sin. He will help us win every time—if we look to Him and trust Him. He frees us from the power of sin so that we can follow the leading of God’s Spirit.

Let’s look at some weapons that God equips us with to win the battle.

1. God’s Word

Hold up the Bible. Jesus spoke or quoted God’s Word to defeat the devil’s temptations. The Bible calls God’s Word the sword of the Spirit. It is alive and powerful to cut through deception and lies to reveal the truth. Whenever God’s Word is spoken, it brings results and accomplishes God’s purpose.

2. God’s Spirit

Hold up the headphones. You’ve probably worn these or seen others using them to listening to music. When you wear them, it helps block out some of the noise around you so you can focus on what you want to listen to. God’s Spirit lives in all believers. He directs and guides us into all truth—which is God’s direction. He orders our steps according to God’s Word and purpose.

The headphones represent the Spirit’s voice inside us. We can listen and obey or ignore His voice and go our own way. If we ignore the Spirit’s voice speaking to our hearts, we will miss out on the full life that God has planned for us. Give a good reader the Bible and ask him/her to read Galatians 5:16:

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

What happens when we allow the Spirit to guide us? We won’t do what our sinful nature desires.

Following the Spirit’s voice brings us victory over our sinful desires and temptation, and fills us with joy!

3. Prayer

In Matthew 26:41, Jesus told His disciples:

“Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”

Did Satan quit after Jesus’ first temptation? No, he continued to tempt Him in different ways.

The Bible tells us that Satan left until the next opportunity came. (See Luke 4:13.) Satan is relentless. He does not give up easily. He will come back and tempt us in the same way or with a different temptation. It is our responsibility to be alert and to pray for strength to not give in to temptation.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray:

“And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.”

No matter who or what is tempting us, the Spirit will always guide us down God’s path and away from temptation and evil! However, we must pray for His help!

4. Obedience

James 4:7 says:

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

We are not strong enough to resist temptation. We must humble ourselves and admit that we need Jesus’ help. We may think that the temptation we face is unique or maybe even too difficult for God to help us. This is not true. Jesus experienced every kind of temptation we will face. Give the Bible to a good reader and ask him/her to read 1 Corinthians 10:13:

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure.

Jesus knows everything about us. He will always “give us an out.” Hold up running shoes. That may mean running! Some temptations are so strong that we should not try to stand against them—we should run away! It’s not easy to walk away when your friends are doing something you know is wrong. But sometimes that is our only way of escape!

Read 2 Timothy 2:22:

Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.

The last sentence of this verse gives another clue about how to avoid temptation—choosing friends wisely. If you saw the video last week, what did Joy and Gizmo do when Chris was tempted to play that violent video game? They tried to stop him.

By choosing friends who are also pursuing God, we can encourage each other to resist temptation and stay on track! Even with all of the powerful weapons that God has given us, we can choose to follow our own desires instead of the Spirit. When we do, does that mean we’ve failed completely and forever? No, we can confess it to Jesus and receive forgiveness.

1 John 1:9 says:

But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Now it’s time for our Discipleship Challenge where we are learning to resist temptation by following God’s Spirit!

Discipleship Challenge/Practical Application

Give any child who missed Lesson 1 a Spirit Headphones Craft, plus a craft stem to assemble the craft at home.

Be prepared to assist any children with special needs.

Hold up the sample craft.

Last time, your challenge was to listen to the Holy Spirit and follow God’s leading. Would someone like to share your challenge experience? Children share.

Another part of the challenge was to learn Philippians 4:8. Can anyone say it for the class?  

Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Tape a #2 ear pad on top of each #1 ear pad. Let’s read the challenge on the #2 ear pads. #2 WHAT I SEE. Hebrews 12:2a (CEV):

We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete.

At home, tape your #2 ear pads onto your headphones. This lesson is to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading to make wise choices in what you put before your eyes or see. This could be images or words you might see in various forms of media like the internet, TV, movies, magazines, or on your smartphone and social media. Your challenge is to commit to not look at things that are indecent, impure or evil—things that can lead to temptation or harm our minds and hearts. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s help every day. The other part of your challenge is to learn, and if possible, memorize the first part of Hebrews 12:2:

We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete.