Resisting Temptation: There's An App For That

Every week, I serve some awesome pre-teens at Lakewood Church through Level 56.

Level 56 is our exciting, high impact service designed exclusively for 5th and 6th graders. Our tweens discover an exciting new world where they can hang out with friends, enjoy games and fun activities and learn leadership and social skills through biblical principles that will prepare them for the future.

This month we are ministering on the topic Resisting Temptation: There's an App for That

Bottom line

There’s no better way to escape temptation than to run from it, and the best way to flee temptation is to be prepared for it.

Key Passages

• Genesis 19:10-17

Two men reached out and pulled Lot inside the house, locking the door. Then they struck blind the men who were trying to break down the door, both leaders and followers, leaving them groping in the dark. The two men said to Lot, "Do you have any other family here? Sons, daughters—anybody in the city? Get them out of here, and now! We're going to destroy this place. The outcries of victims here to God are deafening; we've been sent to blast this place into oblivion."   Lot went out and warned the fiancés of his daughters, "Evacuate this place; God is about to destroy this city!" But his daughters' would-be husbands treated it as a joke. At break of day, the angels pushed Lot to get going, "Hurry. Get your wife and two daughters out of here before it's too late and you're caught in the punishment of the city."   Lot was dragging his feet. The men grabbed Lot's arm, and the arms of his wife and daughters—God was so merciful to them!—and dragged them to safety outside the city. When they had them outside, Lot was told, "Now run for your life! Don't look back! Don't stop anywhere on the plain—run for the hills or you'll be swept away."

• Genesis 19:23-26

...The sun was high in the sky when Lot arrived at Zoar. Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah— a river of lava from God out of the sky!—and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.   But Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.

Memory Verse

• James 4:7 

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

Objectives

For students: -To discover the story of Lot -To identify temptation -To develop tools to fight temptation

Summary

There’s no better way to escape temptation than to run from it. But temptation isn’t like a pack of wild animals pursuing us. It comes at us when we least it expect it, and it’s hard to see the danger. We need to prepare ourselves for tempting situations, be ready to give an answer when we are tempted, and be ready to run when there’s no other choice.

*******************My Personal Notes*******************

I think that this is an excellent lesson for our preteens. They are getting to an age where there are a lot of temptations that they have been warned about! This story teaches them to listen, obey without hesitation, keep moving forward, and to love others.

Listen, Obey, Move Forward

Lot hesitated and had to be lead out of the city. Another lesson is to keep moving forward. Sometimes we make the right decision and flee temptation but we keep looking back instead of moving forward. We wonder "what if" and question ourselves right out of doing the right thing. Lot’s wife looked back at the city after the men told her not to do this. She had to pay the price. 

Love Others

Another lesson is that God wants us to help those who love Him. When Abraham found out that the cities would be destroyed he pleaded with God to save his nephew. Many times we know that someone else's decision may lead them to a bad outcome and our love should compel us to help that person flee the temptation to do the wrong thing