CHILDREN OF THE HEAVENLY FATHER


Lesson Three

YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH

TOC

Burden to Impart:


As children of the heavenly Father, we are different than the worldly people.

Memory verse:

"You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, with what shall it be salted? It is no longer good for anything but to be cast out and trampled underfoot by men" (Matthew 5:13).

Facts to Teach:

  1. What is salt used for? Salt is mainly used for putting taste into food when it is cooked. Without salt, food is tasteless and cannot be enjoyed. Also, salt is used for preserving food so that it will not spoil and rot. Before the refrigerator was invented the most common way to preserve meat was to dry it out and heavily salt it.
  2. Ever since Adam sinned, the whole world has begun to corrupt. All people sin and disobey God. They ignore God's Word and do whatever they want to, whether it is right or wrong. The more a person sins the more corrupt they become. In God's eyes they become rotten.
  3. As children of the heavenly Father we are different. We are the salt of the earth. Just as the presence of salt prevents meat from rotting, we as God's children influence the world of people around us to help preserve the world from being totally corrupt and sinful.
  4. Sometimes our friends and classmates want us to do something with them that is not right, or something that is not pleasing to God. At times they even want us to do something with them that is sinful. We should not go along with them. Rather, we should be different. Don't be afraid to be different! Don't be ashamed to be different! You are different! You are children of the heavenly Father; you are the salt of the earth.
  5. Two scriptural examples are:
    1. A warning example of a woman who did not obey God's Word to forget the sinful world, not even to look back at it, is Lot's wife. When she looked back at Sodom (the very sinful city where she had come from and where all her friends, etc. were) she became a "pillar of salt"--she was good for nothing (Gen. 19:17, 26).
    2. A positive, inspiring example of some children being different than the rest are Daniel and his friends, who would not eat the meat sacrificed to idols (Dan. 1:8) nor bow down to the idols (Dan. 3:1-18). They were very different, even at the risk of their lives. But God was with them and preserved them. Dare to be a Daniel.

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