YEA Lesson Library
Rotten to the Core
About This Lesson
This lesson teaches that the world’s wickedness continues to get worse and will eventually experience God’s judgment. The student is taught to trust God for salvation.
Scriptures
Genesis 6:1-22
Genesis 6:11
Genesis 7:1-24
Genesis 8:20-22
Luke 17:26-27
1 Thessalonians 5:15-22
Words to Know
VICIOUS - marked by violence, immorality; malicious, spiteful
DEPRAVED - corrupt morally
The Lesson
"A jury sentenced Chante Mallard to 50 years in prison Friday for hitting a man on a highway, driving home with his mangled body stuck in the windshield and parking in her garage, where he clung to life for up to two agonizing hours." She admitted to going into her house and having sex with her boyfriend while this man lodged in her windshield begged for her to help him.
Mallard testified that Mr. Biggs, a homeless man, moaned while his nearly severed leg was on her dashboard. Her mind was fuzzy from drugs so she didn't even call 911 for help, nor did she, as a nurses aid, try to save his life. Friends helped her cut his body out of the windshield and take it to a park where they dumped it. This is one of the most heartless, cruel crimes in recent news. And it shows how far our nation has come toward being Rotten to the Core.
Incidents such as this were unheard of just a few decades ago. But there has been another time in history when "the crime rate was rising rapidly across the earth, and, as seen by God, the world was rotten to the core. God said to Noah, "I have decided to destroy all mankind; for the earth is filled with crime because of man. Yes, I will destroy mankind from the earth!" Wow! Things must have been really awful for God to decide to take such final steps. But it was time to do something.
In all of this wickedness, there was one man who had not participated in this evil. He made the right choices in his life and was truly a righteous man. He always tried to conduct his affairs according to God's will. His name was Noah, who had three sons - Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
God gave Noah instructions to make a boat that was “450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Construct a skylight all the way around the ship, eighteen inches below the roof; and make three decks inside the boat - a bottom, middle, and upper deck - and put a door in the side.”
God told Noah that He was going to cover the earth with a flood and destroy every living being. But He promised to keep Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives safe. God followed with instructions to "bring a pair of every animal - a male and a female - into the boat with you, to keep them alive through the flood. Bring in a pair of each kind of bird and animal and reptile. Store away in the boat all the food that they and you will need."
Noah could have feared how he would be viewed by his peers. He was out on dry land building this huge boat with not a lake, sea, or ocean in sight. Do you think Noah was ridiculed by his peers? Do you think there was a constant stream of sightseers strolling by to see what "Nutty Noah" was up to today? Trusting God for the outcome was no easier for Noah than for you.
Five-hundred year-old Noah believed God, and he got busy with the project He gave him to do. "FINALLY, THE DAY came when the Lord said to Noah, Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous. Bring in the animals, too - a pair of each, except those kinds I have chosen for eating and for sacrifice: take seven pairs of each of them, and seven pairs of every kind of bird. Thus there will be every kind of life reproducing again after the flood has ended. One week from today I will begin forty days and nights of rain; and all the animals and birds and reptiles I have made will die!”
Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives boarded the boat. Along came all the animals two by two. What a sight that must have been! There probably wasn't a cloud in sight as they entered the ark, but Noah did exactly as God said for him to do.
“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened” (Genesis 7:11, NIV). That was the very day that Noah and his family went into the boat. And that was the day Noah's peers, who may have poked fun at him, climbed to the highest ground. Then they sought out the tallest trees to ascend, trying to get above the water and save their lives. Do you think all of those sightseers were still calling Noah "Nutty Noah?"
For 40 days the rain kept coming down hard. It covered the ground and the boat started floating safely. Finally the waters covered the high mountains. All humans, birds, domestic and wild animals, and reptiles died in this flood except for those safe in the ark. The water covered the earth for 150 days - five long
months .
Why is this important to you? It's all too easy to begin thinking that the evils of this world aren't so bad and it doesn't matter if you dabble in them - just a little. This world can be compared with a sinking ship, rather than the ark that saved Noah and his family. The sinking ship has people on it who will run over a homeless man and watch him die without ever calling 911. It is crime ridden and drug infested. It has mothers who will have their babies killed through abortion or leave their newborn in a trash can to die. It's Rotten to The Core!
Noah was the only truly righteous man living on the earth, and he and his family were saved because they did what God said. We don’t know when God is going to say, "enough is enough." We do know that He destroyed all but one family before. Are you willing to leave the world that is Rotten to The Core and get on the safely floating ark with God? Then you must trust Him and be willing to put God first in all your ways.
Student Prayer
Righteous Father,
Thank you for this lesson that shows me how bad this world has been and how bad it can get. Thank you that Noah didn't let his peers keep him from obeying you. Help me not to ride this world's sinking ship to destruction, but to follow you each step of the way to safety.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Daily Devotions
Sunday: Genesis 6: 1-4
Monday: Genesis 6:5-8
Tuesday: Genesis 6: 9-13
Wednesday: Genesis 6:14-22
Thursday: Genesis 8:20-22
Friday: Luke 17:26-27
Saturday: 1 Thessalonians 5:15-22
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Explain that God blesses a nation that obeys His commandments and He chastises those who don't.
2. List changes in our society that need to take place to prevent our nation from being Rotten to the Core.
3. Discuss why God saved or rescued Noah and his family from drowning in the Great Flood.
4. Give specific changes students should make in their lives to prevent them from being part and parcel in a Rotten to the Core nation.
Topics & Themes
Ark (Noah’s)
Consequence of Sin
Flood
God’s Judgment
Noah
Trusting God
Materials Needed
YEA students' and teacher's books, attendance and memory verse charts, CD or cassette tape, songbook, music player
How to Teach This Lesson
Open your class with prayer. Divide the class in groups of no more than three and send them to different parts of the classroom. Tell them that each person is to think of a way that they have been rescued from something. It may be from drowning, from a fire in their house, turning over in a boat, a car accident with the "jaws of life," etc. Each person in their group is to have one minute to tell their story to the other people in their group. Then they are to decide which rescue was the best or most dramatic. Call the groups back together and have the person selected as having told the most dramatic or best rescue effort tell their story to the class.
Debrief
Ask: In what ways were these stories similar to God rescuing Noah and his family from their evil world? In what ways were these stories dissimilar? Why did each of these people need to be rescued? Why did Noah and his family need to be rescued? What do you think were the evils in Noah's day? How did these evils corrupt the nation of Israel? How is our world similar to the world Noah lived in?
Chastisement and Punishment
Ask: Why does God chastise people or a nation? (For not keeping His commandments. Keeping the commandments is for our good.) Ask a student to read Deuteronomy 28:1-14. Why would you want to live in a nation that keeps God’s commandments? What will happen to the nation you live in if it becomes crime ridden, corrupt, depraved and Rotten to the Core? Have a student read Deuteronomy 28:15-25. Ask: Which kind of nation had you rather live in, one that obeys God, or one that forsakes God? Why? How corrupt do you think a nation can become before God will chastise it in some way?
Teacher-Directed Activity
Who can tell me one change that our nation needs to make to keep it from being Rotten to the Core? Ask at least three students the same question. What two steps should Chante Mallard have immediately taken when she hit the homeless man? Say, "Anyone can have an accident. But what happens when you run from the accident?" (You're a hit-and-run driver and the penalties are considerably worse.) What would you do if you hit a person, or even killed a person in an automobile accident and you felt it was your fault? What made Noah a pleasure to God? If God gives you a job to do, like build an ark or study and pray, and your peers make fun of you, what have you learned from today's lesson that will help you? What specific changes are you going to make in life because of today's lesson?
REACH Activity
Memory Verse Spotlight
The Living Bible renders this verse to try to help make it more understandable. But you are not likely to hear anyone quote Genesis 6:11 from the Living Bible. Find five other translations (or use a Bible app). Write down the way Genesis 6:11 is stated in those five verses. Then look up the word “corrupt.” Write down the Hebrew word, its meaning, and five other places where this world is found.
Where in the World? Mt. Ararat
Using a Bible encyclopedia, Bible map resource, or other reliable source, pinpoint where scholars believe Mt. Ararat to be. Is there any controversy over the site of Noah’s Ark? Why or why not? Research this topic. Write down what you find, including a map. File it in your Bible notebook and share with your family.
They Did What Back Then? Marrying and Giving in Marriage
In Matthew 24:38-39, Jesus tells His disciples that life will be going on pretty much like normal, with people marrying and giving in marriage, right up until He returns. We know it has to be that way - otherwise how would Jesus’ return catch us by surprise? But it’s interesting, because what that tells us is how the people of Noah’s day conducted themselves, in spite of Noah’s preaching and in spite of the existence of a very big boat as a witness to the coming Flood and subsequent destruction. Write about this in your Bible notebook.
Making It Mine: Keeping God’s Laws
Can you imagine what our world would be like if everyone obeyed the ninth commandment - not bearing false witness (aka lying)? Or what if no one stole anything anymore? We wouldn’t have to have keys to our houses or keys to our cars!! Take one of God’s Ten Commandments and write a paragraph about how different our lives would be if everyone kept that one commandment! If you are feeling inspired and excited about this assignment, do all ten of the commandments. Then realize that, when Jesus returns, everyone will be obeying all of the commandments! What an incredible world it will be!
Worldview Collisions: Going Up or Going Down
The secular worldview is that mankind is getting smarter, more civilized, more evolved. The Biblical worldview is that mankind continues to get more and more wicked and godless - which is pretty hard to do considering God said in Genesis 8:21 that every intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Yikes! It’s hard to get worse than that! But 2 Timothy 3:1-5 indicates that people will indeed continue to morally decline. But what about intelligence? What about physical abilities? Do some research, but be careful of your sources; just because it’s published on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true. Record what you find in your Bible notebook.
Questions
As you’re working through the YEA lesson, Daily Devotionals, doing the activity, or reading the Bible, be sure to write down any questions you have. That way you’ll remember to ask someone. Also remember to share the really interesting things you’re learning with family and friends.
Song
"A Perfect Heart" is on page 3 of The Group Songbook.
Closing Prayer
Ask the students to form a circle, join hands, and give one evil in our society that can make our nation become Rotten to the Core. Ask for a volunteer to lead in prayer asking for God's forgiveness on our personal and national evils and for the strength to make the needed changes in our lives.
Printable Pages
