The Bad One

None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.

Romans 3:11–12

Shane can't understand why he always seems to do the wrong thing. He knows he isn't supposed to lie, but he did anyway. He knows he isn't supposed to cheat, but he just couldn't seem to keep his eyes off Lisa's paper. Sometimes he looks around at his other friends and thinks he is always the one being bad. He especially feels this way at home. His mom and dad love God and always talk about Jesus, and they read their Bibles. His older brother Jim is the good one. He is the one everybody seems to love because he always does the right thing. Shane feels that he is the only bad one. He feels that since he always does the wrong thing, he just isn't going to try to do the right thing anymore.

What Shane doesn't believe is what our passage, Romans 3:11–12, says. He doesn't believe that everyone is bad and that no one understands or looks for God. Maybe you feel the same way Shane does. Maybe you feel that you always do it wrong. The Bible agrees with you on that one, and that may feel like bad news. But that is not all the news the Bible gives. There is also some really good news. It's about our treasure, Jesus. The really good news is that Jesus loves sinners. Jesus loves people who aren't doing the right thing. Does that surprise you? It surprises me! The good news of the Bible is that Jesus came to love and rescue people who don't love him. I know when people don't like me, I want to stay away from them, but Jesus does the opposite of that. Don't let your badness keep you from joining us on our treasure hunt. Don't think you are the only one who does the wrong thing; we all do the wrong thing. Jesus loves you anyway. He will forgive you. He wants to be nice to you; he wants to be your treasure.

EXPLORATION TIME

1) Do you ever feel like Shane? When you do feel like him, what do you do?

2) When you do something wrong, do you want to hide from God and your parents?

3) What should you remember about Jesus when you think you are too bad to go to him?

4) What is the good news or treasure of our story today?

Take some time now to pray that you will understand and believe that Jesus wants to be your friend. Believe that he came to save you from the fact that you can't live right.

The Good One

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

Rita is the sweetest girl most people have ever met. At least, that is what she hears all the time. She is almost always polite, almost always nice, and almost always obeys her parents. Most adults notice these things, and they are sure to tell Rita and her parents what a great job they are doing. The only problem is that Rita knows something isn't right. Rita feels angry a lot of the time, especially when other people don't follow the rules or when her parents tell her she is doing something wrong. She feels that if she is trying so hard to be good, other people should try to be good too. She also can't understand why her parents always have to point out the few bad things she does, especially since she is so good most of the time.

Rita's problem is that she doesn't really believe Romans 3:23 and 6:23. There are two very important parts to our treasure map in those verses. Do you see them? First, all have sinned. That "all" includes whoever is reading this, whoever is listening; and it includes me. Rita knows that sometimes she does things that aren't exactly right, but she doesn't really think of herself as a sinner who deserves death.

Rita also doesn't believe the second clue to our treasure. There is a free gift waiting for her (and for you) just to snatch. It doesn't cost one single penny; you don't have to do anything to earn it, and you can't do anything to buy it. All you have to do is believe. Rita has been trying to buy this free gift with all the good things she does. She has been thinking that if she is just good enough, then everybody will say nice things about her and God will love her and give her life forever with him. But God doesn't want her or you to try and earn his free gift; he just wants to give it. He loves giving, and he loves being generous.

God has a job, which is to give, and we have a job, which is to receive. Rita has been thinking her treasure is what other people think of her. Jesus wants Rita and you to know that the real treasure is what he thinks of you and how he loves you. He wants to give you himself and life forever with him, but you must believe that is true. You must believe that you sin and that your sin earns death. You also must believe that nothing you can do can earn the free gift. It's free! He loves to give to you. You must believe that he is as good and generous as he says he is.

EXPLORATION TIME

1) Do you ever feel like you have to earn God's love?

2) Do you believe the two parts of our verses?

3) Which part is harder for you to believe?

4) If you have a hard time believing all that's in today's verses, you can pray right now and ask God to help you believe.

The Secret

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38–39

Paige has a secret. The secret is about something she has done. She has done something very wrong, and her secret is making her feel awful. She feels that she can't tell people, because they won't love her anymore. She is really scared of getting into loads and loads of trouble, too. So Paige keeps her secret hidden away in her heart. And although she never speaks of it, it is always there, like a giant mountain that she just can't seem to get away from. Everywhere she turns, it seems as though the giant mountain is right in front of her, threatening to hurt her. Paige thinks that nothing she can do will make the mountain go away....