You’ll need:

·        Pinocchio

·        A deck of playing cards for each group of five to 10 students

·        Scissors & a piece of fabric large enough to provide a small piece for each student

·        A piece of glass, a jar of peanut butter, a spoon, and some paper towels

·        A piece of raw meat, a plate, an old clothes iron, and a table or ironing board?????

·        Courage under Fire

How to Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

Studies are showing that people are more confused than ever about their consciences.  Many have learned to ignore their consciences, but the reality is that your conscience is one of the primary ways the Holy Spirit guides you—provided that you listen.  That little cricket in Pinocchio had a good thing going when he sang, “Always let your conscience be your guide.”

The Opening Act

·        Movie clip: Pinocchio

The Blue Fairy and Jiminy Cricket talk with Pinocchio about becoming a real boy, which requires that he know the difference between right and wrong.  Jiminy Cricket explains the meaning of the word conscience to Pinocchio, and the Blue Fairy tell him to, “Always let your conscience by your guide.”

Now that is a cute song, but how is it true and not true?

What is your conscience?

How often do you find your conscience to be reliable?

How is Jiminy Cricket like the Holy Spirit?

·        Game I Doubt It

I Doubt It:

Card game: Divide into groups of 5-10, giving each group their own deck of cards, which should be dealt among the players till no cards remain.  The goal of the game is simply to be the first player out of cards.  Players take turns discarding cards—face down—into a pile in the middle of their group.  They can lay down 1-4 cards of the same face value—the 2 of hearts and the 2 of spades, for example—or they can lie by laying down 1-4 cards that don’t match at all!

If someone in the circle doubts another player is being honest about the discarded cards, this doubter can say, “I doubt it.”  The cards in question must then be exposed immediately.  If the person discarding is proven to be a liar, they must pick up the entire discard pile and add it to their hand.  If the doubter was wrong, then that person has to pick up the discard pile.  And then the game continues.  Encourage everyone to play to win.  In this game cheating is completely legal, provided the cheater can get away with it!

Now, how does your conscience work?

Well, the word conscience comes from two words meaning “to know with.”  And it is in the sense of knowing yourself completely.  And in the Bible the conscience is often referred to as a person’s heart.

I think some of you need to understand what God says about your conscience so you can sense Him speaking to you more clearly!  There are a few ways God speaks about our consciences in the Bible.  Let’s look at some of these verses.

The Main Event:

1.     Sometimes we have a clear conscience.

A clear conscience means that you have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about!  In Acts 24:16 it says, “So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.”  Paul was accused of stirring up the crowds, but he knew that he was innocent, and this passage is from his defense speech.  When you have nothing to feel guilty about, then that means that you have a clear conscience.

So, when was a time that you experienced a clear conscience?

At this time, allow me to share with you from I Samuel 24:1-12.  Here in this passage, David decides that he is going to have a clear conscience.  Listen to this passage, I Samuel 24:1-12 says, “1”

Why do you think David didn’t kill Saul when he had the chance?  After all, wasn’t Saul trying to kill David?

·        Object lesson: Cutting It Close

Cutting It Close:

David cuts off a piece of King Saul’s clothing in the cave.  As you share the story, use

scissors to cut small pieces from a cloth and hand them to the people.

David got so close he was actually able to cut off a piece of Saul’s clothing sort of a bold message for Saul and a souvenir for David.  You see, David approached Saul to take his life, but his conscience got the best of him.  he was able to face Saul afterward and hold up the proof that he has spared his life.

A tiny piece of fabric, just like the one you’re holding right now, represented a conscience that was clean and clear.  And much like David, sometimes, we are in the right, and we have a clear conscience.

2. Sometimes we have a guilty conscience.

A guilty conscience means that you have a terrible feeling deep in your gut, knowing that you have done the wrong thing!  Again, you could look at that passage that we just read about David and Saul in the cave.  In I Samuel 24:1-12 we see David having a guilty conscience for cutting off the piece of the robe.

Sometimes we have the “I Got Away With It” conscience.  When was a time that you did something and got away with it, but the guilt ate at your conscience?

What does it feel like to have a guilty conscience?

·        Object lesson:  Plexiglas and Peanut Butter

Plexiglas And Peanut Butter:

Hold up a piece of Plexiglas between you and your students, telling them it represents

someone’s conscience.  Then use a spoon to stick a big wad of peanut butter on your side of the Plexiglas.  Explaining how the peanut butter represents a bad thing in the person’s life.  Ask if the rest of the conscience still looks pretty clear, it should.

At this point smear the peanut butter around with a paper towel, it will make a wicked mess, and talk about how the bad thing in this person’s life won’t go away if it’s ignored.  It will just make a mess like the peanut butter.  Ask how clear the conscience looks now and remind them that it only took one bad thing that never got cleaned up, to create such a disaster.

So, we need to make sure that when things happen in our lives, that we deal with them before they make a mess of everything.  When our conscience tells us something, we had better take it seriously, or like the peanut butter, it will create disaster in our lives.

Now, we have taken a look at a clear conscience, and now we have seen what a guilty conscience looks like.  Finally, I want us to look at one last conscience.

3. Sometimes we have a corrupt conscience.

A corrupt conscience means that you have a seared and polluted heart!  In Titus 1:15 it says that, “…to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure.”  And in I Timothy 4:2 it says, “Whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”  In both of these scriptures, Paul was talking about people who are no longer bothered by the wrong things that they do.  Their conscience has been seared and they no longer feel anything.

·        Object lesson: Seared beef

Seared Beef:

This takes a bit of prep, but it will leave your kids with a great memory!  Use a hot iron (maybe a cheap—but working—iron from a thrift store), and fresh meat to illustrate how easy it is to become seared.  First have an ironing board or table set up where all the kids can see, with a clothes iron that is hot and ready to use.  With the raw meat on a plate, take your hot iron and—carefully—press the piece of meat like you would a piece of clothing.  Your kids will think you’re crazy!  But show them what little effort it takes to brown—or sear—the outside of the meat.  Then explain how sin—if it goes un-repented—can sear your conscience like the iron seared the meat on the outside.  Your conscience will become tough and hard.  It stops doing its job, and sin won’t bother you anymore.

So, sometimes, we become so callused, that we no longer hear our conscience telling us the difference between right and wrong.  That is when we are in big trouble.

The Grand Finale:

In a movie subplot, Nat Serling, played by Denzel Washington, is haunted by the gult of accidentally “lighting up a friendly” which means that he was firing on one of his own tanks and he ends up killing on of his best friends.  His commanding officer wants to help him cover it up, but ultimately, Nat’s conscience wins out.  In the end, he chooses to do the right thing.  Take a look at this clip.

·        Movie clip: Courage Under Fire

One of the primary ways that God communicates how He wants us to live is through our consciences.  It will always be a struggle to choose to do the right thing, but it’s the little choices that we make each day that determine how our consciences will function.  People who are interesting in following Christ have to get serious about listening to their conscience.  So, “Always let your conscience be your guide.”

Would it affect the choices that you make if someone were to record all of your actions on videotape?  Would it make it easier or more difficult for you to do the right thing?  Obviously, it would make it easier, because everyone would know everything that you were doing.

Choosing to do the right thing will always be difficult whether someone is watching or not.  But the advantage to making good choices is that your conscience remains clear and you don’t have to live with the guilt of a polluted conscience.

Now, as we wrap things up today, I want to end our time with some group discussion.

Encore:

Get It?

·        How can we keep a clear conscience before God?

·        How far can you see on a clear day?  Why?  How is that related to having a clear conscience?

·        What’s the peanut butter in your life right now and how do you deal with it?

·        When someone feels guilty for doing something that isn’t wrong, it’s called false guilt. How can we distinguish false guilt from the Holy Spirit’s conviction?

What If?  The Big Picture:

·        Talk about a time you lied about—and got away with—something you knew would get you into trouble.  Did you experience guilt?  If so, how did you deal with it?

·        What if you thought you got away with something and then you suddenly got caught—what would you do to solve the problem?

·        If you could change one thing in your past that led to a guilty conscience, what would it be and why?

·        Why would non-Christians experience a guilty conscience?  Explain.

So What?  It’s Your Life:

·        I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  What does that mean?  What does it have to do with this conscience stuff?

·        How could confession help you have a closer relationship with God?  What might be keeping you from confessing your sins to God today?

·        How might accountability help you as you struggle with your conscience?  What can you do to set up accountability?

·        Do you think it’s important to keep or maintain a clear conscience?  Why or why not?

Now, before we close, does anyone have anything that they would like to add?

Well, if there is nothing else, just keep in mind that many people have learned to ignore their consciences, but the reality is that your conscience is one of the primary ways that the Holy Spirit guides you—provided that you listen it.  In the movie Pinocchio, we find some great advice.  And that is to, “Always let your conscience by your guide.”

Let’s Pray!