The Challenge of Youth Ministry
In youth ministry, leaders have a challenging job, because they have to plan events, connect with students and leaders, and prepare sermons for the students. That is a lot of stuff to do. With all of those responsibilities, it can be challenging to get all of the work done, so here is a free Bible lesson on creation for your students.
Preaching on the creation story is a great way to show your students the Christian perspective of creation. In school, High School students are being taught the creation story from a secular perspective, and middle school students are experiencing the same thing. Because schools are teaching young people the wrong thing about creation, it is youth ministers’ responsibility to teach the right way.
For this lesson, we strongly recommend creating some form of object lesson. we will recommend one in this article, but you can tweak it and make it your own. With all of that being said here is the entire lesson plan for the story of creation.
The Format of the Lesson
Delivering sermons to students can be challenging, so we have a recommended format for how we think the sermons should flow. We recommend that you first connect with the students, then show them what God’s word says, and show them how the lesson applies to their lives.
Starting by connecting with the students is crucial to this lesson. If the students don’t think they can relate to you, they won’t listen, so it is super important to start by connecting with them. You can do this through a story or talking at their level. It is important to think about how the students might have experienced the story of creation before the message. Connect with the students, so they will be more engaged with what you are teaching them.
The next thing that you should do is to show them what the Word of God actually says. Reaffirming the Bible is important to helping your students believe that the Bible is true, so preach the story from the Bible. Use actual scripture to show what you are teaching them about and how it can impact their lives. Your main point will go here, in the Bible section
The final part of the message should be showing the students what the lesson should mean for their lives. God’s word should be life-changing for the students, so we should help them to see how the story can help their lives. The story means little if it doesn’t change the way that the students think and feel about God, because ultimately the message should help the students to grow closer to God.
The Lesson:
First, Connect with the Students
Hello, students. We are honored that you’ve joined us for service today. Today’s youth group lesson is going to be on how everything was made. It’s not going to be like the TV show “How It’s Made,” but we are going to be talking about how everything was created, including you and me.
Before we start though, maybe you’ve heard a version of the creation story. You might have heard a story in science class or maybe your friend told you how they think that everything was created. Well today, I want to show you the truth about how everything was created.
The Lego Story
When I was a kid, I loved creating things. My favorite toy to play with was Legos. I loved playing with Legos because they made me feel powerful. I could create whatever I wanted with Legos, so I was a creator. Well, when it comes to Legos, the spaceships and towers that I built didn’t create themselves, but Lego made the sets and I assembled the pieces to create something that was cool. (If you have Legos that are already built you can bring them and show them off.)
When it comes to Legos I had to be smart enough to assemble them the right way, and we can look at life and say that it is clear that something created all of this. There is an intelligent design to life, so there must have been something or someone to create it all. We live in a beautiful world, and that can’t be by accident.
We all loved to play with different toys as kids because they made us feel like we were creators. Whether we were playing with Legos or Barbies, we could always create stories and universes where we were in control.
Life is not always in our control though, because we are not the true creators. While we played with toys, we could always be in control. Today there is someone who is in control because He is the creator.
The Question: Who is the Creator?
You might ask the question, “Who is this person? Who is the creator?” because it is a common question. We all ask how everything was created at one point or another, so it’s worth doing some more research.
In the book of Colossians 1:16, we see the answer to the burning question, “Who is the creator?” It says this talking about God, “16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” God created everything, according to this verse, but what did it actually look like? What actually happened?
The Creation Story in the Bible
Well luckily the Bible doesn’t leave us in the dark when it comes to the story of creation, instead, the Bible plainly tells us how everything was created in Genesis 1. This story can be difficult to understand, so I want to bring something out to help me to explain what is going on here. (Have someone bring out a table with 7 different packages of playdough.)
Before the First Day
Before God the first ever day, God created the heavens and the earth. God created all of space and the planets before he created the sun and the moon that would dictate days.
God was simply laying the groundwork for the rest of His creation. (Take one lump of playdough and press it until it’s completely flat, and take another lump of playdough and place it on top of the flat playdough. Place all of this under a box so that the students can’t see it.) This is what it was like, there was space and a blog of Earth. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit was hovering over the Earth.
So just like you might get your toys set up before you play with them, God set up space for him to create. He made a space for everything to exist before he started creating, and then He started creating.
The First Day
After creating space and the Earth, God said, “Let there be light.” Immediately there was light. The Bible says that God separated the light and the dark, and He called the light day and the dark night.
Before this, there was no light or dark apparently, but God created the concept of light and dark here. (Remove the box from over the playdough to show the students the space and planet.)
The Second Day
After doing this God, separated the water in space and the water on Earth. The Earth at this point was just a blob that was not super defined just like this blob of playdough, but God took it and He shaped it. God molded the Earth into its right shape, just like I am going to do with the blog of playdough that is in space.
Here God created the atmosphere around the Earth too, so that it could be susceptible to life.
The Third Day
On the third day, God took the Earth that was covered in water and made the water go down so that there would be dry land. On the dry land, he put trees and plants. (Take the blue blob of playdough and combine it with green playdough to show what this might have looked like.)
The Fourth Day
On the fourth day, God created the sun and the moon, which is kind of confusing, because days had already gone by without the moon and the sun. Regardless God created the stars, the sun, and the moon and put them in the sky.
(Take yellow playdough and form a sun out of it, and take white playdough and make a moon out of it.)
The Fifth Day
On the fifth day, God created the birds and fish. (Take more playdough and create small dots and place them all around the Earth ball, and you can place dots in the sea too. )
The Sixth Day
The Animals
On the Sixth day, God created the animals on the Earth. Every living creature walked the Earth after this because God created them.
Human Beings
After God created all of these things, He created human beings in His image. He took some dust of the ground and formed a man, named Adam. Once he had formed Adam, He gave Adam the breath of life by breathing into him. After making Adam, God realized that it was not good for Adam to be alone, so He made Adam go to sleep. God took a rib from Adam’s side and made him a wife, named Eve.
(You can take a blob of playdough and make a human figure out of it. Then, you can take half of it away and create another person.)The concept of being made in the image of God might mean a couple of different things.
The first interpretation of this is that being made in, “God’s own image,” is that we look like God physically. Some people would say that we look similar to God. Although God takes multiple forms in Scripture this very well could be the answer to the question, “What does it mean to be made in the image of God?”
Another interpretation of this scripture is that God’s image is His three-in-one nature. God exists in three beings: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the same way, we exist as 3 different natures. We have a body, a soul, and a spirit. Our body is our physical body, and our soul is our thoughts and emotions. Lastly, our spirit is the part of us that interacts with God and is eternal.
The Seventh Day
The last thing that God did is rest. God rested, not because he was tried, but because He was setting an example for us of how we should structure our lives. We should work hard, then we should take time to rest.
Takeaways
- God can make something out of nothing
There was nothing in the beginning, but God was still able to create. Part of God is his all-powerful nature. He is the ultimate creator because He can take nothing and make something out of it.
It’s true of actual creation, and it’s true of our lives today. Even if we don’t feel like we have enough, God can still make something out of our lives. He can help us to create a beautiful life even when we are lacking.
- God brings order to chaos
As we talked about the story, you might remember that it was absolute chaos, but God brought order to the chaos. He wants to do the same for our lives today. Many times we feel like things are not in order, but God can quickly bring order to chaotic situations. When we struggle emotionally or spiritually, God can quickly bring us peace.
- God has given us authority
God told Adam and Eve that they had the responsibility to rule over the creatures on the Earth so that responsibility is passed down to us. We are called to cultivate the Earth. Except instead of building a physical kingdom now, we are called to build God’s kingdom. Jesus gave us the responsibility to go and make disciples of people.
Bottom Line
Ultimately what you should know is that God is in control. As students, we are constantly bombarded by different things in life. We struggle with friendships, school, and family struggles, but we have to recognize that if God can create everything, He can help you to walk through life.
So you should place your faith in God because He is in control. He created everything, including you, so he knows you and cares about you. No matter what the world tells you about the creation story, God created everything, so you can trust in Him.
Pray that the students would put their faith in God, and that God would reveal Himself to them.
Post Message
Discussion Questions for Small Groups
- If God created every living thing, how can you cultivate the world around you?
- What can you do next week to remember that God is in control?
- God’s creation was orderly, so what does that tell you about God?
- Being the creator, God is a powerful God, so why are we still afraid?
Memory Verse
“16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” Colossians 1:16
Closing
The creation story is important because it reminds our students that God is in control of everything. Revisit the creation story regularly and encourage your students to be empowered by it.
We hope that you can take a few ideas from this message and that it will help your students engage with the creation story.
For more sermon ideas click HERE.
