THE LIFE OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER

THE LIFE OF A SUNDAY

SCHOOL TEACHER

INTRODUCTION

Whatever you desire to become for God begins with your own life, this is because you cannot give what you do not have and it follows that life that begets life!

The strength of the man who throws the stone determines how far the stone travels! Though there are many things the stone can accomplish but it can’t do it without an external influence; someone must throw it before it can hit the target. The same thing happens to the Word of God; it is the life of the man who bears the Word of God that determines what it can do in the life of the audience. This is what determines whether the impact of the Word will remain in their hearts for a long time or not. If you have a correct life, your teaching will remain in the heart of your students and in effect, correct many things in their lives, as you teach them.

Of all professions, it is God’s work that requires correct life before one can succeed in it; in other professions, little or no attention is placed on life, as long as the man is proficient in his work. However, spiritual assignment is not like that; your own life can either boost or burst what you are doing for God.

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC LIFE OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER

A. WHAT IS PRIVATE LIFE?

Private can be described as personal, secret and confidential. From the definition above, we can say that private life is a life you live when others are not around.

Interestingly, this is the life that attracts God! The reason is that every human being is sincere when he or she is alone. Therefore, whenever God is looking for someone to use or be promoted, the private life of such individual is the first thing to be checked.

Therefore, when a man fails in the private, he has totally failed in the public!

B. WHAT IS PUBLIC LIFE?

Public life is the life we live in the presence of everybody. This is about what we do openly that everybody can see and touch.

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER AND PRIVATE LIFE

As discussed earlier, if any Sunday School Teacher fails in his private life, such has failed in his public ministry. The failure and the unprofitability of many servants of God today, could be traced to reckless and untoward private lifestyle of such ministers.

THE INGREDIENTS OF A CORRECT PRIVATE LIFE

1.     Living a holy life

2.     Studying the word of God

3.     Having a correct prayer life

4.     Witnessing the Gospel of Jesus

5.     Observing time alone with God

When a Sunday School Teacher walks blamelessly in all of these, then we can safely say that such a person is high in the spirit. We have the example of this in the Holy Bible:

a.     When there arose a complaint against daily distribution of food to the widows in Act 6:1-4.The Apostles said:

“Brothers, choose seven men from among you, men of honest report, full of Holy Ghost and wisdom” Act 6:1-3.

From this passage, we notice that the first consideration is the life of anyone that will do the work. The Apostles asked for “men of honest report”. The man without a correct life cannot have a correct ministry.

b.     When Bro. Paul was talking to Timothy in 1 Tim. 4:16, he said: “watch your life and doctrine closely...” If we look closely at this verse, we will see that the first thing Bro. Paul talked about was the minister’s life before talking about doctrine, which is, teaching. Before you consider the issue of what to teach the students, the first thing you must settle is your own life, and it is because your life is much more important than your ministry!

c.     In the case of Noah, we notice that when the Bible was to introduce Noah, it started with his personal life before talking about his ministry.

“These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation” (Gen.6:9).

All these points prove that the private life of a minister is much more important than his ministry.

EXAMPLES OF MEN WITH CORRECT PRIVATE LIFE

1.     MOSES: We can learn many things from the life of Moses,     e.g.

(a)    Our life needs to be well prepared if we are going to see God. (Exod. 19:10- 11)

(b)    Our private life and encounter must be well kept, if not we  shall break, that is, damage or injure the work of God.  (Exod. 24:12-16)

2.     SAMUEL: This is another man who had a private life that God can  respond to in the public (1 Sam. 7:5-15).

3.     DAVID: David was a man who did not need any emergency sanctification and purification before he can come before the LORD (1 Sam. 16:4-13)

PUBLIC LIFE OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER

Our public life, which is about what people can see and talk about us is also is important, e.g.

1.     Our Dressing: Our dressing must command respect, the way you dress determine the way you will be addressed. Therefore, our dressing must be neat and be moderate always.

2.     Our Language: We project our minds by speaking. However, we must note that there are some words we must not use while teaching e.g.

(a) Insulting or derogatory words;

(b) Languages or words that you don’t understand.

(c) Be audible enough. (This is the attitude of a well groomed public speaker)

3.     Posture: A good Sunday School Teacher must be able to stand well during the teaching session, and he or she must be brave to handle the class without rough-handling the class.

4.     Boldness to come and teach: A man who does not have any secret sin or anybody that can come and embarrass him or her, will flow very well during his or her teaching. Boldness is different from boldface.

  THE DISCIPLINE OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER

Sunday School Teachers are closer to the ordinary members of the Church than the pastors, therefore the life of the Sunday School Teacher will, in one way or the other, reflect in the lives of the members.

When a teacher is not disciplined, he or she will produce undisciplined students and when this happens, the pastor can only do little in bringing the straying members back to the way; that is why all teachers must be disciplined.

AREAS OF DISCIPLINE FOR THE TEACHER

1.    SIN:  Every Sunday School Teacher must run away from sin and this, in a way, requires self-discipline. What God is expecting from us is to walk in all His ways. If we cannot discipline ourselves, our leaders will now discipline us. If you don`t discipline yourself from sin, you are a vagabond (Heb. 12:4). You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. You have to resist sin to the level of suffering for righteousness' sake. If you have never said no to sin, it will continue to overcome you.

2.      LANGUAGE: Every Sunday School Teacher should know how to be disciplined in the use of his/her language. You must avoid foolish and worldly talk, especially because you are called to handle spiritual matters (1 Tim. 1:4; 4:7; 2 Tim. 2:23). A Sunday School Teacher life is so fragile; you cannot mess up like others. A disciple must not say anything when he is not asked to talk; doing contrary is a sign of indiscipline.

A Sunday School Teacher must relate to others in a mature way. Whoever fails to discipline himself, will be disciplined by an elderly person. Never complain about your needs in the presence of a new convert. Give respect to whoever deserves it.

3.    DISCIPLINE OF EYES: Our eyes must be disciplined. If you are a disciplined Sunday School Teacher, then you must be a focused person. Never covet what does not belong to you. Do not buy on impulse, especially when you really don't have the financial capacity to do so. (2 Sam. 11:1-end) Indiscipline of the eye will result into lust and you may get lost in the process!

4.      DISCIPLINE OF HAND: Any Christian who is not disciplined with his hand can touch or hold another man's wife or the opposite sex in an offensive manner. A sister must not be loose and a brother must not be loose. Be careful when shaking hands with the opposite sex, you must not do it to induce sin or sinful thought. Such careless handshake may not be sinful in the beginning but it has capacity to lead to sin if it is not corrected early. Extremity of anything is not good.

A Clean Hand: A clean hand is the hand that does not do evil. It also implies that you should not have hand in plotting against others (Ps. 24:3,4).

5.     DISCIPLINE OF FINANCE: A disciple must show discipline in the way he or she spends money. It is not that you should not give but the instruction to give must be from God. As a disciple, if you are given money to keep, even if you are hungry to the point of death, you must not spend it!

A disciple, who is a businessman or businesswoman, must not use his capital to do any ceremony, either naming, or wedding or burial. As a disciple, what you really need is not money but God. Carrying God along anywhere you are going is the greatest privilege you can have (Mk. 14:3-11).

If a disciple does not conquer the love of money, money will conquer him as it conquered Gehazi. Every disciple must be disciplined in handling money (Acts 8:18-20). Peter, and Elisha, was an example of a disciple who conquered money, he was given money but he rejected it because the Holy Spirit will not have him collect such money, even though there was apparent need.

6.     DISCIPLINE OF THE BODY: 1 Cor. 9:27

A complete man consists of spirit, soul and body. The body appears to be the least among these three and yet it is the same body that is always attempting to control the soul and spirit. And in most cases, its control is always contrary to the spirit and the soul.

 In the light of this, the desires of the body must be turned down if we are not going to get ourselves injured. We must note that the body will always want pleasure and things that will eventually bring trouble to the soul and the spirit and even death and loss of eternity.

SPIRITUAL DRYNESS

Definition:

1.     Spiritual dryness is a situation where communion with heaven is temporarily cut off (Job 13:23,24).

2.     Spiritual dryness can also be a scarcity of spiritual revelation and interpretation (1 Sam. 3:1,3; 28:15).

3.     It is a situation of unnecessary abstinence from studying the word of God and personal prayer.

If this happens, you will notice spiritual backwardness, people will no longer be interested in hearing from you, while some will be rubbing shoulders with you in the place of authority.

If you are a preacher, you will notice that you are always short of anointing and invitation to preach may reduce drastically. If care is not taken, this can extend, at times, to spiritual leanness and even physical supply might be so drastically reduced. All the passages of the Bible may stop speaking to you or not even come to you and prayer becomes hard labour with almost no achievement.

CAUSES OF SPIRITUAL DRYNESS

1.                Self leading: Gen. 12:10-11; 17:1.

Here, we noticed that there was a famine in the days of Abraham. The famine itself was not the problem but the fact that Abraham led himself to Egypt, where he lost his spiritual integrity. In chapter seventeen, God re-introduced Himself to Abraham. The same thing happened to Elimelech and Naomi in the book of Ruth 1&2.

2.       Disobedience: 1 Sam. 15:3, 6-11; 19-22; 28:1-24.

When God sent Saul to the Amalekites, to go and utterly destroy them, God gave him the breakdown of the work; yet he disobeyed the commandment. He obeyed those instructions that were convenient for him and that was why God regretted ever appointing him over His people. May He not regret appointing you over His people, where He has put you. (Amen)

God cannot be wasting His anointing and resources over a disobedient child. Saul was still there but heaven did not see him there. Are you still pursuing your primary instruction or you have started running after money and small girls? Heaven will close against all disobedient children. When Saul entered into spiritual dryness, he started looking for someone with familiar spirit, because God has stopped talking to him.

3.       Sin: Gen. 12:11-13; Isa. 59:1-2; Judges 14, 15, 16.

Here, we look at Abraham again, he had this trait from the beginning of his journey to tell lies, even when nobody had ever seen him or his wife. So he did not pray when that thought came and he did not tell his wife, but he started begging her to agree with him to tell lies.

The case of Samson is another one to consider. The problem of Samson began when anointing started to come upon him. All that Samson saw in his days were women. By chapter 16 he had graduated from seeing sisters to seeing harlots and interestingly, anointing was still flowing.

May be the anointing was the problem and the undoing of this boy. May be if God did not answer him, he would have realised his error in good time but his anointing could still carry the gate of the city, even after his fornication! His ability to carry the gate to the mountain, despite his misbehaviour, finally pushed him into his spiritual dryness.

4.      Worldliness. Luke 15:11-16

This passage started with the word “a certain man” which means that it can be me or you or whoever finds himself in that position. When the boy finished all, then famine came. So, spiritual dryness takes a man to a far country where he will be far from “Baba”

THE RESULT OF SPIRITUAL DRYNESS

1.     Wrong Connections: 1 Sam. 28:1-8; Luke. 15: 11-  When a man enters into spiritual dryness and starts to look for support for his ministry and go from one mountain to another because he is thinking that it is the devil that is behind his dryness, there is no way such will not join wrong people in the process.

2.     Hypocrisy: Saul changed his identity to connect with the witch at Endor. A man who is desperately looking for money will surely change his message!

3.     Fear: Gen. 12:11-13; 1 Sam. 28:5. Abraham told lies because he was afraid of the people of the land. Saul also feared the people and he entered into error!

4.     Wrong Steps: 1 Sam. 13:9-14

5.     Untold Hardship: Jonah. 1&2.

6.     Release of Devourers

7.     Becoming A Story Teller 2 Kings 8:4,5

    THE WAY OUT OF SPIRITUAL DRYNESS

Luke 15: From this passage, we notice how the prodigal son spent all that he had and entered into a mighty famine. He took the following steps to come out of this spiritual dryness:

1.        Correct and sincere assessment of life: If you start off with full tank and now your gauge is showing that you are going on empty tank, then you should know, by yourself, that problem has come. You should know when you can no longer pray and when the Bible becomes a mere news paper to you. You should know when you become a mere story-teller.

When the prodigal son ran out of everything he took from home, he knew and assessed himself correctly.

2.       He came back to his senses: This boy came to his senses and he remembered his former relationship with his father; at that point he detached his heart from that far country.

3.       Taking a decision and implementing it: The prodigal son said I will go back to my father and he did so! If he had told his friends, they would have discouraged him. To come out of wrong situation does not need consultations.

4.       Humility: All the pride of heart that led this boy out had now finished. He said “do not call me son”, just the same with the case of Naomi, she said “call me not Naomi”. He humbled himself. The truth is that whenever a man backslides, he or she is not there again. It could be for days, months or years; the bitter truth is that such a person has gone down! Therefore, he must submit to those that stayed on track and go and queue behind them.

5.       Coming back to God in prayer: The first thing that God says to anybody in dryness is Come! (Isa. 55:1). When you come to Him, you need to pray, by this prayer, you will confess your sin and renew your relationship with Him.