Do you have some suggestions on how to talk to a youth group about witchcraft?
Question:
I am a new youth leader and am responsible for services for our kids, age 2-18, every Wednesday. They do not come on Sundays, but I am working on that. They are all kids from a poor country area. Most of their parents are not around and I really believe they show up each week for the snacks at the end. It breaks my heart. To be honest, I am very ill equipped in knowledge but am trying hard because I am all they have.
Anyway, during a game last week a question was asked about fortune tellers and the children really got into a debate. Usually, participation is a struggle. I would like to present this subject from a biblical perspective for them that if possible would be fun and attention-grabbing. If you have any ideas for me and time to answer this email, my kids would really be blessed. After a Google search, I read your sermon notes on the subject but standing and giving a talk is too much for these guys. For most of them, English is a second language.
Thank you for any info you may be able to send my way!
Answer:
I am impressed that you see that when free food is offered, the majority of those who come are there for the food. Many people point out that Jesus fed the five thousand, but they forget that Jesus didn't do this all the time or even most of the time. He fed the crowd for a very specific reason. The crowds came, not to be feed, but to hear Jesus teach. "And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things" (Mark 6:34). He kept them long and the disciples pointed out that they had no place nearby to find food. "When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, 'This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat'" (Mark 6:35-36). So Jesus used this an opportunity to do further teaching through a miracle.
The problem is that a large number of people chased after Jesus to gain more food. They had originally come to hear Jesus speak, but now Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled" (John 6:26). Jesus then refused to feed the crowd despite their continued pressure and got a lot of people upset over it.
I realize that leadership in your denomination are more interested in numbers or are only thinking in terms of an end justifying the means. I wish more people would realize that the means are what lead to the results.
Now, let me get off the soapbox and address your actual question. I agree a sermon is not how to get these children to understand the dangers. But I do disagree that you need some showy method to get their interest. They are already interested. Their debate shows it. What you need to do is be their guide to what God has said on the topic.
Print off the lesson and the one on sorcery, review all the passages so that you basically know which passages cover which ideas. Make some notes so it is fresh in your mind. Gather everyone in a circle, perhaps sitting on the floor and announce that they are going to figure out what God thinks about witchcraft. Start with something familiar with them. Ask them about horoscopes or astrology or card readings. Ask them if it could be possibly true. Then ask if they have ever known these things to be wrong (not if they ever happen to be right). If they are honest, they will say "Sometimes," but they will want to rush to tell you the times it was right. Don't worry yet. The key point is that they understand that sometimes these things are wrong.
If they think it might be true, the point out that it must come from God because "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17). Truth is something that there cannot be multiples of. You can't have something true and I have something true, but those things are different. At least one must not be true. Since God is truth and He gave us the Bible, then we find truth in the Bible.
This is a critical point to establish. If you and the children can't agree that there is a standard, you will never come to an agreement on what is true.
Once that is established, we need to establish how we can know something is from God; that is, that it is the truth. For that we turn to Deuteronomy 18:21-22, "And if you say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?' - when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him." (As a side note this comes right after Moses explains that witchcraft in all its forms is wrong.) Moses' point is that God is never wrong, so if someone is claiming to speak from God and they are wrong, then we know they were lying. If witchcraft were true, then its power would have to come from God and it would have to be always right. Not sometimes right or mostly right. It would have to be right 100% of the time.
Since they already said it isn't always right, then it must not be from God.
From there I would suggest you select several forms of witchcraft and explain the tricks behind it. Show how these people deceive. Take about their vague predictions and how it applies to anyone. Take some horoscopes. Read one and ask people if that was true for them today. Then read several more and ask after each one. Then point out how can it be true for so many all the time when it isn't their horoscope? The answer is that the statements are so vague that they can be accepted in numerous different ways. It's a trick.
Pick a few more and continue the point. Then ask that if it is all trickery why don't people see it? Lead them to the point of realizing that people only see what they want to see. People want to believe that witchcraft is true so badly that they are willing to accept it even if they see evidence that it is false.
Wrap up the session by reading Matthew 15:14, "And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch." Ask them if they are better off seeing or allowing themselves to be fooled. And then ask them why they don't want to be fooled.
Notice that I barely touched the verses in the lessons. Have them ready to handle questions and potential objections. You can use this as a launching point for follow-on lessons. For example, you can discuss voodooism and then get into a discussion on why drugs are dangerous.
