Crazy kingdom. January 23-24, Loving others like Jesus did can look pretty crazy. Matthew 5:11-12; 5:40-45; 20:26-27, 1 Corinthians 13:4

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1 rd th 3-5 January 23-24, 2016 Matthew 5:11-12; 5:40-45; 20:26-27, 1 Corinthians 13:4 Connect Time (15 minutes): Five minutes after the service begins, split kids into groups and begin their activity. Large Group (30 minutes): Begin 20 minutes after the service starts. Model what it looks like to be engaged in large group. Crazy kingdom Loving others like Jesus did can look pretty crazy. Lead by example! If you want kids to be more involved, make sure you re as involved as you want them to be. When it s time to worship, lead the way by singing and dancing as loud and big as you can. When it s time to answer questions during Small Group, answer the questions too! Small Group (15 minutes): Keep kids in small groups until parents arrive. If you all have extra time at the end, you can review the video and songs together. As kids leave, remind them to tell their parents about some of the crazy ways we can follow Jesus. Today we re talking about the crazy commands Jesus gives his followers! His kingdom is hard to understand in a broken world like this one. Try to help kids apply the commands to their lives.

2 GOAL: Connect Time is all about engaging kids in an activity that allows them to connect with each other right away while simultaneously piquing their curiosity for Large Group and preparing their minds for what they re going to hear. CRAZY STORIES *Break into small groups for this activity. Sit in a circle with your group. Explain that we will be working together to tell a story, but not just any regular story! This will one will be a little crazy. You ll say one sentence to start the story, and then the next person will add another sentence to keep the story going. It doesn t have to make perfect sense. In fact, the crazier, the better! Start the game by saying this sentence: Once upon a time there was a girl and then let the kid next to you continue with a new sentence. Let each kid keep adding to the story until you played the game for about 5 minutes, then wrap it up. After the first story is done, start a new round and let someone start the first sentence this time. Play as many 5-minute rounds as you want until time is up! TALK ABOUT IT What s one of the craziest things you ve done recently? Have you been scared to say something that seemed weird to other people? Why? Before you go to Large Group, you can ask kids how their week went. You can also remind kids of the expectations for Large Group behavior: (1) be kind, (2) listen when somebody speaks, and (3) follow the leader s instructions.

3 Goal: Kids will (1) understand some specific commands that Jesus gave us, (2) recognize how we can follow Jesus even when it seems crazy and (3) identify a specific way we can serve and love others this week. Why? Followers of Jesus are called to obey him, but some of his commands don t make sense to us from an earthly standpoint. So it s important to help kids apply them. Tip: Make today s activity fun today let kids get crazy with their kindness ideas, make a big deal of counting down as a kid runs out of time, help them brainstorm, etc. REVIEW THE STORY 1. How does Jesus want us to treat people we don t like? Why? (He wants us to love them) 2. How does Jesus want us to respond when someone does something unkind to us? Why? (He want us to forgive them, to not stay angry or get revenge) 3. Why is it hard to follow Jesus sometimes? 4. What is something crazy that you ve done to follow Jesus? 5. Have you ever felt embarrassed to follow something Jesus tells you? Why? 6. Why can we trust Jesus when he says to serve other before ourselves? (Because he served us in the craziest way possible. He gave his life for us and rescued us.) CRAZY SKETCHES Lay out a large sheet of tear off paper. Have the first kid come up to the paper, give them a marker and let them draw the first scenario (from the list below.) Start timing with the stopwatch at 30 seconds, stop the kid and ask the next person to come up, whether the first person is done or not. That ll make it funnier! Brainstorm with kids who are nervous or stuck just add anything kind. Let other kids jump in to help, too. a. Here s some ideas if kids aren t sure what to draw: helping someone do a difficult thing, giving someone a hug, saying kind things to encourage someone (could draw a thought bubble over a person s head), cleaning up for someone, doing a sibling s chore, showing love to a stranger, giving money or a gift to someone who needs it, playing with someone at school who is lonely, etc. At the end of one scenario (after everyone has contributed) stop to admire the work. Remind them that it s hard to act like this, but it s a picture of the Kingdom of Heaven! (Continued on next page.)

4 2 Here are scenarios (feel free to adapt for your group of kids and even use scenarios that they shared in response to question #4!!) A friend has a party but doesn t invite you Your mom asks you to do extra chores Your little sister sneaks into your bedroom and draws all over the wall Somebody at school starts a rumor about you or talks behind your back Someone makes fun of the way you dress or act Extra Time? Play the Connect Time game again, but this time, kids can only ONE WORD at a time to add to the story, instead of a whole sentence.

5 1 There s more Scripture in this lesson than usual. To help engage kids, read it loudly and with great passion and excitement to engage kids in the crazy, radical love to which Jesus calls us! Are you losing their attention? Try sitting on the edge of the stage or walking in the crowd. Alternate between using a loud voice and a gentle whisper. Sometimes kids need something extra special to pull them in and keep them interested. *Click to play intro music WELCOME AND INTRO Hey everybody! Welcome to Kids Club. We re so glad you re here. I bet you all came up with some pretty crazy stories in Connect Time, didn t you? Does anyone want to give me a quick review of what happened in your story? (Let a few kids come up and tell the group about their story. Make sure to limit their response time to a few minutes.) Today we re going to talk about some crazy stories too, but there s one BIG difference. The story we re talking about is completely true! Following Jesus can mean doing things that seem really crazy to the rest of the world. In fact, some of Jesus commands are really hard to follow. Some of them might not even make sense to us. It kind of reminds me of the movie Karate Kid. Have any of you guys seen it? (Let kids respond.) Well, a kid named Dre wants to learn Kung Fu, so he takes some lessons. But his teacher just makes him do some weird stuff, like taking his own jacket on and off. It makes no sense to Dre, and he gets mad. Let s take a look: Video: Karate Kid clip Turns out, even taking his jacket on and off is helping Dre learn King Fu, isn t it? His teacher told him Kung Fu is in everything. It s the same with following Jesus. He s our king, and he wants us to be a part of his kingdom. He wants to show us the best ways to follow him, and that means doing things the way he would do them, ALL the time, and in everything. Let s talk about some of the ways he wants us to follow him that seem a little strange. BE KIND TO OTHERS Jesus wants us to be kind, right? Let s pretend somebody takes your very favorite, brand new

6 shirt? You got the last one at the store and your friend wanted it, so he or she just takes it from you. In fact, they sue you in a court to get it legally so nobody blames them for stealing! Which is silly because it s obviously your shirt! So what should you do? Get a lawyer to fight them back? Just give it to them? Turn and tell a friend what you think you should do. (Let kids tell their friends.) Here s what the Bible says: SLIDE: Matthew 5:40 Suppose someone takes you to court to get your shirt. Let him have your coat also. Suppose someone forces you to go one mile. Go two miles with him. Wow, Jesus says if someone wants your shirt, give it to them AND add your coat! When Jesus tells us to be kind to others, he means EXTRA kind! Does anybody here think that kind of love and kindness sounds crazy? (Let kids respond.) Yep, it sure does. Here s what Jesus is saying. If someone does something like steal from us, it doesn t mean we should let them steal all of our stuff. But we shouldn t get angry and try to get back at them. Instead, Jesus wants us to show love. LOVE YOUR ENEMIES Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Can you guys think of somebody who you struggle to like? Don t say their name just think in your head. Maybe it s a school bully. Maybe it s somebody who treats you badly or you see treating others badly. How do you think Jesus wants us to treat them? Turn and tell a friend how you think Jesus wants us to treat people we don t like. (Let kids turn and tell a friend.) Again, let s see what Jesus says in the Bible: SLIDE: Matthew 5:43-45 You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor. Hate your enemy. But here is what I tell you. Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. Then you will be sons of your Father who is in heaven. Do any of you guys pray for good things to happen to people who are mean to you? (Let kids respond.) If you do, that s awesome! But it sure is hard, isn t it? It sounds kind of crazy to love people who don t follow Jesus. But it s how we can act like him, even though it doesn t make sense. The world usually tells us to only love people who are nice to us. But Jesus says to love everyone, even if we don t like them. BE A SERVANT Another crazy command Jesus gave us is about being famous or important. Who do you think is great in our world? Who do you think people would call important? An actor or actress? An athlete? The President? A band? Turn and tell a friend who you think people would call important in our world. (Let kids turn and tell a friend. Kids may want to share this you can ask a few kids to share responses.) In this world, a lot of people want to be noticed or popular or well-liked. But Jesus tells us what we must really do to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven: SLIDE: Matthew 20:26-27 If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. And if you want to be first, you must be the slave of the rest.

7 That doesn t make any sense, does it? If you want to be great, serve others? It sounds crazy, almost opposite of what the world usually says. (Click to show image of king.) Let s think about a king for a minute. Kings in the past usually had people serving THEM all the time. They had people clean for them, and do all their chores, and even fight and die for them. But Jesus was exactly the opposite. Even though he is the GREATEST in the Kingdom of Heaven, and he s the King, he made the biggest sacrifice ever. He served us by giving up his life for us. RESPONSE TIME Jesus knows that following him sometimes looks crazy in this world. People might even make fun of us. But remember, Jesus is our rescuer. He gave up everything just so we could be close to God, and live forever in his kingdom. That means we should obey his commands, even when they don t make sense. We can trust that he s just getting us ready to live forever in the perfect world he ll one day re-create for everybody who follows him! Let s look at one more verse. We ve been talking about it for a few weeks now, because it s one of the most important ways to follow Jesus and act like him, even if other people think it s crazy. SLIDE: 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. We re going to watch a video that s all about being brave, no matter what Jesus asks us to do. Sometimes, he ll ask us to do things that seem crazy. Sometimes, he ll ask us to do things that seem scary. Maybe we ll be worried that we can t follow him, or that other people will make fun of us. While you watch this video, stay seated and take some time to talk to God. Ask him to help you overcome your fear. Ask him to help you be brave and do crazy things for his kingdom. Music Video: Brave Ones PRAY Ask a kid to come up and pray for the group. Encourage them to ask God to help us do crazy things in order to follow Jesus. Let s all stand up now and sing loud and clear to Jesus that we want to be a part of his crazy love! Music Video: Crazy Love *Dismiss kids to small groups

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10 Crazy Stories game no supplies needed Per group: Bible, markers, stopwatch, large sheet of tear off paper (appx. 6 feet long) Bible 1. Song slide: for when kids enter the room (All that You Need instrumental; mp3 only; can be downloaded on website) 2. Video: Karate Kid clip ( 3. Slide: Matthew 5:40 Suppose someone takes you to court to get your shirt. Let him have your coat also. Suppose someone forces you to go one mile. Go two miles with him. 4. Slide: Matthew 5:43-45 You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor. Hate your enemy. But here is what I tell you. Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. Then you will be sons of your Father who is in heaven. 5. Slide: Matthew 20:26-27 If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. And if you want to be first, you must be the slave of the rest. 6. Image: king 7. Slide: 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 8. Music Video: Brave Ones ( 9. Music Video: Crazy Love (KC and SM media videos songs>music videos) What crazy things does Jesus ask us to do? How can we act more like Jesus?