The Beatitudes. Huddle 10 - Review SETTING THE ATMOSPHERE

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1 The Beatitudes Huddle 10 - Review Blessed are Matthew 5:1-12 (NLT) SETTING THE ATMOSPHERE As children arrive, collect the In slips from parents and see which grade they are in for their huddle teams. Remember to check all slips to make sure children are to be in Up & Out this hour. Team Time Each team leader (student leader) should spend time getting a conversation started within the team to find out more about each child. Spend time today discussing the following questions up front... Huddle Teams 1st & 2nd grade girls 1st & 2nd grade boys 3rd & 4th grade girls 3rd & 4th grade boys Is there anything new happening in your life? Can you think of anything that makes you feel that you are blessed? Are you feeling thankful for anything in particular? Opening Prayer Leader prays for the group. LESSON HUDDLE Let s all come over together and get started this morning. Good morning, Up & Out! Where we look up (pause for the group to respond) TO GOD and look out (Pause) TO OTHERS. Guess what? This is our LAST week studying the Beatitudes! Can you believe that we have spent over two months learning about what it means to be blessed by God? We have learned so much in our time together! The Beatitudes taught us what it means to be blessed and showed us the attitudes that followers of Jesus should have. Hopefully, whenever we see a bumblebee it will help us to remember to have a Bee attitude. We also learned that we need to have BEE attitudes instead of ME attitudes. Remember ME attitudes put ME first, and do things the way the world and people who don t follow Jesus do things and the BEE attitudes put Jesus first and care for people, even if people aren t every kind. We are going to spend today having fun reviewing the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are powerful words, given to us by Jesus Christ. They teach us how to live life as our Father wants us to. The main message of the Beatitudes is those who do the right thing will be rewarded in Heaven. We have to do the right thing, no matter what

2 the cost. Doing the right thing is important. Because it s what God wants us to do. Living as He says, by the Beatitudes, is important, because if we live by the Beatitudes, I know I am doing the right thing. It s the right thing to defend your faith. It s the right thing to stand up to a bully. It s the right thing to believe in God. Because doing the right thing will lead us down a path that we know will put us in the right place: in Heaven, with God. The path may be twisty, and it may have bumps and spills, but we know that living as Jesus taught us will bring us to where we need to be, in the end. So when you walk out these doors, today, what are you going to do? The right thing! The Beatitudes come from the opening verses of the famous Sermon on the Mount delivered by Jesus and recorded in Matthew 5:3-12. Here Jesus states several blessings, each beginning with the phrase, "Blessed are..." ACTIVITY Game: Beatitudes Bingo Supplies Needed: Bingo cards (1 for each child) Bingo questions, cut apart (put in a large bowl) Bowl for bingo questions Bingo counters (beans or other small items enough for each square on each bingo card/16 per card) What to do: Pass out the bingo cards and counters (beans, buttons, or other small objects). The Beatitudes square somewhat in the middle of all the cards is free, so tell all the children to cover it with a counter. Have questions on slips of paper in a bowl. Explain: I m going to draw questions out of this bowl. When I call out a question, look on your card and see if you see the answer to the question. Most of the questions are fill-inthe-blanks, where I ll read part of one of the Beatitudes and you have to fill in the missing words. If you think you have the answer on your card, raise your hand. As you ask each question, call on someone to answer it. If that person gets it wrong, keep taking answers until someone gets it right. Then everyone who has the correct answer on their card should cover it with a counter. Discuss the answer with the class before going on to the next question. The purpose of the game is to provide opportunities to teach the vocabulary and meaning of the Beatitudes, so try to cover all the discussion points. Tell the children: When you cover five squares in a row, call out Beatitudes. When that happens, don t end the game; keep playing until you ve used all the questions. By the end, most players should have completed a row. Optional: Give small prize, such

3 as a sticker, bookmark or pencil, to the players as they finish and to any players who haven t covered a row when you run out of questions.

4 Beatitudes Bingo Questions Finish this sentence: Beatitude is a really old word that means. Answer: blessing Discuss: Beatitudes are blessings. Blessing means a gift or favor, given by God that brings us happiness, even when we don t deserve it. Because God loves us, he wants to give us good things. Sometimes blessings don t look like what we think they will look like. We don t always get the gifts we expect from God, but we always get what we need from Him Finish this sentence: The Beatitudes are blessings we receive when we have certain. Answer: attitudes Discuss: The Beatitudes are blessings we receive when we have certain attitudes. These attitudes that we have been learning about these past couple of months are the attitudes of people who follow Jesus. We call them the BEE ATTITUDES because they are what our ATTITUDES should BE. These are the opposite of the ME ATTITUDES which are what we have when we choose to make ourselves and what we want more important than Jesus and what He wants Answer this question: Who was it that sat on the mountainside and taught the Beatitudes? Answer: Jesus

5 Answer this question: Does God bless EVERYONE? Answer: No Discuss: God does NOT bless EVERYONE. God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. (Matthew 5:3) Do you see that God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him. Do you see those words after poor realize their need for Him. When we realize how poor we are and how much we need God, He blesses us God blesses those people who mourn. They will be. Answer: comforted Discuss: 4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5:4) What does it mean to mourn? Mourn means to be really, really sad. I mean, REALLY sad. The original Greek word for mourn is a word used for grieving for the dead. There is no sadness as deep as the sadness felt when someone you love dies. That is the kind of sadness Jesus means when he says God blesses those who mourn. He means the kind of grieving that makes your heart and your stomach hurt. He also might have been talking about people who were sad about all the things that are wrong with the world and all the ways in which people don t act as though they re living in the kingdom of God.

6 God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit. Answer: the whole earth Discuss: 5 God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. (Matthew 5:5) What does humble mean? The word humble means NOT being proud or feeling deep pleasure or satisfaction--- as a result of one s own achievements, qualities or possessions. (not proud or haughty, not showing off or think if we really think about this definition of humble, we can all agree that it is not easy being humble. How many of you are proud of something you have done lately? How many of you think you are better at doing something than all of your friends or classmates? The world that we live in teaches us that we can be great all on our own. But, the bible teaches us that when we rely on God, who is GREAT, then we can achieve ALL things through Him. Someone who is humble is led by God in all things he does. We can all be great but not on our own. When you realize that you are a great football player because God made you that way and that you are a gifted piano player because God gave you that gift, you are humble. Try to see God in everything you do. Someone who is humble may also be described as tenderhearted, patient, slow to anger, controlled, moderated, not self-seeking, and self-less God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be. Answer: satisfied Discuss: 6 God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. We know what it means to be hungry and to be thirsty when it comes to our bodies. Our tummies start to growl, our mouths get dry and we may get a little grumpy. Those are signs that we need to eat and drink something to take care of our bodies. But Jesus isn t talking about being physically hungry and thirsty. He s talking about being spiritually hungry and thirsty. When our hearts are hungry and thirsty, we need to fill them with the justice and righteousness of God. The word justice, in the bible, means doing what is right according to God s laws, what He wants you to do. So when you let His word (all found in the bible) set the standard for your life, you are being just. When seeking to do what is pleasing to Him, you are being just, having justice.

7 God blesses those who are the merciful, for they will be shown. Answer: mercy 7 Discuss: God blesses those who are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:7) What does mercy mean? (Being kind, forgiving, compassionate, sometimes even toward people who have done something wrong and don t deserve kind treatment.) We all need mercy sometimes, from other people and from God, so we need to show mercy ourselves. How can I become merciful? We become merciful when we realize we are sinners, become humble and ask Him to be merciful to us God blesses those whose hearts are pure for they will see. Answer: God Discuss: 8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8) What do you think a pure heart is? (Loving God and other people, wanting to do what s right) This is the most significant of all the beatitudes because you cannot be poor in spirit without having a pure heart. You cannot mourn for things that displease God without having a pure heart. You cannot be humble, you cannot hunger and thirst for justice, and you cannot be merciful without having a pure heart. What does pure mean? Pure means not contaminated, not mixed with any other substance.

8 God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called. Answer: the children of God Discuss: 9 God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. (Matthew 5:9) What is peace? (Not fighting or arguing) Sometimes we need to make peace with people we re mad at, and sometimes we can make peace by helping other people get along with each other God blesses those who are persecuted for, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Answer: doing right Discuss: 10 God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs. (Matthew 5:10) What does it mean to be persecuted? To be persecuted means to be teased, bullied, harassed, or treated poorly because of what you believe. At some point in their lives, every Christian will face persecution of some sort. If you never in your life are teased, left out, made fun of, or get in trouble for standing up for what Jesus stands for, then chances are you can more boldly follow Jesus.

9 God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient were persecuted in the same way. Answer: prophets Discuss: 11 God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. (Matthew 5:11-12) What does mock mean? (to say something mean, to hurt somebody s feelings to tease someone.) What s a prophet? (somebody who brings a message from God.) The Bible tells lots of stories about prophets who brought messages from God telling people what they were doing wrong. The people didn t want to hear the truth, and they punished the prophets for speaking the truth Answer the question: In what book of the Bible do we find the Beatitudes? Answer: Matth Answer the question: The Beatitudes are the beginning of a much bigger teaching, by Jesus, in the book of Matthew. What is that teaching called? Answer: The Sermon on the Mount Answer the question: How many Beatitudes are there? Answer: Eight