38. Change for Jesus!

Transcription

1 38. Change for Jesus! The Course Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:17 Who changes me? Acts 18-21; Romans 12; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:17-32 The Goals As a result of this lesson the children will: 1. Know that people can turn from sin through Jesus. 2. Feel the need to turn from sin in their lives. 3. Change their attitudes and behavior to please Jesus. The Equipment Room For the following lesson you will need: 1. Visuals #1-4 [As PowerPoint] 2. Two puppets 3. Puppet scripts [Given at least two weeks in advance] 4. One coach 5. Skit script [Given at least two weeks in advance] 6. One old sweater [Or sweatshirt] 7. One newer sweater [Or sweatshirt] The Warm-up Activity: Make copies of Visual #5 for the children to color. Scripture Memory Review Game: Relay Races Divide the children into two teams. Print the verse on paper, writing one word on each piece of paper. You will need one copy of the verse for each team. Mix up the papers and place them on the floor. On Go have the first person from each team runs to the words and try to find the first word in the verse. Once he finds it, have him position it, run back, and tag the next team member. Continue until the completed verse is in the right order. Then, say it together. Opening Ceremonies Songs: Run the Race; We will Praise You [See Olympian Song CD Tracks 1 and 6.]; I m in the Lord s Army; You are My All in All Bible Lesson Review: Play Dress the Coach. Divide the children into two teams. Choose one coach to stand in front of each team. Set two boxes [one with ten pieces of old clothes and one with ten pieces of newer clothes] containing old clothes next to one coach and newer clothes next to the other coach. Alternately, ask the questions of the teams. If a team answers correctly, a designated volunteer may choose an item from the box and put it on their coach. The winning team has the most items on their coach. Point out to the children that one coach is dressed in older clothes, while the other coach has newer clothes. Change for Jesus! New Testament Survey 453

2 The Coach s Corner Today, we are going to hear from a man who has done a lot of traveling. His name is Paul. Paul took a lot of missionary trips. Did someone say trips? I love road trips! I ll pack my toothbrush, my pet frog and my Beeper, I don t think you should put your frog in your suitcase. He could get squished! So, that s why my snake died! I put him in my suitcase on my last trip. I wondered what happened to him. Anyway, Beeper, we are not actually going on a trip. We re just going to talk about where Paul went on his missionary trips. Were they secret missions? Was Paul a secret agent? No, Beeper. He was a missionary. A missionary is a person who shares Jesus with others. That s right, Pipsqueak. Paul wasn t quiet about sharing Jesus with others. Many people s lives were changed. Did they get quarters, dimes, or nickels? What are you talking about? You said their lives changed. What I want to know is, what kind of change did they get; quarters, dimes, or nickels? It wasn t that kind of change, Beeper. It was the kind of change where you stop doing one thing, and start doing something totally opposite. That s what the gospel does: it changes people. Well, then, I guess a lot of people were changed, because I know Paul went around to many places sharing the gospel. Did he hop around, like my frog? No, he didn t hop! But he did hop I mean, travel to many cities. Many people were happy to hear about Jesus. My frog is happy. He is now, because you didn t stuff him in a suitcase! Good point! Listen, why don t we just let Coach tell us more about Apostle Paul s missionary trip? I m all ears! Great. And nose. Change for Jesus! New Testament Survey 454

3 Fantastic, now say goodbye, Beeper! Goodbye, Beeper! Beeper! Goodbye We ve been talking for the past several weeks about the Apostle Paul, who was a missionary. As he traveled around sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he saw the lives of many people being changed. Paul went on three missionary trips telling people about Jesus. On one trip, he went to a city called Ephesus. [Display Visual #1.] Paul spent a few years there telling people about Jesus. Many people accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. Do you know why they needed a Savior? [Allow children to respond: because they were sinners.] How do we know they were sinners? [Have children respond; because the Bible says everyone sins.] Sin must be punished, and anyone who dies in their sins is going to be separated from God forever. Jesus paid the price for all the sins that we do. That is the good news of the gospel that Paul was sharing with the people in Ephesus. A lot of people became followers of Jesus there. Do you know what these people did? Let s look at Acts 19:18-20 and find out. [Read Acts 19:18-20.] Some of the people who accepted Jesus as their personal Savior were really bad. They did evil sorcery and worshiped idols. Some of them had books about witchcraft. After they received Jesus as their personal Savior, they knew these things were not pleasing to Jesus. [Display Visual #2.] Since they wanted to please Jesus, they knew right away that their books about witchcraft had to go and decided to burn them. Now they had the Word of God to read [Display Visual #3.] and believe which was so much better than their evil books. They changed! ADAPTATION > 8 Champions Only What s our goal, once we re saved? [Allow children to respond; CHANGE!] What are we changing from? [Allow children to respond.] Sin, of course. Who knows what sin is? Sin is anything that we do, say, or think that displeases God. ( 8) [Have one of the coaches come to the front wearing an old, ragged sweater or sweatshirt.] Bible Bible Bible Bible Coach Why are you wearing that old sweater [or sweatshirt]? It has holes and looks like it needs to be in the trash can. I like it. It is comfortable and I m used to wearing it. Here, I have a new sweater [sweatshirt] for you to wear. It is free and it is really nice. But I don t want to wear something else. My old sweater [sweatshirt] is just fine. I know you like it but it is time to make a change, so take off the sweater [sweatshirt] and put in the new one. Okay, I ll do it. [Takes off the old one and puts on the new] This feels so much nicer than my old sweater [sweatshirt]. Aren t you glad you made the change? I am! Thank you! Sometimes, it s hard to change, isn t it? Sometimes, we don t want to change our old sinful habits. Just like we get very comfortable in our old clothes, sometimes we get a little too comfortable with our sins. [Share a very brief personal story of a sinful habit you once had that Christ gave you victory over. Make sure it is an age-appropriate story, such as lying or not praying. Avoid subjects, such as drugs or swearing, that are more controversial.] Change for Jesus! New Testament Survey 455

4 ADAPTATION > 9a Challengers Only ADAPTATION > 1 Extra Action ADAPTATION > 4 Mostly Churched Children ( 9a) [Display Visual #4a.] Here are some sins that some of you may do or may have done. [Read Visual #4a.] ( 1) ( 4) Now let s think: What right actions could you replace these sins with? Replace them with actions that would please Jesus. [Display and read Visual #4b.] Don t answer aloud, but can you think of anything you do that is not pleasing to Jesus? Would that be very hard for you to change? We need to work at changing to please Jesus, even when it is hard. Running the Race Mostly Unchurched Children Are there things in your life that you know are sin and do not please Jesus? Do you have friends that are leading you away from Jesus? If I were to go to your school, home, or sporting event, would I see that you are living pleasing to God? What do you need to stop doing? What things that please Him do you need to start doing? Bow your head and close your eyes. Raise your hand if you know that there is sin in your life that you need to stop doing. No one will talk to you about it if you don t want them to. By raising your hand, you are telling Jesus, I want to change. I want to please You. By raising your hand, you are asking me to pray for you, that God will help you to change. Mostly Churched Children Are there things in your life that you know are sin and do not please Jesus? Maybe are you are listening to music or looking at things on the internet or television that you know are not pleasing to God. If you are, you need to confess that to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you. Then take steps to make sure that you stop. Find someone who will hold you accountable and help you break your bad habits. Bow your head and close your eyes. Raise your hand if you know that there is sin in your life that you need to stop doing. No one will talk to you about it if you don t want them to. By raising your hand, you are telling Jesus, I want to change. I want to please You. By raising your hand, you are asking me to pray for you, that God will help you to change. [Close in prayer.] Personal Training Time ADAPTATION > 9b Challengers Only ( 9b) 1. What are some sins that we see around us? 2. What are things you can do that will help you not to sin? 3. How can you replace sin with something pleasing to Jesus? The Big O vent Breaking The Link [See Big O vent Mega CD, page 92.] Break the link by making good, godly changes in your life. Closing Ceremonies We have learned a great deal from the Book of Acts and the life of Paul. Let s make any necessary changes in our lives, changes that will please God. Change for Jesus! New Testament Survey 456

5 Lesson Adaptation Explanations Extra Action: Make a set of cards [one for each word] using the following words: disobedience/obedience; lying/speaking the truth; anger/self-control; worry/trust; and cheating/honesty. Give the five cards with the godly characteristics to five children and have them stand at the front of the room. Give the cards with the ungodly characteristics to five seated children. Explain that the children who are seated will have one minute to find the godly character trait that is the opposite of their word. When they find it, they are to stand by that person. After the time is up, read the matches. You could make more sets of cards to involve more children. Mostly Churched Children: Talk to the children s parents in advance and set up an accountability system to track their progress in making changes. Have each child name something they are trying to work on and track their progress each week with the help of their parents. Champions Only: [Have one of the adults put the set of old, ragged clothes on over the clothing they wore to Olympians, and then come to the front and stand beside the Bible Coach. Have the pile of new clothes nearby. The coach should come in and ask why [adult s name] is dressed in such old ragged clothes. The adult should give silly reasons, like: old clothes are cool, nobody looks at him, ragged clothes are more comfortable, etc. The coach should point out that there is a pile of new clothes that he can have. The adult gets excited and immediately switches the old, ragged clothes for the new ones.] [adult s name] dressed in those ragged, old clothes to show us what we look like before Jesus comes into our life. Our sinful nature is like dirty, old clothing. But when we accept Jesus as our personal Savior, we are changed from our dirty sinfulness [Hold up one of the old clothing items.] to new clothes of righteousness. [Point to the coach wearing the new clothes then read 2 Corinthians 5:17.] This verse says that old things pass away and everything becomes new when we are saved. Receiving Jesus as your Savior is like getting completely new clothes. Let me ask you something. When you get new clothes, do they stay clean all the time, forever? No, they don t, do they? Once we wear them for awhile, we spill spaghetti on them, or we get grass stains or ink on them. It is not very long before our new clothes have to go into the wash! Our hearts are like that, also. When we re saved, we have a new, clean heart. But it s not long before sin creeps in. We go back to the old habits of our old sinful nature, and we get our clean hearts dirty in a very short time. It s pretty easy to change into clean clothes, isn t it? Changing a dirty heart into a clean one is not quite that easy, but it s necessary if we re going to please Jesus. The great news is, Jesus promises to help us change our old sinful habits into new habits that glorify God and are pleasing to Him. Discuss how peer pressure can lead us to sinning. Then discuss how we can replace that negative peer pressure with friends that will help us follow God. [Continue lesson at Running the Race.] 9a Challengers Only: When we sin, we need to replace our sin with things that are pleasing to Jesus. For instance instead of telling a lie we need to [Pipsqueak and Beeper enter.] Go to bed. That s what I do when I m tired. That s not the kind of lying coach is talking about. Instead of lying we need to tell the truth. Change for Jesus! New Testament Survey 457

6 Let s try another one. We are at school and Butch decides to be mean should you If it is Butch, we should punch him and then run away real fast. You better not punch Butch or he will send his boys after us. We ll really be in trouble. So, instead of being mean, why don t you try to be nice? That is what God wants us to do. If fact, why don t we put Butch on our prayer list and start praying for him? Do we have to pray for Butch? The Bible tells us to pray for our enemies and he sure is our enemy. That s right, Pipsqueak. We need to pray and also start reading our Bible. But what if we don t know how to read? You could ask a parent, a brother, sister, or even your coach to read it to you. Good idea! In fact, we need to start getting into God s Word every day. Maybe you have a habit of disobeying your parents or having temper tantrums. That is something you need to put off and change. Just like the coach put on the new sweater [sweatshirt], we need to change and do right things instead of wrong things. We need to work at changing to please Jesus, even when it is hard. [Continue lesson at: Running the Race.] 9b Challengers Only: Make enough copies of Visual #5 for each Challenger. As they color the pictures talk to them about things that they need to change in their lives. Change for Jesus! New Testament Survey 458

7 Change for Jesus! Visual #1 New Testament Survey 459

8 Change for Jesus! Visual #2 New Testament Survey 460

9 Change for Jesus! Visual #3 New Testament Survey 461

10 Change for Jesus! Visual #4 New Testament Survey 462

11 Change for Jesus! Visual #5 New Testament Survey 463

12 Change for Jesus! New Testament Survey 464