Thanksgiving should not be limited to one holiday a year. The Lord has given us plenty to be thankful for.

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Iris Quinn
5 years ago
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1 THANKSGIVING Bottom line Thanksgiving should not be limited to one holiday a year. The Lord has given us plenty to be thankful for. Objectives. For students to: -Discover the story of the ten lepers -Develop a thankful heart to God Key Passage. Luke 17:11-19 Memory Verse. Psalm 107:1 Summary. Thanksgiving is one of the most popular American holidays. It was established by the pilgrims to thank God for his provision. Sadly, we don t seem to be thankful past the feast of turkey and trimmings. Just like the lepers who were healed by Jesus, only a few of us rememer to thank God for al his blessings. We need to be thankful 365 days a year, and count our blessings continually. In doing so we not only give the Lord the thanks he deserves, we grow closer to him. THANKSGIVING

2 OBJECT LESSON Item needed: A box of stationary - unopened or opened Have any of you ever seen one of these in your house? There may be one stuffed in a drawer some place. This is a box of stationary. Inside you have small sheets of paper and matching envelopes. People used to use stationary quite frequently. They used it to write letters to one another - one of the most common of which was a thank you letter. These days fewer and fewer people are using stationary. Everyone uses and text messages to stay in touch. And with our busier than ever schedules, who has time to sit down and write an actual letter any more? It s getting harder and harder to find stationary for sale, but there are still people who use it. In spite of changing communication habits and technology, these people know the importance and value of a hand written letter. There s nothing like a hand written note of thanks to show you just how much someone appreciated a gift. Stationary may be old fashioned and out of date to most people, but giving thanks is never out of date. When someone does something nice, you need to thank them, be it verbal or written. And when the Lord blesses you, it s just as important you take the time to thank him. Giving thanks isn t a time consuming, difficult thing. You simply close your eyes and say, Lord, thank you for your blessings. You know what he s done for you. Be specific. He s a good Daddy who loves to give good things to his children. THANKSGIVING OBJECT LESSON

3 LESSON What s the first thing you think about when you think of Thanksgiving? Do you have visions of pilgrims and Native Americans coming together to celebrate outdoors at a long table with turkeys and fresh veggies? Or do you picture a house full of relatives with a TV tuned to football and a stack of newspapers with Black Friday ads falling out of it? Thanksgiving began as a celebration of God s provision in the New World. The pilgrims were a very religious people, and they initiated the holiday as a chance to thank God for providing for them. They invited the Native Americans to join them because they had done so much to help the pilgrims adapt and survive in the New World. It s possible that the Native Americans brought a turkey or two to that first feast, but according to some historians, it s more likely the pilgrims are something much different than turkey - lobster! Today, of course, the Thanksgiving feast revolves around the turkey, and even though most businesses are closed, it s as busy a day as any. There are parades and football games on TV, sprinkled with ads for the big Christmas sales that evening. There s lots to do, and usually lots of family to do it with. But in many cases, the purpose of the holiday is lost completely. Thanksgiving, the act of giving thanks, is a huge part of the Christian life. Over and over in the Bible, we see the great heroes of the faith stopping to thank the Lord for his blessings. But in spite of their example, we often forget to give thanks. Today, I want to look at a story about a group of men who had much to be thankful for. Jesus gave them an incredible gift, and all but one of them forgot to even say thank you. SCRIPTURE Read Luke 17:11-19 Ten men went to see Jesus and ask for healing. Ten men were healed. But only one went back to say thank you. THANKSGIVING LESSON PAGE 1

4 LESSON This is such a sad story, especially when you know all the details. People with leprosy were rarely if ever cured. Lepers were outcasts. They could not live with their families or even inside cities, where it was safe. They couldn t hold jobs, and they had no one to comfort them except other lepers. According to Jewish tradition these people were unclean because of their physical condition. You were seen as untouchable. Once you had leprosy, chances are you would die with it - alone and apart from your loved ones. Here comes Jesus, whose reputation as a healer is well-known. Jesus has healed the blind and the crippled. Perhaps he can heal leprosy. These men took a huge risk by running to see Jesus, and that risk was rewarded. The men did as Jesus told them, and on their way to see the priest, they were cured. I don t doubt all ten men went to see the priest. Only the priest could declare them cured and allow them to go back to their families, so they had to see the priest. But Jesus was the only one who could heal them. Jesus HAD healed them. He d given them their health and their life back. But only one man went back to thank him. I m sure one of the reasons the writer of the gospel Luke included this story is to remind us to have a thankful heart. But how often do we remember to thank other people for the things they do, much less thank God for his blessings? There s a small Christian website that publishes drama scripts for Christmas. Each year, from October to December, they average about 300 unique visitors a day. That s over 27,000 people in three months. The site doesn t charge for their scripts, but they ask that if you use one, you send them an to let them know. Do you know how many s they received last year? Two. Two out of 27,000. On the Internet, where everyone s anonymous, people just don t think about others. They take what they like, and they forget where it came from - even Christians. If the website was a real store, and the site owner and his visitors were face-to-face, it s very likely that almost every one of those visitors would have at least said thank you. THANKSGIVING LESSON PAGE 2

5 LESSON But we re not talking about thanking other people. We re talking about thanking God, who has given us everything and whose face we ve never seen. Care to guess how often people forget to thank a God they ve never seen face to face? Thanksgiving is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on all the good things our good God has given us. But thanksgiving should be a year round practice for a Christian. We should thank God daily in our prayer times for the things he has given us and done for us. We need to thank God for the big blessings he gives, like answered prayers and healed illnesses. But we should also thank God for the little things that we take the most for granted: a sunny day, flowers, song birds, sunsets, and all the wonders of nature. We should thank God for our friends and for our families. I encourage all of you to make thankfulness and thanksgiving a part of your week. But don t let it end with a turkey dinner on Thursday. Thank God for his blessings on Black Friday, and all the days until next Christmas. And don t forget to thank your friends and loved ones as well. Thank friends for their friendship, and for always being there when you need them. Thank Mom and Dad for providing you with all your needs. Be thankful to those who have blessed you, and thank God for putting those people in your life. Giving thanks is a habit that becomes easier the more we do it. God has given us so much, and the more we remember to thank him for his blessings, the more we see of him. The more we see of Him, the easier it will be to remember to thank Him for all his goodness. THANKSGIVING LESSON PAGE 3

6 DISCUSSION Break the ice. 1. What are you doing for Thanksgiving? 2. What s the one thing you enjoy the most about Thanksgiving? 3. Does your family do anything together to give thanks - besides saying a prayer? Study the story. 4. Who were the men that came to Jesus in our story today? 5. What did the men want? 6. What did Jesus tell the men to do? 7. What happened when the men went to see the priest? 8. How many men turned back to thank Jesus? 9. Why do you think the other nine didn t return to thank Jesus? SAY: God has blessed us with so much. We live in a place where all our needs are taken care of. We enjoy the beauty of His creation. We have his word, and we have his Son to guide us in our lives. Yet just like the nine lepers, many of us take our blessings for granted. Live it out. 10. What are some of the ways God has blessed you in the last week? [Share your own blessings with the kids, then let them share.] THANKSGIVING DISCUSSION PAGE 1

7 DISCUSSION 11. How many of you have taken a moment to say a prayer of thanks in the past week? [Be honest - did you say thank you to the Lord before reading through this lesson? Did this lesson remind you? Have you said thank you yet?] SAY: Thanking God is an act of love. God gives because he loves us, and we thank him in return as a sign of our love. But saying thank you does more than tell God we appreciate his goodness. It helps us remember how much God loves us. It helps us to see how God is at work in our loves. It helps us grow closer to the Lord. 12. Do you expect your family will take time to thank the Lord this week? If not, what can you do to shift their focus to the real meaning of Thanksgiving? 13. Thanksgiving should be a year round thing, not just once a year. What are some ways we can remind ourselves to say thank you to the Lord? [Encourage students to begin each time of prayer thanking God with three specific blessings he has given them. We need to spend time thanking God for his goodness, for being a Daddy who loves to give good things to his children.] I want to challenge each of you to make this week a week of Thanksgiving. Take some time every day to pray and just thank God for his blessings. Keep a journal or list of the things that you thank the Lord for. At the end of this week, look back, and see if those prayers haven t given you a bigger picture of God s love. I guarantee you, you will see Jesus in a new way - and you ll experience his love in a fresh new way. Dear God, Thank you for your son Jesus, and thank you that we can come directly to you in His name to pray. Thank you for all the blessings you give us. Help us to count our blessings this week, and help us to be thankful for those blessings. In Jesus name, Amen. THANKSGIVING DISCUSSION PAGE 2

8 GAME Turkey gobbling contest The Game. Announce to the kids that you re going to have a turkey gobbling contest. Play. Choose 5-6 volunteers and bring them on stage. Have each kid in turn do their best turkey call, going down the line once. Then go back down the line, have each kid gobble once more. By applause, have the audience choose the winner. Take it to the next level. Find a life-size turkey costume for one of your volunteers. Tom, the turkey, can be the funny mascot/sidekick for this game. The more over-the-top Tom s mannerisms are, the better. Make a custom mix with a turkey call sound effect imbedded to use as background music. THANKSGIVING GAME

9 POWERPOINT GAME Thanks world. For the Powerpoint game, each slide will have thanks or thank you written in a different language. The slides can have graphics to give the kids clues as to what language it is. Kids will have the identify what language to win a prize. A few suggestions: Gracias (Spanish) Danke (German) Ank-thay ou-yay (Pig Latin) Merci (French) Doumo arigatou (Japanese) Spasibo (Russian) K adlo (Klingon) THANKSGIVING POWERPOINT GAME

4. Praise and Worship (10 Minutes) End with CG:Transition Slide

4. Praise and Worship (10 Minutes) End with CG:Transition Slide Beware of Scam Bible Story: Beware of Scam (Naaman and Elisha s Servant, Gehazi) 2 Kings 5 Bottom Line: When you re not truthful, you lose trust. Memory Verse: Anyone who lives without blame walks safely.