Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Luke 10:25-37 Parable of the Good Samaritan

Transcription

1 March 3, 2019 God Is Love DATE PONDER POINT Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Luke 10:25-37 Parable of the Good Samaritan John 17:3 THE BIG GOD STORY REMEMBER VERSE Welcome and Worship (15 minutes) The large group room will be divided into three sections. Please help kids find which section they should sit in according to their grade: 1st2nd, 3rd-4th & 5th-6th. Toward the end of small group time, A/V Tech will play the 2 minute warning sound followed by a song. During or immediately following the song please regroup in the large group meeting space (not before). 5th & 6th graders can go directly to Snack Shack after small group time, rather than regrouping in the large group space. Begins class creating an inviting atmosphere for kids to feel welcome and engage kids in worship through singing and communion. The Big God Story (18 minutes) Creates space for children to hear God s word and prepare respond to the Holy Spirit in small groups Small Groups (20 minutes) Kids will build relationships with each other and their leaders, and respond to what they learned in the Big God Story as well as how to apply it to their lives Bless & Dismiss (4 minutes) Bless kids to send them out with a sense of peace so they can be a blessing to others. SCHEDULE Large Group Small 2 Min Group Warn. Regroup/ Dismiss 5th-6th 1st Service (9:00) 9:00 9:33 9:53 10:00 2nd Service (10:15) 10:15 10:48 11:08 11:15 3rd Service (11:30) 11:30 12:03 12:23 12:30 Host Administrative To Do s: Make sure no group is too large Make sure each group has enough supplies Close curtains and divider wall for small groups at 9:00 and 10:15 (and re-open after 9:00) Cue the tech when to play the 2 minute warning with song. Call names for dismissal after blessing 1

2 GOAL: Worship & welcome is all about engaging kids and helping them enter into worship, letting them know that class has begun preparing their minds for what they are going to hear. WELCOME (Host): Stage Lights On VIDEO LOOPS: Welcome Loop, 5 Min Countdown, Welcome Image We are so glad you are here today. Welcome the kids in your own words then say the following to the kids: Let s all stand and hear God s word and sing our praise to Him OPENING WORSHIP SONG (Worship Leader): Turn out main overhead lights REMEMBER VERSE VIDEO WORSHIP VIDEO 1: Undefeated WORSHIP VIDEO 2: Our God (Direct kids to get with their groups and circle up with their small group leader before sitting down) SMALL GROUP CONNECT IMAGE CONNECT QUESTIONS (Host): 4 MINUTE COUNTDOWN VIDEO What s been the worst injury you ve had? Have you ever helped someone who was hurt? Tell about it. Is there anything you get to do when you are sick? (Ex: eat popsicles, watch movies, etc) TIMELINE VIDEO (Storyteller) The Big God Story: Point out that what kids are about to hear is true and is recorded in the Bible. Open your Bible to the passage and leave it open and visible throughout The Big God Story. Invite kids to open their Bibles and follow along as you storytell. Children respond to what the Holy Spirit is teaching them as they reflect on the day s portion of The Big God Story. The Prayer of Release: This allows children and leaders to pause, be still, and ask God to quiet their hearts and minds. Before you pray, you might ask the kids to hold out their hands, palms up, in a spirit of releasing their worries and distractions in order to better receive what the Holy Spirit might have for them today. Then encourage the kids to quiet their voices, take a seat, and pray with you. 2

3 The Big God Story: Storyteller Script What s something that s really cool about your neighborhood/neighbors? Invite kids to answer. (Tell a story about something that was or is cool about your neighborhood.) Today we re going to hear more about exactly who is our neighbor. Before we do, let s pray together. Lead children in a Prayer of Release to pause, be still, and ask the Holy Spirit to quiet their hearts and minds. Jesus often told parables earthly stories with heavenly meanings when people would ask Him questions. One day, while Jesus and His disciples were traveling, religious leaders came to test Jesus about how well He knew God s Word. Today we have a fun video that will help us explore this part of the Big God Story. Tech: Cue Storytelling Video (12:03) A Samaritan or even a bully being the hero of the story was quite the unexpected twist but, Jesus was making a point. The Jews thought priests were the best examples of how to live because they followed the Law of the Old Testament. However, Jesus wanted people to know He cared more about who a person was on the inside than what a person did on the outside. The priest may have looked like a good guy, but he was more concerned about his job as a priest than with loving others. The priest may have seemed like he had it all together, but he didn t love his neighbor because He had forgotten that God is love. Jesus cares about who we are on the inside. He cares about what s going on in our hearts. He cares that we love everyone not just the people we naturally want to love. Here s the good news: God created everyone even that person who is so hard to love! Sure, we may have a hard time loving them sometimes, but we can always go to God and ask Him for His help because God is love. In those moments, God reminds us of His great love for us and gives us the power to love others. Share a story about a time that God called you or someone you know to love someone unexpected. Tell the kids we are going to close the Big God Story by worshipping him. Ask the kids to wait until they are asked to come forward to take communion. WORSHIP VIDEO 3: Reckless Love After a time of worshipping have kids come and take communion if they have been baptized, and bring their offering. Fade out song slowly at Worship Leader s prompting. (As the song comes to a close Worship Leader tells groups to head to their small group space. Say something like, Let s continue responding to what God is teaching us as we dismiss to our small 3

4 groups. Please follow your small group leader at this time. ) IMAGE: It s time for small groups Turn main overhead lights on Dismiss for small groups refer to map for small group locations At the end of small groups... Tech cue: 2 minute warning with exit song, using ceiling speakers, at the host s prompting Turn speakers back to wall speakers for blessing, closing song and dismissal. 4

5 GOAL: Kids build relationships with each other and their leader as they respond to what they heard in the Big God Story. CREATED TO LOVE SUPPLIES Cards total cards should be enough for one per kid Response cards something that gets in the way of loving others Blank response cards Pens or markers ENGAGE God showed us His amazing love by sending His Son, Jesus, into the world to die for our sins. Our sins had separated us from God. Our sins made us enemies of God. But, Jesus came to die for His enemies. The Bible says, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6). Jesus showed us His perfect love on the cross and made the way for us to be brought into the family of God. He shows us how to love our neighbors and gives us the ability to care for our enemies. Some things get in the way of our ability to love everyone. For instance, if we re selfish, we might have a hard time sharing with others. Sharing is a really beautiful expression of love. Or, if we struggle with being too busy, we might not have time to care for others or spend time with God. Let s look through these cards and as we do, I want you to think about each of these words (show the kids the cards words include: selfishness, pride, worry, being too busy, lack of concern). Do you feel like any of these actions get in the way of your being able to love others? Is there something stopping you? (Let kids share and fill in the blank cards with suggestions from the kids of other things that get in our way of loving everyone) Now pass out one card to each kid. (Doesn t matter which one) Then instruct all of the kids to flip their card over. Have the kids write Created to Love under In Christ we have been on the back of the card. Encourage kids to take a quiet minute to spend some time praying and asking God to remind them who He made them to be people who love others as God loves them. If you want (for younger kids) ask them to repeat a simple prayer after you, such as, God, help me to love others the way you love me. IF YOU HAVE TIME JUST BEFORE THE BLESSING... Hand each child a scrap piece of paper and a pen. Have kids write a short, encouraging note (one or two sentences) that someone their age would benefit from hearing. (Example: You are made in the image of God. You are loved. Or, God loves you. You can trust Him. ) Then, have kids sign their names at the bottom, crumple up their paper, and throw their papers in the middle of the group. Have each child pick up a crumpled note and read it out loud to the group. Kids can keep their notes when they leave. Remind children that kind, encouraging words can be one way we show love to others. BLESSING Close your small group time reading a final scripture and blessing your kids using the Blessing Card from your supply bin in your cart. 5

6 GOAL: Bless kids to send them out with a sense of peace so they can be a blessing to others. CLOSING REMARKS/ANNOUNCEMENTS (Host): Wall Speakers On TRANSITION ACTIVITIES (HOST): The videos listed below are minutes long. Please play as listed below and feel free to stop the video whenever it s time to start the next service. After 9:00 service play - Transition Compilation 3 After 10:15 service play - Transition Compilation 4 DISMISSAL (STORYTELLER): Call names of kids as parent come to pick up and welcome kids who are being dropped off. Encourage parents to enter the room and encourage kids and parents to exit out the middle door (103) 6

7 At a busy intersection, a homeless man had fallen. He lay bleeding on the grass. Green light: Cars buzzed past him. Red light: Drivers stared straight ahead. A man in a black Mercedes swerved through the traffic, blocking it, and ran to the homeless man. The silver-haired man from the Mercedes was wearing an expensive suit. He was a lawyer. Are you okay? the lawyer asked the man, pained at the sight of his injuries. No, replied the man. I have no home. I have no friends. And I have no God. Breathless, the lawyer ran to his car. He wept as he called 911. He returned to the homeless man with a water bottle and some food. Others, inspired by the lawyer s compassion, also pulled over to help. I know this lawyer very well. Throughout his life he s been rejected by many friends and associates because of the often-unpleasant realities of his profession. Yet he was the only one who stopped to help this injured man. He was the only one to weep over the outcast man s condition. He was the only one to act as Christ would have acted. God created us to have compassion and to act on it. God is love. Tori Funkhouser Tru Team God is love, and He created us to love too. Jesus taught on this subject constantly, and the story of the good Samaritan gives a great example of this fact. In order to add to the impact of His messages, Jesus often included a surprise in the stories He told. The big surprise in this parable was that the good guy was a Samaritan. The Jews detested the Samaritan people. They were considered half-breeds, Jews who had intermarried with conquered people from other nations. The Bible clearly says in Deuteronomy 7 that when the Jews came into the land given to them by God, they were not to intermarry with foreign peoples. This wasn t an ethnic superiority issue but a spiritual issue. If the Jews intermarried, they could be tempted to worship other gods. This happened time and time again when Israel failed to obey God s command. In 586 BC, the nation of Babylon captured the nation of Israel. When Israel returned from this devastating 70-year captivity, they had finally learned the lesson about keeping themselves separate. Thus they fiercely guarded their ethnic purity. By Jesus time, the pure Jews in the south despised the Samaritans in the north and would have nothing to do with them. When Jesus used a Samaritan as an example of someone who showed true compassion, it was especially painful for the Jewish leaders to hear. In fact, it was so painful that the religious leader could not even mutter the name Samaritan in answer to Jesus final question about who showed mercy. Through the parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus shows us that God is love and desires for us to demonstrate His love to everyone. Like the priest and the Levite in the parable of the good Samaritan, we too can be too unloving, too busy, or too lazy to care about those around us. This selfishness comes from our fallen nature. However, we weren t created to be this way. We were created to be like Christ. We were created to love everyone. 7

8 When we re redeemed through relationship with Jesus, we receive a new nature. The Holy Spirit within us starts to permeate our whole being. When we ve been redeemed, our true nature is to love like Christ loves! This week, meditate on this amazing fact. As a follower of Christ, your true nature is that of wholehearted love for God, others, and yourself. Ask God to fill you with the knowledge that you belong to Him and that, as His child, you re designed to love, like He loves. 8