Jesus heals a man. January 30-31, The greatest miracle God does is forgiving our sins. Luke 5:17-26

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1 rd th 3-5 January 30-31, 2016 Luke 5:17-26 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. Jesus heals a man The greatest miracle God does is forgiving our sins. See a kid who s all by himself? Don t be shy! Sometimes the kids who want to engage the most just need a little encouragement and connection from someone first. Ask if there s a game or activity you could do together, or find out if you have something in common, like drawing or sports! 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. Ask kids why they wrote a letter to Jesus, and how the story today applies to them. Today s story reveals the amazing miracle that Jesus wants to do for all of us!

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. HOSPITAL TAG Choose one kid to be it, and one kid to be the healer. It will walk around and try to tag people on their legs or arms. Whatever body part gets tagged, you lose and can no longer use. So if you get tagged on your arm, put your arm behind your back. If you get tagged on your leg, you have to hop on one leg. If you get tagged on another leg, you have to sit down and crawl. The healer can go around tagging people who have lost the use of their arms and legs, and heal them so they can use those body parts again. Some things to remember: o Tell kids that they can only WALK. If they run, then you have the power to come tag them too, and they lose the use of a body part! o If your room is especially rowdy, restrict kids movement to only one area of the room (instead of letting them go behind chairs, under tables, on the stage, etc.) o Adapt the game as needed, depending on the size and energy of your group. TALK ABOUT IT What was the purpose of the healer? Why did you need them? What was the last thing you needed help with in real life? 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 why Jesus forgave Matt s sins before he healed him, (2) recognize that Jesus is our rescuer who can forgive all of us and (3) identify a way we need Jesus help. Why? It s important to remember how valuable Jesus rescue really is! Tip: If at any point, kids are speculating or asking questions and you re not sure what to say, go to the Bible! It s okay to tell them you don t know something it s even better to offer to look it up in the Bible at home and tell them next week at Kids Club! REVIEW THE STORY 1. What did Matt and his friends do to get to Jesus? (Matt s friends carried him to the place Jesus was, cut a hole in the roof, and lowered him into the room.) 2. When Matt finally got to Jesus, what did Jesus do first? (forgave him for his sins) 3. Why do you think Jesus forgave Matt s sins first? (Let kids speculate. Help them understand that being rescued by Jesus and knowing he s God s Son is more important than anything, even being able to walk.) 4. How did some other people react to Jesus forgiving Matt? (Anger, they thought Jesus was pretending to be God) 5. How would you have felt if YOU were Matt and Jesus forgave your sins before he healed your legs? 6. Why is it a miracle that Jesus can forgive our sins? (We deserve punishment, but God sent Jesus and Jesus took that punishment. On our own, we can t get to God, but through Jesus, we can receive forgiveness and follow him.) ACTIVITY SAY: Right now, let s ask Jesus to forgive us for our sins. You can do it inside your head right now. (Encourage kids to close their eyes and bow their heads to help them focus.) ASK: What is one specific thing that you need to ask Jesus for help with, right now? (Give kids a minute to formulate their thoughts.) Hand each kid a band-aid letter template and markers. o On the top of the page, there s a band-aid with the words, Jesus, please help me with o Let kids write out what they need help with. Encourage them to write like they would a letter to a friend. They can also draw a picture as well of it. (Continued on next page.)

4 2 Extra Time? Play the Connect Time game again! This time, change the rules a little. When kids are tagged, they have to lie down and be completely still! When the healer comes around, then they can move again! If you want a less energetic game to play, do the Never Have I Ever game from Connect Time, and make up your own prompts to give kids!

5 1 In today s story, Jesus shows a crowd that he is God s Son with all of God s authority. He ends up doing TWO miracles for a guy who couldn t walk. One of them (the first one) happens to be way more important! Here s our video for today. Watch it ahead of time to prepare for the lesson: *Click to play intro music WELCOME AND INTRO Hi everybody! Welcome to Kids Club! I m so glad you re all here today. We ve got some pretty amazing stuff to talk about. First, raise your hand if you lost your body parts in that game of tag? (Let kids respond.) Yep, you needed the healer to come help you, so you could play properly! How did the healer help? (Let kids respond.) That s right; the healer just touched your leg, and you could walk again! Can normal doctors do that? Just touch your leg and fix it? (Let kids respond.) Nope. But there is someone else who can do just that who is it? (Let kids respond, Jesus! ) Okay, before we continue, let s play another game. It s called Never Have I Ever. For those of you who haven t played before, I ll explain it. Everybody hold up five fingers. (Model for the kids.) I m going to say something I ve never done. If you HAVE done it, put one finger down. Let s get started. Never have I ever eaten breakfast for dinner. If you HAVE eaten breakfast for dinner, put one finger down. Never have I ever had a pet fish. (Let kids put fingers down.) Never have I ever ridden on a roller coaster that goes upside down. (Let kids put fingers down) Never have I ever built a snowman. (Let kids respond.) Never have I ever been to Disneyland. (Let kids respond.) MIRACLE ROUND Does anybody still have fingers left? (Let kids respond.) Wow! Great job. Well, everybody put up five fingers again. (Let kids show you hand full of five fingers) I m going to see if I can get 5 things that NONE of us have done! Ready?

6 Never have I ever stopped a massive thunderstorm. (Let kids respond.) Never have I ever walked on top of water. (Let kids respond.) Never have I ever turned water into wine. (Let kids respond.) Never have I ever fed thousands of people a full meal out of one kid s lunch. (Let kids respond.) Never have I ever healed somebody who couldn t walk by telling them to get up. (Let kids respond. Everybody should be sitting.) Oh man, none of your guys? (Let kids respond.) Me neither. That s because there s some stuff we just CAN T do unless God steps in to help us. The things that can ONLY be done with God s help are called miracles. All those amazing things we just talked about, do you know who did those? (Let kids respond.) That s right, Jesus. MATT S MIRACLE Let s watch a video about one of the times Jesus healed a man. The man couldn t walk. And Jesus helped him in a pretty amazing way. But Jesus did something else something even BETTER than fixing this man s legs. It s a miracle something only God can do and Jesus wants to do it for all of us. As you watch, see if you can figure out what Jesus did before he helped this man walk again. Video: God s Story / Jesus Heals a Man Wow, that guy s friends really wanted to get him to Jesus, huh?! And it s a good thing, too! Because what did Jesus do for Matt before he healed his legs? (Let kids respond.) Yes, he said, Friend, your sins are forgiven! Jesus was telling Matt he d been rescued. Matt no longer had to face punishment for any of the wrong things he d done! FORGIVENESS IS GREATER THAN ANYTHING Do you remember how some people got really mad when Jesus did this? Here s what they said: SLIDE: Luke 5:21: The Pharisees and the experts of the law began arguing, Jesus must think he is God! Only God can forgive sins! Actually, that was Jesus WHOLE point! He could forgive sins all the wrong things we do because he had all the power of God he was God s own son! Here s what Jesus said to those people: SLIDE: Luke 5:22-24 [Jesus] said, Why are you thinking that? Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and walk? But now you will see that the Son of Man has the right to forgive sins here on earth. Why did Matt s friends cut a hole in the roof in order to get him to Jesus? What did they want to happen? Turn and tell one friend why Matt s friends wanted him to get to Jesus. (Let kids tell a friend) Yes, they wanted Matt to be able to walk! It might have been easier for Jesus to just tell him to walk, to give him what he wanted! But the greatest miracle we can ever receive is for Jesus to forgive all the wrong things we do so that we can follow him and be close to God again. Having our sins forgiven is better than being able to walk, or see, or even live! And

7 Jesus wanted everyone to know that! RESPONSE TIME This story is pretty amazing, but not just because Jesus healed Matt and forgave his sins. It shows us that Jesus wants to help us too, and forgive our sins! Do we mess up sometimes? (Let kids respond.) Do we make wrong choices? (Let kids respond.) Do we need forgiveness from Jesus too? (Let kids respond.) Yep, no matter how old we are, or how many good things we do, we ll always need Jesus to do a miracle, and rescue us from the all the wrong things in the world. Let s all close our eyes. Think about something that s been bothering you lately. Maybe there s someone you re angry at, and you don t want to forgive him or her. Maybe you have something really tough coming up, like a basketball game, or a test, and you re nervous about it. Maybe you re sad about something that happened recently, and you need Jesus to help you through it. Think about one specific thing. I ll give you a minute. (Let kids think for a minute before continuing.) Okay, keep your eyes closed, and ask Jesus to do a miracle. Ask him to help you with that thing in your life. (Give kids another 30 seconds or so.) All right, open your eyes! Let s look at one more verse that shows us why Jesus helps us, and why he forgives us. It s all because he loves us, and this verse shows what that love is like: SLIDE: 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. PRAY Ask a kid to come up and pray for the group. WORSHIP Now it s time to get up and worship! Let s sing together and thank Jesus for the miracles he does. No matter who we are, Jesus loves us enough to rescue us and wants to forgive the wrong things we do, just like he did for Matt. Try to follow along with the motions on the screen! Music Video: You Are Music Video: Tell the World *Dismiss kids to small groups

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10 Hospital tag - no supplies needed Per group: Bible, markers, Per kid: Band-aid letter template Bible 1. Song slide: for when kids enter the room (All that You Need instrumental; mp3 only; can be downloaded on website) 2. Video: God s Story / Jesus heals a man ( 3. Slide: Luke 5:21: The Pharisees and the experts of the law began arguing, Jesus must think he is God! Only God can forgive sins! 4. Slide: Luke 5:22-24 [Jesus] said, Why are you thinking that? Is it easier for me to tell this crippled man that his sins are forgiven or to tell him to get up and walk? But now you will see that the Son of Man has the right to forgive sins here on earth. 5. Slide: 1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 6. Music Video: You Are ( 7. Music Video: Tell the World (KC and SM media videos songs>music videos) Tell me about the man who couldn t walk. What miracles did Jesus do in today s story?