rd 3 5 January 10-11, 2015 Matthew 4:1-11, 1 John 4:19 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. th Jesus in the Wilderness Jesus showed us how to fight sin. It can be really hard to resist temptationbut we re lucky enough to have someone show us exactly how to fight it! Jesus went through temptation just like we do, so we can trust him to show us how to fight sin. 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. Satan, our enemy, is a big part of today s lesson. We want to make kids aware of him in today s story, but more importantly, we want to focus on how Jesus overcame the enemy, and we don t need to be afraid of him.
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. WHAT S IN THE BOX? *Break into small groups for this activity Give each kid a pen and a piece of paper. Hold up the gift box and tell kids that there is something very special inside. It s a really cool prize, and whoever makes the closest guess to what it is will get to keep it. Have kids write down their guess on their paper. Once everyone is done, have each kid read his/her guess out loud. Then pick one kid to open the present and see what s inside. Instead of a cool prize, there will only be a piece of sandpaper inside! Go around the group and ask these 2 questions: o How did you feel when you found out what the real gift was? What would it be like if someone did that on your birthday, or at Christmas? o What were the best and worst parts of your week? Before you head into Large Group, remind them about your expectations for their behavior: (1) be kind, (2) listen when somebody speaks, and (3) follow the leader s instructions.
Goal: Kids will (1) learn about how Jesus was tempted in the wilderness (2) understand how Jesus can help us resist temptation in our own lives. Why: Since we re all imperfect humans, we a go through temptation and end up sinning. But Jesus has given us ways to fight temptation and obey God! Tip: Jesus went through temptation just like us, so He knows exactly how we feel when we re tempted to sin. REVIEW AND DIG DEEPER: *Pass around a bean bag to the person who s speaking. Each group member should be prepared to hold the bean bag and answer questions. 1) Why did Jesus go into the desert? 2) What did Satan try to do to him there? 3) What did Jesus do to resist Satan s temptation? 4) Do you think what Satan offers is better than what God offers? Why? 5) What can we do when we feel tempted to sin? 6) What is something that you might feel tempted to do this week, that you could ask for God s help with? TEMPTATION STICKERS Tell kids to think of one way that they can resist temptation. Give them a minute and encourage them to think about the ways Jesus resisted temptation, and what they talked about in the lesson. Hand each kid a blank sticker and markers. Have them write down or draw a small picture of a way they can resist temptation (examples: praying, reading scripture, being around friends who will help them, etc). They can put the sticker on their shirt, or save it to put somewhere they will see it a lot, to remind them of what they can do when they go through tempting situations. (Continued on next page)
Prayer Thank God for giving us the Bible to help fight temptation. Ask Him to help us resist sin, and rely on Jesus instead. Extra time? Pass the bean bag around the group and ask everyone to share a time when they felt tempted to sin, and what happened afterward. Remind kids that we all fall short sometimes, but God is always there to help us back up.
1 Personalize the lesson by thinking of a time when you ve been tempted; how did it feel, and why was it hard? What do you do now to resist temptation? Here s a link to the music videos we ll be watching: Listen: http://vimeo.com/107752866 More Like You Are: http://vimeo.com/108496622 *Click to play intro music Hey everybody! How s it going? That was a pretty cruel trick that your all s leaders played, wasn t it? Raise your hand if you were disappointed when you found out that the present was a silly piece of sandpaper? (Let kids respond) Yep they totally misled you! Well today we re talking about someone who misleads and lies to us all the time. He s an enemy who also tried to lie to Jesus. JESUS IS TEMPTED WITH FOOD Our story takes place way out in the wilderness. Jesus went into the desert (show desert loop) and he fasted for 40 days. Does anyone know what it means to fast? (let kids respond) Good guesses! It means you don t eat any food, and instead, you pray and spend time with God! Has anyone here fasted for 40 days?! (Let kids respond) Yeah, me neither. That would be so hard! But Jesus really wanted to do it. The thing is, there was someone who didn t want Jesus to spend time with God. He wanted Jesus to sin instead. Do you know who it might be? (let kids respond) That s right, Satan decided to try and stop Jesus from doing what was right. So he tempted him. Let s look at this verse and see what Satan tried to do first. SLIDE: Matthew 4: 3-4: The Tempter came to him. He said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, Man doesn t live only on bread. He also lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Wow! Everyone imagine the last time you were really, really hungry. Imagine how your mouth would be dry and your tummy would be growling. It s been so long since you had anything to eat. Then, someone shows you a big, warm, delicious pizza! (show slide) Mmm it looks so good! Would it be hard to turn that down? (Let kids respond) Well that s what s happening to
Jesus, except it s been 40 days since he ate! I have a question. Is it a bad thing to eat food? (Let kids respond) No, not at all. Why it is it bad in this story though? (Let a kid respond) That s right. Jesus had decided to only focus on God, and he didn t want food to distract him! Sometimes, something that might seem really good at the time, like food for Jesus, is actually not good at all. Let s watch a video about someone who thinks he s doing something good in the moment. As you watch, try to figure out if he s actually in a good situation or not. VIDEO: SURF S UP MOVIE CLIP Yikes! So who can tell me what that chicken thought was going on? (Let a kid respond) That s right, he thought he was being treated like a king! But what was really happening? (Let a kid respond) The penguins were getting ready to cook him!! Sometimes we think something is good for us, but it s actually not good at all. JESUS IS TEMPTED TO TEST GOD Now Satan wasn t done tempting Jesus yet. He wanted to do everything possible to make Jesus sin. Since food didn t work, he tried something else! Let s read the next verse: SLIDE: Matthew 4:6-7: The devil took Jesus to a high temple, and said If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. It is written that the Lord will command his angels to take good care of you. Jesus answered him, It is also written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Basically, Satan is saying that if Jesus really is the Son of God, than he should be able to jump off a building, and God will save him! Now do you all think that God could actually save Jesus if he did that? (let kids respond) Of course he could! But Jesus says that we shouldn t test God just to see if he can do what he says he can; that would be a sin. We should have faith in God instead! JESUS IS TEMPTED BY THE WORLD So far the devil could not get Jesus to sin, so he tried one last thing. Let s read another verse to find out what happened: SLIDE: Matthew 4:8-10: Finally, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain. He showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. If you bow down and worship me, I will give you all of this. Jesus said to him, Get away from me, Satan! It is written, Worship the Lord your God. He is the only one you should serve. So now that Satan has tried to tempt Jesus with food, and then tempted him to test God, he s trying to tempt Jesus in the sneakiest way of all! He says that Jesus can have all the kingdoms in the world, everything he could possibly want, IF he worships Satan. That would be pretty tempting. Let s look at it a different way. (Grab the fishing pole and put a gummy worm on the hook) Satan tries to tempt us to sin, because he wants us to disobey God. To do that, he tries to make sin look really good. He tries to convince us that sin is awesome
and fun, and even delicious like this gummy worm! (Dangle the worm over kids heads, or walk amongst them and dangle the worm around them, etc). It s like when you go fishing! You put a worm on a hook, and the fish wants the worm so bad, that they don t realize there s a sharp hook under it! Let s see if you all can resist. Anybody want this worm? Come on, all you have to do is bow down to me! All you have to do is lie to your parents, or cheat on a test, or be mean to your friend it s no big deal, right? Jesus knew what Satan was doing. He knew that Satan would offer him anything to get him to sin! But instead, Jesus relied on God for strength. He also used something else very important. Do you remember in these verses, when Jesus keeps saying It is written? What do you think that means? (Let kids guess). That s right! He s talking about the written words of God, the Bible! JESUS USED SCRIPTURE TO PROTECT HIMSELF So how did Jesus use the Bible to resist temptation? Well, we can think of the Bible almost as if it s armor. It can protect us by reminding us of how powerful God is, and how much he loves us! When we re dealing with something hard, we can go to the Bible and be reminded of how to resist Satan. Everyone imagine for a minute that the Bible is a huge metal shield that you can use to stop someone from hurting you. You know, we re ALL going to go through temptation. Sometimes we re going to be tempted to do things like lie, or treat people badly. Sometimes we re going to be tempted to not trust God, or to not spend time with him. The amazing thing is that Jesus knows what it s like, because he was tempted too. He s gone through everything that we have, so he knows how hard it is! We re going to stay seated and watch music video about listening to God, and keeping our ears and eyes open for him! Especially when we re tempted to sin! VIDEO: LISTEN God has given us everything we need to resist temptation, and that s cause to celebrate! Let s all stand up and worship God for loving us so much! VIDEO: I M NOT ALONE PRAYER God, please give us strength to resist Satan when he tries to tempt us. Help us to remember your words. Thank you for fighting sin alongside us. Amen!
Per kid: pen, white sheet of paper Per group: 1 gift box, (with bow on top, and sandpaper inside) Per kid: Blank stickers (name tag stickers) Per group: Markers, Bible, bean bag Per group: Fishing pole/bamboo stick+string contraption, gummy worm 1. Song slide: for when kids enter the room (All that You Need instrumental; mp3 only; can be downloaded on website) 2. Desert loop (on server) 3. Slide: Matthew 4: 3-4: The Tempter came to him. He said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, Man doesn t live only on bread. He also lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God. 4. Slide: Pizza 5. Video: Surf s Up: http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/surfs-up/chicken-king 6. Slide: Matthew 4:6-7: The devil took Jesus to a high temple, and said If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. It is written that the Lord will command his angels to take good care of you. Jesus answered him, It is also written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. 7. Slide: Matthew 4:8-10: Finally, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain. He showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. If you bow down and worship me, I will give you all of this. Jesus said to him, Get away from me, Satan! It is written, Worship the Lord your God. He is the only one you should serve. 8. Video: Listen 9. Video: I m Not Alone Why did Jesus go to the desert? How can we resist temptation? Parent page text boxes