rd 3 5 th November 24-25, 2012 Jesus changed everything Isaiah 9:6 (Pg.762), Jeremiah 23:5-6 (Pg.852) Jesus was a catalyst for change in the world, in us, and in others. Ice breakers (10 minutes) Ask the kids what they were most thankful for this past week. Keep in mind that some kids are new. Take time to play a game with a new kid and introduce them to someone their age who is a regular. Large group (30 minutes) Small group (20 minutes) Kids drew a before and after picture today. Remind them to tell their parents about it. Today, we re talking about how Jesus was a catalyst for change. The world before he came and the world after he came look very, very different.
Goal: compare/contrast a world without Jesus to a world with Jesus Why? If Jesus is the catalyst to change, it s important to understand what those changes look like specifically. Tip: If you re having trouble helping kids compare and contrast, here are some ideas: Prayer now we can talk to God directly Forgiveness no more sacrifices; Jesus paid the price and we re forgiven Example Jesus showed us how we should love others; before, nobody had shown us perfect love Family We can ALL join God s family Also, look at the verses again! QUESTIONS CONNECT 1. If Jesus never existed, how would the world be different? 2. If Jesus never existed, how would YOU be different? DISCUSS 3. Why do you think Jesus birth and life are so important? 4. Let s read Isaiah 9:6 (Pg. 762) and Jeremiah 23:5-6 (Pg. 852). Have two kids look them up and read them aloud. What are some of the things God promised? RELATE 5. If you lived in a world without Jesus and you heard God s promises, how would you feel? Why? 6. In what ways do you want to be more like Jesus? Why? 7. This Christmas, what s one thing we can do to remember that Jesus came as a catalyst to change the world? ACTIVITY 1. Let s compare and contrast the world before Jesus and the world after him! Get creative! Everybody take a sheet of paper and fold it in half. On one side, draw a world without Jesus. You can use words, images, whatever you want. *As kids draw, ask them about what they re drawing and why. But don t let them move on to the other side yet. 2. Alright, then JESUS comes! Poof! He s the catalyst that changes the world. Now draw a world WITH Jesus. *As kids draw, ask them about what kinds of things are different and why.
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1 Watch the experiment video on You Tube before you present. You ll have an idea of what to expect and be better prepared to help kids compare Jesus to a catalyst and play up the world before Jesus and after Jesus! Use facial expressions, tone of voice, and volume to play up the before and after descriptions. *First slide plays Christmas music as kids enter to set a festive tone. WELCOME Hi everyone. Welcome to Kids Club! Now that we ve celebrated Thanksgiving, guess what time of year it is? (Let kids respond.) That s right CHRISTMAS! Ahhh, one of my favorite times of the year. Does anybody else like Christmas? What are you most looking forward to about Christmas this year? (Let 3-5 kids respond.) Wow, I m looking forward to those things, too! But does anybody know the REAL reason we celebrate Christmas? (Let kids respond.) That s right it s Jesus birthday. And we re not the first people to get excited about Christmas. Did you know that God s special family was excited BEFORE the FIRST Christmas? And they weren t going to get time off school or decorate trees or open any presents. They just wanted Jesus to come! WORSHIP We re going to talk about why they wanted Jesus to come so badly, but first, let s tell Jesus how much we love him and how GREAT we think he is. Let s worship him by singing to him! Worship Video: Because You Love Me with hand motions Worship Video: You Come in A Hurry with hand motions INTRO: A WORLD WITHOUT JESUS That last song talked about how the world can be a scary place, but it s okay because we can turn to Jesus. Now, for a minute, we re going to think about what the world would be like without Jesus. Turn to a friend and answer this question: What would the world be like without Jesus? (Let kids respond.) Okay, let s see what you guys think. Who has a really good example? (Let 2-4 partnerships share. Lead them to ideas like we can t ask Jesus for help, we wouldn t know about God s rescue, he wouldn t have shown us how to love other people, etc.)
Those are some good examples. Obviously, we don t know for sure what it would be like, but we know it would be bad news. And long before Jesus ever came, the world was a scary, bad place. God s family needed Jesus to come rescue us from all the wrong things in the world. So looooong before that first Christmas ever happened, people were REALLY excited about it. HOPE OF A KING See, more than a THOUSAND years before Jesus was born, God starting telling us what Jesus would be like. In Jeremiah 23:5-6, he told us: SLIDE: Jeremiah 23:5-6 The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD our righteousness. Who did God promise to send? (Let kids respond.) Yes, a KING (pull out crown). Judah which is the same as Israel would be safe. And the rescuer would be LORD, which means he would be God. And he would be righteous. Does anybody know what righteous means? (Let kids respond.) Yes, it means perfectly wonderful. Jesus would be our PERFECT KING! But it gets even better. God said this in Isaiah 9:6: SLIDE: Isaiah 9:6: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. What do you think it means that we can call the rescuer Wonderful Counselor? What s a wonderful counselor? (Let kids respond someone who we can ask for help.) Mighty God? (Let kids respond someone who is strong enough to actually help us.) Everlasting Father? (Let kids respond he ll be able to help us FOREVER.) Prince of Peace? (Let kids respond he ll bring peace when we re afraid. We can trust him.) JESUS AS A CATALYST Wow, so this king was going to change everything. You know what we call something that changes everything? A catalyst. Can you guys say catalyst? (Make them repeat it back.) It s a science word. Does anybody know what it means? (Let kids respond.) Let s take a look at a video of an experiment. The catalyst is the part that causes change. See if you can figure out which part is the catalyst. When you see the catalyst, just yell, CATALYST! Let s watch: Video: Catalyst (yell on third ingredient) Similar to our experiment, Jesus came to be a CATALYST of change. Like in the experiment, something exciting happened when Jesus came into the world! He changed EVERYTHING. Specifically, he changed the WORLD, US, and used us to help change OTHERS.
CHANGING THE WORLD (Show world slide) The world was seriously messed up and needed the change that only Jesus the perfect King, Mighty Counselor, Prince of Peace, could bring. We needed a piece of Heaven on earth. And Jesus was LORD God, sent to earth. He didn t JUST come to save the Israelites. He came to save ALL of us. We know the earth is still full of wrong things, but with Jesus there is HOPE. We can accept his love and become a part of God s family. We can talk to Jesus and ask him to help us. And he does! We can love others like Jesus did. And best of all? We can follow him every day and he ll one day come back to re-create a perfect world for his family. Does anybody remember what the perfect world will be like? (Let kids respond. Hint #1: We watched a video about it called Re-Creation. Hint #2: It ll be just like the Garden of Eden BEFORE Adam and Eve disobeyed). That s right, no crying, no sickness, no death, no pain, no boredom, nothing bad. Ever. CHANGING US (Show mirror slide and hold up mirror so all kids can see their faces) In fact, when we do choose to follow Him, we begin to change and become more like Jesus in our actions and attitudes. Suddenly, when others hurt us, we re able to show them love. When we get angry and want to hurt someone, we can stop ourselves. It s not always easy and sometimes we mess up but it s always possible. Can any of you guys think of a time you followed Jesus? Maybe you didn t even want to, but you did it anyway? (Let 2-4 kids share or if the room s quiet or you don t get serious answers, share your own example.) CHANGING OTHERS (Change to others slide) And guess what? When we become more like Jesus, people notice. They see that we are different and get a taste of Jesus love. And sometimes they like it so much they decide to follow Jesus, too! Do you think you ve ever helped change somebody because you acted like Jesus? (Let kids respond. Let 2-4 kids share or share your own example.) So this Christmas, we don t have to wait for Jesus, the catalyst of change, the perfect king. He s ALREADY here! He s still our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Let s follow him and show his love to others! And one way we can follow him is by talking to God. Who wants to come up and pray for us today? PRAY Ask someone to thank God for sending Jesus to change the world.
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Blank pages to color before large group 1 blank sheet of paper per kid for small group Plenty of pens/ markers NIV Adventure Bible (mark pgs. 762 & 852) Crown Large mirror 1. Christmas Intro Slide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aza- MwsSmM (play at least first 2:33 seconds can loop it at that point or let it keep going) 2. Worship Song Video: Because You Love Me 3. Worship Song Video: You Come in a Hurry 4. Slide: Jeremiah 23:5-6 (see script for exact wording) 5. Slide: Isaiah 9:6 (see script for exact wording) 6. Video: Science Experiment (1 st 1:25 of this You Tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boy0d2zwlli) 7. Image: World (jpeg in curriculum folder) 8. Image: Mirror (jpeg in curriculum folder) 9. Image: Kids (jpeg in curriculum folder) NONE Why were people excited for Jesus? Tell me about how Jesus changed the world. People were excited for Jesus birthday (Christmas!) long before Jesus was born. That s because God promised us a perfect king. Read Jeremiah 23:5-6 and Isaiah 9:6 to find out what God said about Jesus hundreds of years before he was born. And when Jesus finally came, he was a catalyst who changed the world, us, and others. Ask your child to tell you about it.