And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:52
2 Week 3 Emoji Angry Bible Story Jesus Clears the Temple John 2:13-16 Today s Takeaway I get angry sometimes, but I can control it. Theme Verse And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:52 Extra Verse Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. Ephesians 4:26-27
Skit: Skit Information: The skits will require two people. One person will play themselves (the straight character), and the other person will play the funny character. It works best if you can find a person willing to commit to being the character for the entire series. Character Bio: The character s name is Suzie (could be Bobby if you wish to make it a male). Suzie is an overgrown 4 year-old with a huge appetite for adventure. She is always trying to do something nice for someone, but ends up making a huge mess. This character should talk in a little kid or baby voice at all times. Consider putting your character in onesie PJ s (the sillier the better), or in over-sized PJ s. Have the character always dragging or carrying in a huge teddy bear or stuffed animal. 3
Leader: How is everyone doing today? I can t wait to hear how Suzie got that huge mess cleaned up from last week. Suzie: Suzie wanders in angry swinging her bear around. Leader: Suzie, whoa, what s going on? Stop swinging Beary around! Your going to hurt someone, or at least Beary. Suzie: I can t stop! I m just so angry! Leader: Why are you so angry? Dodging the continuing swinging bear. Suzie: I m angry because of what happened when I came home last week to clean up the mess. Continues swinging bear. Leader: Ok, well, talk to us about it, and please stop swinging Beary around. Have a seat. Suzie: Fine! Sits down angrily. So, last week I went home to apologize for making the huge mess in the kitchen and help my parents clean it up like you suggested. Leader: Sounds good so far, go on. Suzie: When I got home, it was already too late! My parents had found the cake mess all over the kitchen, the burnt cake in the oven, and the mess I made trying to make that giant tool for Daddy. It wasn t a pretty sight. Leader: Your parents or the house? Suzie: Both! I did apologize like you told me to, and I helped clean up the mess. You would think that would be good enough, but no! Leader: Oh, I see, your parents punished you, didn t they? Suzie: Yes, and it s not fair! I apologized, I cleaned up my mess! I shouldn t get punished too! Starts to get angry again and swings bear around. Leader: Suzie! Stop it, and sit back down please! Suzie: Sits down angrily again. Leader: Your parents only punished you because they are hoping you will learn something from your mistakes. Even if your parents were sad and upset with you for making a mess, it doesn t mean they don t still love you. Suzie: Really? Are you sure about that? I did make a really big mess this time. Leader: Yes, I m sure. You also need to learn to control your anger, or you are going to end up in even more trouble. It s ok to feel angry, but the way you were acting is not good. 4 Skit:
Skit: Suzie: I guess you re right. Beary didn t do anything wrong, plus I could have hit you or one of the kids with him. I m sorry. Leader: It s ok Suzie. We all get upset and angry sometimes, but it s important that we take a moment to breathe, pray, and ask God for help instead of reacting right away. Suzie: That s some pretty good advice! So, breathe, pray, and ask God for help! Got it! Thanks for helping me learn how to control my anger! I ll see you guys next week! Leader: See you next week Suzie! Try to stay out of trouble! 5
6 Game: Emoji Bucket Toss Supplies 7 small yellow balls per team Labels (or pieces of paper with clear tape) 2 buckets per team Painter s tape or masking tape Setup Write different words to the verse on 7 labels (or 7 small pieces of paper) for each team playing. Verse breakdown: And Jesus/grew in/wisdom and/stature and/in favor/with God/and man. On each ball, draw an emoji face on one side, and attach a label (or piece of paper) to the other side. Put a set of balls in one bucket for each team. Place the buckets with the balls on one side of the room and a piece of painter s tape or masking tape at the other side of the room (marking a throw line). Put the empty buckets for each team a few feet in front of the throw line. How To Play 1. Choose 7 kids from each team to play. If you have a smaller group, you can choose fewer kids and let them go more than once. 2. Have the kids line up behind the bucket of balls for their team 3. When the leader says go, the first kid in line from each team will grab one ball, run down to the throw line and throw their ball in the empty bucket. If they don t make it, they must retrieve the ball and go back to the throw line and try again until they make it in. Once it s in, the kid runs back to their team to tag the next kid in line. 4. Teams will keep going until they have all their balls in the other bucket. When they have all their balls they can put the balls in the order of the verse. 5. The first team to get the verse in the correct order wins.
Supplies A Bible in your preferred version (this curriculum uses the NLT version primarily) A bag of coins Fake or real dollar bills Stuffed animals A table 2 cans of soda Optional: a tarp (for the object lesson) Introduction Can anyone remember the emoji we learned about last week? Allow kids to respond. Last week we learned about the sad emoji, but this week we are spicing things up to talk about the angry emoji. Do you think it s always a bad thing to get angry? Allow a couple kids to respond. It isn t always a bad thing when we experience anger. It s a natural response to certain situations. At this point, the leader can share a personal story about something that makes them angry and how they handled their anger, good or bad. Anger itself is not a bad emotion to feel occasionally, but it s how we react to the emotion that really matters. Did you know that even Jesus got angry when He was on Earth? He actually was angry about quite a few things. What do you think made Jesus angry? Allow a couple kids to respond. Bible Story Those are some great responses, but let s pull out our Bibles and take a look a specific time when Jesus was very angry with some people in John 2:13-22. At this time, it was almost time for Passover. At Passover time, everyone would go to Jerusalem, to the temple to offer their sacrifices. Jesus went up to Jerusalem as well, but when he entered the Temple, there were a couple things that just weren t quite right. He saw people selling all kinds of animals for sacrifices. Pull out stuffed animals as you talk. He also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Have a leader bring out a table with 7 Message
Message coins and cash on it. On the surface, this doesn t sound that bad. After all, many people had to travel long distances to get to Jerusalem, so they weren t able to bring the animals for sacrifice with them. They needed to be able to purchase the animals when they got to Jerusalem. Also, it was required that every Jewish male over the age of twenty pay a yearly temple tax, but it could only be paid using specific coins, so foreigners would need to exchange their money to pay the tax. Both of these services were necessary, but there was a big problem. The people who sold the animals for sacrifice knew that the travelers would need to purchase the animals when they got to the temple, so they would overcharge them for the animals to make lots of money. The money dealers had figured out the same thing. They knew the travelers would need to exchange their money for the special coins, so they would charge the people am extra fee as high as 12.5% to exchange their money. That would mean that if you owed $500 for the temple tax, they would take $562.50. It was basically like the animal and money dealers were making money off people coming to worship God. How do you think Jesus reacted to seeing all of this going on in the Temple, a place meant for worshiping God? Allow kids to respond. Jesus was very angry with them. Act out each of the actions Jesus performed as you tell the kids what happened. The Bible tells us that Jesus chased all of the people out of the Temple, He drove out the sheep and cattle, He scattered the coins all over the floor, and turned over their tables. Then, He went over to the people who sold doves and said, Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father s house into a marketplace! I would have loved to see the faces on the people who were at the Temple that day. They were probably shocked, confused, maybe even happy that someone was taking a stand for bring the Temple back to what it was originally designed for, a place to worship God. 8
Life Application/Object Lesson When we read this story, it can be a little confusing because Jesus actually did lose his temper in the Temple that day. This doesn t mean that when we get angry, we should throw things, turn over tables, and chase people out of the room. The Temple was God s house, so He had authority over it, and what He did proved a very important point to the animal and money dealers, as well as the other people there that day. He wanted them to remember that the Temple was a place for worshiping God, not a place to make money. The Bible has a lot to say about anger. Ephesians 4:26-27 says, Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. These verses tell us that it is ok to be angry, but we shouldn t be angry for too long, or allow our anger to cause us to sin or do something we would regret. James 1:19 is one of my favorite verses concerning anger in the Bible. It says, You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. There is some good, practical advice there. Pick up one of the cans of soda. We are all going to have days when it just seems like everything gets on our nerves and makes us angry. Maybe you didn t get enough sleep, and your alarm goes off. Shake the can. Then, your mom tells you to hurry up and don t forget to make the bed. Shake the can. Then, you run into the kitchen only to find out that your sister ate the last bowl of your favorite cereal. Shake the can. Then, you go to school, and a kid makes fun of the shirt your wearing. Shake the can. We could go on and on, because some days are just like that. It s like everything that happens just makes you angrier and angrier, to the point where you just want to explode! Open the can and let it spray everywhere. If we choose to allow our anger to explode, we might say or do things we would regret later. Pick up the other can. On the other hand, if we stopped for a couple minutes to breathe, pray, and ask God for help our anger would begin to settle, and we could avoid the messy aftermath. Open the can. Let s pray right now, and ask God to help us to stop and pray before reacting the next time we feel angry. Optional: Offer a salvation prayer for kids who have not accepted Jesus into their lives before your close out the message. 9 Message
Optional Game: Emoji Twister Supplies Twister game (or make your own using a bed sheet and paint). Black and red markers Setup Lay out your twister game mat (or DIY twister sheet) and draw emoji faces on the yellow and red dots. How To Play 1. Play this game pre-service, post-service, or in small groups. 2. 4 kids can play this game at a time. Choose one more kid to operate the spinner. 3. Play just like normal twister, but when kids spin a red or yellow dot they must make the face the emoji is making. 4. Play as many rounds as you like, allowing as many kids as possible to participate. 10
Small Group Questions 1. What is something that makes you really angry? 2. How do you usually react when you get angry? Is it how you should react? 3. What should you do when you start to get angry? 4. Look up these Scriptures or have the kids take turns looking them up and reading them for the group: James 1:19, Proverbs 29:11, James 4:1-2, Proverbs 15:1. 5. How can our anger hurt other people if we do not learn how to control it? 11
1. What are we talking about in our Emoji series? Answer: How to handle our emotions the way God would want us to. 2. What is this week s Emoji? Answer: Angry Review Questions 3. What made Jesus angry in our Bible Story? Answer: People were using the Temple of God as a place to make money. 4. What is Today s Takeaway? Answer: I get angry sometimes, but I can control it. 5. What is our theme verse for the Emoji series? Answer: And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:52 12