Sticking With God: Knowing His Love Week 3: We Show Our Enemies God s Love This includes: Leader Preparation Lesson Guide LEADER PREPARATION BIBLE BASIS Loving our family and friends is easy they love us back. Even people who don t know Jesus love their family and friends. But what about loving people who aren t so nice to us or people we don t even know? Jesus tells us that if we really want to be like him, then we must show kindness, love, and compassion to everyone even people who don t do the same for us. Use this lesson to help children discover ways to love their enemies and to help them understand that doing so strengthens their relationships with God. DISCOVERY POINT We show our enemies God s love. BIBLE FOCUS Luke 6:27-36 KEY VERSE Do to others as you would like them to do to you (Luke 6:31). TEACHING PREP The short overview below is designed to help you prepare for your lesson. Supplies You ll Need: Sticking With God: Knowing His Love (Year 1/Quarter 3) CD, LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 1) DVD, CD player, TV/DVD player, crackers, Bibles, Love Who? handout, Anything Is Possible handout, scissors, paper, rubber bands, and pens Before This Lesson Print the Love Who? handout. You ll need one copy for every four children. Print and cut apart the Anything Is Possible handout. You ll need one copy for every four children. Assemble Bible Exploration Kits (one per four kids): one Bible, Love Who? handout, Anything Is Possible handout, pens, plain paper, and five rubber bands. Review Luke 6:27-36. Cue "Into the Bible" (Track 1) on Sticking With God: Knowing His Love (Year 1/Quarter 3) CD or (Quarter 3/Track 1) on the LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 1) DVD. Huddle briefly with your volunteers beforehand. Answer any questions they have. Encourage them and pray.
PARENT EMAIL We ve provided you with a Family Devotion handout to send the Bible learning and faith discovery home. When kids and parents have faith discussions regularly, kids faith multiplies. So we ve given you two options: Print the Family Devotion handout and make enough copies for each child to take one home. Email the Family Devotion to families before or after the actual lesson. Or why not do both? That way you ll double the opportunities for parents to actually get the handout.
Sticking With God: Knowing His Love Week 3: We Show Our Enemies God s Love LESSON GUIDE WELCOME! Supplies: Sticking With God: Knowing His Love (Year 1/Quarter 3) CD, LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 1) DVD, CD player, TV/DVD player, crackers 1. Play Into the Bible (Track 1) from the Sticking With God: Knowing His Love (Year 1/Quarter 3) CD or (Quarter 3/Track 1) from the LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 1) DVD as kids arrive. Into the Bible Makes me wanna jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Makes me wanna sing! Hallelujah! It s the greatest book. Come and take a look. Makes me wanna shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! So that everyone will see I m getting into the Bible And the Bible...is getting into me! We re discovering a brand-new world As we dig a little deeper (deeper), Finding out about who God is. Open it up and see it (see it)! There s nothin like God s Word, and I get So excited. It makes me wanna, Makes me, Makes me wanna jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Makes me wanna sing! Hallelujah! It s the greatest book. Come and take a look. Makes me wanna shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! So that everyone will see I m getting into the Bible And the Bible...is getting into me! Into the Bible by Jay Stocker. 2006 Group Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to use lyrics granted for local church use only. No unauthorized duplication permitted.
2. As children arrive, tell them to wash their hands and form pairs. (Can t get to a sink? No problem! Stock your room with hand wipes or hand sanitizer for such a time as this.) Have pairs stand back to back, and give each child three crackers. If you have an uneven number of children, join in the fun as someone s partner! Tell children that when you give a signal to begin, they are to reach over their shoulders, and feed their crackers to their partners without turning around. When everyone is ready, give a signal to start, and let the feeding begin! When everyone is finished, have them sit face to face with their partners. 3. ASK: What was the hardest part about helping your partner eat the crackers? What s hard about showing love to your friends? What s an enemy? What s hard about showing love to your enemies? SAY: Jesus had a family and close friends, so he knew how to show them love. But Jesus took it a step further. He told us that we show our enemies God s love! And believe me, Jesus had his share of enemies people who didn t like the things he said or did. But he showed us how to love our enemies, too. (While discussing who our enemies are and how to love them, you need to be sure children don t call their enemies by name. Be careful to avoid gossip and storytelling during this lesson.) LET S EXPLORE! Supplies: assembled Bible Exploration Kits, LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 1) DVD, TV/DVD player 1. Have children form Bible Crews of four, and give each crew a Bible Exploration Kit. Direct crews to take the Love Who? handouts and the Bibles from their kits and follow the directions. 2. Help kids come up with ways to show love to those who are mean to them. When groups finish answering the question for step number 5 on the handout, start the Sticky Note Countdown (Quarter 3/Countdown Track 2), on the LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 1) DVD, turn up the volume, and lead kids in counting along. SAY: Can you imagine how people who are mean to you will change if you re nice to them all the time? That would be awesome! We show our enemies God s love. But it can be hard to show them love when they re just mean to us all the time. ASK: Without naming names, when was a time it was hard to show God s love to an enemy? How could those be important times to love others? 3. SAY: It can be hard to love others when they re mean to us. But we show our enemies God s love, too. And God will help us show them his love. Have kids find the blank pieces of paper and the Anything Is Possible handout in their Exploration Kits. Direct crews to follow the directions on the handout. When groups finish the activity, ASK: What did you think when you saw the hole in your hand? What do you think about Jesus command to love your enemies? How can God help you show his love to your enemies?
SAY: Seems pretty impossible to actually love our enemies doesn t it? After all, they were mean to us. But Jesus says that it doesn t matter who s mean to whom. It s our job to love others, because we show our enemies God s love. 4. SAY: There s good news, though! If we ask for God s help, it s not impossible! It s like having a piece of paper hold up a heavy book. Let s see what that means. Instruct children to unroll their pieces of paper and fold them in half. Have them try to balance their Bibles on the paper. ASK: Why do you or don t you think your folded paper does a good job holding your Bible up? How is this like trying to love our enemies without any help from Jesus? SAY: We show our enemies God s love, but God doesn t expect us to show them that love all by ourselves. He gives us strength. Have children in each crew put their papers together in one stack, roll them up together, and secure them with a rubber band from their Exploration Kits. Tell them to try the experiment again. If kids balance the Bible just right, the paper tube will hold it up. ASK: How does the strength of your rolled-up paper compare to the folded paper? How can we be stronger when we ask for God s help in loving others? SAY: We show our enemies God s love, and God will help us love people who are hard to love. He demonstrated that love through Jesus, and he can give us strength to love others. Have kids set their tubes aside for use in Let s Pray! LET S PRAISE! Supplies: Sticking With God: Knowing His Love (Year 1/Quarter 3) CD or LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 1) DVD, CD player or TV/DVD player 1. Have children return to their Bible Crews. SAY: Tell your group why we show our enemies God s love. Allow time for groups to share, then SAY: God will give us the strength to show his love to people we don t get along with and those who are mean to us. It s OK if we don t like everyone. We don t have to. But God does want us to show his love to them. That means demonstrating to everyone the kind of love we ve been learning about. Let s praise God for showing us how to love others and giving us the strength to do that! 2. Set up the Sticking With God: Knowing His Love (Year 1/Quarter 3) CD or the LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 1) DVD. PLAY: Love Is (1 Corinthians 13:4-5) (CD Track 2) (DVD Quarter 3/Track 2) Love is patient, Love is kind, It does not envy, It does not boast, It is not proud. It is not rude, It's not self-seeking, Not easily angered, It keeps no record of wrongs. (No!) Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Love is, love is Love is, love is (Repeat from the beginning.) Love is, love is Love is, love is "Love Is" (1 Corinthians 13:4-5) by Carol Smith. 2003 Group Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to use lyrics granted for local church use only. No unauthorized duplication permitted. His Great Love (Romans 5:8) (CD Track 5) (DVD Quarter 3/Track 5) God loves us. God sent his Son to die for us Because of His great love. God loves us. God sent his son to die for us Because of His great love. (Chorus) God showed his great big love By sending Christ to die for us While we were still sinners. God showed his great big love By sending Christ to die for us While we were still sinners. (Repeat) His great love. His Great Love (Romans 5:8) by Ben Glover. 2005, 2011 Group Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to use lyrics granted for local church use only. No unauthorized duplication permitted. The Same Attitude (Philippians 2:5) (CD Track 4) (DVD Quarter 3/Track 4) We ve gotta work together With one mind and purpose; We ve gotta look beyond ourselves And think of others More than ourselves. Yeah, you know, you know We ve got to have the same attitude
That Jesus had. Oh, oh, This is what it s all about. Oh, oh, Tell me, are you in or out? Attitude is everything- What kind of attitude will you bring? (Repeat from the beginning.) Oh, oh, This is what it s all about. Oh, oh, Tell me, are you in or out? Attitude is everything- What kind of attitude will you bring? The Same Attitude (Philippians 2:5) by Jay Stocker. 2011 Group Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to use lyrics granted for local church use only. No unauthorized duplication permitted. LET S PRAY! Supplies: Sticking With God: Knowing His Love (Year 1/Quarter 3) CD, CD player, paper tubes from Let s Explore!, assembled Bible Exploration Kits 1. Have kids stay in their Bible Crews. SAY: God demonstrated his love to us because he wants to have a friendship with us. He wants everyone to have that friendship, so we show our enemies God s love. We don t always do a good job showing that love, though. Let s pray to ask God to help us love people in our lives who are hard to love. 2. Have children unroll the paper tubes they created earlier. SAY: For the first part of our prayer, you ll write things people do that make it hard for you to show them God s love. You can copy them from the handout you filled in earlier or come up with new ones. Then, when the music starts, you ll roll up your paper and put a rubber band around it. As you do that, ask God to give you strength to show his love to people who do those things this week. Then write on the outside of your rolled-up paper one way you ll show his love this week. When you ve finished, set your paper tube in front of you. I ll know you ve finished when I see the tubes lying in front of you. 3. Give children two minutes to write on their papers, then start Soft Music 2 (Track 18) from the Sticking With God: Knowing His Love (Year 1/Quarter 3) CD, prompting kids to roll up their papers and write on the outside. Stop the music when all the paper tubes are lying in front of the kids. HIGH FIVES Supplies: paper tubes from Let s Pray!
As kids leave, have them tap their paper tubes with the tubes of two other children and say the Key Verse: Do to others as you would like them to do to you (Luke 6:31). FOR-EXTRA-TIME ACTIVITIES Love In Action Supplies: none Have each Bible Crew prepare a charade acting out a way to show love and kindness to people they don t get along with. Have crews present their acts of love while other crews guess what they act out. Hiding It in Your Heart Supplies: paper, markers Have Bible Crews read Luke 6:31 in their Bibles. Then direct them to write the word kindness across the top of a piece of paper. Tell crews to use the letters in the word to write new words (in an acrostic) that tell ways they can do what the Key Verse says. Create a Bible Dictionary Supplies: paper, markers, dictionary, CD player, Sticking With God: Knowing His Love (Year 1/Quarter 3) CD Ask kids to create one or more pages, each with a new word, for a Bible dictionary. Have kids suggest words from today s lesson compassionate and enemies are two suggestions. Have them write each word on a sheet of paper in fun letters, add a definition, list Scripture references, and make illustrations. Play The Books of the Bible Song (Track 8), from the Sticking With God: Knowing His Love (Year 1/Quarter 3) CD while kids work. Add each page to a three-ring binder, and watch the dictionary grow!