September 9, 2018 UNIT 3#4 THE GALATIAN CHURCH K/1 ST GRADE THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT CONCEPT The fruit of the Spirit, i.e., God s character, grows in us as we learn to walk in the Spirit. GOAL Christian students will learn that the fruit of the Spirit grows in us as we learn to depend on God. Non-Christian students will learn that we need God in our lives to have the fruit of the Spirit. PASSAGE: Galatians 5:22-23 Key verse: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and selfcontrol..." Galatians 5:22, 23 PLANNING AHEAD Lesson Supplies Lesson: Apples, 1/every 5 children Sharp paring knife Sturdy paper plate, 1/class Object Lesson: Dry erase marker Craft Supplies Activity Station: Laminated fruit-ominos, 1 set/room Tape/CD player Fruit of the Spirit music tape or CD Die-cut construction paper circles, hearts, ovals and stars in various colors, 9 of any combo/child Round labels (Avery #5293) with fruit names printed on them, 1 set/child Yarn, 24 /child Hole punch Markers Fruit Loops cereal, 1 small box/class Teachers please note: For clarity, the shaded areas in the Planning Ahead section indicate supplies that are in and should be returned to your classroom SHARED SUPPLY bag. Items followed by an asterisk* are to be supplied by the teaching team.
Background Information / Teacher Helps September 9, 2018 "No matter how little time I spend truly focused on the things of the Spirit during a given day that time counts! During that time I have released the power of the Spirit into my thinking and my life, and He will work accordingly. If I do the same the next day, He will work again. At the end of a year, these moments with God may add up to an embarrassingly small amount of time. Yet God has been free to work unfettered during this time, and the result will be tangible." 1 "Every day there are disappointments, hurt feelings, failures, victories, and pleasures in our lives. How do we view these daily events and feelings they create? "So often we find ourselves disgusted about what someone has just done. 'I can't believe she said that! She's a real!' we tell ourselves. Our struggles with others are often played out on the horizontal plane. It's me versus my spouse, me versus my boss, me versus my kids. The events in my life seem to swirl around in a jumble of often disappointing hurts. What am I doing wrong? "This is the horizontal perspective. God wants us to learn to look at our lives vertically as well as horizontally. He wants us to open the door to our daily lives and let Him into our thinking. "When our friend makes a mean comment, we can either spend our time reflecting on how bad she is, or we can step back mentally from the conflict and ask, 'God, what are You trying to do here?' When we do the latter, we are considering our daily lives from God's perspective. We are interpreting our experience theocentrically (with God at the center) instead of anthrocentrically (with man at the center). We can call this perspective the vertical perspective, because it recognizes that what God is doing is the most important variable to grasp and will give light to everything else. This is what Proverbs 3:6 says: 'In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.' Acknowledging God in our daily interactions the vertical perspective is a large part of what it means to walk according to the Spirit. "Choosing to raise the question of God's involvement is an act of faith whereby we combine prayer with our knowledge of the Word of God. When we look to God after our friend has hurt us and ask God what He is doing in that situation, various possibilities may present themselves. 'Are You trying to press me into a deeper understanding of grace? Is this supposed to be an opportunity for me to do something for this other person? "As we bring God into our calculations, a new perspective on our lives is often accompanied by a general calming of our anger, fear, or hurt. Our personal reactions are still as real as ever, but there is a sense of calm that comes from realizing we are not living our lives alone and desperate, on the horizontal plane. Often, God will open our eyes to see things from His perspective. Have you ever felt a smile spread across your face as you realized the obvious truth of God dawning on your darkened and angry heart? It's downright embarrassing sometimes to realize how far we have been from God's perspective in our daily problems." 2 "Holiness is the fruit of the Spirit, displayed as the Christian walks by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16, 22, 25). Holiness is consecrated closeness to God.... In relation to God, holiness takes the form of a single-minded passion to please by love and loyalty, devotion and praise. In relation to sin, it takes the form of a resistance movement, a discipline of not gratifying the desires of the flesh, but of putting to death the deeds of the body (Galatians 5:16; Romans 8:13)." 3 The fruit of the Spirit is a picture of Christ-likeness. Our view of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control is often not the same as God's. Our problem is that we selfishly want to be the recipients of this fruit. But the fruit of the Spirit that God desires results from an other-centered lifestyle. Exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit as a 1 Dennis McCallum, Walking in Victory, 1994, NavPress, p. 122. 2 Dennis McCallum, Walking in Victory, 1994, NavPress, pp. 127, 128. 3 J.I. Packer, Keep In Step With the Spirit, 1984, Fleming H. Revell Co., pp. 96, 97.
September 9, 2018 believer is a witness to the non-christian world that a person is a follower of Christ. Jesus states in Matthew 7:15-23 that all people are known by their fruit. Jesus used the analogy of a branch and vine to give us a concrete picture of the necessity to abide in Christ. Just as the branch of an apple tree must be connected to the trunk in order to grow and eventually bear apples, so Christians must abide in Christ to grow strong in the Lord and bear fruit (John 15:1-6). As a tree requires various elements such as fertilizer, sunshine, and rain in order to grow, Christians must abide in the vine to grow and mature in Christ. As Christians abide in Christ and seek to know Him more through the means of growth, (i.e., the Word, prayer, fellowship/ministry, discipline), spiritual maturity and the subsequent bearing of fruit occurs. Additional Reading: http://www.xenos.org/classes/principles/cpu2w8.htm
LESSON PLAN SET UP INCORPORATION 15-20 MIN Rationale: Students will learn that growth is a process we can t control and takes time. INSTRUCTION/ INTRODUCTION 5 MIN LEARNING ACTIVITY #1 LG GROUP 10 MIN LESSON LG GROUP 7 MIN September 9, 2018 Instructions: Coordinate with other classes to combine for the drama. Before class begins, slice the apples and put them on the plate in preparation for the lesson. Activity Stations Craft/Game Fruit of the Spirit Necklace Instructions: Give each child 9 shapes and one each of the fruit of the Spirit labels. Put a label on each shape, punch a hole in the center above the printed word and color as desired. On the yarn, string the variety of colors of Fruit Loops cereal then add a Fruit of the Spirit tag, e.g. "Love." Continue adding another set of Fruit Loops then add the "Joy" tag next. Continue repeating the pattern until all of the names of the "Fruit of the Spirit" are on the strand. Adjust the Fruits of the Spirit strands to fit each child and secure loosely around their neck. Instruct the children to remove ONLY ONE Fruit Loop each time they practice saying the key verse. They will have all of the scripture tags for the "fruit of the Spirit" left on their necklace when the Fruit Loops are gone. The children will probably want to practice in class a couple of times before taking their "key verse" home. You can be sure that after they have "tasted God's Word" in this way, they will have also learned the names of the fruit of the Spirit! Game Fruit-Ominos Instructions: The laminated "fruit-ominos" can be played just like dominos. The hearts are counted just like the dots on the dominos. The names of each fruit also match the number of hearts. As the children match the number of hearts, a teacher can help them read the fruit. As they play, you can discuss what each fruit might look like as it is manifested in one's life. Music The Fruit of the Spirit Instructions: Play the tape as the children play fruit-ominos. Missions Prayer Instructions: Talk about and pray for Oasis Giving campaign and adopted missionary child. Some of you made a fruit of the Spirit necklace and some played "fruit-ominos." Who can tell me the key verse you learned when you made the necklace? "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control..." (Galatians 5:22-23). The drama team is going to do a skit for us about the fruit of the Spirit. Let's get together with the other classes to watch the skit. Drama Fruit for Sale performed by the Drama Team. Let s go back to our classrooms and talk more about the fruit of the Spirit. I will pass these apple slices around for you to eat while we talk about the fruit of the Spirit. What happens when you plant an apple seed in the ground? (An apple tree grows.) What helps that seed grow into an apple tree? (Water, fertilizer, sun help it grow.) When that apple tree grows big, apples grow on it. Just as God works through nature to grow apples on trees, God wants to work in you to grow the fruit of the Spirit. Does this mean we will have apples and oranges sprouting from our arms and legs, coming out our ears and noses? Of course not our key verse this week tells us what the fruit of the Spirit is. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control..." (Galatians 5:22-23). This fruit of the Spirit grows in us as we learn to depend on the Holy Spirit. When God causes the growth in us others can see that "fruit." They see what God is like and how He loves. Let's talk about how that happens. GOOD NEWS Who can tell me how we become Christians? Why do we want to become Christians? (There will
September 9, 2018 be a variety of answers so we can go to heaven, so God will forgive us, so we can be friends with God, etc.) We all know that we do wrong things every day. We get mad at our parents, we say mean things to our friends, we think about mean things we can do to others when they make us mad, etc. God is perfect and never sins. Because we do bad things and sin, we can't be God's friend or a part of His family. But Jesus is God and was a perfect man. He never thought or did anything wrong. He came to earth and took the punishment we deserve when He died on the cross. If we tell Jesus we want Him to take away our sin and forgive us, He will do that. We become Christians and a part of God s family. Another great thing happens at the same time. The Holy Spirit comes into our lives and begins to help us learn to love and obey God. LEARNING ACTIVITY #2 LG GROUP 5 MIN GOAL: Growth is a process we can t control and it takes time. As we learn about God and choose to depend on Him to do what He says, we grow spiritually like the apple tree grows physically. As we grow spiritually, the Holy Spirit begins to change us and the fruit of the Spirit shows in our lives. What is the fruit again? It is our key verse. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control..." (Galatians 5:22-23). As we depend on God we become more loving, joyful, patient, kind, good, gentle, faithful and have more self-control. Let s try an experiment. Object Lesson Instructions: Form three lines equally spaced in front of the white board. A teacher will stand at the front of each line by the white board. One by one the children will stand at the white board. The teacher will place a mark indicating their height with the child's name next to it. After all children have been measured, gather everyone in a group and instruct the children to grow!! Work as hard as you can to grow! Strain!! Try to grow for about a minute and then re-measure all the children. Debrief: Why didn't any of you grow? Didn't you try hard enough? That's silly, isn't it? We all know that we can't make ourselves grow. God designed our bodies to grow and develop over a long time as we get food, exercise, and sleep. If we eat right, get enough exercise and sleep God helps our bodies grow strong and healthy. But, it takes time. It is just the same way with our spiritual growth. We can t make ourselves grow. We can try to be more loving, but we can only do it for so long. It doesn t matter how hard we try we can t change ourselves. God is the only one who can change us, but we must be willing and do our part. Our part is to walk by the Spirit. We walk by the Spirit when we learn what God says in His word, talk to Him by praying, and depend on Him to give us the ability to do what He says. The more we learn God s word and do what it says, the more we will think like God. As we depend on the Spirit, God does His part. He grows us to become more like Him. And just as we are sometimes surprised at how much our bodies have grown over a period of time, we are often surprised at how much God has changed us spiritually over a period of time. When we grow physically we get taller and weigh more. When we walk by or depend on the Spirit we grow spiritually. Our thinking and attitudes are changed and we become more like Jesus. The fruit of the Spirit is shown in our lives. Remember our key verse, The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control..." (Galatians 5:22-23). Let s get into small groups.
LEARNING ACTIVITY #3 SM GROUP 10 MIN LEARNING ACTIVITY #4 LG GROUP 10 MIN September 9, 2018 Let's pretend that you are in your room with your Legos or blocks or whatever you most like to do. You have a great idea in mind and you can't wait to get into it. You are just getting started when your little brother or sister comes in and asks if he/she can play something with you. You have two thoughts. The first might be, "Oh man, he/she'll mess it up and I'll never get to have the fun I was planning." So, you say, "Not now. I m doing something special and you are too little to help. You'll just mess it up. Get out of here. Go play somewhere else." The second might be, "He'll mess it up and I really want to do this, but, God, I know how much he/she likes to play with me. I can decide to say "no," but I can also decide to say "yes" and we can have a fun time together. If I am patient he/she can work with me on this idea. But I m not patient and I want to do it by myself. Please help me, God." What is different about the two thoughts? (The first one considered only what he/she wanted. The second one considered his/her brother/sister and asked God to help him/her be patient.) Can you think of a time when it was hard for you to choose to obey God when you knew the right thing to do, but really didn t want to do it? Did you finally get to the point where you decided that you would obey? (Allow the children to respond.) It's not always easy to decide to obey, is it? But when we do decide to obey is it always easy to do what we've decided? When your little brother/sister gets irritating, is it easy to be patient even when you've decided you want to? It sure isn't for me. What should we do then? (Suggestions: ask Holy Spirit to help us because we can't obey without His help. Remember God's love always looks out for the good of other people, but we aren't always like God. We are often selfish and have a hard time thinking about the good of other people. If we choose to care more about loving our little brother than about what we want to do and then to depend on the Holy Spirit to help us, God s fruit of kindness and patience will be shown to our little brother). In this way God loves others through us. Isn t that awesome?! Let's pray now and thank God that He wants to be our friend. If you haven't asked Jesus to forgive your sin, you can do that as we pray. If you are a Christian, ask God to help you depend on His Spirit so the fruit of the Spirit will show more and more through you. We are going to play a fun game to help us remember the names of the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit (of the Spirit) Basket Upset Instructions: Arrange chairs in a circle so that there is one chair less than there are players. One player will be "it" and stand in the middle. The rest of the children should be seated in the chairs. Assign a fruit of the Spirit to each child so they are evenly divided among the children: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control. Once each child, including the child in the center, is assigned a "fruit" name, the fun begins. The player in the center calls out a fruit of the spirit say "love," then all those who are "love" must get up and find another chair in which to sit. At the same time the player in the center will also try to find a seat. The player left standing becomes "it" and gets to call the next fruit of the Spirit. If the center player calls "fruit basket," everyone must get up and find a new chair.