Tag: Love

Weekly Lessons

January 17, 2020: God Calls us to Life with Him

Today’s lesson is based on Acts 23-26

Let’s Start!

Let’s Watch!

Let’s Talk!

  • Why did the Jewish leaders say that Paul was a troublemaker? Because He told people about Jesus.
  • Governor Felix didn’t really want to deal with it, so instead he just put Paul where? In prison.
  • Do you think Prison was a nice place? No.
  • Things didn’t really get any better for Paul either! He kept being put in prison, then he was shipwrecked, and lots of people got really angry at him for talking about Jesus.
  • If it seemed to cause so many problems, why do you think Paul kept telling people about Jesus anyway? Paul knew that the good news that Jesus had died set people free was the BEST NEWS EVER. He knew that God loved everyone, no matter who they were or what they did.
  • Look up Acts 26:22 together.
  • Who did Paul say he would tell about Jesus? Everyone! Both small and great.
  • Paul loved God and was filled with God’s love for other people. God even helped him to love the men who put him in prison – instead of being angry at them for what they did, he just kept telling them all about Jesus! He wanted them to know Jesus too!

Let’s Memorize!

Click on THIS LINK to have Miss Crystal show you the movements to the verse!

Let’s Do!

Did you know??! At one point, Paul was allowed to live at home, but had a guard with him at ALL times. In fact, some people think the guard might have been chained TO him and they had to go everywhere together! Today, test your coordination with the following tied-together activities!  

  1. Tag-Team snack: Find a buddy (a sibling or a parent) and have someone tie your arm to your buddy’s arm. Next: try to BOTH eat a snack (using only the hands that are tied together!)
  2. Three-legged race: Find a partner and tie your right leg to their left leg with a scarf or bandana. See if you can run to a finish line together (You can’t break apart or you have to start over!)
  3. Balancing Act: Grab your favorite stuffed animal. See how long you can keep your animal balanced on your head while: walking down the stairs, getting a drink of water, or putting on your shoes!

Let’s Pray!

  • Have you ever felt left out or been really, really mad at someone else for something that they did? What happened? Maybe they made fun of you, took something of yours, or you got in trouble for something you didn’t do.
  • It can be really hard to love people when they aren’t kind to us. And it can be really, really hard to serve Jesus and do what he wants when everything seems to be going wrong! Living for Jesus isn’t always easy, but the Bible says that we don’t have to do it on our own: God gives us his Holy spirit to help us.
  • As you pray together today – think about the times or people you talked about when you felt hurt or angry. Then, ask the Holy spirit to fill you with His love for others. God wants to fill You with his love, just like he did for Paul. And he wants to give you the boldness to love other people and tell them about Jesus. 

From the EGC Kids Team: Take some time here to gently prompt and ask questions if your child(ren) want to share anything specific. If they do, try not to use this time to explain: “maybe that person didn’t really mean to______” but to listen, and let your child express how they felt. Encourage them to bring those feelings to Jesus and ask the Holy spirit to help them to respond to people with His love instead of anger. (Note: this does not mean that we do not take action as needed. If your child is being bullied, hurt, or treated unfairly, sometimes other action is warranted – and important! But we can choose whether to let these circumstances make us bitter and angry, or let the Holy Spirit guide us to act in love).

Let’s Bless!

Weekly Lessons

October 11, 2020: God’s Love Compels

Based on: Matthew 26:1-56; John 17

Let’s Start!

Let’s Watch!

Let’s Talk!

  • What was the feast of Passover? A time for God’s people to remember when God brought his people out of Egypt!
  • Where did Jesus and his disciples go to celebrate Passover? Jerusalem
  • What was Jesus talking about when he said “the hour has come?” He knew that he was going to die soon.
  • Was Jesus surprised by that? No! (In fact, it was part of God’s plan from the beginning. Jesus knew that he was going to go through a lot or really hard things: He’d be betrayed by his friends, feel sadness and pain, and would be put to death. But, he also knew that he was doing it all to take the punishment for our sin and restore our relationship with God).
  • Even though Jesus knew he was going to die, who did he spend time praying for? His disciples, and all the people who would come to believe in God (that includes YOU!)
  • What did Jesus pray? That the disciples would be protected, that they would show God to others, and that all people who followed him someday would help others come to know Jesus and believe that he died for their sins.
  • What does the word COMPEL mean? To drive or urge; a strong desire to do something! For example: if you spilled your sister’s paint on her carpet you might feel compelled to run away before she sees that you were the one who did it!
  • God’s love compelled Jesus to do the opposite. He didn’t run away, he went through all those horrible things willingly – all because he loved us and wanted to fix what was broken in our relationship with God.
  • Have you ever felt compelled to do something for someone? What happened? (Maybe you shared something special that belonged to you, or gave clothes or food to someone in need).
  • Who is someone you can share God’s love with this week?

Parents / Guardians: can you think of a time when God compelled you to step out in love? What happened? Sharing your story can help your child understand practical ways to share Jesus’ love with those around them! If you want to do something special as a family to share Jesus’ love this week, some ideas would be: donate to a local food pantry or shelter, bringing a meal to someone, or write cards/notes to family or friends and mail them.

Let’s Do!

What you need:

  • Clear, plastic glass
  • Water
  • Strong (child-safe) magnet
  • Paper clips (or small nails/ other small items that would stick to a magnet)

What you do:

  • Fill the glass of water halfway with water and place it on a table. Drop the paper clips (or other small metal items) inside the cup.
  • Hold the magnet to the side of the glass and move it around, watching how the paper clips respond to the magnet.
  • If your child is old enough to safely handle the magnet, allow them a chance to feel the tug of the magnet on the items in the cup.
  • Follow up with the questions below!

EGC KIDS TIP: For our families with young children, if you do not want to use magnets or small objects like paper clips, you could instead use a straw and a cup filled with cereal pieces that are lightweight but larger than the end of the straw (suck through the straw to “stick” the pieces of cereal to the end of the straw, or blow through the straw to move them around the table).

Let’s Pray!

  • When we know and love God, how are our hearts like the paper clips? God’s love tugs on our hearts too – compelling us to follow his voice, and show other’s His love!
  • 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 tells us that the same love that compelled Jesus to die for us is the love that God puts in us when we know Him. When share God’s love, we’re showing others what Jesus is like, just like Jesus prayed we would.
  • Sometimes, especially when we’re angry about something, we don’t feel like acting in love. But God wants to change our hearts to make us more like Him – and give us HIS love for others.
  • Take some time to pray right now that God would help you understand and know His love, and that He would help you love others. If you haven’t been very loving lately, talk to him about it, and ask Him to forgive you (he always does!).

Let’s Memorize!

To help you memorize today’s verse, print it out (see printable below) and practice it a couple of times together. Then, cover one word at a time with one of the paper clips from the compelling magnets activity or a small piece of paper. See if you can still say the verse with some of the words covered up! (For older children, or to make it more challenging, cover more than one word at a time).

1 John 4:10 PrintableDownload

Let’s Bless!

Parents/Guardians, close out your lesson time by speaking this blessing over your child(ren):

May you sense God’s incredible love for you this week. May His love compel you to love others and to tell the world about Him!