Children's Lesson: The Poor Rich Man (Rich Fool)

Say: Have you ever had a hard time sharing?  Why is it hard to share? (Let children share)  Do you think it is important to share? (Yes)  Today we are going to read a story that Jesus told about a man who didn’t share. 

Read “The Poor Rich Man” (The parable of the rich fool) from any children's story bible.

Lesson

Say:  Why was the man happy? (He had a lot of grain, he was rich)  Why was God not happy with the man? (Hoarded his money, Relied on money instead of God)  Did the man get into enjoy his money? (No, died and couldn’t take the money with us).

The man in the story was Greedy.  Greed means hanging onto money very tightly so that you don’t seem to care about anything else. Like the monkey that gets caught by hanging on to money, we can also get trapped by money. We can be so concerned about hanging on to our money that we forget about other people in need and we can even forget about God. Jesus said that happiness is not found in having lots of money and lots of “things.”

Money and nice things aren’t bad.  They are can be enjoyed, but sometimes we are tempted to put collecting money and nice things above loving God and above caring for people.  God wants us to love him and help people instead of being Greedy. 

Memory Verse

¹⁹ “Don’t store up treasures here on earth... ²⁰ Store your treasures in heaven. – Matthew 6:19-20

Big Idea

God wants us to love him and help people instead of being Greedy.  

Prayer- Ask for Joys and Requests

Say a short prayer asking God to help us share and to love God and other people more than collecting things. 

Craft

Children will decorate cut out and assemble the barn craft (http://learncreatelove.com/?p=4364)

Jesus Tempted

Story

Say:  Have you ever wanted to do something that you knew was wrong? (Yes) We call that being tempted.  Sometimes it’s tempting to make bad choices.  Did you know that Jesus was tempted to?  Today we are going to read a story about Jesus being tempted.  Jesus beat temptation becomes he was able to say “No” to bad choices.  When the devil tries to tempt Jesus in our story, I need you to help me by yelling “No!”  Can you do that?  Awesome!  Let’s get to the story! 

Read “Jesus Tempted” from any story bible

Lesson

Say: Who tempted Jesus? (the devil) What did the devil tempt Jesus with? (Food/bread, king/power, jump/test God).  How did Jesus beat the temptation? (remembered what God said in his word-the bible). 

When the devil tempted Jesus he was able to remember what the bible said and it helped him to make the right choice.  How did Jesus know what the bible said? (He read it/memorized it).  That’s right.  The bible can help us beat temptation, just like it helped Jesus.  What do we need to do so the bible can help us? (learn what it says) We need to study the bible the way Jesus did, to learn what it says.  That way the bible can help us to make the right choices, just like it helped Jesus.

Memory Verse

All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and make us realize what is wrong in our lives. – 2 Timothy 3:16    

Big Idea

The bible can help us beat temptation, just like it helped Jesus.  We need to study the bible the way Jesus did so we will know what to do. 

Prayer- Ask for Joys and Requests

Take a minute to see if the children have any prayer requests or prayer joys.  Say a short prayer thanking God for giving us his bible to help us beat temptation. 

Song

Sing the books of the bible song (YouTube)