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)