Children's Lesson: Jesus the Vine

Story

Say: Show children the plant (already in the Jams room).  Ask them, what will happen to one of these leaves if I pull it off from the plant? (It will die).  In today’s story, Jesus will compares his followers to the leaves on this plant.  Are you ready?

Read “Jesus the Vine.” in any children's story Bible.

Lesson

Say:  Who is the vine? (Jesus)  Who are the branches? (We are; Jesus’ followers) What did Jesus say was important? (To stay connected to him, to love eachother).

Just like a branch needs to be connected to the vine, we need to be connected to Jesus. We can do this by reading the Bible and coming to church. We can also learn that just as a branch should give us grapes, we should be doing good things. Those good things by themselves don’t make us okay with God, but when we are spending time with Jesus we should want to good things. How about you? What good things can you do today? (allow for some answers). 

Big Idea

Just like a branch needs to be connected to the vine, we need to be connected to Jesus.

Memory Verse

Jesus said, “stay connected to me and my love” – John 15:5a

Prayer

Take time to see if children have any prayer requests or prayer joys.  Say a short prayer thanking God for sending Jesus to save us and asking him to help us stay connected to him.  

Craft

Students will use templates to create a grapevine (find the template here:http://www.newchurchvineyard.org/neighbor/i-am-the-vine/activities/Sunday-School-Lesson-1.12_Parable-Of-The-Vine.pdf) 

Children's church lesson: Zacchaeus

Story

Say:  Today’s story is in the New Testament.  It is about a man who was very short, and had an unusual name.  Let’s find out what happened to him.  You can help me tell the story!  When you hear about someone being angry, make a mad face. When you hear about someone being too short to see, pretend to try to look over someone.  When you hear about someone climbing a tree, pretend to climb.  Are you ready?

Read “Zaccaeus” in the any children's story bible.

Lesson

Say:  What was Zacchaeus like? (greedy, took money from other people)  What did Zacchaeus do when Jesus came to town? (tried to see him, climbed a tree)  What did Jesus do? (told Zacchaeus to come down, went to Zacchaeus’ house)  How did Zacchaeus change? (Served Jesus, paid people back, gave money to the poor)

Zacchaeus really changed didn’t he?  Before he met Jesus, Zacchaeus was greedy and getting as much money as possible, even if it hurt other people, was the most important thing to him.  After meeting Jesus, Zacchaeus realized that following Jesus was more important than anything else and he money stopped being so important to him. 

Jesus taught Zacchaeus to serve God and to serve others.  He did this by teaching him to treat everyone with care and honesty.  When we decide to make Jesus the most important thing in our lives, and when we are kind to and serve other people we serve God, too, because everyone is part of God’s family.  

Big Idea

When we decide to make Jesus the most important thing in our lives, and when we are kind to and serve other people we serve God just like Zacchaeus did.

Memory Verse

Jesus said “"If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways and follow me.” – Luke 9:23

Prayer

Take a minute to see if the children have any prayer requests or prayer joys.  Say a short prayer asking God to help us make Jesus the most important thing in our lives.

Song

Zacchaeus

Craft

Childen will make their own sycamore tree by decorating a tree template and attaching it to a toilet paper role (tree trunk).   

Children's Church Lesson: The workers in the Vineyard

Story

Say:  Today’s story is in the New Testament.  We are going to read a story that Jesus told to teach us something about God.

Read “The Vineyard Workers” in any children's story Bible

Lesson

Say:  How much did the farmer give the first group of workers (A day’s wage) What about the other workers (A day’s wage).  What did the first group of workers feel about that? (They were angry).  What did the farmer ask the workers? (Are you upset because I am being generous?) 

God is generous like the farmer.  We don’t earn his love and we don’t earn salvation.  It is a gift.  Jesus died to give us that gift just like soldiers died to give us our freedom.  As Americans we are born with that freedom.  We can be reborn and have salvation if we accept that gift Jesus gave us.  

Big Idea

God is generous.  We don’t earn His love and we don’t earn salvation.  It is a gift.  Jesus died to give us that gift just like soldiers died to give us our freedom.  

Memory Verse

From God's generosity we have received on blessing after another.  John 1:16. 

Jesus Calms the Storm

Story

Say:  How many of you have ever been in a boat? (Wait for answers.)  It’s fun to be on a boat isn’t it? (Describe being on a boat. Perhaps you have a nice story of your own.) Our story today is about one time when Jesus and His Disciples went out in a boat on a great big lake.

Read “Jesus Calms the Storn" in any children's story Bible. 

Lesson

Say:   What was Jesus doing when the big storm came up? (sleeping)  How did Jesus stop the storm? (He spoke and the water became calm.  What do we need to do when problems come in our lives? (trust Jesus and ask for His help)

Like the disciples, we may not trust Jesus completely. We may become afraid and panic in moments of fear.  How can we learn to trust Jesus more (take time for some answers).  These are all good answers!  Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes from listening to this message of good news—the Good News about Christ.” Reading the Bible and going to church are very important for many reasons. God’s Word is so encouraging. God speaks to us through the Bible and gives us strength and courage for every situation!

 Big Idea

We need to trust God.  We learn to trust God by reading about Him in the bible. 

Memory Verse

But when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

 Psalms 56:3

Prayer

Take time to see if children have any prayer requests or prayer joys.  Say a short prayer thanking God for protecting us and asking God to help us trust Him more. 

Craft

The children will make a calming the storm craft 

Communion (The Last Supper)

Story

Say:  Today’s story is in the New Testament, the second part of the bible.  It is about a special meal that Jesus ate with his friends, the disciples.  The Story is called the Last Supper. 

Read “The Last Supper” in the any children's story bible (p. 462).

Lesson

Say:   What did Jesus do for his disciples before dinner? (Washed their feet)  If you were at dinner with Jesus do you think he would wash your feet, too? (Yes) Why? (because Jesus loves me/us).  Why did Jesus want to eat this special meal with his disciples? (To show his love in a caring way). 

Jesus washed the disciples feet the disciples feet and ate a special meal with the disciples, to show how much he loved them.  We share a special meal in our church to helps us remember Jesus’ love too.  We call that meal Communion.  Jesus shows us how to love and serve. 

Big Idea

Jesus ate a special meal with the disciples, to show how much he loved them.  We share a special meal in our church to helps us remember Jesus’ love too.  We call that meal Communion. 

Memory Verse

Eat this in remembrance of me – Luke 22:19

Prayer

Take time to see if children have any prayer requests or prayer joys.  Say a short prayer thanking for His Son and for communion.  

Children's Church lesson: The Ten Lepers

Story

Say: Raise your hand if you can remember a time when you were sick.  It’s not fun to be sick is it?  Today’s story is about ten men who were sick.  They had a sickness that wouldn’t go away.  They had a sickness called leprosy and no one knew how to make them better.  People with leprosy had to stay far away from other people, so no one else would get it.   In today’s story we are going to see what happens when Jesus meets these ten sick men.  

I need your help to read this story.  Every time someone peeks out from somewhere peek out form behind your hands and every time someone yells, you yell the same thing!

Read “Ten Lepers” any children's Bible. 

Lesson

Say:   What was the problem the men had in the story? (They were sick, had leprosy)  What did Jesus do for the men in our story? (He made theme well, healed them). 

Jesus helped all ten men, but only one of them remembered to thank Jesus.  God helps us just like he helped these ten men.  Sometimes it’s easy to forget about all the wonderful things God does for us, just like the 9 men forgot to thank Jesus for healing them.  It’s important to remember to be thankful for all that God has done for us! 

Big Idea

It’s important to remember to be thankful for all that God has done for us! 

Memory Verse

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! – Psalm 107:1a

Prayer

Take time to see if children have any prayer requests or prayer joys.  Say a short prayer thanking God for taking care of us and asking Him to help us to be thankful.

Craft

Children will make a leper sticky puppet.

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)