LEADERS HUB
Year 1, Term 2, Week 4: Ideas for Senior Group
Week 4: Loving Others - As God Loved us
Lesson Objective:
God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to die for us, so he asks us to obey him by loving and serving others.
Bible Passage:
John 13:4-16 (Jesus washes the disciples’ feet)
1 John 4:9-11
Memory Verse:
1 John 4:10-11- God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.
Story Idea: Object Lesson & Watch It!
To Prepare:
Bring along an assortment of cleaning related items or dirty things (eg. cloth and dirty bowl, toilet brush, duster, dust pan and brush, stained t shirt etc.)
To introduce:
- Show the kids the items
- Ask them what their LEAST favourite chore is and why (eg. cleaning the toilet because it's dirty!)
- Explain that we don't like doing some chores because they seem gross
- In Jesus day, they had servants to do all of the gross chores!
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Have the kids watch the following youtube video:
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Quiz Questions:
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1. What messy job did Jesus do for His disciples? He washed their dirty feet
2. Why do you think feet were SOOO dirty in Jesus day? They had dirt roads and only sandles on their feet
3. Whose job was it usually to wash people's feet? A Servant
4. Why do you think Simon Peter doesn't want Jesus to wash his feet to start with? Jesus is their teacher and their master - he thinks Jesus is too good to wash his feet
5. What do you think Jesus was trying to teach His disciples to do? To serve, love and look after others
6. How can we love others practically? Be kind, help them when they are hurt or in need, pray for them etc.
7. What does Jesus say back to Simon Petr? If I don't wash you, you don't really belong to me
8. Because we have the whole Bible, we know that Jesus was just about to die on the cross, so what do you think He means when he says this? We can be part of His family because He washes our sins away - *READ 1 John 4:9-11*
9. What is the biggest way that Jesus showed His great love for us? By dying on the cross for our sins
10. How should we respond to God's great love? by loving others
11. What is the BEST thing we can do for someone? Point them to Jesus
Activity Idea: Dunk the Ball Challenges!
- Split the kids into teams and play a series of challenges where the aim is to help a ball into a bucket of water: - each success counts as a point for the team!
- Where the teams are larger, have team members take turns completing the challenge
Tea towel fling: Two people fling a ball from a distance into the water using a tea towel
Bucket Drop: Teams have a long piece of string tied into a giant loop which is stretched out to form two tracks - they must attempt to roll the ball along the string and drop it into the bucket which is in the middle somewhere (use multiple buckets to avoid crowding)
Wooden spoon challenge: Each player gets a wooden spoon or stick and members must work together to carry the ball across a distance to the bucket using only their spoons
Slide challenge: Each team gets a piece of paper and must curve it to form a slide that can be combined with other team members slides to help the ball travel the distance to the bucket - if the line formed is not long enough, the team member at the back runs to the front to take the ball for the next section, feet must be still while the ball is in your slide!
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Remind the kids that there are lots of practical ways that we can show God's love to others - but the way we love others should always point them to the love of Jesus that can wash them clean!
Game Idea: Stuck in the Mud!
- Create a blank open space for the kids to move around in
- Choose one or two to be 'up'
- Those who are up try to tag the rest of the kids
- Kids who are tagged should freeze (be stuck) on the spot and wait to be unstuck
- Players can un-stick other people by bending down and tapping both feet at once
- Those who are up are aiming to get everyone stuck!
- Change who is up from time to time to keep things interesting, or introduce obstacles
When you are 'stuck in the mud' you can't go anywhere - but because somebody comes along and pulls you out of the mud, you can go around and help others out! Because Jesus has loved us so much and helped us get rid of the mud of sin - we are free to go and love others and help them do the same!
Prayer Idea: Dice Prayers
- Before the lesson, download and print the dice prayers sheet
- Have the kids sit in a circle and take turns rolling the dice
- Each child should pray according to what they roll on the dice!
