LEADERS HUB
Year 1, Term 3, Week 8: Ideas for Senior Group
Week 8: God is Powerful - To Save
Lesson Objective:
God is powerful to show himself to us and save us from our sin.
Bible Passage:
Acts 9: 1-18 (Conversion of Saul/Paul)
Memory Verse:
Acts: 9:17 - Ananias left and went into the house where Saul was staying. Ananias placed his hands on him and said, “Saul, the Lord Jesus has sent me. He is the same one who appeared to you along the road. He wants you to be able to see and to be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Story Idea: Science Experiment & Watch It!
Before the lesson:
- Gather what you'll need, prepare the liquid solutions and read how to do the experiment according to this website:
https://sciencebob.com/rapid-color-changing-chemistry/
Introductory Experiment:
- Show the kids the two liquid solutions
- Ask them what will happen when you mix them together
- Pour one solution into the other and then pour the mixture back and forward between your glasses a few times to mix them
- Watch and wait!
- The solution will suddenly change blue after a few seconds or minutes!
Discuss:
- What happens when we pour one liquid into the other? (They change colour!)
- Why is that? (They are reacting with each other)
- Did it happen straight away? (No)
Introduction:
Today's story talks about a man who had a big reaction to Jesus which changed his life!
Have the kids watch the following youtube video, but pause it at 2:14 - that part is covered next week!
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Quiz Questions:
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1. What was Saul doing at the beginning of the story? Being mean to people who followed Jesus - putting them in jail, murdering them
2. What strange thing happened to Saul when he was walking along the road? A bright light shone on him and Jesus spoke to him
3. What did Jesus say to Saul? Why are you persecuting me? Go to the city and you'll be told what to do
5. What couldn't Saul do for three days? See
6. What radical change happened in Saul's life after Jesus spoke to him? He started telling others about Jesus instead of hurting Christians!
7. What did Saul change his name to? Paul
8. Does Jesus want us to follow Him too? Yes
9. What radical thing did God send Jesus to do, so that we could be His followers? Die on the cross
10. Jesus shows himself to all of us, and He can do that in different ways, how might we know He wants us to follow Him? The Bible tells us, God speaks to us personally, we hear it from others etc.
11. What should we do if we want to decide to follow Jesus, just like Paul did? Pray to God - tell Him we want to follow Him and start following Him!
Game Idea: Octopus Tag!
- Have the kids all stand at one side of the room
- Choose one or two kids to be 'up' and stand in the centre of the room
- When you shout 'GO', all of the kids attempt to run to the other side of the room, past the octopus
- The octopus tries to tag people on the way over
- If you are tagged by the octopus, you change teams, link hands with the octopus and try to catch the runners!
- The game ends when there is only one person left untagged by the octopus!
Remind the kids that Saul's life changed when Jesus spoke to Him - He changed to be on Jesus team, not against Jesus!
Activity Idea: Lego Building!
- Put out a pile of lego for all of the kids to use
- Give them the name of something to build (eg. an animal or a house)
- Then ask them to change what they built into something very different, but using the same pieces that they used the first time!
Remind the kids that Jesus completely changed Saul - He was now Paul a new man who LOVED Jesus instead of HATING Jesus
Activity Idea: Blind Volleyball
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Before the lesson:
- Download and print the main point sheets - two sets, each on a different colour of paper
- Hang a large tarp across a rope in the centre of the room (so that each team can't see on the other side of the net) and bring a ball
- Mark out four corners of the court which will be classed as 'out'
- Line the lesson reminder sheets, face down - along either side of the net on the 'volleyball court'
To Play:
- Split the kids into teams - one on each side of the net with their own set of face down sheets
- One team throws the ball over the tarp net, the other team tries to catch it, before throwing it back
- The ball is thrown back and forth until one team can't catch it or throws the ball out and loses the point
- The team who wins the point can turn over the first sheet in their line
- Teams go along winning points and turning over sheets until one team reveals the whole message - this team wins!
