LEADERS HUB
Year 1, Term 3, Week 9: Ideas for Middle Group
Week 9: God is Powerful – To Change our Lives
Lesson Objective:
God is powerful to change our lives so that we stop doing the old wrong things we were doing, and start doing what Jesus wants us to instead.
Bible Passage:
Acts 9:19 – 21, Acts 16:20-34 (Saul preaches/ Paul and Silas in prison)
Memory Verse:
Acts 16:31 – They replied, ‘Have faith in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved! This is also true for everyone who lives in your house.’
Story Idea: Tell It with Drama!
Recap last week:
- Ask the kids if they can remember who had a big change in their life from last weeks lesson
- Prompt them to remember that Saul was being nasty to Christians, but Jesus spoke to Him and he became a follower of Jesus!
You will need:
- A torch
- A short kids praise song loaded and ready to sing to (eg. my God is so BIG - youtube link below)
- A helper at the door ready to switch off the lights
Tell the story and have the kids play along with you, cover the main points:
- Jesus changed Paul's life - and his name!
- Paul had gone from hating Jesus, to loving Him and knowing that He was more important than anything else!
- Paul's name was Saul and he had been trying to throw anyone who followed Jesus in jail!
- Jesus spoke to Saul with a BRIGHT light (turn torch on) and Saul decided to follow Jesus and change his name to Paul
- Paul began telling everyone about Jesus with his friend Silas!
- Paul was SO excited about Jesus!
- People were shocked and amazed! (Everyone make shocked faces)
- They couldn't believe that Paul - who had hated Jesus' people, was now following Jesus himself! And telling everyone about it!
- Some people didn't like what Paul and Silas were doing - so they put them in Jail
- Jail was very dark and not a nice place to be (helper turn off light)
- It was cold and dusty and dark in Jail
- Paul and Silas could have been sad or angry about being in jail...
- But they knew that God place, were still thankful to God - they sang praises and prayed to God in jail!
- During the night, Paul and Silas felt a rumbling (have kids clap hands on knees to make noise)
- The walls started shaking (rumble hands more)
- It was an earthquake! (Everyone shake)
- The walls shook some more and finally the gates unlatched and swung open!
- Paul and Silas could run away...
- But they didn't!
- They decided to stay and tell the jailer the good news about how Jesus could change his life too!
- They told the man that all He had to do was believe in Jesus and Jesus could save him from his sin!
- Jesus died on the cross so that everyone could be saved from their sin!
- That day, the Jailer and all of his family decided to love and follow Jesus!
- Jesus changed Paul's life... Paul wanted everyone to know that Jesus was the MOST important person and HE could change their life too!
Quiz Questions:
1. Who did Saul hate before He met Jesus? Christians/people who followed Jesus
2. Paul was so excited to know Jesus! What were he and his friend, Silas, doing? Telling others about Jesus
3. Why could they still sing to God and be happy, even when they were in Jail? Because they knew God was still with them - and that's the most important thing!
4. What is sin? Not doing what God wants you to do
5. What did Jesus do to fix our sins? Die on the cross
6. When the walls fell down, did Paul and Silas leave straight away? No
7. What important message did they want to tell the jailer? That Jesus could save him from Sin - all he had to do was believe in him
8. How did the Jailers life change that day? He and his family decided to follow Jesus
9. Can God change our life too if we decide to follow Him? Yes
10. How might our lives looks different when we are following Jesus? We love others, we tell others about Jesus, we can be happy and praise God even in hard times because we always have Jesus
Game Idea: Stop, Slow, Go!
- Before the lesson, download and print the stop, slow, turn around and go signs
- Make a circle with markers and have the kids walk around to music
- Hold up one of the signs and call the direction; eg. 'STOP!'
- All the kids must change according to your direction:
* Go = Walk normally
* Slow = Walk in slow motion
* Stop = Freeze
* Turn around = Turn and walk in the opposite direction
Remind the kids that Jesus changed Sauls life - He was against Jesus and then he became a follower of Jesus! Jesus can change our life too!
Activity Idea: Tricky Tower Building
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Before the lesson:
- Gather some items for tower building that might be a little tricky to use (eg. toothpicks and marshmallows, jelly beans or potato cubes), as well as eggs, paper towels and/or pool noodle foam, sticky tape and string
The Challenge:
- Split kids in to teams (2 or 3 per team works well)
- Kids must wrap the egg in paper/towel or foam and tape to keep it from cracking - this should be done first!
- Next, they should build a tower using the toothpicks and marshmallows (or similar) to hold the egg up off the ground
- Watch as they go about building the tower and trying to hang the egg - the egg will probably take a few knocks in the process but should stay in tact!
Discuss:
Was it tricky to build a tower to hold the egg?
Did you have mishaps along the way? What were they?
What was the most important thing to keep safe? (The egg)
Even if everything else was falling apart, was your egg still safe?
Application:
Sometimes, life is hard, things don't go how we think they should - but even when things are not working - we know that God is always with us and our relationship with God can stay strong - just like the egg! Our relationship with God is the most important thing! That's why Paul and Silas could praise God, even in prison!
