Aim to learn about God’s loving heart
Aim:
1. To learn about God’s loving heart
2. To learn about repentance and forgiveness
Materials:
* Parables of The Lost Coin, The Lost Sheep and The Lost Son- Luke 15
* Worksheets
* Active Game – The Snorting Pig,
* Board game – Return of the Prodigal Son
Lesson Outline
1. Introduction
2. Stories
3. Questions
4. What the stories teach
5. Activities – act out the story, worksheets, games
6. Review the aims
7. Prayer
1) Introduction
* Remind the children that Jesus told stories, called parables, to teach people about God. So far we have studied two parables:
The Good Samaritan, which teaches us to love our neighbour; to be kind to everyone.
The Sower, which teaches us to listen carefully to God’s word, so we can grow to be good people.
Today we have three parables – The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin and The Lost Son. They all tell us something about God’s loving heart
2) Tell the stories
Luke 15
The Parable of the Lost Sheep, The Parable of the Lost Coin, The Parable of the Lost Son
3) Questions
– How did the father feel when his son left? He felt sad
– What did the younger brother do wrong? He spent all his money on wild living
– What happened to him? He ended up feeding pigs and feeling very hungry
– How did he feel about it? He felt guilty
– What did he decide to do? Go home, repent for his sins & asked to be treated as one of his father’s hired men
– How did the father feel when he returned? Overjoyed
– What did he he do? He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. He organized a feast to celebrate his return
– Why was the older brother angry? He was jealous. For years he had worked hard and never disobeyed his father’s orders. But when his brother came home after wasting his money, there is a
big celebration. Yet he never had a feast to celebrate anything.
– What did his father say to him? You are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was
lost and is found.
4) What the stories teach
* Jesus said, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over many righteous persons who do not need to repent”.
* He was responding to criticism that he was mixing with sinners (criminals), so he told the parables to show that if a sinner repents and comes back to God, God is overjoyed and wants to
celebrate. They become more important than good people at that moment. Jesus wanted to show them a better way and that they turn away from their bad ways. Only mixing with good people
who follow God’s way, will not bring any more people to God. The religious leaders, however, were ready to condemn Jesus for mixing with bad people.
* God loves us and is ready to forgive us, because we are His children. We must also learn to forgive those who do bad things against us. We should not judge others for the things they do
wrong
* Jesus was teaching a deeper understanding of God’s heart. The religious leaders followed the laws of Moses, but Jesus wanted to show that God was not just a God of law, but also a God of love.
* What bad things might you do? What bad things have you done?
Break an expensive ornament or your brother’s toy
Take the last cookie without asking
Hit your brother or sister because you are angry
* If we do wrong and say sorry, our parents are ready to forgive us because they love us. But it can be very hard to admit what you did wrong and say sorry. You think your parents will be angry, so
you don’t want to say what you did. Of course your parents are sad when you do something wrong, but if you tell the truth and say you are sorry, they will feel much better than if you lie,
blame someone else or say nothing. God is the same. God is ready to forgive us, because he loves us, but we have to say sorry first.
IF WE DO WRONG WE MUST BE READY TO REPENT
IF OTHERS DO WRONG TO US WE MUST BE READY TO FORGIVE
5) Activities
Choose what fits best in the lesson.
1. Act out the story
2. Complete the pictures of the Lost Son
3. Draw 6 pictures of your own and tell the story as a storyboard.
4. Spot the 10 differences between two pictures / Help the lost son find his way home.
5. Write the story in your own words and colour the picture
6. Games – The Snorting Pig, Return of the Prodigal Son
* The Snorting Pig
The object of this game is to pass a snort around the circle as fast as you can without laughing.
Have the children sit in a circle. Start by snorting at the children to your right. That child then snorts to the person on his right. Have the children keep going until someone laughs when they are
snorting or receiving a snort. If a child laughs while someone is snorting at him or he is snorting, he is out of the game. He can laugh at all other times. If a child does not want to snort he can say
“oink” The object of the game is to get the person you are snorting at to laugh so making faces while snorting or acting silly is okay. Keep up the snorting until there is only one child left.
* The Return of the Prodigal Son
You need: board game, a die, counters.
Rules:.Players throw a die on their turn and make the corresponding steps with their pieces, moving from circle to circle with the following exceptions.
If a piece lands on circle:
no.2, the player moves it one step back;
no.3, the player moves it three steps back;
no.4, the player misses a turn;
no.5, the player should throw the die again (extra turn)
no.6, the player should move his piece straight to the first circle (end the game)
The winner is that one who moves his piece straight to the first circle
6) Review the aims
1. To learn about God’s loving heart
2. To learn about repentance and forgiveness
What can we learn from the parables
* God loves bad people. Jesus said,“There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over many righteous persons who do not need to repent”
* If we do wrong we must be ready to repent. If others do wrong to us we must be ready to forgive
7) End with a Prayer
