Romans 5:1-11

[This is the first session in a series on Romans 5-8 which we have just concluded on Sunday mornings in the Summer term]

Romans 5v1-11 Talk for 5-11s

Theme: We can be sure and be happy that God’s made us His friends always

Aim: Be sure and be happy that God loves you

Intro: Being sure – asking questions: they need to check their answers

         

How do we really know we’re God’s friends? Sometimes it doesn’t feel like we’re God’s friends, perhaps when bad times or sad times come.  So how do we know that we’re going to be God’s friends forever?

1.    We can be sure that we were God’s enemies but now we’re His friends!

Peace, friendship, etc. – pirates no more

Illustration – would you die for someone in your family, would you do anything for them? What about someone you’d never met? What about someone you didn’t like?

Read v7, then v6 and 8-10.

We can know that we’re God’s friends because Jesus died for us.

2.    We can be always be sure

What about those sad times? Difficult times. Life getting choppy on the Captain Jesus’ rescue ship. Sometimes life is like that.

How do we know that we’re going to make it? Paul says: trouble – help us wait to be with Him forever – that changes us for good – that good change gives us hope, greater longing to be with Him. So we can be happy in hard times because Jesus is getting us ready to be with Him forever. In the rescue boat its helping us to be better sailors.

Paul also says that if he’s bothered to rescue us now, then there’s no way he’s suddenly going to throw us overboard!

So what? – be sure that if you’ve trusted Jesus then you will be with Him forever.

-         be happy, celebrate, because you’re on the rescue ship now!

Romans 5v1-11 session 3-5s

Theme: God is the best possible friend in good times and sad.

Talk about – who are my friends? – draw friends

Get them to say – ‘God is the best friend’ – stick at the bottom of picture

Prayer – ‘Dear God, You are wonderful. You love me very much. Help me to know that you are the best friend I could have. Amen.’

Story:

Hold up a happy face – when do you feel happy?

Hold up a sad face – do you feel sad sometimes? When?

Did you know God is your best friend when you’re happy and when you’re sad?

When someone isn’t very nice to us, it can make us sad. Perhaps it means we don’t want to be their friend if they are not nice to us.

God isn’t like that. God wants to be our friend even when we’re naughty and not being very nice to Him. God loves us very much.

How do we know God loves us very much? Because Jesus, God’s Son, died on the cross for us. What an amazing thing to do! He must love us very much to send Jesus to die for us.

So God loves us and wants us to be His friend when we’re happy. [talk about some of the happy times they mentioned earlier].

And God loves us and wants us to be His friend when we’re sad. [talk about some of the sad times they mentioned earlier]

So that should make us really happy! We’ve got the best friend there could ever be!

Sticking – sheet of paper with heart to colour and stick. Picture of Jesus on the cross to cut out and stick in the middle. Cut out and stick underneath – ‘God is the best possible friend in good times and sad. Romans 5:1-11’

Songs: Jesus love is very wonderful

          Jesus loves me this I know

          I see the love of my Father

          Super Saviour

Thank you prayers – We give thanks to you, Psalm 75:1 and get them to shout out things they want to say thank you for.