5-11s
Theme: People will always reject God’s Word
Aim: That they trust God’s Word even when that’s
not easy
Big Theme: Don’t Look (ie
don’t look at what the false prophets are saying)
Intros:
- True / False – two children read out facts about the same things. Only one is telling the truth. They need to decide which.
- Thumb wars
Recap:
Jeremiah has been speaking
to the people about how they will be taken away into Babylon (the smashed pot from last week). Do
you think people liked that?
Bible Teaching:
Prophet smackdown – Have
one child dressed as Jeremiah and one as a false prophet.
Jeremiah: Judah, you will
have to wear a heavy harness, a yoke. Babylon
will treat you like slaves. This will last for 70 years.
Children: Ooooh!
Hananiah: Within two years
God will bring you back from Babylon.
Children: Phew!
[Leader: Both can’t be
right! Who’s telling the truth?]
Jeremiah: I wish that were
true, it would be much nicer. Whichever one happens, that’ll show the true
prophet.
Children: Ooooh!
Hananiah: [breaks the yoke
on Jeremiah] Thus says the Lord, I will break the yoke of Babylon in two years!
Children: Phew!
Jeremiah: Listen Hananiah,
the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie.
Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold I will remove you from the face of the
earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the
Lord.
Hananiah: Urgh! [dies]
Children: Oooh!
Talk:
Some people will tell us
things that claim to be from God, just as they did in Jeremiah’s day. But
sometimes we’ll really want to believe them because what they’re saying is
really nice.
Here are some of the
things they might be saying:
God isn’t angry with you because you’ve sinned!
A God of love wouldn’t send anyone to hell!
You’ll be alright!
I know when Jesus is coming back!
You may hear some of those
things and they sound really convincing. Remember what Jeremiah said, the test
is whether what they say comes true. And we must test these things against what
the Bible says.
So listen carefully when
people (even us) claim to speak for Jesus, check it against the Bible.
Table time:
Questions:
Knowledge
What did Jeremiah say was
going to happen?
What did Hananiah say was
going to happen?
What actually happened?
Understanding
How do we know which one
was the true prophet?
Who should they not have
listened to?
Why did the people want to
listen to Hananiah?
Application
How do we know when
someone is telling us the truth about Jesus?
When are we going home to
be with Jesus?
What should we do if
people tell us that God won’t judge us?
Funsheet
Craft – prophet finger
puppet wrestling
3-5s
Theme: People will always reject God’s Word
Aim: That they trust God’s Word even when that’s
not easy
Big Theme: Don’t Look (ie
don’t look at what the false prophets are saying)
Intro:
Truth and Lie – have some
true facts and some made up facts about the leaders. If they think something is
true they stand up, if they think it’s a lie they sit down (make the lies ridiculous)
Bible teaching:
Recap – remember, a long
time before Jesus came, Jeremiah was telling God’s people that they were going
to have to go to a foreign land called Babylon.
The people hated that and hated Jeremiah for saying it.
[have two puppets or two
finger puppets – one Jeremiah and one Hananiah]
Shall we listen to what
Jeremiah says? [whispers in ear]
What’s that? God’s people
are going to have to live in this foreign land for 70 years! That’s a long
time.
Do you think God’s people
wanted to live in Babylon,
away from their families for 70 years? No.
Hananiah wants to say
something [whispers in ear]. Oh phew! Hananiah says they won’t. They’ll only be
in Babylon for
2 years. Oh, that’s a relief. That’s much nicer to hear isn’t, boys and girls?
Oh, hang on. [Jeremiah
whispers]. Jeremiah say, if only that were so. But sadly Hananiah has got it
totally wrong! Jeremiah says he’s telling the truth and it will definitely be
for 70 years.
Boys and girls, how do we
know who’s telling the truth? I’d much rather believe Hananiah, wouldn’t you?
But that doesn’t mean he’s right.
Sometimes it can be hard
to know who’s telling the truth. Sometimes people will tell us lots of things
about God, maybe at school or we’ll hear them on the street and we’re not sure what
to believe.
If they’re telling the
truth then what they say will come true. [Jeremiah whispers again]. What’s
that, Hananiah is going to die because he’s told lies about God. Well that’s
very serious! We’ll know if Jeremiah is telling the truth about God if that
happens. Urgh. [knock off Hananiah puppet] Jeremiah was right. Hananiah has
died. How sad and how serious. That must mean Jeremiah is telling the truth
about everything.
We can totally trust the
Bible and the Bible sometimes says really hard things like,
- God is angry when we sin [angry face]
- God won’t let people say ‘no’ to Him forever, there is a place called hell
- We don’t know when Jesus will come back to take us to be with Him
- There are things that we like doing but God wants us to stop
Let’s listen to God in the
Bible, check what people are telling you about Jesus. Trust that God tells the
truth even when that’s something that you don’t like.
Activities:
- Jeremiah and Hananiah finger puppets
Songs:
- God speaks (from Doctor Rocktrine)
- Two Little Eyes (from Very, very Big God)
- I am the Way the Truth and the Life
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