Teaching Jeremiah 3

3-5s

Theme: Learn from what God has done in the past and come to Him with all your heart

Aim: That they understand that God doesn’t change and will still deal with those who reject Him, but the children will hear God inviting them back to Him.

Intro:

During news one leader sits with their back to the class. Eventually they are sent out!

Story:

Read with powerpoint pictures:

When King Josiah was ruling Judah, the Lord said to me,[Slide 1] “Did you see what sneaky Israel did? [click] She wandered away with her idols on every hill and under every green tree. I said to myself, ‘Israel will come back to me after she does this evil,’ but she didn’t come back. [slide 2] And Israel’s wicked sister Judah saw what she did. Judah saw that I left sneaky Israel because of what she did, but that didn’t make Israel’s wicked sister Judah afraid. [click] She also went out and did the same! And she didn’t care that she was hurting me. So she made her country unclean because she worshiped idols made of stone and wood. [slide 3] Israel’s wicked sister didn’t even come back to me with her whole heart, but only pretended,” says the Lord.

The Lord said to me, “Unfaithful Israel had a better excuse than wicked Judah. [Slide 4] Go and speak this message toward the north:

‘Come back, unfaithful people of Israel,’ says the Lord.
[click]    ‘I will stop being angry at you,
because I am full of mercy,’ says the Lord.
    ‘I will not be angry with you forever.
All you have to do is admit your sin—
    that you turned against the Lord your God
and worshiped gods under every green tree
    and didn’t obey me,’” says the Lord.

[slide 5] “Come back to me, you unfaithful children,” says the Lord, “because I am your master. I will give you new rulers who will be true to me, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. In those days they will not follow their hard, evil hearts anymore.

“I, the Lord, said,

[slide 6] ‘How happy I would be to treat you as my own children
    and give you a pleasant land,
    a land more beautiful than that of any other nation.’
I thought you would call me ‘My Father’
    and not turn away from me.
[slide 7] But family of Israel, you have left me,” says the Lord.

This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:

Give yourselves to serving the Lord,
    and decide to obey him,
[slide 8] If you don’t, my anger will spread among you like a fire,
    and no one will be able to put it out,
    because of the evil you have done.

Talk:

Do you remember that God had split His country into 2 [bring out map]. Israel in the north and Judah in the south? Do you remember what had happened to Israel? They had been thrown out for praying to statues instead of to God.

Judah had seen that God hates it when we turn our back on Him and worship idols, silly statues. Judah had seen what God had done to Israel, but they didn’t learn! They carried on doing exactly the same when they should have known better.

So God calls them to turn back to Him, to love Him with all their hearts and throw away their silly statues which He hates so much! If they don’t, they’re in big trouble!

We don’t bow down to silly statues, but sometimes we make people and stuff more important than God. When we do that it’s like turning our backs on God.

Sometimes we think about other things more than God. We love watching TV. TV is a good thing. But if we think about that more than God, if we love watching that more than talking to God, then that’s like turning our back on God. Or maybe we love … more than God.

God is calling us to turn around. To love Him more than anything and to come back to Him with all our hearts. If we don’t He will still be angry with us and that’s horrible!

Activities:

Funsheet

Boomerang craft

Games:

What’s the time Mr Wolf

Songs:

God Speaks (from Dr Rocktrine)

God sits in the Highest Place

God never says Oops! (both from Colin Buchanan’s God Rock album)

5-11s

Theme: Learn from what God has done in the past and come to Him with all your heart

Aim: That they understand that God doesn’t change and will still deal with those who reject Him, but the children will hear God inviting them back to Him.

Intro – during news time have one leader sat with their back to the group. Keep warning that leader to turn around, then send them out!

Could play What’s the Time Mr Wolf

Or Turn Around Skittles (children are skittles – another child bowls the ‘eye’ ball. If it hits they have to turn around

Story:

When King Josiah was ruling Judah, the Lord said to me,[Slide 1] “Did you see what sneaky Israel did? [click] She wandered away with her idols on every hill and under every green tree. I said to myself, ‘Israel will come back to me after she does this evil,’ but she didn’t come back. [slide 2] And Israel’s wicked sister Judah saw what she did. Judah saw that I left sneaky Israel because of what she did, but that didn’t make Israel’s wicked sister Judah afraid. [click] She also went out and did the same! And she didn’t care that she was hurting me. So she made her country unclean because she worshiped idols made of stone and wood. [slide 3] Israel’s wicked sister didn’t even come back to me with her whole heart, but only pretended,” says the Lord.

The Lord said to me, “Unfaithful Israel had a better excuse than wicked Judah. [Slide 4] Go and speak this message toward the north:

‘Come back, unfaithful people of Israel,’ says the Lord.
[click]    ‘I will stop being angry at you,
because I am full of mercy,’ says the Lord.
    ‘I will not be angry with you forever.
All you have to do is admit your sin—
    that you turned against the Lord your God
and worshiped gods under every green tree
    and didn’t obey me,’” says the Lord.

[slide 5] “Come back to me, you unfaithful children,” says the Lord, “because I am your master. I will give you new rulers who will be true to me, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. In those days they will not follow their hard, evil hearts anymore.

“I, the Lord, said,

[slide 6] ‘How happy I would be to treat you as my own children
    and give you a pleasant land,
    a land more beautiful than that of any other nation.’
I thought you would call me ‘My Father’
    and not turn away from me.
[slide 7] But family of Israel, you have left me,” says the Lord.

This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:

Give yourselves to serving the Lord,
    and decide to obey him,
[slide 8] If you don’t, my anger will spread among you like a fire,
    and no one will be able to put it out,
    because of the evil you have done.

Talk:

Instead of reading my Bible for the last few mornings I’ve been watching TV instead.  I’m a big fan of cartoons and I just can’t get enough!  But it’s got so that I’m spending more time watching cartoons than anything else – so much so I think I only spoke to God for a quick minute and watched cartoons for nearly 1 hour!

Well last Sunday we heard that we all do this – we all put things in front of God, sometimes we think friends, TV, games, our homes and even our schools are better than God. 

God’s people Judah had said the thing they should spend most of their time with, the thing they should love most was...  not God, but other gods.

So instead of being God’s friends, they made friends with gods that were nothing!  It’s as if God had become boring, and nothing to them. 

Not only that, but they hadn’t done the things God had asked them to do and they had forgotten God.  Instead of loving God and wanting to give their lives and all they had to Him, they had given their lives and all they had to other gods who were nothing! 

Have two watches, one working and one not.  Explain following other gods would be like wearing a watch that doesn’t work...it may look good but it’s useless. 

Well Jeremiah tells Judah this is really silly!   That’s because saying no to the only amazing true God, and yes to other gods is falling for a lie. 

Other gods and the people that followed them had managed to trick Judah into thinking they were better than the real God. 

But we know God is King of everyone and everything – to say He’s nothing is to make a big mistake.  We know that God made everything in the world, He made us, we can only have our life because of God!  

Also, because God gives us everything, only God can give us life.  So it really is silly to turn away from Him. 

But I wonder, have we ever fallen for that lie too?  Have we thought games, TV, even friends and family are more important than God? Have we spent more time with them and sometimes no time with God? 

And following things other than God means that we can’t be friends with God.  So not only is it silly, but it’s unsafe!

Imagine your best friend, you know, it’s the one who you are with everyday, the one who you tell everything and share all you have with.  Imagine one day you started to treat a stranger like that and ignore your real best friend! 

Your best friend would soon realise you weren’t really friends.  And so God knew that Judah had broken their friendship with Him. 

Well, even though Judah had done this terrible thing, God, in His greatness and kindness sends Jeremiah to warn them!  He says to Jeremiah “tell my people Judah to return, look back at who I am!”  God wants them to realise where they are going wrong and return to Him. 

Illustrate going in the wrong direction and getting into trouble, then being given a map and compass and a friend to show you the way back home

But why? If Judah are having fun and enjoying life why should they return to God?! 

Well it’s because God and God only can give us life.  I know we have life now, right here, but God is the only one who gives real-forever-amazing life.  In fact, God is the only One who can save us from death.

Also God promises Judah happiness if they return to Him.  And I don’t mean the happiness we feel when we watch cartoons or play a good game, I mean real true happiness, the kind of happiness that means whatever happens God can be trusted, it will turn out well in the end, forever. 

Well Jesus has come to tell us the same message.  Jesus tells all people everywhere to return to His Father, to be friends with God and put Him first. 

We all need to listen to Judah’s message because we all need to realise where we’ve gone wrong and return to God’s ways.  And it’s because of Jesus and His work on the cross that God can forgive those times when we’ve let things be more important than Him.

But why should we bother?  If we’re having fun now surely that’s what really matters, the here and now? 

But... if we look back to who God is, it means we can have God as our friend, someone we can trust, someone we can say thank you too, someone who we can ask for help and know that He will give us everything we ever need and never leave us.   

Well, in the light of that. I think I need to listen to Jeremiah!  I think I need to return to God, and start spending time with Him again and less time with cartoons.  And the amazing thing is, that if I ask, God will help me to do this! 

Pray

Table Time:

Funsheets

Questions:

Put pictures of story in order in the group. As you do ask some of the following questions.

Knowledge

• What did God do to Israel? Why?

• What was God’s warning to Judah?

• What was God’s good promise?

Understanding

• Was ‘just doing the right things’ good enough for God? [This may be too hard]

• Has God changed in how He deals with sin?

• What would Judah have to do to take up God’s kind invitation?

Application

• What should you do when you realise you’ve made something or someone more important than God?

Spare games:

Learn memory verse – Jeremiah 31:34

all people will know me,
    from the least to the most important,” says the Lord.
“I will forgive them for the wicked things they did,
    and I will not remember their sins anymore.” (NCV)