Teaching Malachi

[This is our final week of teaching the minor prophets, I say with some relief! If we did it all again I would definately do it differently]

Malachi for 5-11s

Theme: Live wholeheartedly for your faithful God

Intro:

Put minor prophets in the right order (bible order) and hide round the room for them to find. Who is the last one?

Bible story:

Do you remember that Judah had been carried off to Babylon for 70 years because they’d disobeyed God? Last week we saw that they had returned and Haggai told them to rebuild the temple.

Everything looks ok. They’re offering sacrifices as they should in the temple. They’ve gone back to work and they’re living with they’re families.

Well, this week our prophet is Malachi.

And God tells Malachi that things aren’t quite as good as they look.

You see the first commandment that the people had to keep was to, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.’ [Have on large card] God had loved them and chosen them and had restored them, so they were to love Him with all they had.

Now, although things looked good, if you dig beneath the surface they weren’t loving God with all their hearts.

Here’s the first thing:

The priests. [dress up one as priest]. They were going to get their sacrifices for the temple. But instead of going and getting a perfect lamb, as they should, they just went and picked any old lamb. ‘Oh, this one will do,’ even if it was missing one leg or had a dodgy eye. That wasn’t good enough for God, that wasn’t loving God with all your heart.

Even though we don’t offer animal sacrifices anymore we must still give God the best of our lives, we must live for Him.

Here’s the second thing:

When they went to get married, God had said they were only to marry other people who loved Him. But the men had gone and married women who loved other gods. They hadn’t loved God with all their hearts.

The same is true of us, when we get married when we’re older we must show how much we love God by marrying someone else who loves God.

Here’s the third thing:

When they went to work and earnt money, they were not giving God the first amount that they earnt. They would leave it until the end and give Him the bits of money left over. God said that they were robbing Him!

So the same must be true of us. It’s good to give, and we should give from the first bit of our pocket money, not the change left over after we’ve bought our sweets. We must love Him with all our hearts.

Finally, they said, ‘Well maybe its not worth serving the Lord God.’ Do you know what God says? I’m going to keep my promises (covenant) [have on 2 sides of card, 1^st side: ‘Our word: promises’; 2^nd side ‘Bible word: covenant’] and deal with the wicked. So live wholeheartedly for me now!

Will you live as God’s covenant people, boys and girls who live trusting God’s promise, just as Jesus did? Will you love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, mind and strength now? Will you love Him with all your heart in your families, with your brothers and sisters? Will you love Him with all you heart at school? Will you give Him your best?

Table time:

Have 3 pictures – church, family, school. Ask them open questions such as:

·        When is it hard to love God with all your heart at… (may need some help answering such as ‘Part of loving God is obeying your parents, how easy is that?’)

·        Why is it hard to love God with all our hearts at these times?

·        What should we do about this? (ask Jesus to forgive us and ask the Holy Spirit to help us to change)

Have concrete examples for 5-7s

Spares:

Quiz on all term

Memory verses
 

Malachi for 3-5s

Theme: Live wholeheartedly for your faithful God

Intro:

Sketch between two leaders both trying to draw a picture of Malachi. One does it really well, the other just draws a quick stick man. First leader accuses the second of not doing their best.

Story:

Do you remember last week? We saw God’s people return to the land God had given them, and they rebuilt the temple.

Well, now that they were back home the most important thing was that they loved God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

Here is Josh the Jew [bring out a small puppet]. Josh was a shepherd, and he had to take a lamb to the temple as an offering to God. Here’s one, he thought. [have a picture of a lamb with a missing leg]. ‘That’ll do’ he said to himself. But God said only bring me the best, that’s how they were to love God with all their heart. So was Josh loving God with all his heart? No.

The next thing Josh the Jew was doing wrong was at home. His mum asked him to tidy his room. His clothes were everywhere and his bed was a mess. So, do you know what he did? He took all his clothes and scrunched them up and threw them into his drawer! Is that what his mum meant? No. He wasn’t loving God with all his heart by doing his best.

God asks us to love Him with all our heart, soul and strength, just as Jesus did. When we’re at home with our mummies and daddies we need to do our best for God. When we’re at pre-school we need to love God with our everything! Shall we ask God to help us do that?

Pray

Crafts:

·        Sheet of paper with heart on – stick on red paper and ‘Love the Lord your God’ in the middle. Then stick pictures around it of all the times they need to love God, eg playing, writing, eating etc.

·        Colouring sheet of Malachi saying the memory verse

·        Heart card holders with ‘Love the Lord your God’ on

Songs:

Two little eyes

Follow, follow (both from Very, Very Big God CD)