Teaching Jeremiah 18-19

3-5s

Theme: God is in charge and does what He sees as best

Aim: That they listen and turn to God with all their heart before it’s too late

The Big Idea is: LOOK UP! – look up and see who God is

Intro:

Give each child a bit of clay (or playdough). Get them to make something out of it, anything they like. Then they have to describe what it is they have made.

Bible bit:

Do you remember that Jeremiah was coming and warning the people that God was angry with their sin and that they would be thrown out of their homes if they didn’t turn to Him? Do you remember why? – worshipping silly statues. Do you remember that they thought they could take a piece of clay and shape it to be their God? Well they had got it completely the wrong way round!

Part of their problem was that they had forgotten how BIG! God was. They had forgotten that God was in charge of them, that He was their maker.

So God uses a picture to help them to understand. He tells Jeremiah to say to them that God is the potter and they are the clay. God can shape them anyway He wants. He knows what is best for them.

So God sends Jeremiah down to the potters house and Jeremiah sees the potter working at his wheel.

(Could show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-wmbM6EpZU )

The potter makes a pot [take some clay and make a pot]. Oh, but it’s not quite right! He needs to shape it a bit more to make it right, change it a bit here, work on it a bit there. That’s what God is doing with His people, says Jeremiah. If they turn to Him then God will change them, help them to be more loving and kind.

We too must remember that God is BIG! He knows what is best for us and if we turn and worship Him He will begin to change us to make us more like Jesus. Just as you shaped your models so God shapes you, making you more loving and kind and patient and generous. So let Him shape you into who He wants you to be.

Sometimes we’ll wonder what God is doing, maybe because sad things happen or bad things happen. But never forget that God always knows best for us and He is always in charge.

Activities:

• Make a pot out of clay – attach Jer 18:6b
• Collage saying ‘God is Big!’

Spare games:

• God says (Simon says)

Songs:

• Jesus is the Mighty, mighty King
• Who’s the King of the Jungle
• My God is so Big

5-11s

Theme: God is in charge and does what He sees as best

Aim: That they listen and turn to God with all their heart before it’s too late

 The Big Idea is: LOOK UP! – look up and see who God is

Intro:

• Pictionary with playdough – the answers are all stuck around the room high up. They just need to ‘look up’!

Bible teaching:

Do you remember the problem that Jeremiah was pointing out to the people?

They were worshipping silly statues. They thought that they could take a piece of clay and shape it and, voila, there’s God!

Jeremiah has a really important message for them. They’ve got it totally the wrong way round: God isn’t the clay, they are!

Jeremiah reads 18:1-3.

(Could show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-wmbM6EpZU )

If there’s a mistake in the pot, who corrects it?

Jeremiah reads 18:4-8.

God says that they are the pot and He is the potter. He’s so much bigger than they’d realised. He is ready to shape them into who He wants them to be. And its God’s choice whether He throws them away.

When you make a model at school or home, it’s your choice how you make it. And then once you’ve made it, it’s your choice whether you keep it and put it on your mantle piece or whether you throw it away. Well the same is true of God. He has made us and He is in charge of us.

So God says, if they repent and turn to Him they will be fine. If they listen and worship Him, He will rescue them. The same is true of us, if we listen to Him, He will change us. He will make us more like His Son Jesus, full of patience and kindness and grace and love, if we let Him.

But there will come a time when it is too late. Later Jeremiah says to them:

Jeremiah reads 19:1-2.

Jeremiah was to take a fired jar from the potter. [pick up a cheap vase]

Jeremiah reads 19:10-11. [smash the vase]

It was too late for God’s people by this stage in Jeremiah’s message. They had hardened their hearts to God, not listening, not turning back to Him. And it was too late. They were now like that pot, unable to change.

Well, the day will come when its too late for us to change. When Jesus returns either we will have listened and become more like Him, or we will have become hard and not changed by grace. And that would be very bad news!

When Jeremiah preached this, did they like it? No! They locked him up. When Jesus preached the same message years later, did they like it? No! They killed Him.

Table time:

Questions (have some clay – every time one gets a question right, they have 10 secs to make something out of clay)

Knowledge

• What does Jeremiah say God is like?
• What does Jeremiah say the people are like?
• What did Jeremiah do to the hardened pot?

Understanding

• How is God like a potter?
• How are we like the clay?
• How will Jesus’ return be like the smashed pot?

Application

• When do you not listen to God and put Him first?

• Where can you see that Jesus has been changing you recently?
• Are there things which you think you can get away with before God?

Activities:

Younger ones – make a pot with Jer 18:6b attached

Funsheet

Memory verse – Jeremiah 18:6b (in fortune cookies?)