February Series - I Love My CHURCH

February - I LOVE my…

Week 2 - I love my CHURCH

Group Leaders: This month, we are focusing on love and our relationships. We want to stress how much our kids need and are dependent on- God, the church, and their leaders (parents, grandparents, pastors, authority figures). Just as the kids need these people, their neighbors (lost and hurting people) need them. Our love must go beyond words and must be shown by our actions.

REVIEW FROM LAST WEEK

Focus time begins. Ask a few review questions from last week. We talked about David. What did he do before he was king?
Memory verse- Psalm 42:1- As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you my God.
Big Idea- Love the Lord with all your heart; that's the most important part!     

GAME

Freeze tag or hide and go seek. (If space allows for it.) If not, you can talk about the game and how it works. The point to bring out is that you are safe on base. Talk about the whole goal is to make it to safety, to make it to the base. Talk about how the church is our base. We are safe in the church. We should be excited to get to church! Run to church, get to church as often and as fast as you can.

LESSON

Big Idea: Love the church with all your heart, from His kingdom never part.

Memory Verse : Ps 122:1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.                                           

A fun song to play at the start of class is Big House by Audio Adrenaline. Here is a link to some simple hand motions to add to the song http://youtu.be/OLaw5tVbZuw . I don't know the publishers of the video so this is not necessarily an endorsement of them or any of their other material. ;)

Samuel

Have you ever woke up so tired on a Sunday morning that instead of going to Sunday School, you just wanted to roll back over and catch some extra sleep? Or how about when you are ready to leave the church and your parents just keep talking and talking to their friends? Maybe your parents have come to a church work day and while they are cleaning, you are dreaming of being home, playing your favorite video game. Well, imagine your parents telling you they are dropping you off at the church to live with the preacher and that’s where you are going to live from now on? How do you think you would feel about the church then? Well, Samuel did just that.

When Samuel was very young, his parents brought him into the house of the Lord where Eli, the priest, lived. Little Samuel lived with Eli and soon was able to help him take care of the house of God. Eli was an old man, and he was going blind. Eli had 2 sons, but his sons did not love the Lord or the church. They didn't stay in the church like they were supposed to. They took for granted the awesome opportunity they had growing up in God’s house. Isn’t that sad, that Eli-the priests sons had the opportunity to live in God’s house and work for God, but they didn’t appreciate it? They took it for granted! Because his sons were wicked men, Eli could not turn to them for help, so, little Samuel was taught to do many things. Samuel stepped up, took their place and did lots of work around the temple. 

The Bible says, “…and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli.” Samuel was probably about twelve years of age at this time and had many responsibilities around the temple. As a child, Samuel learned to love the house of God. As Samuel grew into a man, the bible says he grew in favor with God and man. He became a mighty prophet and judge. Because he loved the house of the Lord, the church, God used little Samuel.

Our scripture today shows us the kind of attitude we should have about coming to church. We should be happy to be at church. We should be excited on Saturday night because on Sunday morning we get to go to God's house! In God's house we get to have fun with our good friends, get to play games in Sunday school, have lots of fun, AND, most importantly we get to be with Jesus. We get the opportunity to be in the presence of Jesus. I love my church! Like Samuel, we should desire to dwell in the house of the Lord. Not only that - like Samuel - we should love working in God’s kingdom. God loves to see His children faithful to His house. If you will fall in love with being at AND working in His house, God can use you just like Samuel.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Who was the little boy who went to live in the temple?

2. What was the priests/preacher’s name that he helped?

3. What are some things we can do to be like Samuel?

4. What's the memory verse?

5. What's the big idea?

MESSAGE/OBJECT LESSON

*You will need several umbrellas and squirt guns/spray bottles.

Do you know what this is? (Holding open umbrella up over your head.) Umbrella! What's it's purpose? What do you do with it? Exactly! An umbrella is there to protect you when there is bad weather. When the rain is falling hard, you can open the umbrella, get under it and you will stay nice and dry. It will keep you from getting soaked!

Let's try it out. (Bring a student up and have them stand in front of the class. You stand on top of a chair or ladder and proceed to squirt them with the water gun.) See, without anything to protect him, he is going to get soaked by the water gun. That's what an umbrella is good for! (Repeat the process of shooting them with the water gun, but this time they are covered.)

You see, in this world we live in, there will be all kinds of storms that we go thru. There will be bad things that happen and the enemy would love to attack us, drench us and drown us.  The church is like an umbrella.  God has given us the church to cover us and keep us safe from the storms of life. The church is there to help us. That's why our scripture says Ps 122:1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. We should be glad, happy and excited to come to church. Because no matter what this world is raining on you, you can come here and you are covered. (While you are saying this, have a child walking slowly. While they are walking, you walk next to them and keep squirting them on the head. As you start talking about being excited to get to church, they run up and get under the umbrella.) You're safe and covered in the church!

Good song for altar: Better is one day.

(After the kids pray in the altar for a few minutes, have other staff members bring up and open umbrellas. Have the kids gather around and help hold the umbrellas up.) Today, make up your mind that you are going to hold onto the church. Stay in the church and you will be safe during the storms that come. Take a minute or two and pray while under the umbrellas.     

Lesson 2 - I Love My Church (Link for PDF Download)