‘Be Changed’ Childrens Lesson on Acts 9:1-19

BIG IDEA: BE CHANGED ON THE INSIDE BY A NEW WAY OF THINKING

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The cabin boy/girl enters searching for chocolate gateaux. Just then Hook’s music comes on. He enters with a water gun and starts to chase the club leader around the teams. In the ensuing chaos cannibals sneak on and swap the chocolate gateaux for a large bowl of very soggy sprouts. Hook is still chasing the leader who grabs another water gun from the stage, turns on Hook and chases him off. One of your team captains says, “Oh no!, they’ve taken the chocolate gateaux and left the soggy sprouts!” Sprouts are really nasty but they’re good for games.

1) GAME IDEA: Chubby Sprouts

(regular/widescreen image) You will need: 1 Bowl of mushy, overcooked sprouts. 1 or 2 extra bowls.

Pick 2 boys and 2 girls from the top end of the age range. Line the kids up facing their teams. To start the game place two soggy sprouts in each kid’s mouth. Then go down the line with the microphone and get each kid to say this week’s memory verse. Then give each kid two more sprouts to put in their mouths and carry on until the memory verse is no longer distinct. The winner is the kid who keeps going the longest. (For safety reasons, it is best to play the game with 10-11 year olds. Don’t let them put excessive amounts of sprouts in their mouths. Make sure you have a bowl alongside for them to spit the sprouts out when they need to so that they don’t choke)

The team captain takes a mouthful of the left over sprouts and starts spitting them out one at a time. They could then say, “Lets have a spitting competition!”

2) GAME IDEA: Banana Spit

(regular/widescreen image) You will need: 8 bananas

Pick 4 boys and 4 girls to play. Stand the kids in a line on stage. Make sure they are well back, so that kids don’t get hit by flying banana. When you shout “Go!” they all take a big bite of their banana and spit the chunk as far as they can. They carry on until the banana has all gone. You will need two captains to be watching carefully to see whose banana has gone the furthest. The kid that spits the furthest wins for their team.

Gonzo sends another satellite message (refer to Pirates Week 6) This one says, ‘come quick, the guards are falling asleep’ (snoring effects in background) He has a pillow ready to bash them but there are too many and he needs help.

3) GAME IDEA: Pillow Fight

(regular/widescreen image) You will need: A low bench. 2 pillows. (you may want to make giant pillows to add to the humour of the game)

Place a low bench in the middle of the stage and place one girl and one boy on each end of the bench holding a pillow each. You need to make sure they know they are not allowed to hit above the shoulders. Place one worker on each side to make sure they don’t hurt themselves when they fall off. When you shout go they have to whack their opponent off the bench. When one kid has wobbled off then the other wins the first round. Play three rounds to allow one team to win.

The winning team and the team captain go off behind stage to search for Gonzo.

4) GAME IDEA: Pillowheads

(regular/widescreen image) You will need: 2 pillows. Obstacles – either chairs, cones or both.

Pick 4 boys and 4 girls for the game. Create two obstacle courses that are exactly the same. This game is played like a relay. Line two girls and two boys up at each end of the obstacle course. When you shout, “Go!” the first girl and first boy balance the pillows on their heads and set off as quickly as they can through the course. They are not allowed to touch their pillow. When they get to the end they give the pillow to the second player in their team and the game carries on until the course has been completed by all the kids. If any kid drops their pillow, they have to pick it up and go back to the start of the course. The winner is the team to complete first.

The team captain and the kids run back on with Gonzo. Hurray! They have freed him and they’re carrying Hook’s coat and trousers which they have stolen from his washing line. One of the team captains says, “That’ll teach him for being so nasty to Gonzo!”

BIG VERSE: Be changed on the inside by a new way of thinking. Romans 12 verse 2.

 

SET the Scene:

Saul meets Jesus and is changed. Acts 9:1-19

Today we’re talking about being changed by God by changing the way we think. One man in the bible who was changed by a new way of thinking was a man called Saul. Saul thought he was a good man because he didn’t steal and he went to the synagogue every week which is where Jews go to worship God. But Saul hated Jesus and he hated the Christians. He hated them so much that he sent loads of them to prison and even had others killed. All the time he was doing this, he thought he was doing the right thing and helping God out.

But you know God is the one who decides what is right and wrong and although He loved Saul He was not pleased with the things that Saul was doing. He wanted Saul to love His Son Jesus and to love His people, the Christians. So one day when Saul was out on a journey to cause more trouble for the Christians, God sent a bright light down from heaven which was so bright it blinded him and stopped him in his tracks. And then Saul heard Jesus’ voice saying, “Saul, why are you hurting me?” You see when we hurt God’s people Jesus takes it personally as if we are actually hurting him.

Paul was trembling so much that all he managed to say was, “Who are you?” A voice came back saying, “I am Jesus who you are hurting. Go to the city and you will be told what to do.” So Saul’s friends lead him to the city and he was so scared he didn’t eat or drink for three days.

Meanwhile God was talking to a Christian, a man called Ananias. He told Ananias where Saul was staying and told him to go to Saul and put his hands on him so that he would be healed. Well, Ananias was afraid because he knew what Saul was like and how he might cause trouble for him. But God said, “Go, I love Saul and have chosen him to take my message to lots of people.”

So Ananias went and put his hands on Saul and Saul was healed. Saul realised that the way he had been thinking had been wrong. He had thought that Christians were God’s enemies when all along they were God’s friends. When he realised that he had been wrong, Saul said sorry to God for the way he’d been and decided to change. That’s what we need to do too. When we learn something in the Bible that’s different from the way we’ve been thinking we need to say sorry to God and do things differently. Then we’ll be changed on the inside by having a new way of thinking.

 

SPOT the Simple Meaning:

1) OBJECT LESSON: Copy Cat

You will need: Two leaders, ‘A’ and ‘B’, at the front who have been primed to play “Simon Says” deliberately getting it wrong each time. The ideas is that as you say “Simon Says.. put you hands in the air,” everyone will do it, but then when you say, “Put your hands on your head” the leaders will do as you say, and the kids should automatically, even instinctively, follow what they do. Then you can make your point!

Ok, is anyone feeling clever today because I want to have a little game of Simon Says. ‘A’ and ‘B’, why don’t you come and help me on the stage. Everyone ready? Ok, Simon says stand up… Simon says sit down… Simon says put your hands up… put your hands on your head. Yeah! I got you out. Simon didn’t say put your hands on your head. (Play a second round of Simon Says.) I got you out again. Do you know why I’m finding it so easy to win? Because you’re copying ‘A’ and ‘B’. Copying them is making you a loser.

It’s easy to copy people isn’t it? We all do it. (You could get your two helpers to act out copying each other as you speak) If your friend gets a brand new mobile phone, you want to copy them and get one too. If your friend gets one of those (name latest fashion craze), well, of course you want to copy them and get one too. If your friend gets (name latest toy craze) you want one too. Kids, copying people is natural, we all do it, and as long as we’re only talking about phones and clothes then it’s probably OK. But some kids I know copy everything. If their friend says a swear word, next sentence they swear too. If their friend gets in fight, they fight too. And that’s not how God wants us to live. God didn’t make us to be copy cats. He doesn’t want us to do all the same bad stuff as everyone else. He wants us to stop and think. When we’re at home we need to be thinking, “Does God want me to do this?” and if the answer’s NO, then don’t do it. That’s when you’ll really start to change because you’ll start to get God’s way of thinking.

 

2) OBJECT LESSON: Spot the Difference

You will need: a children’s magazine with a spot the difference puzzle in (CeeBeebies often have them.) Photocopy the two pictures onto an acetate or scan them in, to project on the screen.

When I was little, I used to love playing Spot the Difference. You know, where you take one picture and compare it to another and see where they’re different. Can anyone see the differences between these two pictures? There are six altogether. (Take answers until all the differences have been spotted)

That’s a great game isn’t it?

Now, do you know that sometimes God wants us to play spot the difference in our lives? Let me explain what I mean. God wants us to look at the things we think and the things we do and compare them what he says in the Bible. (Hold up a Bible) If they’re the same, great, keep on doing them; but if they’re different, then we need to change. Let’s have a try. Say someone kept telling lies, would that match with what God says in the Bible? (Take answers) It wouldn’t, would it? God tells us to stop lying and start telling the truth, so someone who was lying would need to change to match with God. Let’s try another one. Say someone was always feeling bad because they thought that no one in the world loved them, would that match with what God says?

It wouldn’t, would it, because we know that Point Number One says, “God loves me.” So someone like that could match with God, by reminding themselves that God who made everything in the whole world and is more powerful and stronger than anyone else, really does love them. OK, last one. If someone kept doing naughty things at school because they thought that would make them really happy and popular with all the other kids, would that match with what God says? It wouldn’t would it, because God says that he wants to make you a winner, but he can only do it if you live right.

Everyone look back at the screen. You win the game by taking one picture, comparing it with the other picture and changing anything that’s different. You win in life, by taking the things you do, comparing them with what God says and changing anything that’s different.

 

3) OBJECT LESSON: Potter’s Clay

You will need: Some clay or Playdoh.

Did you know that sometimes changing the things you do can be really difficult. You might want to change, but somehow you always end up doing the same old naughty stuff. Well, if that’s you, the good news is that God is here to help you.

Now, when I was at school, I used to love making things in clay. I remember one day deciding that I was going to make an ashtray for my Grandad. (start trying to shape the clay) I shaped it like this and then like that but somehow it just kept going wrong. Now, I could have thrown the clay away and thought, that stupid clay, it’ll never work! But I didn’t; I just screwed it into a ball and tried again. And again and again and again until eventually, it worked! It looked just right. (Display the finished item or a pre-prepared clay object if you want!) Now, in the Bible it says that God is a bit like a potter and we’re a bit like clay. That means that when we go wrong God doesn’t give up on us. He doesn’t throw us away. He carefully, lovingly helps us to change. And he’ll help us again and again and again. If you know some thing in your life need to change, then ask God to help you and he will. He’ll change you from the inside out and give you a whole new way of thinking.