‘Goodness’ Fruit of the Spirit Childrens Lesson

BIG IDEA: I CAN DO GOOD

AIM: The aim of the ‘Goodness’ Fruit of the Spirit Childrens Lesson is to help children to see that we need God to make us good and to help us to do good. This session is the sixth session in the Fruit of the Spirit teaching series.

For SONG AND BIBLE STORY IDEAS check out our dedicated Pinterest Board.

 

GAME IDEAS:

1. Thumbs Up. (regular/widescreen) Children must decide if something is good or bad. This game is subjective and there is no right or wrong answer – its all for fun! Have children use the giant thumbs to show what they think.
2. Bad or Good Fruit? (regular) Can children guess if the fruit is good or bad. You will need to have prepared some earlier for this game to work. Some of your fruit must be old, whilst some must be brand new. Cut into the fruit if the children need proof.
3. Apple Balance Race. (regular/widescreen) Each child gets an apple and places it on their head. They must walk to one side of the room and back the fastest to win the race.

 

BIG VERSE: …the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control… Galatians 6:22-23.

(regular/widescreen)

Download Bible Cards.

 

SET the Scene:

You will need to prepare by reading Acts 6-8 beforehand. Choose parts of the scripture that you will read with the children.

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Who was Stephen and what did he do?
2. Who attacked him?
3. Why did they attack him?
4. How did they attack him?

SPOT the Simple Meaning:

1) GOD IS GOOD. 

Take some pictures or video footage of the things in your life that are good that God has given you. Show them to the children. Explain to them how thankful you are for the good gifts God has given you.

Say: Stephen wanted to show everyone that Jesus was good and that He was God. That’s why he spoke out to everyone in the Sanhedrin about Jesus. He wanted everyone to know how good his God is!

Have you ever heard the verse that says “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”? (Psalm 34:8) It reminds us that God is good and all that He brings to our lives is good! Fruit is super tasty to eat! It’s fresh and delicious. The fruit of the Spirit – the Holy Spirit, who is God – is goodness.

God is good and all He ever does is good. It would be against His nature and character to do anything bad – that is not who He is! God is fully good all the time and He always makes good choices towards His people.

The Bible tells us that “every good and perfect gift comes from God.” That means that any good thing in our life comes from the Father. We can celebrate all that He has given us because they are good gifts! What good gifts can you think of that God has given you? [Get feedback]

2) GOOD V BAD

You will need a pile of healthy food, pile of bad food (or packets of the food).

Have you heard may be your mum or dad saying eat this it’s good for you? Or don’t eat that it’s bad for you? Here I have a pile of healthy balanced foods. It’s a mixture of all types of food but with a lot of fruit and veg and things that people say are good for us, but not necessarily what we want to or like to eat. Here is a pile of not so good foods…in fact they are pretty unhealthy aren’t they? But most of us would probably rather eat this pile wouldn’t we? But if we ate this kind of food all the time, it would make us really ill and we would not be full of very much goodness would we?

Well just like what we eat is important in keeping our bodies healthy and full of goodness, what we do and say is important in keeping us full of goodness too. You might have heard your parents say that certain ‘things’ aren’t good for you or certain friends aren’t good for you either. That means that they don’t help your life in a positive way. God wants us to be full of goodness, have good coming into our lives through the things we do, people we are with and places we go, as well as having goodness come out of our lives to affect others for the better.

Sometimes being naughty looks more appealing or more fun like this pile of food, but naughtiness is not good for you or good for others, just like if you ate all these bad foods. Having goodness means doing things that are good for you and good for others. But for that we definitely need God’s help, after all He IS GOOD!!

3) TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE: BE ACTIVE IN DOING GOOD

The difference between thinking about doing good and actually doing good. 

Say: We all think about doing some kind of good from time to time. That’s great! We need to think about doing good things – that’s where it starts. Sometimes we will do what we think about and other times we won’t. Listen to these scenarios and think about the kind of good that might take place when we are active in doing good.

1. Bob sees someone in his class being bullied. He thinks about doing something, but he decides he is too scared, so he doesn’t.
2. Claire thinks about lending her bike to someone that needs it. Then she goes and donates it to a local charity that gives kids bikes who can’t afford them.
3. Derek thinks about helping Natalie with the class she is struggling with. He offered to meet with her once a week and now they study together after school. She is doing great in her class now.
4. Samantha thinks about visiting her sick friend in hospital but she never does.

 

Say: ! Can you think of a time when you did something for someone else? How did it make you feel? How did it make the other person feel? When was the last time you did something good for someone? God wants us to do good things and to live a good life. He doesn’t want us to behave badly and hurt others.

We all do bad things sometimes but God wants us to be good!

There is a famous quote that says

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”― Edmund Burke

That basically means that evil wins when good people don’t do anything. That’s because sometimes we need to be active in doing good to stop evil from taking place or taking over.

We can’t do it on our own though – we need God’s help.

4) BEING GOOD IS GREAT BUT WE NEED GOD

You will need the Good God printable and to fold the creases so that sometimes the printable shows the word ‘God and sometimes it shows the word ‘Good’. Each time you say either of those words show the printable in that way. Alternatively, you could make a larger version of this with cardboard.

Say: Stephen prayed to Jesus and then he died. He knew where he was going – to Heaven to be with Jesus. He wasn’t scared. He had been good and made good choices. He knew God was with Him and the Holy Spirit would help him be strong when men attacked him.

The Bible says that even if we do one bad thing it’s enough to stop us getting into Heaven… thats because Heaven is perfect and if we aren’t perfect too then God can’t let us in because Heaven will no longer be a perfect place.

So God sent Jesus so that we could have forgiveness for the bad things we have done. Jesus led a perfect life and never did anything wrong! So if we have said sorry to God and asked His forgiveness God will come and help us live a truly good life! Without God we are just not good enough… we need Him to help us live like Jesus!

Stephen knew this. He was willing to die because he wanted everyone to know that Jesus was good and He was God. He knew he would join him in Heaven. We can come to know Jesus, just as Stephen did. We can invite him into our lives today. Would you like to?

[Invite children to say a prayer inviting Jesus into their lives:]

Pray: Jesus, I know that sometimes I do wrong things and I am not 100% good like You. Please forgive me for the wrong things I have done and help me to live a good life like You. I want to show others Your goodness. Holy Spirit please help me to live a life that honours God. Amen.

 

SEARCH the Scriptures:

You will need the God is Good printable.

There are so many verses that tell us about the goodness of God. Can you finish the verses to remind you of His goodness?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Is God always good?
2. How do we know God is good?
3. Are you good?
4. How can God help you do good?
5. How was Jesus good?
6. How can you do good for others, God and the planet?

 

SENSE How You Feel:

1. Create the God is good moving craft to remind children that God is good even when their situation is bad. This can be displayed in the family home as a reminder that they are not the only ones that face troubling times.
2. Build the scene of Stephen sharing the gospel with the people using Lego, Playmobil or building blocks.
3. Mould Stephen out of playdough or clay.
4. Do the fruit bowl craft.
5. Sensory: have some fruit out on display alongside some rotten fruit. Invite the children to smell the fruit.
6. Fill in or color the activity booklets for 5-7s and 8-11s.

 

SEEK God:

Say: What good thing is God asking you to do today? Wait for a few minutes to listen in to what the Holy Spirit might be saying to you.