‘Helmet of Salvation’ Childrens Lesson (Acts 9:1-22)

BIG IDEA: GOD GIVES ME THE HELMET OF SALVATION

AIM: ‘Helmet of Salvation’ Childrens Lesson

SONG IDEAS:

1. ‘Armor of God’ by Troy and Genie Nilsson
2. ‘Armor of God’ by Bear Hug Band
3. ‘Full Armor of God’ by KidSpring Music
4. ‘Armor of God’ Kickstart Worship
5. ‘I Am a Christian’ by Ken Blount
6. ‘Soldier in the Army of the Lord’ by Go Fish Guys

GAME IDEAS:

1. Cheeto Throw. Have leaders put a shower cap on their heads. Put shaving foam on it and get the kids to aim the cheetoes (wotsits) onto the shaving foam on their heads.

2. Wet Heads Review Game. Get the kids answering questions about the Bible or the Armor of God. This works really well as a fun game where children can get leaders wet! Leaders sit and must wear a helmet as children answer a question and pull out a peg on the helmet. One peg releases water all over the leader! If you have a few playing at the same time, it is brilliant!

3. Beat the Leader: Crazy Hairdo. Get players to style another leader’s hair in the best/most creative way they can.

BIG VERSE: Take the helmet of salvation. Ephesians 6:17.

 

SET the Scene:

Read Acts 9:1-22. Explain that this Paul is the one that watched as Stephen was stoned. He was the man that was intent on seeing Christians go to jail or worse. Yet Jesus appeared to him and changed his life around!

VIDEO IDEAS:

1. ‘God’s Story:Paul’ by CrossRoads Kids Club
2. ‘Paul’s Conversion’ by Saddleback Kids
3. ‘Paul’s (Saul’s) Conversion’ by Claymation Arts
4. ‘Conversion of Paul – Lego’

 

SPOT the Simple Meaning:

1) WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE SAVED?

You will need access to the Spiderman movie clip or another movie clip where people are saved. – saving everyone! 4 points image. 

Our piece of armor today is the helmet of salvation. “What is salvation?” I hear you say… well, when we have salvation it means that we have been saved from something. Just like in the Spiderman clip – the people were saved from being killed in the train. Spiderman was like their savior – the person that came to save them. The Bible says that we can be saved too, in fact it says that we all NEED to be saved! We can be saved by Jesus from our sin. So Jesus can be our Saviour too!

Paul in our story was saved by Jesus. He was saved from sinning and doing terrible things – arresting the Christians and throwing them into prison simply for loving Jesus!

This screen here shows is the 4 points. The first is that God loves us. (regular/widescreen) However, We all need saving because of point no.2 in the 4 points – we all mess up and sin. (regular/widescreen) Because of that we are all separated from God, you, me, (point to kids/leaders and say their names)…all of us. Without Jesus we would could never be saved, we would be separated from God forever and would never be able to go to Heaven when our life on earth is over. Point number 3 is Jesus died for me. (regular/widescreen) But because of point no.1 and 3, God’s love for us and because of what Jesus did on the cross, we can now be saved! How amazing! The final point is that I need to decide to live for God. (regular/widescreen) Have you made your decision to follow Jesus?

2) A HELMET PROTECTS OUR HEADS

You will need a helmet. Try having a few different kinds; a Roman soldier helmet and also a horse riding helmet, motorbike helmet, cycling helmet, etc. You could pass the helmet/s around the room depending on the group. 

What does a helmet cover and protect? That’s right, our heads! What’s inside our heads? Our brains! Exactly! So why would it be the helmet of salvation? Well, you know, Jesus wants to save us. However, we need to use our brains, use our heads to decide that we all need saving and we cannot save ourselves. We all need to decide to live for God. We can now put on the helmet of salvation by deciding to live for God, by becoming friends with Him and being SAVED!

God’s salvation protects us from being separated forever from God. We are saved from hell and can go to heaven if we use our heads to decide to live for God. All we have to do is accept God’s free gift! Salvation is FREE! (give away a present) We can do nothing to get it, we cannot earn it like money at a job – we can be really good, go to church or help old ladies across the road, but that won’t help us get into heaven – all we have to do is just take it from God like a present at a birthday party. I am so glad that I am saved by God!

3) BEING SAVED MEANS OUR THINKING CHANGES

You will need accessibility to the stool video by Onetimeblind. [The video is made for adults so make sure they understand the concept before you play the video. The one who sits on the stool makes the decisions in that persons life. Kathleen must decide if it is Jesus or herself.] 

And the great thing is that when we are saved and DECIDE to live for God (like the 4th point) we start to THINK differently too. Instead of making decisions for ourselves all the time, we should ask God to help us make the right decisions. Sometimes He might even tell us the decision to make. We start to think more about what God wants, rather than what we want. We start to think more about others than about ourselves. So, what are you thinking about? Does God come into your thinking?

You know, Paul could have decided to walk away from Jesus. Even though Jesus revealed himself to him, he could have thought that he didn’t want God to be in charge of his life – making all the decisions. He could have decided to stay blind.

Just like Kathleen in the video didn’t want to let Jesus make all the decisions in her life. She wanted to spend money when Jesus said no. She didn’t like Jesus telling her her attitude was bad when she had a bad temper.

When Paul said yes to following Jesus his whole thinking changed – and his whole life – he started telling people about Jesus, loving Jesus. He started wanting to help the people in the Church too. Paul even ended up writing lots of letters which eventually became part of the New Testament in the Bible! He did LOADS for Jesus!

Let’s pray that God would save us and that He would help us to live for Him; making good decisions and letting Him be in charge of our life! That’s not always easy, as we saw in our stool video. The girl didn’t want to let Jesus make all the decisions. But we need to ask God for help.

 

SEARCH the Scriptures:

You will need: a bible and bible verse for each child.

Hat Head. Print off lots of copies of the bible verses below. Mix them up and put them in a few different kinds of hats so the children can find one quickly. Have each child come and take a bible verse and find it in the bible. The child that can find their bible verse the quickest is the winner.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12.

They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Acts 16:31.

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. 2 Timothy 1:9.

Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. Psalm 62:1.

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Acts 2:21.

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. Titus 2:11-12.

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Romans 10:10.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Luke 19:10.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16.

So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28.

For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” Acts 13:47.

Discussion Questions:

1. What does it mean to be saved?
2. Why is salvation a helmet in the armor of God? (why not a shoe?)
3. How can we be saved?
4. What are we saved from?
5. What are we saved to do?
6. Who do we become when we are saved?

 

SENSE How You Feel:

1. Create your own helmet of salvation with card using the help of Crafting the Word of God’s printable.
2. Color the helmet of salvation Printable.
3. Fill in the Armor of God wordsearch by Crafting the Word of God.
4. Have a place set up where children can go and try on different kinds of hats and helmets to think about what it means to have a helmet of salvation.

 

SEEK God:

Are there any lies that you have been believing today? It’s time to recognize that they are lies and to ask God to help wipe them away.

1. Encourage the child to write down or draw the lie that they have believed about themselves or about others on a piece of paper. Then have the child take their paper to a shredder and to watch as it gets shredded into tiny pieces. Explain that a lie only has power in our lives if we give it power. Then pray and ask God to help the child remember that God speaks well over them and others. He speaks good things and has good plans for their lives.