‘Hope For Others’ Childrens Lesson on Joseph

BIG IDEA: I CAN HAVE HOPE FOR OTHERS

AIM: The aim of the ‘Hope For Others’ Childrens Lesson on Joseph is to help children realise that they can have God’s hope for others just as God is the hope for the world.

SONG IDEAS:

1. ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain’ by Gods Worship Kids
2. ‘Go’ by Yancy

GAME IDEAS:

1. Holey Cup Relay. (regular/widescreen) Each team is given a cup full of holes and must dip it into a bucket of water and run to the empty bucket across the room. The team to fill up their bucket by the end of the relay is the winning team.
2. Cup and Plate Game. (regular/widescreen) Teams relay by putting an upside down cup on a table and then a plate; each team member racing forward to put one after the other, until a tower is made. The team with the highest tower of alternating cups and plates, is the winning team.
3. Cup Stacking Game. (regular/widescreen) Each team is given a ton of cups and must take turns to stack it into a pyramid. The largest pyramid at the end of the game is the winning team. Of course, if it falls down during the game they need to start from scratch.

BIG VERSE: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13.

(regular/widescreen)

God of Hope Bible Cards.

INTRO VIDEO: Kylo Ren and Rey are talking and communicating. Kylo Ren is an enemy of the Jedi’s but Rey – the last Jedi – has hope that he can change. We can chat to the children about how sometimes we can have hope for someone and they let us down. Yet God calls us to hope for others anyway – to continue to hope for the best for their lives, just as He hopes for us.

 

DRAMA: Access the fun ‘Hope For Others’ drama here.

 

SET the Scene:

Read Genesis 44. Show the ‘Who’s the Thief’ video.

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Who did Joseph command to visit his brothers? (Servant of the house)
2. What did Joseph tell the servant of the house to do? (Put the silver cup in Benjamin’s sack)
3. How did the servant discover the silver cup? (Joseph sent him back to check on the brothers once they left)
4. What did the brothers say could happen to them if the servant found the cup? (kill the brother or make him the servant’s slave)
5. How did the brothers react to seeing the cup in Benjamin’s sack? (tore their clothes to show they were sad)
6. Who did the servant say would be his slave? (the man who took the cup – Benjamin)
7. What did Judah tell Joseph? (all the brothers would be his slaves)
8. Why would Judah not go back to his father without Benjamin? (Benjamin was the most important thing in Jacob’s life – Jacob would die.)
9. Who did Judah say would stay with Joseph instead of Benjamin? (himself – Judah)

 

SPOT the Simple Meaning:

1) I CAN HAVE HOPE FOR OTHERS

Have a large ball of brightly colored yarn (wool) and pass the end of the yearn to a child. Tell the children to pass the end of the yarn to one another as you talk. Tell them that the yarn/wool represents God’s hope.

Say: Joseph had hope that his brothers had changed… but he didn’t know they had changed for sure. So he decided to give them another test. He decided to ask his servant to hide his special cup in Benjamin’s sack. Benjamin was the youngest brother and Joseph’s mother’s son. Both Joseph and Benjamin were the only ones born to Rachel – Jacob’s favorite wife. So Joseph wanted to know; did the brothers really care about Benjamin or did they hate him like they had hated Joseph? Had his brothers changed? Did they learn anything from their mess ups?

Joseph realised that the brothers had changed. They had hope that Benjamin was worth saving and that – whether he had stolen the cup or not – he was their brother and they wanted the best for him. Benjamin’s brothers had hope he would be sent back to Jacob, no matter the cost. So the brothers told Joseph that they would become slaves as well as Benjamin. If they couldn’t take his place, they would join him in slavery.

WOW! What a change!

Hope changes our attitude. When we have hope for others it makes us do things differently. When we have God’s hope for the best in our friends and family we begin to see that anything is possible! God’s hope says that our friends and families can change and they can come to know Jesus, they can have healing and they can live an amazing life with Him! If each one of us passed on God’s hope; just as we are passing along this ball of yarn, every one of us would be reached and changed by God’s hope. We can each bring hope to the hopeless – one person at a time! And look how amazing it is – the whole room is full of yarn/wool – we are all connected by the hope that we have in God!

 

2) GOD IS THE HOPE FOR EVERYONE

Create or find a cross. If you have a small group of children attach the number of ribbons to the cross that you may need. If you have a larger group you will need a larger cross and lots of ribbons to hand out so that they can attach them to the cross. 

Alternatively, draw a cross on paper and tape ribbons to it.

Say: God is our hope! We can only have hope for others when we know that God is our hope. We can expect good things because of Him. We can expect God to keep His promises. Why? Because He has already shown us that His promises are true. He promised to save us and He sent Jesus to save us! Jesus came to the world to save the world of sin – all the wrong things we’ve ever thought, said or done. All those things separate us from a God who is pure and good. Yet God wanted relationship – a friendship with us, so he sent His Son Jesus.

Jesus came to the world and lived a perfect life. He also came to die on the cross. Why? To break the barrier of sin between us and God so that we could be friends with Him. Every wrong thing deserves to be punished – yet Jesus stepped in and took that punishment for us! That’s why this cross that you see has lots of ribbons attached to it [or I’ve handed ribbons to you – depending on group size].

[Encourage everyone to take a ribbon and to hold it as it is attached to the cross]

These ribbons remind us that God’s hope is for everyone – the hope that comes from the cross and not just the cross, but the fact that Jesus rose again! He defeated death! That means His hope is for all because Christ died for all.

Romans 6:10 says;

The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So let’s each take a ribbon and remember that God’s hope stretched to you and to me. It stretched to everyone that believes. We just need to accept His hope and live for Him!

Who do you know that needs God’s hope today?

 

SEARCH the Scriptures:

Hope Match Up Game. (regular/widescreen) Print out enough Bible names for each team and place them around the room. Can the children match up the people that had hope for one another? Place the names of the Bible characters around the room and encourage the children to go and find them and match them up.

1. Ruth had hope that Naomi’s situation would change.
2. Paul had hope that Timothy would continue to take the gospel to different places.
3. Jesus had hope that his disciples would multiply and tell the world about Him.
4. Mordecai had hope that Esther would stand up for her people.
5. Jonathan had hope that David would continue to be a good friend.

 

SENSE How You Feel:

Encourage your children to imagine what it would be like for the cupbearer and the baker to hear the news of what their dreams meant. Let them spend some time thinking about this as they do one or more of the activities below.

1. Make a silver cup picture by gluing aluminium and jewels, gems or sequins to the cup.
2. Fill in or color the 5-7s and 8-11s activity sheets.
3. Sensory table: Have oats or grains on the table and put little bags inside them with mini cups such as doll cups and wooden or plastic cups to help children think about pouring the grain.
4. Mould your own cup using Playdough or Clay.
5. Build a giant cup or a cup inside a sack, out of lego or building blocks.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why do you think Joseph hid the cup?
2. What had changed for the brothers since they sold Joseph?
3. Did the brothers treat Benjamin the same as they had treated Joseph? Why/why not?
4. What is hope?
5. What does having hope for others mean?
6. How did Judah’s hope for Benjamin and his father change his attitude and actions?
7. How can we have hope for others?
8. How did Jesus have hope for others?
9. Do you think Joseph had hope for this brothers? Why/why not?
10. Name one thing you will do to help you have hope for others in the future.

SEEK God:

You will need paper and markers.

Write down one person that God wants you to have hope for today. Perhaps that person can’t have hope for themselves, or are struggling to believe that there is hope for their future. It could be your parent or sibling, a teacher, a friend, a distant family member or football/dance coach.

Take time to pray for that person every day this week. Pray that they would know the hope of Jesus. Share with them about Jesus’ love if you get the chance and tell them that you believe that they have a good future in God.