‘I’m Chosen’ Childrens Lesson on Matthew 9:9-13

BIG IDEA: JESUS CHOOSES TO BE MY FRIEND

AIM: The ‘I’m Chosen’ Childrens Lesson on Matthew 9:9-13 is aimed at helping children to see that Jesus chooses to be their friend, all they need to do is choose to be His also. Once they have chosen this, they are called to get to know Him more everyday and help others to choose Jesus as their friend. This is one session in the ‘I’m Not Trash’ teaching series.

SONG IDEAS:

1. ‘I Will’ by Yancy
2. ‘I Belong’ by Shout Kids Praises
3. ‘Who You Say I Am’ by Yancy

GAME IDEAS:

1. Pick a Brick  (regular/widescreen) Set up a giant Jenga and have teams choose a player each time to pick a brick out of the tower and place it on the top to keep forming the tower. The team with the biggest tower at the end is the winning team.
2. This or That. (regular/widescreen) Children must decide what they would prefer to have out of two options. They run to a side of the room that represents the thing they want most. For example questions click here.
3. Pin the Badge on the Sheriff. (regular/widescreen) You will need to print off the badges PDF and the Sheriff Game PDF  and cut the badges out. Add some sticky back tape to the back of the badges. Use a scarf to blindfold the children. Children must try and place the badge on the Sheriff whilst blindfolded. The winner is the child who places the badge closest to the right hand side of his chest.

BIG VERSE: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14.

Download Bible verse cards here.

(regular/widescreen)

ICEBREAKER QUESTION: Who is your best friend?

INTRO VIDEO:  Use the the scene from Toy Story 1 where ‘The Claw’ comes down to grab one of the aliens.

To introduce the theme you may also want to use this fun skit.

 

SET the Scene:

Read Matthew 9:9-13.

VIDEO IDEAS:

1. ‘Jesus Calls Matthew’ by Saddleback Kids
2. ‘Bible Theater

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Where was Matthew sat? (v9)
2. What did Jesus say to Matthew? (v9)
3. How did Matthew react? What did he do? (v9)
4. Where did Jesus have dinner? (v10)
5. Who also ate with Jesus? (v10)
6. What did the Pharisees say when they saw this? (v11)
7. What was Jesus’ reply? (v12)

SPOT The Simple Meaning:

1) JESUS CALLS US CHOSEN

‘I Choose You’ skit. You will need two boys (or you could switch it to girls if preferred.) The ‘Nathan’ character should be holding some kind of sport equipment or dressed to play a particular game/sport (depending on the preferred sport in your area).

Nathan: Hey Billy, you wanna come and play a game?

Billy: Me?

Nathan: Yeah, we’re just about to start. We’re just choosing teams.

Billy: No thanks. I always get chosen last.

Nathan: Do you?

Billy: Yeah, so no thanks – I’d rather hang out on my own.

Nathan: Oh, come on. I’m picking one of the teams.

Billy: Oh yeah?

Nathan: Yeah! I tell you what, I’ll choose you first!

Billy: Why would you do that?

Nathan: Because you’re my friend!

Billy: Really?

Nathan: Of course!

Billy: Okay then!

Say: Have you ever been left out of a group party or left out of a time of play? Sometimes people can be mean and leave us on our own, at other times people just forget to invite us or ask us to get involved. It makes us feel sad to be left out and not chosen.

As followers of Jesus, God chooses us. We are His chosen people. He chooses us to worship Him and to be His friends. Just as Jesus chose to spend time with Matthew, He chooses to spend time with us. He calls us His chosen people when we are His followers. We can feel joy knowing that we have been chosen by the Creator of the Universe! How amazing is that?! He chooses to be our friend.

1 Peter 2:7 says;

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Jesus chose to come to the world and to live a perfect life and die a perfect death. He chose the cross. Why? So that He could make a way for us to know God. Without Jesus, the Bible says that we would be eternally without God. Imagine how awful that would be?! Our sin (the wrong things we think, say and do) would separate us from a Holy God. Without Jesus, we are not chosen, we are lost.

Yet God chose to send His only Son. Why? Jesus tells us He didn’t come for those that have it all together and know what they are doing in life. He came for those that knew they needed a Savior. He came for the lost, the sick, those that need God. Are you one of those in need? Are you one of His chosen people? Do you want to be called ‘chosen’?

2) NO MATTER WHAT OTHERS CALL US

You will need a picture of a chicken (regular/widescreen/ PDF or to wear a chicken costume (or any other animal of your choosing). You could also show the clip or a picture from Al’s Toy Barn of Al dressed up as a chicken. If you’re brave and know someone with chickens, you could also use real live chickens! And for a joke you could show them a rubber chicken and remind them that that is not a real chicken either.

Say: Jesus chose to be Matthew’s friend even when other’s saw him as a ‘sinner’ and didn’t want to be around him. You know what?! Matthew was a sinner, and so are we… yet when we come to Jesus he gives us a new name. He calls us ‘saints’ and ‘chosen people’. You see, the Pharisees couldn’t believe Jesus would hang out with a tax collector – someone that they thought could not be loved by God. Yet Jesus chose to be Matthew’s friend. He chose to sit at his table and eat with Matthew and his friends.

Do others call you names? Do they make fun of you? Jesus chooses to be your friend.

You see, I [or use the Al’s Barn clip and talk about Al in the same way here.] may look like a chicken. I [or Al] could even sound like a chicken. I [or Al] may even act like a chicken. Yet I [or Al] will never be a chicken.  Why? Because I’m a human and I wasn’t made to be a chicken. This is a chicken [show the picture of the real chicken].

We were not made to be ‘sinners’, ‘trash’, ‘losers’ or ‘left out’. We were made to be the chosen ones of God. We were made in His image to be like Him.

When we follow Jesus, it doesn’t matter what other people may call us. They may call us ‘losers’, they may say we’re ‘trash’. None of those things matter because they simply are not true. God calls us ‘chosen’ and He calls us His friends when we do as He commands. So that is what we are, no matter what anyone else says, we are chosen.

3) WILL YOU CHOOSE TO BE A FRIEND OF JESUS?

Play the  ‘You Got a Friend in Me’ from one of the Toy Story movies. Alternatively ask the children to tell you about their best friend and invite some of the children up to share about how they met their friend. You could also share about your own best friend and how you became friends.

Say: Matthew chose to be a friend of Jesus. He chose to follow His commands. Each of us must choose to be His friend, not just once but every day. Will we choose to hang out with Him? To talk with Him? To learn more about Him in His Word?

John 15:14-17 tells us a little bit more about how we can be friends of Jesus, John tells us that Jesus said:

You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. 

Jesus says that we are his friends if we obey his commands. We’re not a friend of Jesus if we ignore what He says. We must obey. We can choose to be many people’s friends. That’s amazing! Yet the best person we can choose to be friends with is Jesus. Why? Because He gives us a new name, a new purpose and new life! And He chooses us first! We can always remember that Jesus chose us first. Just as He chosen Matthew and the other disciples.

And you know the best thing? He calls us to help others choose to follow Him so He might call them friends also. So, will you choose to be His friend today?

SEARCH the Scriptures:

You will need to print the Friend of Jesus Bible Character pages for this game.

Choose to Chase. (regular/widescreen) Split the group into two teams. Six members of each team are given one of the names of the Bible characters each. They must tape it to their back. So each team has one set of players with Bible characters on their backs.

The leader will call out the clue for the teams. Those players with Bible characters must avoid them being ripped off their back. (They can run or walk away.) The rest of the team must try to grab the right Bible character from the opposing team’s player.

Rules:

1. Players must not stop anyone from taking the paper off their back.
2. Players must not try to stop anyone else from grabbing the paper off another player’s back.
3. The team with the most correct characters for each clue is the winning team.

Clues:

1. These twelve men chose to be friends of Jesus and learn from him as they followed Him. (Disciples)
2. This man became a friend of Jesus after a bright light shone and blinded him for three days (Saul).
3. This man chose to be a friend of Jesus when he climbed up a tree and Jesus came to his house (Zacchaeus).
4. This friend of Jesus had a daughter that Jesus brought to life (Jairus).
5. This woman made purple cloth and became a friend of Jesus and was baptized (Lydia).
6. This lady washed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume (Mary).

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What is a friend?
2. What choices do you make each day?
3. Have you chosen to be a friend of Jesus? How?
4. Nobody in the Bible was labelled a ‘friend’ of Jesus. Yet we see He had friends. How do we know they were His friends?
5. What does it mean to be ‘chosen by God’?

SENSE How You Feel:

Imagine you are Matthew.

How does it feel for Jesus to choose to speak with you?

Encourage the children to think about their answer to this question as they do one or more of the activities below.

1. Fill in/Color the activity sheets for 5-7s and 8-11s.
2. Make a craft ‘I Choose You’ foam hand by printing and decorating the front PDF and Back PDF. Then cut both hands out and stick them back to back.
3. Sensory: Place some weighing scales and some toy/real money (depending on age group) on the table for children to role play with.
4. Build: Using lego or building blocks make some scales.
5. Check out the Pinterest board on Jesus and Matthew (Levi) for more ideas.

SEEK God:

1. Invite the children to respond by deciding to obey Jesus and to be His friends; to ask Him into their lives.
2. Respond in worship, allowing the children to thank Jesus for choosing them.
3. Imagination Station:

Tell the children that they are going to close their eyes and imagine meeting Jesus.

Say: As you close your eyes, I want you to go, in your mind, to a place you love, a place you feel safe. It’s there you’re going to meet Jesus. How does it make you feel to meet Him today? [wait a few minutes in silence] As you sit in your chosen place, Jesus comes to meet you. He has chosen to spend time with you because He loves you. You look into His eyes. What do you see? [wait a few minutes in silence] Then you hear the words spoken over you: ‘You are one of my chosen ones.’ [wait a few minutes in silence] How do you feel to hear Him speak this over you? What would you like to say back to Jesus? [wait a few minutes in silence] Now, it’s time to leave this place. Slowly open your eyes.

Jesus is always with us, He never leaves us and when we follow Him. He calls us ‘chosen’.