The ‘Rockin’ Contentment’ Childrens Lesson on Philippians 4:10-20 is part of the Jailhouse Rock! Childrens Teaching series.
Main Idea: Paul show us that contentment comes from trusting God – He will help us be content in our life.
Suggested Schedule: (90 mins)
- Welcome (5 mins)
- Game 1(5mins)
- Review Big Verse (5 mins)
- Set the Scene: Bible story/skit and review questions (10-15 mins)
- Object Lesson 1 talk (5mins)
- Game 2 (5 mins)
- Object Lesson 2 talk (5 mins)
- Game 3 (5 mins)
- Object Lesson 3 talk (10 mins)
- Get out of Jail Game (5 mins)
- Sense How You Feel – activity (10 – 25 mins)
- Seek God – prayer (5 mins)
Setting the Stage: This series will take us through a letter that Paul wrote to the Philippians while he was in prison. Instead of being sad and gloomy about his situation, Paul uses his time to be joyful and thankful. To create a jailhouse rock scene setting you could make your own “jail” props such as ball and chains, stocks or bars. Each week you could challenge the children to come up with a verse from Philippians that is set to music so you could also have musical instruments available.
Supplies:
- Sacks
- Cones
- Key
- Whack a mole game
- Potato
- Straw
- Stones
- Pan of water
- Vegetables
- Gas camping stove
- Jam jars
- Ribbon
- Embellishments
- Printables: Kindness Jar PDF label, Random acts of kindness sheet, Get out of Jail PDF,
- Coloring pens
- Playdough or clay
- Lego or construction toys
- Prayer tent materials – cushions, bibles, fairy lights, cross, candles etc
- All PowerPoint games with some way of showing them (i.e. laptop and screen)
SONG and BIBLE STORY VIDEO IDEAS available via our dedicated Pinterest Board.
GAME IDEAS:
GAME 1 – STEAL THE KEY – 5 mins
Description: Group Game.
Supplies: Key
Details: Steal the Key. (regular/widescreen) All the children make a circle with one child in the middle who is blindfolded. Place a key in front of the child in the middle and pick someone to steal the key. The child has to cry out stop when they think the key is being stolen. If they haven’t done this successfully they remove the blindfold and guess who stole the key.
GAME 2 – PILLOW CASE (SACK) RACE – 5 MINS
Description: Team Game.
Supplies: Sacks, cones
Details: Pillowcase (sack) relay. (regular/widescreen) Place children into two teams and give the first player of each team a sack. Children step into the sack with both feet. Pulling the sack high and holding the edges the child jumps across to the end of the room and go around the cones and back to the start ready to tag the next child in. Keep playing until all the children have had a turn.
GAME 3 – JAIL BUG – 10 MINS
Description: Zoom Game
Supplies: No supplies needed
Details: Jail Bug. (regular/widescreen) Everyone has some paper and a pen/pencil. One child draws a bug they imagine on a jail floor (realistic bug or imagined). They then have to describe the bug to everyone else, who has to draw what they think it is being described (ie 10 legs and a long body, six eyes etc etc) once drawn, they all show on screen their version of what the bug looks like – the closest to the actual bug drawn is the winner!
BIG VERSE: I have learned the secret of being content no matter what happens…I can do everything by the power of Christ. He gives me strength.. Philippians 4:12-13.
SET THE SCENE: 10-15 MINS
Description: Bible story and questions
Supplies: Bible,
Details:
Say: Wow today is the last of our series of looking at the letter that Paul sent to the Philippians! So I’m going to ask you some questions and can you respond with a thumbs up for YES or a thumbs down for NO!
Who would like to have more money? Who would like to have more toys? What about more clothes? Who like to live in a bigger house? Who like to be smarter?
There are many things that we think we need but do we need these to be happy? Let’s find out what Paul has to say!
Read Philippians 4:-10-20.
REVIEW QUESTIONS:
- What is Paul’s secret to contentment?
- How does God give us strength?
- How did the Philippians meet Paul’s needs?
- Who will meet our needs?
SPOT THE SIMPLE MEANING:
1) WHACK A MOLE- 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 1
Supplies: The game Whack-a-mole or use the video available on the Pinterest Board
Details:
Say: Who knows what this game is? Who here has ever played “Whack-a-mole”? Who can explain how it works? You have a soft hammer-thing. And when a mole pops his head up through a hole, you try to whack him. That doesn’t seem so difficult. But what makes it so tough? He moves pretty fast and as soon as you get him, another mole pops up somewhere else! (Act out as if you are playing it, “Here he is; no, there he is; oh, there’s another; and another; and another… or you could have a quick game)
Not being content is like the whack-a-mole game. It’s like you’re never happy with what you have and always want the next thing!
You think, “If I only had the next Play Station game, or iPhone. It’s like chasing after the next mole that pops his head up. As soon as you get one game the next game is popping its head up through another hole. Who wants to live like
that – never happy, always feeling like you are missing out on something?
God doesn’t want you to live like this. He wants you to be content and live with peace and joy – just like Paul did.
2) GOD GIVES ME STRENGTH – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 2
Supplies: Potato, Straw
Details:
Say:
How many of you think putting the straw through the potato is impossible?and then say, “It seems impossible, but I’m going to show you how it’s done“. (Hold the potato in one hand at belly-button level. Make sure your hand is only on the sides on the potato and not on top – otherwise, you will put the straw through your hand. Place thumb of other hand over the top end of the straw. Looking directly at the potato (not your hand), jab the straw into it. It should go completely through!)
Wasn’t that amazing! We just made the “impossible” possible.
Our big verse today is Phlippians 4v13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That doesn’t mean literally ALL things. What Philippians 4:13 means is that I can do all things that God asks me to do. If God asks me to do it, He will give me strength to do it. So if I want to be contented then God will give me the strength to be contented!
3) GOD WILL MEET MY NEEDS – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 3
Supplies: Story of Stone soup, stones, pan, gas camping stove, vegetables.
Details: You can just read the story or tell the story using the props.
Say: A long time ago, in a village not too far from a stream, a kind-hearted soldier was trudging down a dusty lane. His movements were slow as he had been walking the whole day. He would have loved nothing more than to eat a nice, hot meal. As he came across a quaint little house on the side of the road, he thought to himself, ‘The person who lives here must have some extra food to share with a hungry traveller like me; I think I’ll go and ask.’
And so the soldier walked up the cobbled path towards the wooden door, past the garden full of growing cabbages, potatoes, onions and carrots. Once he reached the front of the house, he raised his hand to knock when the door suddenly opened. On the other side stood an old man. His hands were on his hips and he had a frown on his face.
‘What do you want?’ said the old man, rudely. Still the soldier smiled at him.
‘Hello there, I am a soldier from a village not too far from here. I have come to you to ask if you have any food you would be able to spare.’
The old man looked the soldier up and down and replied very bluntly. ‘No. Now go away.’
The soldier was not put off by this – he smiled once again and nodded his head. ‘I see, I am only asking so I will have a few more ingredients for my stone soup, but I guess I will have to have it plain. Just as tasty though!’
The old man scrunched up his eyebrows. ‘Stone soup?’ he asked.
‘Yes sir,’ the soldier replied, ‘now if you’ll excuse me…’
The soldier walked to the middle of the path and hauled an iron cauldron from his belongings. Once he had filled it with water he began to build a fire under it. Then with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a silk bag and gently dropped it into the water.
The old man watched all of this from his window, bewildered.
‘Stone soup?’ he asked himself. ‘Surely there is no such thing!’
And after a while of watching the soldier stir the water with a small stick, the old man walked out and asked the soldier, ‘What are you doing?’
The soldier took a sniff of the steam coming out of his pot and licked his lips in anticipation, ‘Ah, there’s nothing I like more than a tasty bit of stone soup.’ He then looked up at the old man, adding ‘Of course, stone soup with a bit of salt and pepper is hard to beat.’
Hesitantly, the old man went inside and returned with salt and pepper, slowly handing it over to the soldier.
‘Perfect!’ cried the soldier as he sprinkled them into the pot. He stirred it once more before looking over to the old man again, ‘But you know, I once tasted this amazing stone soup with cabbage.’
The old man then approached his cabbage plants and picked the ripest cabbage, handing it to the soldier.
‘Oh, how wonderful!’ the soldier exclaimed as he chopped the cabbage up and dropped it into the pot.
He took a deep sniff of the pot and said to the old man, ‘You know, this would be a soup fit for a king with a few carrots.’
The old man said thoughtfully, ‘I think I can find some carrots,’ and he went over to his carrots and picked a handful.
The soldier was delighted when he was presented with the carrots; he chopped them up and stirred the pot once again.
And so it went on. The old man began to grow delighted at the smell from the pot as he brought onions, potatoes, and beef and so on. The soldier himself also added things like mushrooms and barley from his own bag, until he declared the soup was ready.
The old man smiled at the soldier when he offered half of the soup to him.
‘Why don’t you come inside? I have some fresh bread brought straight from the bakery this morning that would taste delicious with the stone soup,’ he said kindly.
And so the old man and the soldier shared a wonderful meal together. The soldier brought out a carton of milk from his bag and together they shared that too. The old man agreed with the soldier that the soup was better than anything she had tasted before.
It wasn’t until the soldier had given him the silk bag containing the stone that the old man realised the truth. It was never the stone that had created the delicious soup. Rather, by working together and being generous, both he and the soldier had been able to create a scrumptious meal that they could share between them.
God has given us all so much – who does God want us to share it with?
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES:
GET OUT OF JAIL GAME – 5 MINS
Description: Team or individual game
Supplies: Get out of Jail jpeg, answer jpeg, bibles.
Details:
Using the printout or slide (start at the ‘imprisoned’ end and move through the maze to get to the ‘free’ on the other side) to find the scripture! The correct route will take them through the passage “I have learned the secret of being content no matter what happens…I can do everything by the power of Christ. He gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:12-13)
If time, spend a few moments reading Philippians 4:10-20 and share with each other which is your favorite verse and why.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Is it hard for you to feel content? Why or why not?
- What can we learn from this verse about being content?
- What can you do to help others in your church family?
- Does God delight when we help others from what he has given us?
SENSE HOW YOU FEEL – 10 MINS EACH OR IN TANDEM/ROTATION
Encourage the children to think about the questions above as they do one of the activities:
Description: Craft.
Supplies: Jam jars, embellishments, Kindness Jar PDF of random acts of kindness.
Details: Color and stick the kindness jar label on the jam jar and decorate with ribbon and embellishments. Cut out the random acts of kindness sheet and put them in the jar. Every day pull a kindness act out of the jar!
Description: Moulding activity.
Supplies: Playdough or clay.
Details: Mould someone who you could help this week.
Description: Building activity.
Supplies: Lego or construction toys.
Details: Build a scene of when someone was generous to you.
Description: Sensory activity.
Supplies: Create a prayer tent space using cushions, lights, a cross and tent if you have one. Have some quiet music playing.
Details: Encourage the children to spend some time listening to God. Have some scriptures around to help focus them. Allow time to draw or write anything that they have heard.
Description: Activity Booklets.
Supplies: 5-7s and 8-11s booklets (included in download), markers.
Details: Fill in or color the 5-7s (PDF) and 8-11s (PDF) booklets.
SEEK GOD: 5 MINS
Description: Prayer/Encounter activity
Supplies: Soft worship music,
Details: Ask the children to stand. Play some quiet music in the background
Today we have learnt how we need to be content and God gives us the strength to be content and to be generous to others.
As the music plays let’s ask God to show us where we are not content with the things we have. Maybe we have been jealous of other people’s things?
Let’s also God how we can be generous in our lives. Who can we help?
Pray: Dear God, sometimes being content is hard for us. Help us not to compare our lives with other peoples. Help us to simply trust You. And please make it clear to us any time You would like us to give to someone else. AMEN.
ZOOM FRIENDLY LESSON:
ESCAPE THE ROOM (Keynote/PowerPoint) Answer: (Keynote/PowerPoint)
NAME, PLACE, ANIMAL AND THING (regular/widescreen)
