Suit Up

Need to know: Go (punch up with one hand) With the good news boots (pretend to put on boots) Bible story: The Great Commission Matthew 28:16-20 Praise and worship: Let’s celebrate being superheroes who are SUITED UP with some praise and worship. Instruction: We’re going to put on our Good News Boots and practice sharing the good news of God’s love with everyone in the world. When we SUIT UP with our Good News Boots, we can Go (punch up with one hand) and share the good news of God’s love with everyone we see! Prayer Father God, we come to you in the precious name of Jesus Christ. We thank you God for the day you have made, thank you God that we can celebrate in the day and be glad in it. God where you are there is JOY, there is PEACE and there is LOVE. Father, we thank you that we can come together in your presence and be in unity with you. Thank you, God, for loving us so much that you’ve sent your only son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Thank you, God, that your perfect love on the cross has cleansed us, and thank you that it took away our fear. Father, we thank you that we can rejoice with you knowing that we are in right standing with you and that all our sins are forgiven because of your precious LOVE towards us. God may our lesson today sink into our hearts today so that we can take it with us wherever we go and that we can share your GOOD NEWS with your people. Father God may we be reminded of your LOVE, the LOVE that will never LIE, the LOVE that is always there when we feel weak, the LOVE that always comforts, the LOVE that forgives us when we make mistakes, the LOVE that will never leave us nor forsake us, the LOVE that showers us with JOY and PEACE and LAUGHTER and the LOVE that we can never be separated from. God thank you for your unfailing LOVE towards us, for the excitement attitude towards sharing you GOOD NEWS with your people. Thank you that our hearts are filled and that you’ve poured into us your LOVE, your JOY and, your PEACE to share. God, we thank you for all that you are and forever will be, in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Ice breaker: Share any of your GOOD NEWS that you have received for the past week. Then ask your kid/s to share their GOOD NEWS for the past week as well. Take notice of how exciting the kids get when they share the GOOD NEWS with you. Introduction: Sharing your good news with someone else makes us very excited, and it makes us want to share it with everyone we encounter. Today we are going to SUIT UP with our GOOD NEWS boots and tell everyone about God’s Love. God’s Love towards us is so great that we can share it with everyone around us, not only is God’s love great, but it makes us excited and creates a great amount of happiness and joy within our hearts that we cannot help but share His love for us! EVERYBODY NEEDS TO EXPERIENCE GOD’S GREAT LOVE FOR US! Lesson: God wanted to show us how much he loves us. This is good news! Knowing that we are loved by God and nothing can ever separate us from His great love is the BEST NEWS! God sent His one and only son Jesus Christ to take up our sins on the cross. He forgave our sins and He washes us clean from all our sins when we go to Him and ask for forgiveness. Now that is GOOD NEWS. Why is God’s love so great? Jesus Christ has dies on the cross for our sins. We are able to have a relationship with God and speak to Him daily because of Jesus dying on the cross. God’s love is so great that nothing can ever separate us from His love. His love will never ever ever ever fail us. God’s love is always with us, it protects us, listens to us, and answers our prayers (Psalm 91:14-16) Why should we tell everyone about God’s love? Well, we can’t keep the good news from anybody, so we have to tell others about God’s love for us so that they can experience it for themselves! When we share the good news about God’s love with someone, they will experience it and be able to tell someone else. That way many people will know about God’s love and will want to live with his love in their hearts. Repeat memory verse: Put on (Pretend to put on helmet) All of God’s Armor (Reach from head to toes) Then you (Point to others) Can remain strong (Show muscles) Ephesians 6:11 (Show six fingers. Then show both index fingers) Activity (Snowball fight): Bible content: Isaiah 1:18 You will need: Newspaper Masking tape A timer Play: Form two groups. Divide the area (living room/room) into two equal-sized areas with a masking tape line. Give each group an equal size amount of newspaper. On your signal, let kids make “snowballs” and quickly throw them back and forth at the opposing team for two minutes. The object is to get more snow on the opponent’s side when the time’s up. ENJOY! Insert Colouring in paper. Closing Prayer: Thank you, Father God, for your GOOD NEWS. It’s an honour to be in your presence Lord. Your presence is an open door God, please come fill us. Thank you that the seed of your LOVE that has been sowed in our hearts will grow and we can share it with everyone around us. In Jesus Mighty Name we pray. Amen.

Need to know: Suit up with Godliness With the sword of the Spirit Bible story: Gideon (Judges 6:1-32) Praise and worship: Let’s celebrate being superheroes who are SUITED UP with some praise and worship. Prayer Open with prayer. Focus on entering into God’s presence. This frame work for effective prayer will help you with that. Ice breaker: Choose your weapon! Choose your weapons…what are some weapons that we might see or hear about? Display several pictures of modern or ancient weapons, like swords, guns, tanks, or bows and arrows. Do these seem like big and powerful weapons? Next, hold up for students a water pitcher, a flashlight, and a party horn or instrument. Do these seem like good weapons? Maybe not so much…but with God, anything is possible! Introduction: Start out by discussing things that might be scary. What are students afraid of? Why are these things nerve-wracking? Describe how the story they will hear today has to do with some scary-sounding elements. The Bible story covers a bit of length, so it might be best to paraphrase parts of it, or for younger students most of it. At this time of the Bible, the people of Israel were ruled by judges. Explain that a judge was sort of like a governor or special leader that could help people. Set the stage by explaining that the people of God often made mistakes and did not obey Him. When this happened, sometimes enemies came and took over their land. Lesson: Wow, did you catch that? God does not point out that Gideon is scared and without courage. God encourages him and speaks life into his situation. The Sword of the Spirit works the same way in our lives. Holy Spirit does not humiliate us. He corrects us by speaking life into our situation. With the Sword of the Spirit we can fight off the accusations of the enemy that tries to frighten us into hiding. The sword of the spirit gives us the courage to come out of hiding and to do what God has called us to do. And we fight off the lies that make usfeel too small, too ashamed to do what God wants us to do. Repeat memory verse: Put on (Pretend to put on helmet) All of God’s Armor (Reach from head to toes) Then you (Point to others) Can remain strong (Show muscles) Ephesians 6:11 (Show six fingers. Then show both index fingers) Activity (spending time): Reflect again on how God fulfills His promises and does amazing things through His people. Gideon might have been afraid and doubtful, but he knew He could trust God. And so can we! We might not think we are special or strong, but we don’t have to be. We just need to be willing to let God work through us. And we know He will give us what He promises, because He sent the savior Jesus, just like He said He would! Name one time when God came through for you when you had no hope. Identify an area of your life where you need to use the Sword of The Spirit Prayer: Close with prayer and thank God for His power in our lives. Ask for help in trusting Him to do great things and for help not to fear. .

Need to know: Go (punch up with one hand) With the belt of truth (pretend to put on a belt) Bible story: The Fall(Genesis3) Praise and worship: Let’s celebrate being superheroes who are SUITED UP with some praise and worship. Prayer Father God, we come to you in the precious name of Jesus Christ. We thank you God for the day you have made, thank you God that we can celebrate in the day and be glad in it. God where you are there is JOY, there is PEACE and there is LOVE. Father, we thank you that we can come together in your presence and be in unity with you. Thank you, God, for loving us so much that you’ve sent your only son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Thank you, God, that your perfect love on the cross has cleansed us, and thank you that it took away our fear. Father, we thank you that we can rejoice with you knowing that we are in right standing with you and that all our sins are forgiven because of your precious LOVE towards us. Thank you, God, that as we seek you more and more you reveal yourself to us, God you show us the truth where we forget your TRUTH. You remind us of your True words because God you are not a man that you should LIE. Thank you, God, for keeping your promises. God, as we learn about your TRUTH today, may we be reminded of your LOVE, the LOVE that will never LIE, the LOVE that is always there when we feel weak, the LOVE that always comforts, the LOVE that forgives us when we make mistakes, the LOVE that will never leave us nor forsake us, the LOVE that showers us with JOY and PEACE and LAUGHTER and the LOVE that we can never be separated from. God, we thank you for all that you are and forever will be, in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Ice breaker: God’s truth Read/Share your favourite story from the Bible. Tell us why it is your favourite story. Then share God’s TRUTH/TRUE WORDS in that story. E.g. Story When God created the earth He spoke everything into existence. Genesis 1:3 Then God said “Let there be light” TRUTH and there was light. Introduction: Today we are going to learn how to be Heroes and save the day by wearing a special piece of God’s Armor! It’s called the belt of TRUTH. In your favourite Bible story, God spoke His TRUE words and you remembered the TRUE things God said in the story! Lesson: In the Garden of Eden there were many trees bearing yummy fruit, but there was one tree God had told Adam and Eve not to eat from. The snake had tricked Eve and told her a lie so that she would forget what God had told her and do the wrong thing. Eve forgot that what God says is always TRUE, she decided to believe the LIE of the sneaky snake so she ate the fruit. Because they did not remember and obey the TRUE words of God, Adam and Eve had to leave God’s special garden. Adam and Eve did not have on their BELT OF TRUTH, if they would have been wearing this piece of God’s Armor, they would’ve known that the sneaky snake was not telling the TRUTH! Why should we wear the belt of Truth? The BELT OF TRUTH helps us remember the TRUE things God says in the Bible. When you suit up with the BELT OF TRUTH you have the power (show your muscles) to defeat any lies the enemy tries to tell you! Repeat memory verse: Put on (Pretend to put on helmet) All of God’s Armor (Reach from head to toes) Then you (Point to others) Can remain strong (Show muscles) Ephesians 6:11 (Show six fingers. Then show both index fingers) Activity (spending time): Ask the following questions and engage in a fun discussion (You can add questions) Do you think that it will be more fun to be able to fly high or run super-fast? If you had a superpower (relive a moment superpower) which day would you relive? Colour in Prayer: Thank you, God, that we could learn that whatever you speak is TRUE, thank you, Father God, that we have the belt of TRUTH to defeat any lie. Thank you, God, for giving us the Armor of God so that we can remain strong and suited up in our daily lives. In Jesus’ name we pray.

Need to KnowSuit Up with God’s Armor Bible Story David and Goliath: 1 Samuel 17 Praise & Worship PrayerFather, we come to you in the name of Jesus. We thank you for your Grace and mercy in our lives.We thank you for the price that Jesus paid for us on the cross. We thank you that at the cross our fear was swapped for Your peace, our sickness for healing, our weakness for Your strength. We thank you that we are forgiven by You. We thank you that we can come to you and say that we are sorry for all the times that we forget about You and that we don’t listen to what you are telling us to do. We thank you that we can know that our sins have been thrown into the sea of forgetfulness. We thank you that as we will now explore your Word, that it will wash us clean and help us to understand where we need You to help us to submit to You and Your Word. We thank you that we are not just hearers of the Word but also doers of the Word. We praise you! Your lovingkindness is better than life. You are the author and finisher of our faith. You are our shield and our strength and we can hide in the secret place of the most high during our time of need. Lord open our ears and soften our hearts while today’s lesson is sown into our hearts. Transform us and change us. Let the fruit of Your Spirit be seen in us, as we are transformed by Your Word. In Jesus mighty name Amen. Ice BreakerWhen the do does not fitPUsing oversizes shoes give the kids one oversized shoe Per child. Let them have a race, If the shoe falls off you need to start over. See who gets to the other side the quickest. IntroductionWhy was it hard to run in those shoes? (Wait for kids to answer) Yes, because they did not fit. Did you know that David also had a problem with shoes that did not fit him? Let’s watch the story. LessonDavid could fight Goliath because he wore the full armour of God. But what should we do when sometimes it feels like armour does not fit As well? What can we learn from David about those times when we feel like we have Nothing to protect us from the things that can make us scared. Learn Humility: David’s victory is really God’s victory! Goliath fought with strength and dominated his enemies with his enormous size. David relied on what he had learned while he was a shepherd. He learned total dependence on God! David was alone out on the hillside. He learned humility. Shepherds were not respected! His brother’s mocked him. He learned to be skillful with his slingshot! Sheep are dumb animals and they needed protection. He learned to have a relationship with God! He played his harp and wrote songs (Psalms) David tried on Saul’s armor and it did not fit. Armor back in Bible times was made to fit the warrior exactly. Saul was a tall adult man while David was a young boy who hadn’t grown to full stature. Even though David’s older brothers mocked him and were too fearful to fight Goliath themselves, he was willing. I can see a funny picture of David with a huge helmet, heavy mail armor, and an oversized sword. David couldn’t even walk in the armor! The first thing when the armor doesn’t fit, is to be insignificant. To be humble. David had learned these lessons from God when he was alone and totally relying on God’s protection on the hills as a shepherd. He didn’t need the armor to provide him with protection when God had protected him without heavy armor! Your Own Strength Is TOO Heavy- Take it Off! Saul’s armor was extremely heavy and made it impossible for David to walk. Too often we try to walk in our own strength instead of walking with Jesus in faith. Our own strength is too heavy just like Saul’s armor. David tried to walk but couldn’t. He told Saul that he couldn’t wear it because he had not tried or ‘proved’ it. Saul had been living in his own strength and that was what made his reign as king so disastrous. David had tried walking by faith in the wilderness and it had proved to work. He wasn’t going to put on something that wasn’t going to work! Get Comfortable In Your Own SkinSaul’s armor was made to fit him not David. You must wear your own armor and not armor made for someone else! You have your own personality and God has created you to serve Him in a unique way. You weren’t designed by God to be me or another sister in Christ. You are you and God created you for a special purpose that only you can carry out. David did put on armor but it wasn’t physical armor like Saul’s cumbersome armor. He wore the invisible armor that God prepared just for him like in Ephesians 6:1-20 Activity – Colour In