Scripture: for teacher background: Mat 19: 16-30; Luke 12: 13-21; Luke 19:1-9; Col 3:5 Proverbs 22:17; 23:1-5 Ecclesiastes 2:1-11, 24-26
Making
contact:
Bring a dustbin bag full of things to
class. The bag could be filled with shoes, clothes, hats, handbags, CDs, books,
pillows, sweets etc.
Ask someone in the class to stand next to you with the
bag. Both of you should face the class.
Pretend you are a greedy person who is
very materialistic. Begin by saying, “oh, I’m so tired of the shoes I have I
need new shoes.”
As you say this, the child should look through the bag to find
what you are looking for and hand you a pair of shoes, which you’ll hold in
your hands.
Then say, “Oh, but my clothes are old fashioned, I want new clothes”
As the child gives you clothes, you continuously demand
more and more of the goodies you brought along in the bag – all the while you
hands / arms will get full and eventually you will be able to show the kids
that even though you now have so much in your hands that stuff is falling down,
you are never satisfied. (want….want….want!)
Or - ask the kids to talk about their favorite advert. They might like
to act them out and then the rest of the children can guess what they are
advertising.
Talk about the aim of advertising. It is to attract us to buy the
product and to believe it is the best.
Exploration:
Once a rich young man came to Jesus and
asked, “What good thing must I do to receive eternal life?”
Jesus told
him that although only God is truly good, he should keep all the commandments
and he will have life.
The rich man told Jesus that he had already done that so
Jesus said, “Sell all you have and give the money to the poor, then come and
follow me.” Matthew 19: 21
This made the rich young man very sad
because he really liked being rich; he knew he would miss his things if he gave
them away.
He wouldn’t have had a problem following Christ but he believed his
wealth was extremely important.
Afterwards Jesus told the disciples that it is
harder for a rich man to go to heaven than for a camel to fit into the eye of a
needle.
Because adverts are so creative, they are a
lot of fun to watch, some have catchy jingles that we sing along to, some are
very funny and others evoke sad or sympathetic responses in us.
Even the
irritating ones work because then we know that product too.
Because they
usually work on your emotions, adverts are designed to convince your mind that
you will never be satisfied unless you buy more, more, more.
The Bible teaches
us that this is greed. (Read Luke
12:15 to the children)
Application
It may be great to get more and more things
but unless you are able to share them with others, they’ll never satisfy you.
If you start to think material things are important to your happiness then you
have made them your idol, just like the rich man had proved money was
his idol when it saddened him to let it go.
Solomon
was the richest man in the Bible and when he was old he wrote a story of what
he had discovered.
(You can read all about his thinking in Ecclesiastes)
He
built wonderful palaces and had slaves and horses and flocks.
He collected so
much gold and silver – all the delights that should make a person’s heart
happy. (A thousand wives!)
What was his conclusion? He said everything was meaningless, like
chasing the wind. The only important thing or person in the whole of life is GOD. (Ecclesiastes 1:11)
Challenge to Mission
Look
among your things over the week, and find something that you can either give
away or share with someone.
It could be a special toy to share with your
brother, sister or friend, or a some clothes to to give to a street child or surplus stuff to give to the charity shops that poor people can buy at a reasonable price with dignity.
Consolidation
Ask the children to make adverts to help people want to live for
Jesus.
They could do an advert on how the best book to read is the Bible or
that the best bank to bank in is heaven.
They could try and use ideas from
actual adverts and give it a twist where God is glorified and advertised!
The
worksheet has some examples.
The children must tick which things they want to get rich in.
Memory Verse
There
are 2 for this lesson – so choose one or learn both!
“A person’s true life is not made up of things he owns, no
matter how rich he may be.” Luke 12:15
“Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven for where
your heart is there will your treasure be also.” Matthew 6:20,21
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