Signed, Sealed, Forgiven

Signed, Sealed, Forgiven

Bible Story: Signed, Sealed, Forgiven (Forgiveness principle) • Ephesians 4:32

Bottom Line: The story of Jesus changes how I forgive others.

Memory Verse: “God’s grace has saved you because of your faith in Christ. Your salvation doesn’t come from anything you do. It is God’s gift.” Ephesians 2:8, NIrV

Life App: Faith—believing what Jesus did can change me.

Basic Truth: I should treat others the way I want to be treated.

GET READY

Prepare ahead of time for 4th–5th grade Small Groups this week:

Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction (Choose one or both of these activities.)

Early Arriver

·  An offering container

·  Optional:

o  Poster board

o  Phone with video recording capabilities

o  Large book outline drawn on banner paper

o  Several notebooks and journals

o  Pens or markers

Balancing Scales

·  3 plastic coat hangers with small notches on each side

·  3 4-foot lengths of yarn

·  3 pair of scissors

·  6 paper or foam bowls

·  Various items to use as weights, such as: beans, bean bags, play dough, wooden blocks

Groups: Creating a Safe Place to Connect (Choose as many of these activities as you like.)

* If you don’t have time to do all these activities, be sure to do activity #2.

1. Motivation Improvisation (application activity / review the Bible story)

·  Print the “Improv Script” Activity Page; 1 for every 2 kids

·  Several silly props, such as: hats, pool noodles, oversize toys, etc.

* 2. Forgiveness Skills (application activity)

·  Scale and weights (from the “Balancing Scales” activity)

·  Print the “Forgiveness Skills Scenario Cards” Activity Page and cut apart; 1 set for each Small Group

·  Bibles

5/6 Challenge:

·  Paper plates; 1 for each kid

·  Markers or pens

3. Unwrapped Relay (memory verse activity)

·  A roll of plastic wrap

·  Several small treats, such as: individually wrapped candies, erasers, pencils, etc.

·  Print the “Unwrapped Verse Cards” Activity Pages and cut apart; 1 set for each Small Group

·  Tape the “Unwrapped Verse Cards” in random order to the treats and then wrap them all in a ball of plastic wrap. (Unroll a piece about 5-6 feet long. Spread the treats out a few inches apart and start to haphazardly roll up the plastic wrap. Repeat until it’s all one package. The idea is not to have a bunch of treats wrapped together, but to make it so that they’re separated by layers of plastic wrap and the only way to get them out is to keep unwrapping the giant ball.)

Prayer

·  Scales and weights from the “Balancing Scales” activity

Additional Resources:

·  Make copies on cardstock of this week’s GodTime and Parent Cue cards.

·  Tell parents about our additional family resources: Studio252.tv, CUE Box, and the Parent Cue app. To find out more about these great resources, go to http://www. Studio252.tv/leaders.

Signed, Sealed, Forgiven

Bible Story: Signed, Sealed, Forgiven (Forgiveness principle) • Ephesians 4:32

Bottom Line: The story of Jesus changes how I forgive others.

Memory Verse: “God’s grace has saved you because of your faith in Christ. Your salvation doesn’t come from anything you do. It is God’s gift.” Ephesians 2:8, NIrV

Life App: Faith—believing what Jesus did can change me.

Basic Truth: I should treat others the way I want to be treated.

Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction (Small Groups, 15 minutes)

Welcome kids and spend time engaging in conversation and catching up. Get ready to experience today’s story.

Before kids arrive, pray for each regular attendee by name. Pray for those who might visit your group for the first time. Pray that your kids would start to understand what it means to forgive others as a response to what Christ has done for them. Ask God to give you wisdom to bring these huge concepts down to their level so they might experience a change in their relationships.

1. Early Arriver Idea

What You Need: Offering container; Optional: poster board, cell phone, large book outline drawn on banner paper, several notebooks and journals, pens or markers

What You Do:

·  Greet kids as they arrive and encourage them to place their offerings in the container.

·  Then, ask them to share a story about the hardest thing they’ve ever accomplished and why they did it. Maybe they raked their entire yard because their dad promised them a new bike, or maybe they gave up something they really wanted in order to give the money to charity or to a friend in need. It could be that they trained hard to make the travel basketball team or accomplished a difficult piece of music for their school band concert.

·  You can share these stories verbally or let kids record them in whatever way has been provided for the month.

2. Balancing Scales

What You Need: 3 Plastic coat hangers, 3-4 foot lengths of yarn, 3 pairs of scissors, 6 bowls, items to use as weights

What You Do:

·  Divide the group into three teams, and give each team a hanger, a length of yarn, a pair of scissors, and two bowls. Divide the weight items among the teams.

·  See if they can figure out how to make a scale out of the items.

·  Be prepared to step in with the explanation: Cut small holes in the side of the bowls and thread yarn through to make handles; loop the yarn handles over the small notches on the hanger and balance the hook of the hanger on someone’s extended index finger.

·  Let kids pile various weights in the bowls and see what balances.

What You Say:

“Scales have been used for thousands of years to make sure that everything is fair in a transaction. [Transition] Let’s go to Large Group to see if ‘fair’ is the best we can offer people.”

Lead your group to the Large Group area.

Groups: Creating a Safe Place to Connect (Small Groups, 25 minutes)

Create a safe place to connect and learn how the Bible story applies to real life experiences, through interactive activities and discussion questions.

1. Motivation Improvisation (application activity / review the Bible story)

What You Need: “Improv Script” Activity Pages; 1 for every 2 kids, silly props

What You Do:

·  Divide the group into pairs. Give each pair a few random props and the script.

·  Give kids a few minutes to read through the script.

·  Challenge them to come up and do some improvisation acting in the front of your environment. (Note: They can read the lines from the script; there should be no pressure to memorize anything.)

·  Give kids suggestions about motivations while they’re acting: now you’re scared, now you’re happy, now aliens have landed and demand pizza, now you want your partner to buy you a milkshake, now your hands are completely paralyzed, now you’re so excited because you’re going to a giant roller coaster park, now you’re trying to talk without moving your lips, etc.

·  Let whoever really gets into this carry the activity a bit, and then circle up and talk.

What You Say:

“Even though the groups were saying the same words, they meant something different because of how they said them. They were responding to what I was saying; those emotions and situations affected the way they said their lines. That’s called motivation—the thoughts and intentions behind our words and actions. The forgiveness principle from Ephesians 4:32 we heard today, ‘Forgive one another, just as God forgave you,’ doesn’t just have to do with our actions but also our motivations.

“Jesus didn’t forgive us to get something from us, or to convince us of something, or to look like a really great guy. Jesus forgave us with no motivation other than grace. When we forgive others, we need to have that same idea. We don’t forgive people just to move on from feeling angry, or to make our parents proud, or to have them owe us a favor. Our motivation in forgiving other people is that Jesus forgave us.

[Make It Personal] (Share an age-appropriate story about a time you had to forgive someone and your motivation might have been something other than the forgiveness principle. Perhaps you forgave someone to gain an advantage or to look strong or to make someone else happy. Talk about what happened when you thought of your motivation and how you forgave that person.) “We all know that we should forgive others, but today we’re looking not just at what we should do, but at how we should do it—our motivation. [Bottom Line] The story of Jesus changes how I forgive others.”

5/6 Challenge:

What You Say:

(Use the following as a discussion starter for your group.) “Author Donald Miller says the simplest definition of a character in a story is someone who wants something. That’s what motivates them. Name some of the reality TV shows you know. What motivates people to compete on these shows or to let cameras film them doing whatever they do?

“They want to be famous, find love, win money, make friends, and prove they are the best. Their focus is mainly on themselves. But forgiveness is different. Real forgiveness expects nothing back. It gives more than a big check, cool job, or red rose ever could. People talk about intrinsic or internal motivation versus extrinsic or external motivation. Most of what a reality TV show or contest promises you is external, and often it doesn’t last. But Jesus knew that intrinsic motivation comes from the inside and lasts much longer. When we realize how much we’ve been forgiven, it’s more natural to forgive others.”

* 2. Forgiveness Skills (application activity)

What You Need: Scale and weights (from the “Balancing Scales” activity); “Forgiveness Skills Scenario Cards” Activity Page; 1 set for each Small Group, Bibles

What You Do:

·  Balance a scale on your own index finger and place the weights nearby.

·  Ask kids to draw a “Scenario Card,” read it, look up the passage in the Bible, and decide what advice to give.

·  If the advice makes the situation “fair,” have the other kids add weights evenly to the scale to balance it.

·  If the advice is “unfair”—that is, if someone shows forgiveness despite the other person’s attitude—have kids unevenly weight the scale so it tips.

·  Remind kids that forgiveness doesn’t have to be cut and dried. You can forgive someone while still allowing them to experience the consequences of their actions.

What You Say:

“Forgiveness is unfair. It’s giving someone something they don’t deserve. When you forgive, you’re weighting the scales in someone else’s favor. Jesus didn’t give us fairness; He gave us forgiveness. Sometimes we think that when we’re forgiving someone, we’re trying to even the scales and make things fair in the future, because we’ll need them to forgive us one day—your best friend better remember you forgave her when she told the whole lunch table about your blankie, because you accidentally just spilled the beans about her fear of the dark.

“Or we’re trying to balance our own scales and make up for something unfair that we did earlier—you threw a fit at your mom when she was late for school pick-up once, but now you feel bad so you forgive her for shrinking your sweater in the wash. But forgiving others like Jesus forgives us isn’t like that. It’s forgiving others without worrying about what’s fair. It’s accepting the unfairness of forgiveness. That’s a really hard thing to do, but [Bottom Line] the story of Jesus changes how I forgive others.”

5/6 Challenge

What You Need: Paper plates; 1 for each kid, markers or pens

What You Do:

·  Ask kids to think of a time when it was hard to forgive someone and it wasn’t handled well. How did the situation turn out?

·  Encourage them to write their answers down in the middle of a paper plate. They don’t need to put their name.

·  Scatter these plates face down around the room or the table.

·  Instruct students find someone else’s situation to read.

·  Tell them to flip the plates over and rewrite the ending so there is forgiveness like we’ve been discussing.

·  Ask: How would what you know about Jesus and how He forgives others help us today when we’re struggling to forgive?

·  Students can pray for the other person before putting the plates back in the middle to be re-claimed.

·  Give some time for students to read the new response and remind them today is a new day, with plenty of opportunities to forgive!

3. Unwrapped Relay (memory verse activity)

What You Need: Prepared giant ball of plastic-wrapped treats

What You Do:

·  Gather the kids in a circle and let them pass the package around, with each kid unwrapping until they find a treat and a card. They can keep both.

·  After all the kids have gone (possibly twice—it’s a long verse), have the group put the verse together in the correct order.

·  Say the verse together and then circle back up to let kids enjoy their treats.

What You Say:

“You guys sure were motivated to get those treats! And I had to be pretty motivated to wrap those, let me tell you! Grace is a motivation that we don’t explore a lot. Remember, grace means showing someone undeserved favor. Grace was the motivation for Jesus to forgive us and it’s the motivation we should have to forgive others, too, because [Bottom Line] the story of Jesus changes how I forgive others.”

5/6 Challenge

What You Say:

“Think about all the places in your life that have mirrors. This week, when you pass a mirror, do a quick self-check. Ask yourself, ‘Is there someone I need to forgive?’ Or even, ‘Do I need forgiveness for anything?’ Simply taking a minute to regularly think about these things can help them to not build up. Remember, the story of Jesus shows just how much He loves you and wants to forgive!”

If you lead mostly older kids, consider asking these discussion questions:

·  How do you decide when and how to forgive someone? It is easier to forgive those closest to you or people whom you don’t know well? Why is that true for you?

·  Do you ever feel uncomfortable when someone forgives you, like you don’t deserve it? How does the idea of grace as motivation for their forgiveness help that feeling?

Pray and Dismiss

What You Need: Scales and weights from the “Balancing Scales” activity

What You Do:

·  Gather the kids to pray and hold the scale in the center of the circle.

·  Open the prayer, and then let kids go around the circle praying, “Help me to forgive others as Jesus forgave me.” As they pray, kids can add a weight to the scale so it becomes unbalanced. (To keep the whole thing from tilting completely to once side, kids will need to add weights to both sides, while making sure the overall scale stays unbalanced.)

·  Close the prayer.

What You Say:

“Dear God, thank You for forgiving us and giving us the ability to forgive others. Please help us this week to realize [Bottom Line] the story of Jesus changes how we forgive others and to show grace to our family, friends, and community. Amen.”

Give each child a GodTime card. Pass out Parent Cue cards as adults arrive to pick up. Let kids demonstrate the scales to parents and remind them all that forgiveness isn’t always fair.