18 October 2020 Junior Church Resources
For our Younger Children
God Provides
https://youtu.be/9eH0fQuVb1U
Theme: We honour God
Object: Different coins (one per child)
Bible Reading
Matthew 22:17 – New International Version – UK
Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the poll-tax to Caesar or not?’
Story & Activity
Give each child a coin to hold. Explain that they are to hold it tightly in their fist until you give them further instructions.
Has anyone ever asked you a question that there just wasn’t any way to answer without getting yourself into trouble? That’s what we call a loaded question. A loaded question is one that is worded so that a person cannot answer it without appearing to be guilty.
Here are a couple of examples of loaded questions:
-
Have you quit cheating at cards? If you answer, “Yes” you are admitting that you used to cheat. If you answer, “No” you are admitting that you still cheat.
-
Do you still pick on your little brother? That is like the other question. You are either going to admit that you used to pick on your brother or that you still pick on him.
Sometimes a loaded question is asked to try to trick a person into saying something that will get them into trouble. Our Bible lesson today is a good example of that.
Jesus was gaining great popularity among the Israelites. This was very upsetting to the religious leaders called Pharisees. They thought He was a threat to their authority. They tried everything they could think of to make Jesus look bad and yet Jesus had more and more followers every day. So a group of Pharisees met and came up with a plot to trick Jesus into saying something that would discredit Him among His followers.
The people in Jesus’ day were required to pay taxes to the Roman government. That was not very popular with the people. The plan was to go to Jesus and ask Him his opinion about paying the taxes. So, the Pharisees sent their followers, with a few of Herod’s followers mixed in and asked Jesus, “Teacher, we know how honest you are. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us what you think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” They were actually trying to trick Jesus, because they knew if He said, “Yes,” the people would be angry. But if He said, “No,” he would get into trouble with the Roman authorities.
Jesus saw right through their plan and He did a very wise thing. He asked them for a coin. Then He said, “Whose picture is on this coin?”
They answered, “It is Caesar.” Caesar was the Roman ruler and all taxes had to be paid to him.
Jesus then said to them, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”
Look at your coin. Whose picture is on it? (Allow kids to answer/guess.) What does it say right above his picture? It says, “The United States of America.” Well, I guess that means that this coin belongs to the person whose picture is on it.
But what about God? Jesus also said “Give to God what belongs to God.” The Bible says that we were created by God and that we were created in the image of God. If we are created by God, and we were created in His image, we must belong to Him. That means we must give ourselves to Him!
On the count of three I want you to flip your coin in the air and repeat with me “give yourselves to God” as you try to catch your coin. (Count to 3.)
Dear God, help us give You what is Yours. Help us spend our hours in acts of love and our days in doing acts of kindness. May we always obey You and give You honour. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Daily Discussion
Daily Discussion – click here to view
For our older Junior Church Members
Grab the popcorn and gather round to watch this classic Rob Bell video – Noise
From Rob Bell: Why is silence so hard to deal with? Why is it so much easier for us to live our lives with a lot of things going on all the time than to just be in silence? We’re constantly surrounded with ‘voices’ that are influencing us on how to think, feel, and behave. Movies, music, TV, internet, cell phones, and a never-ending barrage of advertising. There’s always something going on. Always noise in our lives. But maybe there’s a connection between the amount of noise in our lives and our inability to hear God. If God sometimes feels distant to us. Maybe it’s not because he’s not talking to us but simply because we aren’t really listening.
https://youtu.be/H-oJDh58Pjw
Some questions you may wish to discuss together…
1. Bell was reading about a guy named Bernie Krause who records nature sounds for film and television. He was saying that, in 1968, in order to get one hour of natural sound, like no airplanes, no cars, that it would take him about 15 hours of recording time, and he was saying that today, to get that same one hour of undisturbed sound, it takes him 2000 hours of recording time. What does the Bernie Krause story have to say about how our world has changed? What kind of noise do you have in your life?
2. Why is silence so hard to deal with?
3. Do you ever surround yourself with noise intentionally? If so, why do you think you do this?
4. Do you wish God’s voice would be louder in your life? Does all the noise in our lives make it hard to hear God?
5. When was the last time you spent some time in silence?
Leave a Reply