Deliverance
WELCOME TO WEEK 3
Delivering a message of love should be an easy message to pass to others. What if you think the people you must spread the message to are not as good as you? What does God say about sharing his message to people who are not the same as you? This week we will see what God thinks of various groups of people and what that will look like in His Kingdom.
BIBLE STORY
Use a large blanket or sheet and fill it with various stuffed animals (alternately show pictures of various animals on phone from online). Hold the animals so your child can not see the animals, then have them choose 1 animal from the bag. When they take out an animal, have them tell you 1 or 2 facts they know about the animal they chose. Continue this way until several fish are pulled out at described.
We know a lot about these animals. Some of these animals are good for a specific job, some make good pets and others may make a good meal. Although each of these animals have different jobs, they are all God’s creatures! This week we will see how we can often group animals as well as people into different groups. But God doesn’t want us to be separated into different groups that make one group better than the other because He loves us all. He taught Peter a lesson by using a vision about animals for Peter to understand that we are all delivered no matter what our differences.
Read or listen to Acts 11:1-18
What did Peter describe as what he saw? (A vision)
What did Peter see coming down from heaven? (A large sheet filled with animals)
What types of animals did Peter see? (4 footed animals, wild beasts, reptiles, birds)
What did the voice tell Peter to do? (Get up kill and eat)
What was Peter’s response? (Sure not, nothing pure or unclean has ever entered my mouth)
What did the voice of heaven say about the animals? (Do not call anything unpure what God haas made clean.)
What happened to the people when Peter started speaking to them about God’s word? ( the Holy Spirit came on them)
What did Peter realize after seeing the Holy Spirit come on them? (If God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, Who was I to think I could stand in God’s way)
BIBLE STORY ACTIVITY
Activity
Grab a large assortment of animals. Sort them into different t groups giving your chid the categories such as by color, by size, by number of legs, by land or sea, winged or non winged etc. It’s easy to sort these animals into different groups. I bet we could even think of more groups to sort our animals in. What else could we sort into groups? Could we sort food? Plants? People? Sometimes people do sort people into different groups and they may even try to say they are better than a different group, but our story today tells us that God does not sort people into groups. He doesn’t decide that one type of people are better than another. Peter’s dream helped him see that the Jews were loved by God just as He loved the Gentiles. We can love all groups of people too and remember that God sees us all as His children.
Materials: assortment of stuffed or plastic animals
Alternate
Set up 4 stations around in each corner of the room. Play music while the children walk/skip/hop in a circle in the center of the room. When the music stops, children need to quickly move to the corner of the room closest to them. Then, roll a dice to see what number is chosen. Those standing in the corner that was chosen gets a prize. Then everyone goes back to the middle to walk/skip/hop while the music plays and then continue to call numbers each time the music stops and they find a corner, until you are ready to end the game. That was fun to be chosen, but aren’t you glad God doesn’t choose us this way? Aren’t you glad that he has chosen each of us and delivered us all, no matter what ‘group’ we are in?
Materials: large sheets of papers labeled 1-4
Independent activity:
We all have dreams, they occur at night and we have often forgotten them by morning! Unlike Peter’s vision, which happens while you are awake, and you can remember the details when it is over. God used visions in the Bible to tell someone an important message they often needed to see! Although our dreams are not visions, we often have dreams that we can vaguely remember and they might feel really important. Think about a dream you have had and what it may have meant, if it meant anything at all. On a sheet of paper, draw all the things you saw in your dream on your peer, and write what you think the dream what about. Our dreams are not necessarily from God, but they are one way our brain processes information we’ve seen or learned.
Materials: White construction paper, crayons or markers
ARTS & CAFTS
CRAFT 1
Coloring page
Materials: handprint, construction paper, scissors
Craft 2
Coloring page
Materials: printed coloring sheet, crayons
FOLLOW-UP
What did Peter believe about those who were not Jews?
Did Peter think everyone would be saved or just God’s chosen people?
How can we show love to others even when they are different from you?
How can we show love to others when we don’t think they deserve it?
Who are some people you know who need to be shown love?
How did God show Peter that He wanted Peter to love everyone?
Practical Application at Home
It's easier to love others who we think are worthy or deserving of our love. But God calls us to love even people who might be difficult to love or unpopular. Think about people you know who need to be shown the love of God. We even forgot people we should love and sometimes they are overlooked. But God wants us to look and seek out those who need His love and show God’ slove to them. Let’s keep our eyes open this week to look for ways to serve and show love to all of God’s people.
Deliver a message of love to someone. Create your own postcard by drawing a picture or using a photo of a scenery you enjoy or consider peaceful. On the back of the postcard write a simple message of Jesus’ love. Secretively deliver the message to someone who needs to hear Jesus’ message of love.
Additional Resources
Outings to Reinforce Lesson
Enjoy the cool weather and take a nature walk. Observe the things God created and how they work together in His plan. What part do each of us play in God’s plan for us?