Week #3
The Body Armor of God's Righteousness
Welcome to week #3 of Home-made JAM!
If you have missed any of the week's lessons, you can find them at www.splgrafton.org/fig
Start HERE
Righteousness is a hard word to define, often people define it as a checklist of right actions. But the Pharisees had their checklist, and they weren't truly righteous. True righteousness is something God puts into our hearts, and the body armor He gives us helps to protect it.
Let's Sing!
This week we are focusing on two songs. The first one, There's Power in the Blood, reminds us where our power comes from. The second one, God will Guide Us, reminds us that God is with us at all times of our lives. Our strength and power comes from Him because He is faithful.
Take some time to learn these songs and sing them with your kids!
Deeper Bible - Get it Clean
Supplies
- Bible
- large paper plate
- cornstarch
- wet wipes
- pleasant-smelling hand lotion
Talk About Getting Clean
Some things are hard to get clean. Have each person share about something they had a hard time getting clean. Maybe adults had a hard time getting a grease stain out of your favorite shirt, tree sap off your car, or burnt food off a pan. Maybe kids had a hard time getting sand off their feet at a beach, clay out of the carpet, or fruit juice off the couch.
Get Our Hands Clean
Pass the plates of cornstarch. Encourage everyone to press the palm of their hand in the cornstarch so it’s covered. The Bible calls the wrong things we do sin. Sin sticks to our hearts like this cornstarch is sticking to our hands.
- Let’s try to shake it off (encourage everyone to shake their hands) Is it working? Maybe we got some of the cornstarch off, but our hands are still pretty messy.
- Let’s try blowing it off. (encourage everyone to try blowing the cornstarch off their hands). That still didn’t get it all off.
- Maybe we can try brushing it off. Let’s see if that will work. (try to brush the cornstarch off using the other hand).
Now our hands may look clean from far away, but they still aren’t completely clean. We can't get them clean on our own. We have the same problem with our hearts—we can’t get the sin out of our hearts by ourselves. We need Jesus to make our hearts truly clean. Give a wet wipe or wet cloth to each person, and have them wipe their hands clean.
Some of the leaders around Jesus thought that if they just did good things, their hearts would be clean. But Jesus could see that there was still sin sticking to their hearts. We all need Jesus to get our hearts clean. We can’t do it on our own. The Bible tells us that’s why Jesus came.
Put on Love
Give each person a small amount of hand lotion, and have them rub it into their hands. We cleaned off the sticky cornstarch and replaced it with this lotion. Jesus can take the sin from our hearts and replace it with His love. Then we can make right choices because of His love in our hearts. That’s called righteousness, and it keeps the evil of sin away. We can fight evil with righteousness.
Say a prayer and thank Jesus that He came to take all the sin out of our hearts.
Game - Red Light, Green Light
Supplies
- upbeat music (optional)
- music player (optional)
Talk About Pretending
We heard about some leaders who pretended they were righteous or good. They did things to make people think they were perfect. Share about a time you pretended to do the right thing because someone was watching
.
Play a Game
The leaders wanted everyone to think they were really good and important. But Jesus cared most about whether they had goodness in their hearts. Let’s play a game where we act differently when someone is watching us.
- Have everyone spread out on one side of the room while you stand on the opposite side of the room.
- When I am looking at you like this (stand facing everyone), pretend you’re walking toward me for a hug, but stay in place. As you do, act like you’re really important the way the leaders did. Show me your most important-looking march. Demonstrate how to march in place with back straight and nose in the air as if you’re very important.
- Turn your back to the group, have another adult (or one of the older kids) encourage the rest of the group to make silly faces at you while your back is turned.
- Face the group again, and remind them to march in place with serious looks on their faces.
- Continue playing as time allows, alternating between facing the group and having your back to them.
- If you’d like, play upbeat music while kids play.
The leaders wanted everyone to think they were close to God. But Jesus could see that in their hearts, they weren’t really being good friends of God. When someone was watching you in our game, you pretended you were getting closer to me. But when they weren’t looking, you were making faces at them! Jesus wants us to love Him and be close to Him no matter who can see.
Play the game again, but this time, whether you are looking or not, have the group keep coming closer. Alternate several times between facing them and turning your back as they’re walking. When they all get to you, gather everyone into a big group hug!
Wrap it Up - Praise Prayers
Supplies
- Bible
Praise God for His Righteousness
Our body armor is God’s righteousness! Let’s praise Him for His righteousness using words from Psalm 71 in the Bible. Read the following lines from Psalm 71:15-16, 19. Pause after each one and have the rest of your family repeat after you.
- I will tell everyone
- about your righteousness.
- All day long
- I will proclaim your saving power,
- though I am not skilled with words.
- I will praise your mighty deeds,
- O Sovereign Lord.
- I will tell everyone
- that you alone are just.
- Your righteousness, O God,
- reaches to the highest heavens.
- You have done such wonderful things.
- Who can compare with you, O God?
Resources
- Knight Handout - Use the same one EVERY week