All we like SHEEP!

The Sheep Fold(Bible Lesson)

Day 4 The Good Shepherd Loves Us.

Supplies needed:

Big bucket of legos(or some type of toy with many many pieces….the bigger the better)

Party hats and noise makers(one per child)

Hand out papers

Advance preparation: 
read through the lesson, and decide on what legos you will need.
Hide a lego piece in the room.

Introduction:

Welcome the children and invite them to join in discussion.

We hear the word love LOTS. I might tell you that I love ice cream or I might tell you I love my children. What are ways that you hear people use the word love?  Do you feel the same way about ice cream as you do about your parents?

Now I want you to use your imagination with me.  I know that we don’t LOVE toys they way we love people, but I want you to pretend with me that all these lego’s in this box represent a person. (Stick big box of legos in the middle of the room) Each of us is a little bit different and there are LOTS and LOTS of people in the world.    (Pull out a tiny piece) Now I have a problem, you see I was going through my legos earlier today and counting them, and playing with them and stuff, and I discovered that one of my pieces was missing!  It’s a piece that looks just like this(show really small piece). I REALLY REALLY REALLY like that piece. Why just yesterday I was using that piece to build this super cool structure and it was holding these other two pieces together just so perfectly, and it was doing such a good job! I am just so upset that this piece is missing, and my life just won’t be the same until I have that piece back!

Now what would you kids do if these were your toys?  Would you care that much about a tiny little piece?   Sometimes it is easy for us to think that we are just an insignificant person in the world. It’s easy to feel like we don’t matter, and that God can’t possibly love us because there are so many people who seem bigger and more important.  They might be like this piece(grab piece) or this one(grab another one) these pieces seem really important. If I compare this piece(show the one that you grabbed to begin with)  to the others, it seem pretty small and unimportant, but that is not how God feels at all. God loves you, and if you walk away from God it makes him sad. He will go out looking for you and will NOT stop until he finds you.

Lets read our Bible story.

 Bible Time:

Luke 15:1-7

 Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him.² And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Now the Pharisees and scribes where like the big and important people.  The tax collectors and sinners, where the people that where considered really small and not important. In fact,people hated tax collectors and sinners so much, that they didn’t think they were even worth being alive. Now lets listen to what Jesus tells the big important people.

 ³ So He spoke this parable to them, saying:

⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

Does that sound kinda familiar to you?  Remember our big bin of legos?  Remember how concerned I was because I was missing one lego?  You know what?  God things you are sooooooooo much more important that a lego piece. You are like his sheep and he is the Good Shepherd, so if you wander off he is going to search and search until he finds you, now lets read about what happens when the Good Shepherd finds his sheep.

 ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 

So what did the Good Shepherd do?  Did he get really mad and beat that sheep?  Did he yell at the sheep and make it walk home all by itself?  NO the bible says he REJOICED! There is another place where Jesus tells this story and it says that he called his friends and family together and had a great big party, just because he found his sheep. Isn’t that awesome? Let’s read the rest of the story okay?

⁷ I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

So you see. God was telling the people that thought that they were big, important, and the best, that they were not any more important. He was saying that each one of us sheep is important to God and God will do whatever he can to reach each one of us!

Hey wait…look there is my piece!  (get very excited) Oh am soooo excited I could just jump up and dance! Wow, this is so cool! I think it’s time for a PARTY! What do you think?  Pull out a bunch of birthday hats and noise makers and hand them out to the kids and have  a quick impromptu ‘party’.

Bible Memory :

Let’s review our bible verse again….think about how this verse shows us the love of the Good Shepherd.

Review memory verse

He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart

Invite the children to repeat after you and add actions!

He tends his flock

(Put hands like you are patting sheep on the head)

Like a shepherd

(Make shepherd staff with hand)

He gathers the lambs in his arms

(Motion like you are gathering a lamb into your arm)

And carries them close to his heart

(Put both hands on your heart)

Isaiah 40:11

Hand outs:

Make sure the kids get their take home sheets and point out anything you want to focus on! There probably won’t be time in this class to work on them.

Closing:

Before we go I want each one of you to know that GOD the Good Shepherd LOVES  you! Go around and say to each child God loves (their name)!

Pray and thank God for being a Good Shepherd that LOVES us!