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Description

Introduction: Children need to learn from the Bible the guidelines and promises that God gives Christians to live by. We need to use the Bible when teaching Children about forgiveness, prayer and courage but we are using movie clips to reinforce the teachings. Taken from the BB Junior Pro Pack Spirit S-2-4

Resources

• Paper
• Pens/Pencils
• DVD Player
• TV/Projector
• Shrek DVD(U) - Activity 1
• Bible
• Evan Almighty DVD (PG) - Activity 2
• A Bug’s Life DVD (U) - Activity 3

Instructions

Activity 1 - Shrek - Forgiveness

Aim:
To teach about forgiveness using the film Shrek and the passage from Matthew 6:14-15

Preparation:
Read Matthew 6:14-15 (NIV):
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Instructions:
The section you will show is Chapter 16. This scene shows Shrek and Donkey having an argument and follows them making up and showing each other forgiveness and becoming friends again.

Donkey: Come back here! I’m not through with you yet!
Shrek: Well, I’m through with you!
Donkey: Uh-uh. You know you are always, “Me, Me, Me.” Well now it’s my turn. So you just shut up and pay attention. You are mean to me. You insult me. and you don’t appreciate anything I do. You are always pushing me around or pushing me away.
Shrek: Oh yeah? Well if I treated you so bad, how come you came back?
Donkey: ‘Cause that’s what friends do. They forgive each other.
Shrek: Oh yeah, Donkey, I forgive you...for stabbing me in the back!
Donkey: Oh! You are so wrapped up in layers, Onion Boy, you’re afraid of your own feelings!
Shrek: Go away!
Donkey: See! There you go, doin’ it again just like you did to Fiona. All she ever did was like you, maybe even love you.
Shrek: Love me? She said I was ugly. A hideous creature! I heard the two of you talking.
Donkey: She wasn’t talking about you. She was talking about somebody else.
Shrek: She wasn’t talking about me? Then who was she talking about?
Donkey: Uh-uh. No way. I ain’t sayin’ anything. You don’t want to listen to me. Right? Right?
Shrek: Donkey...
Donkey: No!
Shrek: Okay, look; I’m sorry. Alright? I’m sorry. I guess lam just a big, stupid, ugly ogre. Can you forgive me?
Donkey: Hey, that’s what friends are for, right?
Shrek: Right. Friends?
Donkey: Friends

Ask the children if they understand what this scene is about When they begin to give you answers encourage all answers and lead the conversation to forgiveness. Get a large piece of card and ask them to write down things that are wrong — things that they have done and things that others have done to them — you could use different sides of the paper for each.

Once they are written down allow the children to talk if they want to and then ask,

Have you ever forgiven someone?”

Let them think this through and chat about it

Do you think you have ever been forgiven?”

You may need to prompt answers — so you can talk about friends and parents and different feelings when you feel forgiven or when you don’t want to forgive others.

Let’s look at what the Bible says about Forgiveness

Mathew 6:14-15:
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Then ask - Who forgave you of everything and made it possible for you to go to heaven?”

JESUS - He died on the cross so that you and I could be forgiven. God has forgiven us all for lots of worse things than Shrek did to Donkey and if Jesus was willing to give his life for our forgiveness, it’s the least we can do to forgive each other and ask for forgiveness from others too.

Let’s Pray

Dear God,
We are sorry for the times when we do things
wrong and for the times when we do not forgive
others easily. Help us to be forgiving.
Thank you that Jesus went to the cross so that
we might be forgiven by you and get to meet
you in heaven.
Amen

Activity 2 - Evan Almighty - Prayer

Aim:
To learn about prayer using a clip from Evan Almighty and Matthew 7:7-8

Preparation:
Read the passage Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV):
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

instructions:
Begin the clip at Chapter 2 (Intro about house etc).
Joan: You know, those boys were having so much fun tonight, I thought I would never get them to bed. And then Ryan did the cutest thing. He asked if we could all pray together.
Evan: Really? What did you pray about?
Joan: He met a dog. What do you think he prayed for?
Evan: Just a walking Petri dish, that dog.
Joan: ... and Jordon was very precise. He prayed for good visibility, good weather on the hiking trip tomorrow.
Evan: The hiking trip? Oh, right Yeah. The hiking trip. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Joan: Do you wanna know what I prayed for?
Evan: Yeah, what did you pray for?
Joan: I prayed we would become closer as a family.
Evan: Honey, you don’t need to pray for that to happen. I will make that happen.
Joan: What would you pray for?
Evan: Me? I don’t know. Praying just...
Joan: Honey, you’re the one who said you wanted to change the world. It’s a pretty big job. If it were me, I would take all the help I could get.
Evan: (praying) Hello, there. Hi. This is Evan Baxter. Um... just wanted to say thank you for everything. Thank you for the new car and for the house. The house is great I love it. I mean, I picked it out, but you created matter and everything, so.-. I just wanted to say that I think Joan makes a good point, and that lam now in a position of great power, and I know that with great power comes great responsibility. So, God please help me change the world. Okay. That’s it. I’m hanging up now. God bless... Well, you. Okay.

End clip at 8 minutes.

How many of you have mobile phones? It’s important to talk to other people isn’t it? Having a mobile means that our Mums and Dads and our friends can get hold of us wherever we are and we can get hold of them too.

Can you answer this question for me - If talking to friends and family is so easy and we do it every day, why don’t we spend time talking with God? Let the children answer this question.

Busyness, Can’t see Him, Forget, Is He listening?
Well it is really important to talk to God because God wants us to know Him.
Lets look at the Bible and see what Jesus says about prayer —

Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV):
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened,
God is listening and He does answer our prayers.
Let’s think about how we pray.
Firstly we need to take time to pray. We need to find time in our day to talk to God. It can help to pray at the same time each day. Evan and his family prayed at bedtime didn’t they?
If we make praying a habit, like brushing our teeth we will make it something that we do each day.
Look at your hand and see you have 4 fingers. It is really good to remember this when you pray-
1. Praise - Praise is saying what you love about God. It’s saying. ‘God, I love how you made the sea and the beach. I love that you sent Jesus as a rescuer for our sins.’
2. Sorry - Confess means telling God sorry about the wrong things that you have done. It’s when you ask for forgiveness of your sins. It’s saying, “I’m sorry that I lied. Forgive me for getting in a fight with my Dad.
3. Thanks - God has done so much for each one of us. What are you thankful for today? We are thankful for our homes, our family, that we are able to go to school, our health and for all the good things that Cod has given us,
4. Ask - God says in Matthew 21:22 that. If you believe, you will receive what ever you ask for in prayer.’ Pray for other people-for your family. Pray for yourself. Ask for people to learn about Jesus, for God to help people in trouble, for people to be healed. When we watched the film we saw that Evan prayed to God and asked for help to change the world. Evan did not ask for anything specific but he asked for God’s help. That is how we should pray and we need to trust that Cod will answer our prayers. Sometimes God does not answer in the way we expect but He answers in the best way.
When we pray, sometimes we try to tell God how we want Him to help us. But we need to trust that he knows best and that he is answering our prayers in His way and in His time. So let’s pray together:
Put your hands together and put your fingers up together. We will pray in the way that we talked about. So when I pray each of the four fingers we will put one pair of fingers down. When I say ‘we want to praise you for ‘you can say out loud what you want to praise, say sorry, thank and ask for.

Dear God,
We want to praise you for________________
We want to say sorry for________________
We want to thank you for________________
We want to ask for________________
Amen

Extension Tasks/Adaptations:
You can cut out hand shapes and the children can write on each finger the prayer words and write the Bible verse in the palm of the hand.

Activity 3 - A Bug's Life - Be Strong And Courageous

Aim:
To learn about God being with us in everything using Joshua 1:9 and A Bugs Life.

Preparation:
Read the passage Joshua 1:9:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.’

Instructions:
Start at the beginning of the film.

Bug: I’m lost! Where’s the line... What do we do?!
Bug 2: Help. We’ll be stuck here forever!
Bug 3: Do not panic! Do not panic! We are trained professionals. Now, stay calm. We are going around the leaf.
Bug: Around the leaf? I don’t think we can do that
Bug 3: Oh, nonsense! This is nothing compared to the Twig of 93. That’s it.. that’s it...good! You’re doing great.. There you go, there you go! Watch my eyes: don’t look away. And here’s the line again!

End the clip at this point.

Do you ever panic when things go wrong, when life does not go to plan? We all do but our passage from the Bible today is looking at courage.

Joshua 1:9:
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.’

In that clip we saw the ants going about their daily lives, doing their work, collecting their food and returning to their base. Well what happened when something fell into their path?

They panicked, they stopped, they did not know what to do — they needed direction.

They were definitely not strong and courageous were they. They were afraid!

Well the Bible tells us that we will meet problems in our life — but that we will find strength not in power but in trusting in God. We will all have troubles and we will sometimes not know what to do but we have an answer in the verse in Joshua

What?
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.
God has commanded us and he wants us to be strong and courageous.

How?
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
The Bible says that we must not be afraid because God is with us wherever we go. If we trust in and follow Jesus God promises to be with us wherever we go.

So we need to obey God, read His Word, and know that He is with us!

By trusting in God’s promises you can be courageous when you face difficulties this week. Just like the bugs listened and found a way to overcome the challenge that they faced.

Let’s Pray together:

Dear God.
Thank you that we can trust in your promises.
Thank you that you promise that if we trust in You,
you will be with us wherever we go.
Amen.

Tags

• bugs
• Life
• movie
• Shrek
• spirit

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