Remember
Breath Prayer: Focusing on God's mercy
Breathe In: Lord, clean my heart
Breathe Out: And make it new
Songs: You Forgive Me
Remember one another
Is anyone celebrating something that happened this week? Let’s share so we can all thank God together.
Is anyone struggling, feeling sad, lonely or scared? How can we pray for one another?
Remember what we learned and put into practice last week?
Practice the Following Jesus Liturgy (With our youngest kids only focus on the portion that we’re currently learning)
All Navah Gathering: God commands us to Repent and Believe.
We have the choice to
Humble ourselves
Receive God's love
Change our minds and
Believe what is true
Reflect
Purpose: Practice the “Repent and Believe” Tool
Intro (5 min)
Read Mark 1:15
Jesus said, “The right time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Change your hearts and lives and believe the Good News!”
Read it again
We all make poor decisions from time to time. When our decisions harm ourselves and others God calls it sin. Sin isn’t just about hurting each other physically. It can also be about hurting people’s feelings, disrespecting someone, or going against God’s ways. When we sin we break relationship with God. But God has given us a way back to Him after we mess up. It’s called repentance. Mark 1:15 tells us that after we mess up we can change our hearts, repent, return to God, and believe the good news that through Jesus we are forgiven!
We are going to practice changing our hearts and turning back to God. Are you ready?
Activity: Prayerful Reflective Exercise (20 min)
Every time we make a choice our whole body is involved. Did you realize that? Our thoughts, emotions, actions are all related.
Tell the story of Peter denying Jesus:
Peter wanted to believe what was true about Jesus. Before Jesus went to the cross Peter knew that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God! But when things got difficult Peter got scared, saying things that weren't true and dishonoring God.
When Jesus was going to the cross many people recognized Peter. They asked him if he was friends with Jesus. Peter said, "No! I was not his friend" and "No, I never knew him!" Peter lied. Why did that happen? Let's look at our repentance tool and learn how Peter made a mistake, sinned, and then was forgiven and set free.
Let's imagine
Help the kids imagine the story of Peter's denial. You can have them act it out. You can watch the video or you can read the story from the Bible (Matthew 26:31-35, 47-75).
Make a conversation out of Peter's actions using the template
Thoughts
Emotions
Actions
Beliefs
Prayer of Repentance
Prayerful Response from God.
What did Peter think, feel, do and believe? How was he restored back to Jesus? How do you think that felt?
EXAMPLE
Event: Peter denied Jesus
Thoughts: I can't let them know that I know Jesus. I don't want anyone to find out.
Emotions: I feel scared. I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed.
Actions: I lied. I tried to hide. I got angry and yelled.
Beliefs: I have to defend myself. I am alone and no one will protect me.
Prayerful Repentance: I realize I was believing a lie. I was scared of being attacked, hurt, or made fun of. I did not trust that You were good and that Your plans are good. I hid from the truth. Please forgive me.
Prayer Response (From God): I love you and I forgive you. I understand that you were scared and I want to help you grow in your trust for me. I love you now and forever.
Respond: Consider and Pray
Draw
Have kids draw a time when they, like Peter, messed up. What happened?
What did it feel like? What did they do? What did they say? They can draw word bubbles for dialogue and emojis for emotions. Encourage them to depict thoughts, emotions, and actions in the picture.
Then flip the page over and draw what they imagine forgiveness would look like. If you could stand before Jesus and ask for forgiveness what would that look like? Draw a picture of you and the Lord. What are you saying? What is He saying? What are you feeling and what happens next. Draw it.
Pray
Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Make space for prayers of repentance if kids are focused, engaged, and ready to respond. Allow time for kids to consider asking the Lord to forgive them and make them clean. Then make sure to bless the kids and pray the Lord love and acceptance over them.
You may want to make space for kids to forgive someone who has hurt them, or pray for someone who has never repented of their sin and turned to Jesus, that they would put their faith in Him. Stir up gratitude in the kids by closing with a prayer of praise for the One who cleansed us, redeemed us, and made us new.
If the group is less engaged and struggling to focus, lead out in prayers of gratitude for God's mercy and His willingness to make us new.
End with love, joy, and acceptance, celebrating God's infinite and perfect love for all of His children.
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