Good and Bad Fruit
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Use this children’s Sunday School lesson to teach kids how to be a real follower of Christ.
Needed: Bibles, fruit and
leaves and twigs, bowls, rotten fruit or a picture of
rotten fruit, good fruit or a picture of good
fruit
Intro Game: Good Fruit Relay
Divide students into two teams and have them line up at one side of the room. Give each team a bowl. At the other end of the room, place a bowl full of fruit mixed with twigs and leaves. One by one, the members of each team run to their bowl and bring back a single piece of fruit, leaving the twigs and leaves in the bowl. They then add their piece of fruit to the team’s bowl. The first team to retrieve all their pieces of fruit wins.
Say, You put all the good fruit in your team’s bowl, but now, we have
all of these leaves and twigs leftover. What should we do with them? (Suggest
that kids could eat them along with their fruit. Then, let them convince you to
throw them away.)
Lesson
Give students a rotten fruit or show them a picture. Ask them if they would like to eat it. Probably they won’t.
Then, give them a ripe fruit or show them a picture of a ripe fruit and ask them if they would eat it.
Probably they would.
Ask, what’s the difference? Why would you eat one but not the other? (One
is rotten, and the other is not.)
(Read Matthew
7:15-23.)
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise,
every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree
cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that
does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many
will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and
in Your name drive out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?’ Then I
will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
Just like you would not eat rotten fruit, so God does not want us to do
rotten things. When we’re doing wrong things, it’s like we’re trying to give
God a rotten piece of fruit and He doesn’t want it. When we do good things,
it’s like we’re giving God a good piece of fruit, and He’s happy with us.
What happens to bad fruit? (Help students to understand that bad fruit
is thrown away. Then, throw your rotten fruit or your picture away.)
In the same way, if we are not doing good things in life, we are like a
bad piece of fruit. When we die, God will throw us away, and we will go to Hell. If we are doing good
things, we are like a good piece of fruit, and God will be happy with us and
will take us to Heaven when we die.
But it’s not just about doing the right things, is it? We’re not saved,
and we don’t go to Heaven because we do
good things, are we? How are we saved? What makes us get into Heaven?
We’re saved by believing in God and Jesus. We’re not saved by doing
good things, but when we believe in God and Jesus, our faith makes us want
to do good things.
Could you tell what fruit was the good fruit and what fruit was the bad
fruit? (Yes.)
In the same way, you can usually tell if someone is really following
Jesus or not. If you get to know that person and see the kinds of things they do and listen to the kinds of things they say,
you can tell if they’re doing the right things or the wrong things. People who
are really following Jesus try to do the right things.
Think about what you do and what you say before you do it or before you say it. Always ask yourself if God and
Jesus would be happy with what you’re about to do or say. Or would Jesus not be
happy and think you just gave Him a piece of rotten fruit because what you did
or what you said was rotten?
We want to do and say the right things so that Jesus would be happy
with us, just like He would be happy if we gave Him a good piece of fruit.
Game: Hearing the Hypocrite
Students sit or stand in a circle with one student in the middle. Choose another student to be the Hypocrite. The person in the middle closes their eyes or wears a blindfold and tells the group to make a noise like an animal of their choice. The Hypocrite, however, makes a different noise. The person in the middle has to guess who the Hypocrite is.
The Hypocrite then takes the middle spot, and the person who was guessing silently chooses the next Hypocrite.
Play until everyone has had a chance to be in the middle or
as long as time permits.
Afterward, explain that the Hypocrite was trying to blend
in with the rest of the group, but we could still tell there was something
different about them. When real hypocrites say they’re Christians, they’re
misusing God’s name and people can tell when they’re not really Christians by
how they act or talk.
Game: Think about What You Say
To help students think about what they say before they say it, choose a random object and tell students you want them to tell you something about it using certain a certain criterion. Students have 10 seconds to come up with a statement that meets the criterion. They cannot use the same statement someone else made.
If they can’t come up with a unique description that meets the
criterion within the time limit, they’re out.
The criterion be such things as the first word must start with a
certain letter, or the third word must start with a certain letter, or you can
only use a certain number of words in your description, or you must describe
the object in a funny voice, etc.
Play a couple of rounds to show kids how to play. Then, let each
student name an object and a criterion.
Remind students that when you think about what you should say or do,
we’re giving Jesus the good fruit that He wants from us.
Closing Prayer
Jesus, we pray that You’ll help us to be real followers of You. Help us to say and do the right things to show that we’re giving You good fruit. Amen.Recommended Extras
The Complete Illustrated Children’s Bible – for telling the stories with beautiful artwork and Biblical accuracy
The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Stories for Children
– for telling the stories to younger children
More info... |
More info... |
Jesus in the Spotlight (Discover 4 Yourself series) – an in-depth Bible study book for older children based on John 1-10
More info... |
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