No Other Gospel - Sunday May 23, 2021
Sunday May 23, 2021 (Vol 11, Unit 33, Session 3)
Hi there, and thanks for joining us this week. The following blog is here to be a tool for you to review the previous Sunday’s Children’s church lesson and help your kids grow in their faith. Please feel free to use as much of it as you choose. You know your kids and are the best possible teacher for them. God has given you the power of the Holy Spirit to enable you to do more than you think possible (Eph 3:20). So, let’s have some fun and teach our kids from the scriptures.
Parent Devotional – No Other Gospel
Galatians 1-3
During his second missionary journey, Paul started several churches in Galatia. Sometime later, false teachers crept into these churches and began teaching that there was more to salvation than faith in Jesus. They said that obeying the law of Moses was essential too.
Many of the Galatian believers became confused and believed the lies of the false teachers. They turned away from the gospel Paul had shared with them. Paul wrote a letter—the Book of Galatians—to correct them and reemphasize a proper understanding of the gospel.
Paul asked the Galatians how their salvation could be started by an act of the Holy Spirit but then completed by their own conduct. That was foolishness! What the Holy Spirit began, He would also complete.
Jesus’ half-brother James had written a letter to early believers, concerned about Christians’ interpreting grace to mean they didn’t have to obey God. In Galatians, Paul addressed the opposite problem: Christians who focused so much on obedience that they forgot grace.
James’ message was that grace will always lead to obedience. Paul’s message compliments James’ message: Obedience is impossible apart from grace. Grace and obedience work together in perfect harmony.
This week’s session provides a wonderful opportunity to help your kids understand that obedience matters. The Bible is full of instructions and commands that we are to obey; however, the beauty of the gospel is that our ability to obey comes not through our own effort but through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit changes our minds and hearts so that we want to obey God, and He also empowers us to obey. All of salvation—from first trusting to faithful obedience—is God’s gift to us through Jesus.
Parent Guidance and Instructions
As we begin to explore this week’s lesson, take a moment to pray and remember the verse from Deuteronomy about teaching your children the scriptures. Deuteronomy 6:9 says: “You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Maybe you do not have time to sit and have an hour of Bible time all at once, or perhaps your children are too young to sit for that long. Consider the key points of the lesson and ask God to give you opportunities to speak them into the hearts of your children throughout the week. Let the Bible become a part of your day-to-day. Be blessed this week, my friends!
Each week we include songs, activity pages, the bible lesson video, memory verses, and possibly a craft or 2. We pray this will help you find ways to engage your kids spiritually. It is written in script form from the K-2nd grade lesson, so you can read directly from it or change it to suit your children. Take some time to look at and print the activity pages and the additional activities and information (found in the links at the bottom of the page) to review the lesson so you can adjust as needed. I have included the Bible and Discussion questions along with a breakdown of the Gospel in the Older Kids Activities pages and loads of activities and crafts on the Preschool Extra Activity Pages. Once you are ready, go ahead and start with these songs if you would like, or pick some of your favorite worship songs and then jump right in! Have fun! And remember, this does not need to be done in one sitting! Feel free to break it up over the week. Please contact me if you have any questions or suggestions. We would love to hear from you!
Opening
“Blessings and Bummers”
Let’s get started. Tell me, what have you seen the Lord doing in your lives this week? What have your greatest blessings been? How about your biggest challenges?
Parents share your blessings and bummers, encourage the kids to do the same.
Prayer
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer: Father God, Thank you. Thank you for providing for our needs. You are so good to us even though we don’t deserve it! Thank you for continuing to bless us, Lord. Thank you for being patient with us. Thank you to our friends as well as our families.
Most importantly, we thank you always for sending Jesus to live a perfect life and die to pay for our sins. Thank you for raising Him from the dead and promising us life with you forever if we believe in Him. Please help us be thankful for all you do for us and look to you in all that we do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
(Please add to or customize prayer time to fit your family)
Praise the Lord for hearing our prayers!
Let’s chat!
Prompt kids to share about a time they disobeyed their parents or guardians. What did they do? How did their parents react?
Say • Obeying your parents is important to show them you love them and love God. But you cannot be saved from sin by obeying your parents. Salvation comes only from faith in Jesus. But faith is more than just a onetime thing that saves us. Today we will learn about the ways faith also pushes us to grow in godliness after we are saved.
Optional Session Starter Activity
Pick one of two options or do both; this is your party. (You can find these on page 2 of the optional activity pages attached at the bottom of the post.)
Big Picture Question
Who remembers the big picture question and answer? [Allow responses.] Good job! What is the Bible about? The Bible is the story of God’s plan to save people through Jesus. All along, God’s been working in the world to tell the wonderful story of Jesus, so that we could be saved by faith in His life, death, and resurrection. God’s glory and love are clearly displayed in all the works He has done for us.
Review
After the Holy Spirit came to live in Jesus’ disciples, they spread the gospel far and wide. Two weeks ago, we learned that church leaders agreed salvation comes only through faith in Jesus. Then we heard how Paul and Silas planted new churches. This week, we will hear about a letter Paul wrote to believers in Galatia who began to believe they could only keep their salvation with good works.
Bible Lesson
The Galatians had heard the real gospel from Paul. They knew that it was only by faith they had been saved, not by their own ability to obey God. However, when false teachers began telling them they might lose salvation if they did not work hard to obey God, Paul knew they needed to be reminded of the truth. Believers are saved and grow in godliness by faith in Jesus.
God’s power, grace, and mercy are all we need. We begin our lives as Christians by faith, and it is with faith that God grows us to be more and more like Jesus. Our obedience isn’t something that earns us extra love or favor from God. No, our obedience is the result of God’s ongoing power, grace, and mercy. The Holy Spirit in us allows us to love and obey God more each day.
Christ Connection
Knowing that our salvation is started and continued and finished by Jesus helps us love God. There is nothing that we need to do to earn salvation. All of salvation—from first trusting to faithful obedience—is God’s gift to us through Jesus. The Holy Spirit changes our minds and hearts so that we want to obey God, and He gives us power to obey. Our righteousness does not come through faith in ourselves, but through faith in Jesus.
Bible Time!
Distribute a Bible to each kid. Help them find Galatians 1. Remind them that Galatia was an area of the Roman empire. Consider showing the New Testament Mediterranean Map to point out the region. (B8–9) Help the kids understand the context of the letter: Paul wrote to correct false teachers who said Gentiles had to obey all the Old Testament laws to be saved.
Ask the following questions. Lead the group to discuss:
· Who sent Paul as an apostle? (God did, not any human authorities; Gal. 1:1)
· What did Paul say about changes or additions to the gospel? (They are not the gospel, and those who teach them are cursed; Gal. 1:7-8)
· Who preached the gospel to Paul? (Jesus revealed it to Paul directly, Gal. 1:11-12)
· How can we be certain we know the real gospel? Guide kids to consider the Bible’s trustworthiness. Explain that it has withstood countless attacks from people trying to discredit it, and it has always proven trustworthy. Remind kids that the Bible is God’s Word and teaches us everything we need to know about God and ourselves to be saved.
· How should we respond to people who teach things that go against the Bible? Help kids see that we should always stand up for the truth. Remind them that we can love a person while still correcting his message if he is wrong. How we correct false teachers can communicate God’s love in our lives.
· How should we respond if someone accuses us of believing a “false gospel”? Guide the kids to think through how we can show humility by allowing others to correct us with the Bible. Remind them that we rely on the Bible, not on human teachers. If we believe something different from the Bible, we need to be corrected.
Say • Believers are saved and grow in godliness by faith in Jesus. We do not obey all the law to earn God’s favor. His love for us never changes. After we are saved, we grow closer to God by faith.
Key Memory Verse
Read the verse together.
When Peter spoke the words of this key passage, he was talking to religious leaders who hated Jesus. Peter was explaining why believers would never stop preaching about Jesus. We understand that Jesus is the only way to be saved, and that news is too important to keep to ourselves. We should want more than almost anything to teach people the story of the Bible.
Memory Verse Activity:
Write each word of the key passage on a separate sticky note and place them in a jumbled order on a focal wall. Invite the kids to take turns selecting a word to move until the passage has been rearranged in the correct order. Then, hide the key passage and challenge kids to say it from memory. Thank each kid for her efforts and encourage all the kids to continue working on the key passage.
Say • There is no salvation apart from Jesus. No other name can save us. That’s the story of the Bible, and the foundation of our faith. What is the Bible about? The Bible is the story of God’s plan to save people through Jesus.
That is all I have for this week. Let’s pray together:
Father, thank You for saving us. Thank You that we don’t have to rely on our own strength to save us or to grow us. We are helpless without You, and so we praise You for loving us despite our sin. Help us rest in You. Amen.
Thanks for joining us! I hope to meet you here again next week!
Thank you, Lifeway’s Gospel Project, for allowing us to publish this material.
Additional Activities and Information
