Tangled

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May 31th, 2014 .:. Small Group Team Time

Pathways Kids Ages 6 - 12

This Weeks Scope

Bible Story: Tangled Up in God (Confession/Being Honest with God) 1 John 1:9
Bottom Line: Being truthful with God keeps you close to Him.
Memory Verse: Keep me from cheating and telling lies. Be kind and teach me your law. Psalm
119:29, NIrV
Life App: Honestychoosing to be truthful in whatever you say and do.
Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what.
This week, were discovering:
In 1 John 1:9 we discover that not only is it important to be honest with everyone, but its even more
important to be honest with God. God already knows whats on your heart, but He wants to hear from
youeven when its to confess the times weve messed up.
Bottom Line: Being truthful with God keeps you close to Him. We don't have to worry about telling
God what weve done wrong. Our honesty with God will keep our relationship with Him strong.
Our Memory Verse is Psalm 119:29. Keep me from cheating and telling lies. Be kind and teach
me your law. Being honest isnt always easy; this verse is a great reminder to pray to God when we
feel like we need to lie. God can help us tell the truth.

Welcome Time
What You Need: An offering container, Bibles
What You Do:
Collect kids offerings as they arrive. Ask kids to help each other look up this months Memory Verse.
Let them race each other to find it and say it out loud. If you have more time, ask kids to talk about
times they had to say they were sorry. What did they say? How did it feel?

Activity #1
Mess Match Race (application activity / review the Bible story / great for active learners)
What You Need: 2 Mess Grid Card Sets
What You Do:
Divide kids into two teams. Lay out one mess grid for each team, with the cards face down. Have each
team line up across from their mess grid. In the mess grid are cards with parts of 1 John 1:9 on them.
(But God is faithful and fair. If we admit that we have sinned, He will forgive us our sins. He will forgive
every wrong thing we have done. He will make us pure. 1 John 1:9, NIrV)
Also, in the grid are pictures of messes and pictures of ways to clean up those messes. For example,
one mess might be a pile of dirt and the matching clean-up card would be a picture of a broom and dust
pan. Different things will happen based on what kind of card the runners grab. If the runner grabs a
clean-up card, the runner will leave it there and come back. If the runner grabs a mess card, the runner
will bring back the card, but the next runner will have to find the cleanup card that matches that mess. If
the next runner turns over any card except the matching cleanup card, he or she has to run back with
nothing and the next runner will try. No runners can bring back cards until one of the runners finds the
matching cleanup card for the mess. If the runner grabs a verse card, the runner will bring it back and
as the next runner goes, the rest of the team can try to put the verse cards they have in order. The first
team to have the verse put together will be the winner.
What You Say:
You had to clean your way through a lot of messes to put together 1 John 1:9. But the good news is,
when we are honest with God about our sin, Jesus cleans us up. Our sin is a mess that is so bad we
could never clean it if we had to, but because of Jesus, we dont have to clean ourselves up to come to
God. When we confess our sins to Him, Jesus makes us clean. [Apply] Without Jesus we would all
be trapped in a mess of sin that we couldnt escape or clean up. Thats why we need to ask
Jesus to be our Lord and to forgive our sins. But thats not all. Even after we become Christ
followers, we can still sin and make messes. So we need to keep confessing and being honest
with God about our mistakes and our sins. [Impress] Being truthful with God keeps you close to
Him.

Prayer Time
What You Need: No supplies needed
What You Do:
Lead kids through the guided prayer below.
What You Say:
[Apply] All month weve talked about how its important to ask God to help you be honest.
[Impress] Being truthful with God keeps you close to Him, so I want you to close your eyes and
silently talk to God about the things I tell you. First, thank God for loving you. (Pause.) Now thank Him
for always being truthful with us. (Pause.) Now tell Him something youre sorry about. (Pause.) Finally,
ask Him to help you be truthful so you can stay close to Him. (Pause.) Amen!

Activity
Opposites

#2

Heads or Tails
What You Need: Cones, a coin
What You Do:
Divide your group into teams. Use cones to mark off a starting point for each team that is an equal
distance away from you in opposite directions. Explain to the teams that they are competing to be the
first ones to have over half of their team reach you. You will give instructions with a condition and a
movement similar to Mother May I type instructions. For example, you might say: If you have sandals
on, take one big hop toward me. But there is a catch. Assign each team to be heads or tails. You will
flip a coin after each instruction and the team whose side of the coin is up, will do the opposite of the
instruction and move farther away from you instead. Here are a few examples of conditions and
movements to try:
If you have glasses, take one giant step toward me.
If you have short sleeves, take a baby step toward me.
If you have hair longer than your shoulders, take one normal step toward me.
If you are wearing the color blue, take three heel-to-toe steps toward me.
Mix up these instructions and make up ones of your own. The first team to have over half of their team
members reach you will be the winner.
What You Say:
There were a couple weird things in this game. Sometimes you had to do the opposite of what I said.
When you did the opposite of what I told you to do, you ended up farther away from me, didnt you?
This exactly what happens to us when we are not honest. We are living the opposite of the way God
wants us to be and we end up farther and farther from Him. But there are some differences between
this game and real life. One is that in the game, you didnt have a choice. The coin determined whether
you did as I said or not. But more importantly, in this game, I stayed in one place, whether you were
moving toward me or away. In real life, God comes after us because He loves us. So when we turn
around and are honest with God about our mistakes, God is there to forgive us. He doesnt stay far
away from us at all. He is just waiting for us to turn around. [Transition] Lets go into Large Group
and learn more about what happens when we are honest with God.
Lead your group to the Large Group area.