Galatians For Kids



Week 1: April 25

|Galatians 1:1-24 – Contemporary English Version |

| 1-2From the apostle Paul and from all the Lord's followers with me.  I was chosen to be an apostle by Jesus Christ and by God the Father, who raised|

|him from death. No mere human chose or appointed me to this work.  To the churches in Galatia. 3I pray that God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ |

|will be kind to you and will bless you with peace! 4Christ obeyed God our Father and gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins to rescue us from this |

|evil world. 5God will be given glory forever and ever. Amen. |

|The Only True Message |

| 6I am shocked that you have so quickly turned from God, who chose you because of his wonderful kindness. [a] You have believed another message, |

|7when there is really only one true message. But some people are causing you trouble and want to make you turn away from the good news about Christ. |

|8I pray that God will punish anyone who preaches anything different from our message to you! It doesn't matter if that person is one of us or an |

|angel from heaven. 9I have said it before, and I will say it again. I hope God will punish anyone who preaches anything different from what you have |

|already believed. 10I am not trying to please people. I want to please God. Do you think I am trying to please people? If I were doing that, I would |

|not be a servant of Christ. |

|How Paul Became an Apostle |

| 11My friends, I want you to know that no one made up the message I preach. 12It wasn't given or taught to me by some mere human. My message came |

|directly from Jesus Christ when he appeared to me. |

|    13You know how I used to live as a Jew. I was cruel to God's church and even tried to destroy it. 14I was a much better Jew than anyone else my |

|own age, and I obeyed every law that our ancestors had given us. 15But even before I was born, God had chosen me. He was kind and had decided 16to |

|show me his Son, so that I would announce his message to the Gentiles. I didn't talk this over with anyone. 17I didn't say a word, not even to the |

|men in Jerusalem who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went at once to Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus. |

|    18Three years later I went to visit Peter [b] in Jerusalem and stayed with him for fifteen days. 19The only other apostle I saw was James, the |

|Lord's brother. 20And in the presence of God I swear I am telling the truth. 21Later, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22But no one who |

|belonged to Christ's churches in Judea had ever seen me in person. 23They had only heard that the one who had been cruel to them was now preaching |

|the message that he had once tried to destroy. 24And because of me, they praised God. |

|Background & Discussion |

|Problem – After Paul left Galatia to start other churches, a bunch of other people tried to make trouble and told people that they weren’t really Christians.|

|These people told others that in order to be a Christian, you first had to obey the Jewish laws. Paul writes to tell the Christians not to listen to these |

|other people. |

|1. Do you ever feel like you are being told too many things and you can’t decide who to listen to? |

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|2. How is the game “Twister” kind of like the way it feels to try to follow what other people tell you to do? |

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|3. Can you make everyone happy? |

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|4. How can prayer help you make good decisions? |

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Learning to Pray

|What is prayer? |Talking to God just like you would a friend. |

|When do you pray? |Any time you want: List some times you can talk to God |

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|What do you Say? |Adoration – this means telling God about the wonderful things God does for you. |

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|A.C.T.S. |Confession – telling God the things you are sorry about |

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| |Thanksgiving – talking about all the things you are thankful for |

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| |Supplication – asking God to do things that you think God can do and that you need |

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|How will you feel? |Talking to God will help you remember that God is always with you |

| |You will feel safe |

| |It can help you feel happy |

| |Write down how you feel after you talk to God |

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Review of Week 1: Galatians 1:1-24: Remember from the first lesson that people were trying to get new Christians not to listen what Paul had told them. They were telling others to follow extra rules instead of just believing in Jesus and following Jesus. Paul told them that he was telling the truth about Jesus and that these other people were trying to confusion them.

Week 2: May 2

|Galatians 2:15-21 |

|15We are Jews by birth and are not sinners like Gentiles. 16But we know that God accepts only those who have faith in Jesus Christ. No one can please |

|God by simply obeying the Law. So we put our faith in Christ Jesus, and God accepted us because of our faith. |

|    17When we Jews started looking for a way to please God, we discovered that we are sinners too. Does this mean that Christ is the one who makes us |

|sinners? No, it doesn't! 18But if I tear down something and then build it again, I prove that I was wrong at first. 19It was the Law itself that killed |

|me and freed me from its power, so that I could live for God. |

|   I have been nailed to the cross with Christ. 20I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave |

|his life for me. 21I don't turn my back on God's undeserved kindness. If we can be acceptable to God by obeying the Law, it was useless for Christ to |

|die. |

|STORY |

|Once upon a time a young boy, named Dylan, was outside playing. He decided to explore the woods at the back of his house. He roamed through all kinds |

|of bushes and trees and nests and cool stuff. When he got home he didn’t know how dirty he had gotten. His face was all muddy and his hair had picked |

|up some thorns and twigs from the branches that he crawled under. He was very happy to come inside and get ready for dinner, but his mom wouldn’t let |

|him sit down to eat. She said “You are all dirty, now go and wash up.” Dylan ran into the bathroom and stuck his hands into the sink and washed them |

|really fast, but he never looked in the mirror. When he came back to the kitchen to eat his mom said; “Dylan, how can you sit at the table like this?”|

|Dylan didn’t understand what his mom meant. His mom got a mirror and told him to look into it. Dylan was so surprised. “Take away that mirror! It’s |

|making me all dirty” he shouted. “Now Dylan, the mirror can’t make you dirty. The mirror just shows you that you are dirty,” his mom said. |

|“Can the mirror help me get clean?” asked Dylan. “No, said mom, “it can only show you that you are dirty. You need to use the soap and water that we |

|have to get clean.” |

|“So, Dylan said “what’s the good of the mirror?” |

|“We are glad to have a mirror so that we know when we need to get clean. If we didn’t have mirrors we might run around and stay dirty and get germs in |

|our food.” |

|So Dylan went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and used the soap and water to get clean and then looked in the mirror again. He was glad he |

|could now eat his supper. |

|WONDER QUESTIONS: |

|1. Would it have been good for Dylan to never see himself in the mirror? |

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|2. If he never knew how dirty he was, what might have happened to him? |

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|3. How is the Bible like that mirror? What things do you do that the Bible shows you are wrong? |

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|4. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, it’s like using the soap and water to get clean. We need to Bible to tell us what we look like and we need Jesus|

|to help us get clean. How have you asked Jesus to help you? |

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OK – this week practice looking in a mirror and seeing where you might be dirty. Then pray and ask God to help you see how you can do better things to please God.

There is no better mirror in which to see your need than the Ten Commandments.”—Martin Luther

Review of Week 2

Galatians 2:15-21

Paul reminds us that we need the Law, but not to save us, but to show us we need Jesus to save us. From last week what part of Dylan’s story did you like the best??

Week 3: May 9 (Mother’s Day)

|Galatians 3:23-29 ~ The New Living Translation |

| 23- Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through |

|faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. |

| 26 For you are all children[a] of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on |

|Christ, like putting on new clothes.[b] 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile,[c] slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in |

|Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children[d] of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to |

|Abraham belongs to you. |

WONDER THOUGHTS ~

• God gave the Law to help the people know how to live so they could be happy and be kind and be nice to each other. God didn’t need the law – we did in order to have a good life and be safe and not hurt ourselves.

• God gave the Jews the Law first so they could show the whole world what God was like, but The Law wasn’t the way to get to God. The Law was God’s gift to help us show what a good life was all about.

• People turned God’s Laws into a bunch of rules as if following those rules was the only way to make us get to know God better and would get us good enough for God to love us.

• Silly people! God already loved them .They can’t make up enough rules to be good enough to reach God.

• So God sent Jesus to give all of us THE way to reach God. Now the relationship with God and people can go both ways – through faith in Jesus.

• But what about the Law? That’s what the Holy Spirit helps us be able to do better now. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He helps us want to do the things that are in the Law so we can be kind and nice. We do these things now not just to follow rules but because doing them comes naturally since we so LOVE Jesus.

Ok Kids (and parents) – ask yourself these questions this week:

1. Why do we think we have to DO something to make God love us?

2. How do you show someone you love them?

3. Why do we have some rules?

4. What kinds of rules do you have at your house that your parents use to keep you safe?

a. e.g. – Don’t touch the hot stove, don’t leave your skateboard in the driveway, etc. etc.

b. Do these help keep you safe?

c. Is keeping these rules the only way to make your parents love you?

i. (How silly!)

5. Play a game this week as a family and make up your own rules as you go along. Don’t follow the rules of the game and don’t tell each other what your rules are going to be.

a. How easy was it to play?

b. Was it fun?

c. Did anyone get mad?

d. Did everyone always agree?

6. OR – Try to do a job together as a family (like sweep the garage, or wash the kitchen floor) and don’t tell each other what part of the job you will do.

a. How quickly did the job get done?

b. Did everyone know what each other was doing?

c. Would it have been better to have a few rules on how to do this task and all agree?

7. What helps us do things more happily together?

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