Isaiah
– Book of how God views the poor
Key point – We need to love the poor
Memory Verse – Isaiah 10
Skit – A poor beggar – Asks for money – A pastor won’t help, a rich person won’t help, but a kid who only has $1 does help. – Have a poor beggar walk out on the stage with a cup containing a few quarters. A Christian is witnessing to a rich man the beggar approaches them they assume that he wants some money. The beggar wants to know more about Jesus but before he can even say what he wants the Christian and the rich man dismiss him and tell him that they have no time for him and they have no money so go away and leave us alone. The Christian and rich man freeze the poor beggar walks to the middle of the stage looking very sad a kid notices the sad beggar and asks his mom if he can go over and give the beggar his allowance for that week. The mom agrees she says to her son “We need to love the poor” and allows the kid to give the money as the child is giving the money he says to the beggar Jesus loves you. The beggar gets so excited not so much for the money but also that someone would tell him about Jesus. The beggar asks the mother and child if they can tell him about Jesus the son and mother look at each other smile then turn to the beggar and say that they would love to talk to him about Jesus they all freeze. The end.
Skit – Have someone dressed who looks poor have everyone in the skit treat him badly until they find out he is really rich. Then they treat him much different. We need to treat everyone the same God does. – Have a group of kids waiting in line for a movie they are all excited to see the new Disney movie, they all know that seating is limited. A kid comes up and looks very poor doesn’t have nice clothes on asks if he could move up in line because he is meeting someone inside. Everyone says things like you smell funny, you must be crazy to think that we are going to let you in front of us, you probably don’t have enough money to even get into the movies. All the kids laugh. One kid stops and says hey you look a lot like that rich and famous lead singer of the Christian band “God’s Kids”. All the kids that were making fun are now asking for an autograph, saying things like they were joking that they really think he is cool and they think his clothes are cool too, he really makes a statement. (all freeze, lower heads and walk away)
Object Lesson – God looks at who we are not what we have. – Have a kid come up give them a $10 bill then ask if they think they are the richest kid in the room. If they say yes then tell them to wait, if they say no then ask why they said no. Have another kid come up and give that kid a $20 bill, ask the same questions. Have another kid come up give them a $50 ask the same questions. This time explain that no matter how much money you have there will always be someone who has more money than you. God doesn’t look to see how much money you have but how big of a heart you have. How much you give to the poor.
Object Lesson – Ultimate poverty is life without God. – We are never poor as long as we have God in our life. “How many would say that I am poor if I had no money” (allow time for a response) “Alright how many would say that I am poor if I had money but didn’t ever become a Christian, buy asking Jesus into my life.” (allow time for a response). As long as we have Jesus we will never be poor. We need to care for the poor. We need to help them with money but we also need to give them Jesus. “We need to love the poor”
Puppet – Puppet comes up and is confused because he heard in rock church that the beggars in the Bible would say “ARMS for the poor” why didn’t poor people in the Bible have arms? The MC explains they are asking for alms which a form of money. The Bible tells us that we will be blessed if we give to the poor and we will be cursed if we don’t help the poor at all. We live in a church and a country where we are very much blessed we must bless others. We must give to the poor. “We need to love the poor”
Bible story –
2 Samuel 9
David and Mephibosheth
Read the story of David and Mephibosheth –
Explain to the kids the reason that Mephibosheth was afraid was because in that time kings would try to find every surviving family member of the former king so that they could kill them so they would have no claim to the throne.
David didn’t do that he could have killed mephibosheth because he was king Saul’s grandson but he didn’t he showed kindness to him.
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
How much we love God is not measured in how nice we are to our friends. But in how nice we are to those people who can do nothing for you. They are the kids at school no one likes. There are people in our country and in other countries who can’t afford to buy a pair of shoes. We need to think of them. We need to think about how can we help what can we do not always about what show we want to watch on TV or what new video game we want to buy.
David showed kindness to someone who didn’t deserve it. But do you know what there was someone better than David that has shown kindness to you and me. Jesus was the better David who came from heaven to rescue you and I from sin and death. Jesus came to us in our poverty, because we have all made mistakes right? He came to forgive us and make a way that we could go to heaven and live with him forever just like David allowed Mephibosheth to live in the palace for the rest of his life.
Romans 5:5-8 God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus went the extra mile for us he showed us what loving people is all about because of what Jesus did for us gives us the power to love others, to do help those who need our help and who ultimately need Jesus.
Small Group
Activity –
Take off you shoes and shoe the kids, ask the kids “Did you know that there is some people in the Dominican Republic can’t even afford shoes?” Explain to them that God gets very mad if people especially Christians treat poor people badly. God also blesses people who care for the poor.
Questions –
- In the story what did David do that so unusual?
- What can we do to help poor people?
- What does God think about poor people?
- What does the Bible say about poor people?
- Are there poor people in America or only in other countries?
- Does Jesus love rich people more than poor people?
- Why?
- How can you help someone who doesn’t have as much as you this week?
- What is something you can do or give to someone else this week?