God Is Our Father

Let’s get up and dance with your kids in praise! Play some worship music in your home, have fun with it! Raise your hands, jump, close your eyes – enjoy a time of worship as a family. To get you into a groove, here are some songs to choose from:

Good Good Father https://youtu.be/BH0y2HfZpy0
Who You Say I Am - by Hillsong Kids https://youtu.be/Y0LHTDVy5C0

Bible Passage: The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-24)

‘Prodigal’ means wasteful, extravagant.
STRESS POINTS:
- Family setting, father and two sons.
- Younger son dis-satisfied with home life.
- He left home with his share of the family’s money.
- Left the country and wasted all his money, partying with lots of friends.
- Ended up lonely and poor. x Worked as a farm hand, ate pig food.
- Remember his father and longed to go home.
- Being truly sorry, he decided to go back to ask forgiveness.
- Father was waiting for him.
- Received him back as a son. This story gives a good opportunity for using the questioning technique. Try to use questions that require more than ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers, e.g: Why did the younger son want to leave home? How do you think he felt when he left? How did the father feel? In what ways did the son waste his money? x Why did he end up lonely? Why was it so awful for him to end up working with pigs? How important was it that he felt truly sorry? Did the father know he was coming home? How do we know his father received him as a son and not a servant?

Relate this story to God as our Father... When we choose to go our own way, we hurt our family, ourselves and God. God never forgets us, even when we go away from Him. God loves us even when we do wrong. God wants us to be sorry for our sins land come back to him. God will always welcome us as His sons and daughters.

God Is Our Father
Lesson: To give children an understanding of the Father nature of God - the depth of His love and the good gifts He gives to His children. (For your private study read Psalm 103. It expresses much of the character qualities of God.)

Pin a large piece of paper on a wall and as children enter, have them quickly draw a picture of their own father. At the appropriate time, children who did a drawing can come to the front and talk briefly about their father. Then tell the story of the male catfish....

As soon as mother catfish lays the eggs, father catfish takes over. Each egg is laid, one at a time, and is about two and a half centimeters wide. Father catfish opens his large mouth and carefully tucks each egg inside. There are at least ten eggs. While he is carrying the eggs over a period of one month, the male catfish does not eat. Each egg actually hatches inside his mouth. He must make sure he doesn’t swallow them! Father catfish’s mouth works like an incubator. It keeps the eggs protected at just the right temperature until the new fish are ready to hatch. The sea catfish makes a fantastic father. We all want a fantastic father. Sometimes this doesn’t happen but we can be sure that whatever happens in our family, one Person never changes. We have a Father in heaven who is the same yesterday, today and forever. The catfish father does some great things, but naturally he isn’t perfect. All fathers make mistakes - that is, all fathers except God the Father who watches over us.

This may be a good opportunity for children to pray for their fathers and to thank God for their heavenly Father.

Memory Verse:
“To show that you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, ‘Father, my Father’.” (Galatians 3:4),

Discussion Questions:
Discuss the things a father gives his children, eg. a name, security, a sense of belonging, a home, a family, food, advice, encouragement, love, discipline, training.