Use this children’s Sunday School lesson to teach kids what it means to make a decision for Jesus.
Needed: Bibles (optional: something to represent two professional sports teams, such as pictures of their logos, jerseys, or hats)
Intro Game: With Me or Against Me
In this game of tag, a player’s own teammates can turn against them. Divide the students into two teams. Each team is trying to tag the other. But when you shout “Against!” players can only tag members of their own team. When you shout “With!” the teams work together against the opposite team again. The winner is the last student in the game.
Lesson
Show students your two items. I’m using the Cowboys and the Bengals football teams for this example.
Say, Let’s pretend you’re going to be a pro football player and you want to join the Cowboys team. If you join the Cowboys team, can you also join the Bengals team and be on both teams at the same time? (No.)
What if you don’t join the Cowboys team or the Bengals team? Let’s say you change your mind and don’t want to be on any football team. Are you on the Cowboys team then? (No.)
You have to actually be on the Cowboys team to be on the Cowboys team, right? That’s kind of the same way it is with Jesus and being a Christian.
(Read Matthew 12:30.)
“Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters.”
Jesus said if you’re not with Him, you’re against Him.
If you’re not on His team, then you’re on the devil’s team. If you’re on Jesus’ team—if you believe in Jesus—then you’ll go to Heaven when you die.
But if you don’t believe in Him because maybe you believe in another religion, or maybe you don’t believe in anything at all, then that means you’re not on Jesus’ team, and you can’t go to Heaven when you die. You have to be on Jesus’ team if you want to go to Heaven.
And Jesus wants all of us to be on His team so that we can all go to Heaven when we die.
Raise your hand if you believe in Jesus and want to be on His team.
Game: With Me or Against Me
Play the intro game again and remind students that we’re either with Jesus or against Him. We have to be one or the other, and we want to be with Him so that we can go to Heaven when we die.
Game: Jesus Says
Explain that part of being on Jesus’ team means doing what He says.
In this game of Simon Says, students follow your commands and motions when you say, “Jesus says” first. If you don’t say, “Jesus says” before the command, and they do it anyway, they’re out. If they follow a motion that doesn’t match the “Jesus says” verbal command, they’re out. The winner is the last one in the game. They become the new “Jesus” for the next round.
Closing Prayer
Jesus, right now, we’re saying that we want to be on Your team. We believe in You. Help us to stay with our whole life so that we can go to Heaven when we die. Amen.
You can also find this lesson for Kindle or in print in my book, The Parables and Teachings of Jesus Vol. 1.