Just for fun

See if you can answer these questions while you participate in online services

• What color shirt is the preacher wearing
• What’s the first Bible verse he says
• What’s the last worship song we sang
• What do you think God is telling you today?

Before today’s sermon

Have each kid share what they want to be when they grow up. 

After today’s sermon

Play a game of tug of war (use a towel if you don’t have a rope) and tie a colored sock in the middle. 

Talk about how the side with more force is always going to be the winning side.  Point out that the sock goes toward the side of greater force. If each side had equal force applied there would be no winner. Demonstrate this by having two family members pull equally trying to keep the sock from moving from the middle. This demonstrates the tension of Grace and a Truth that Corey talked about. We don’t want grace to win and truth to lose nor truth to win and grace to lose. God wants us to value Grace AND truth and to be like Jesus who was full of both.

Discuss today’s sermon 

What is grace? (Ask kids but then also provide a definition: grace is when you get something good that you don’t deserve, like forgiveness) 

What is truth? (Ask kids but then also provide a definition: truth is something that is real, factual and in line with what God reveals to us in his word) 

What would be some examples of moving toward someone with grace?

Have your kids make angry faces and angry body language, and then say “Jesus loves you” in an angry voice. Now have them say it again with a smile and a sweet voice. Ask, “Which one is more believable?” What would be some differences of telling the truth in love versus telling the truth without choosing to do so in love? 

Circle back around to the what do you want to be when you grow up question and talk about who we are (people striving to become more like Jesus) as being more important than what we do for our jobs.

Later this week 

Choose a children’s bible and read the story of the Ten Commandments (or read it from the NIV version of the Bible in Exodus 20:1-21).  Talk about how God gave his people, the Israelites, the Ten Commandments (also known as the law) to keep them from sinning (v21).

Though we are not Israelites, we are God’s people, the church.  To be people of grace and truth, we, too, follow in God’s ways. God gives us his truth in his word, so we know how to live the best life that he designed for us. He also shows us his grace because he knows we all mess up, and we all sin. God wants us to extend his truth and his grace to others. Let’s pray that God will help us to follow his ways, and to share and show grace and truth to others.