Jeremiah 3

This Kids Church lesson we prayed for countries that the kids had heard about this last week, whether in school (Reseda shared about her English referencing New Zealand), on the news (Evelyn shared that the leadership in New York could use prayer) or even just recognizing country names we’ve seen, which the kids found many middle eastern country names by looking at the tags on their clothing, leading us to find on the map and pray for Pakistan.

After prayer we began by thinking about things we have failed in despite trying over and over again. “I try to get my brother out of my room and it doesn’t work!” “I try drawing this specific drawing and I could never get it right, so I just did something else!” And other examples were given. I shared that Jeremiah, likewise, tried over and over again to win the Israelites over to obeying God for 40 years, and failed, but was faithful in God’s task, and God protected him in doing this task. We briefly reviewed Jeremiah 1, how God chose Jeremiah, who initially felt too young to preach, and the visions God gave him in chapter 1. Showing the kids a picture of a rope and asking them the same question we asked last week, ‘what do you see?’ The kids answered, ‘a rope?’ ‘A tug of war rope.’ ‘a tight rope?’

“Yes, it is a rope. It is tight, from being pulled. From two opposing sides.” We reflected on how often there is a ‘pull’ going on in our life, sometimes someone trying to pull us into a bad direction, or the effort of trying to pull someone into a better place.

Using the same webbing rope we used last week, we set up a ‘tug of war’ where one side, standing on the brightly colored floor mats, and the other side the darker, they did a practice round of tugging the other side toward them. After they got a feel for it, we set up the next round with the frame of each side believing that their side was the good side and the other side was the doomed side, where if they were to get pulled over to it they and the other team would be destroyed, while their side was the safe side that they wanted to stay on and likewise pull the other team over to.

The sides happened to be split between boys and girls, so going to the boys first, I said “Guys, look at the color of your mats. They’re darker earth colors, right? The girl colors are bright red, yellow and orange because they’re in the fire. They’re going to be burned up and they’re trying to pull you over to them. You have to save them and get them out of the fire!” Then going over to the girls, their frame likewise was “Girls, your side is the bright side. Notice the boys colors? Yes, the dark side. They’re freezing cold, and they’re trying to pull you over. If you cross the line, you’ll freeze, and they need to get over to your warm side to not freeze themselves!”

With each side properly convinced of their life-and-death mission, we counted down and the tugging began, each side enjoying fighting for life (the girls won every time). Afterwards, the teams sat back down and we reflected on how in life we can be trying, like Jeremiah, to pull someone over to the right side, and why that can be so hard, using the rope and some toddler rocking horses.

Asking for two roughly same-weighted kids, I had each sit on a rocking horse on one end of the room with heir feet up, the rope attached to the rocking horse (flat and curved-bottomed, easy to slide). I had each student attempt to pull the other toward them, where they eventually (sometimes with tipping over) met in the middle. “Each person, when weighted the same, has about the same effect on the other. But here’s why it seems so hard to pull someone to the good side.” We reset the rocking horses and added a 25lb medicine ball onto one of the child’s rocking horses. “Now try pulling.” The one with the weighted ball was like an anchor, and the person without the weight slid toward the other while the other pulled them even closer. “This black heavy ball represents sin. Sin weighs someone down to where they are harder to move, and can more easily draw others toward them. But how did Jeremiah not get drawn into Israel’s sin himself?” I instructed the child without the medicine ball to put his feet down. “Now try pulling with your feet down and on the ground.” The child with their feet down was able to resist the pull of the additional weight. “When we are ‘grounded’ in God like Jeremiah was, he was able to resist the pull of sin.”

I had the kids sit back down and picked up the heavy medicine ball. “Sin is dark and heavy, and like this ball, it weighs us down. It’s hard to carry.” I passed it to each child to hold for a moment. We talked about how the nation of Israel had committed massive sins, and in Jeremiah 3:11 God declared that although Israel had done horrible things, Judah was worse by pretending that they were ok when they had done the same things.

“Guess what, guys? God said that he would forgive Israel if they did just one thing. Acknowledge the fact that they had sinned, that they were carrying the ball. That means to not pretend that you didn’t do something wrong.”

I then explained how in James, it says that sin starts inside of us like a baby starts in a mom, and when it’s ‘fully grown’ it brings death. I put the ball under my shirt, and for dramatic effect fell to the ground as if dead upon its ‘birth.’

“The Bible says that every one of us has sin inside us, and will bring death. But God offers forgiveness by us acknowledging the fact that we’re pregnant with sin.”

Putting the ball back under my shirt, we reflected on how ridiculous it is to pretend that I’m not pregnant when my belly clearly shows otherwise.

“Likewise, in Jeremiah 3:13, God promised that if Israel just admitted their wrong, he would forgive them.”

I encouraged the kids that when they’ve done something wrong, and they know it, rather than trying to hide it, to admit it and seek forgiveness. And inviting them to receive God’s grace, presented the gospel:

“Jesus died on the cross so that your sin could be removed from you and put on him, so that you could live. If you want your sins forgiven, acknowledge the fact that you’ve sinned, and ask for God’s forgiveness and believing that Jesus’ death on the cross takes away your sins, they will be, and you will be free.” We concluded with prayer.