#5 Honor Your Father and Mother
Posted by: Buffalo Dream Center
Topic: God's Top Ten
Verse: Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Ephesians 6:1
Props:
Instructions:
Discussion:
A. Introduction:
-God gave us our mothers and fathers to help us grow up.
-It is important that we honor them.
-Honor means to respect and obey.
-Obeying your parents is the only rule in the Bible with a promise. The Bible teaches us that if we obey our parents we will live a long life.
B. The Boy Who Dishonored His Dad (The Prodigal Son)
(You could have 2 kids come up, each representing a son, have some props like a bag packed for the son, a garbage bag with garbage and table scraps in it, chocolate money)
Jesus told a story about a man who had two sons one honored his parents and the other dishonored his parents. His name was Johnny.
Johnny was always getting into trouble and disobeying his parents. He never did his chores. He never cleaned his room. He never did his homework, and half the time he didn't even go to school. Johnny did not care about obeying his parents. Now Johnny's dad worked hard to save money for Johnny to go to college. Johnny did not want to go to college. He asked his dad for his college money so he could move to the big city for an exciting life. He hated living on the farm-it was boring.
Johnny's dad loved him very much and wanted to see him happy, so he gave him the money. Off Johnny went to the big city. His first weekend in the big city he made lots of new friends. He rented a few hotel rooms and partied - all night and all day for one whole week. Then something happened. He realized he had no money left. For some strange reason all his friends left him. (They were only his friends because of the money he had)
Johnny was all alone. He had no money, no food and no place to live. Johnny went picking through garbage cans for food, and tried to get comfortable sleeping in old abandoned buildings. It was very cold and lonely for Johnny. Johnny couldn't even get a good job because he never finished school.
Johnny started to think about all the men that worked for his dad and how they had good jobs. He even thought that just maybe his dad had been right all those years about being responsible, going to school, and working hard.
Johnny decided his dad's workers had it so much better than him, so he was going to ask his dad to hire him.
Johnny headed home. He had a long walk because he had no money for a cab or to take the bus.
When Johnny was still a ways off his father saw him. His father ran to him and hugged him and got new clothes for him. His father even had a welcome home party for his son who had come home.
Johnny realized that it was best to listen to his parents. He learned that they really did know what was best for him, and when he tried to do his own thing he messed up his life.
C. Illustration:
1. Who has a parent that tells them to do the same things over and over and over again?
2. Do you know why they do that? (To build healthy habits in your life)
3. Choose a volunteer to come up.
4. Wrap a string around their wrist one time and tie it.
5. If our parent just told us to do something once and never again after some time passed we would forget what they had told us. (Break the string with your hands)
6. When our parents tell us to do the same thing over and over and over again if is for our own good. They love us and want to see us develop good habits. (Wrap the string around and around several times, cut it and tie it)
7. Have a volunteer come and try it break the string.
8. It is impossible to break it.
9. When we do the same things over and over again. They become a habit.
10. It is important to listen to and obey our parents so we build good habit in our lives.
11. If we want to be successful person who lives a long life we need to obey our parents and build good habits in our lives.
D. Conclusion
What are some things our parents tell us to do over and over again?
Examples:
-Do our homework
-Brush your teeth
-Do your chores
-Never talk to strangers
-Discuss them
- Why is it important to follow those instructions?
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