Good Heart
What do your actions say?
This week we’re looking at the next part of the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus talks about how we are to follow God’s rules and how that makes a difference on our world.
The service starts at 9:30am on stwderby.online.church
But this button will go live on Sunday 23rd May for you to watch the service again if you missed it live! You won’t want to miss out!
Hope you enjoyed our Werb’s Kids Service this morning!!
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This morning in our service we looked at Matthew 5v17-20 the part of the Sermon on the Mount!
We started off with a quick recap:
2 weeks ago we looked at the beatitudes, the beautiful attitudes of Jesus where we found out that we are blessed even when things are hard. We are blessed because God is always with us no matter what we face.
Then last week we heard how Jesus called us salt and light!
Do you remember what that meant?
Being called salt and light means that we are meant to make an impact on the world for good. Salt brings out good flavours and light helps us see in the darkness, we are to add good in our world and we talked about how there are lots of ways we can do this so I hope you have been trying to be a light for Jesus this week.
But as we said we’re now looking at the next part which is when Jesus says this:
“Don’t think that I have come to destroy the law of Moses or the teaching of the prophets.
I have not come to destroy their teachings but to do what they said. I tell you the truth.
Nothing will disappear from the law until heaven and earth are gone. The law will not lose even the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter until all has happened. Whoever refuses to obey any command and teaches other people not to obey that command will be the least important in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys the law and teaches other people to obey the law will be great in the kingdom of heaven.
I tell you that you must do better than the teachers
of the law and the Pharisees. If you are not better
than they are, you will not enter the
kingdom of heaven.”
This passage is all about keeping God’s law and doing what he asks of us. But it’s also about integrity.
Integrity means doing the right thing even when it’s hard or when no one is looking.
It’s about knowing the rules or laws and following them even if others aren’t.
So as we’ve already said we’re thinking today about Integrity and as we’ve mentioned that means someone who will follow the rules because they know it’s the best way. Now God does give us some rules to live by because he wants us to be safe and live happy lives and even though sometimes we don’t like rules we know they are there often to protect us and help us do the right thing.
Someone with integrity will live what they believe: so if he believes that God has told him to be good to his neighbour, he will treat his neighbour well. Someone without integrity will be able to believe one thing but act in a different way – they may believe that we should forgive people, but won’t actually forgive people they are upset with.
Having integrity shows people what your heart is really like.
Take a look at this passage from the bible which helps us think more about this.
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,”
but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”
What do you notice about the passage?
What does it say about the between what we believe and how we act?
Now we need to think about how this links to Integrity. It’s doing the right thing even when it’s hard or when no one is looking. If people see that you are doing good things they might see your faith in God and know because you are kind or because you are doing the right things even when everyone else is doing the opposite that you are a follower of Jesus!
Jesus tells us that we should make sure that we live the right way as that will point others to God and will also make the world a better place.
GO DEEPER!
SPARKS (Preschool)
Today we are thinking about what it means to have a good heart. Another word we used was Integrity.
Integrity is about standing by what you say you believe – no matter what.
To help think about this a bit more play a game of snap or pairs! This will help us remember that we’re thinking about matching up our words and actions.
When thinking about having a good heart part of this is telling the truth.
Here is a bible verse that helps us think about this:
“Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’, ‘No’. Matthew 5:37
Come up with some actions for yes and no and then put them in the verse. Jesus said this to help us understand that we should be careful to do what we say and have integrity in the way we act.
Finish now by saying this prayer.
“Dear God,
Thank you that you creating rules to help us live
good lives.
Help us to think about how we act this week and show our good hearts.
Amen.”
FLAMES (KS1)
What did you think of the passages today?
Look back over the James verses. How would you summarise this?
Then create two separate, short, dramas. One should show a Christian with integrity acting out their faith in what they do, and one should show a Christian without integrity NOT showing their faith by what they do.
Do your actions match what you believe?
Think about whether you have integrity, we will act out our faith in everyday life.
Play this quick game to think about this:
Lie on the ground and close your eyes. It is not dead lions, so they are allowed to move slightly. However, they shouldn't make any violent or sudden movements.
PARENTS: shout “Boo”, threaten to tickle, tell silly jokes, step over them and so on, but you must not actually touch them.
Can you stay still??
If you have integrity, you don't move from your position no matter what is thrown at you.
Integrity is about sticking by what you believe no matter what.
If we have integrity, we will always react the same way – we won't be influenced by other people or outside forces.
If we have integrity and know what we believe, we will be able to live this out at home and at school or whenever we go!
What do you believe? And do your actions show what you believe?
Spend some time now in prayer. Ask God to help you think of ways you make sure your actions or the things you do, how you live show that you believe in God.
BLAZE (KS2)
As we’ve mentioned before today we are thinking about this word Integrity and what it means to have a good heart.
Do you remember what the word integrity means?
Play a quick game. Print out 3 pictures of people you know or famous people. Then cut them out and cut them into puzzle pieces.
If possible try and make each puzzle person nearly identical to the others.
Then scatter them on the floor and see if you’re able to put them back together again.
It might be hard to put these images back together if you’ve cut the pieces in similar wats but that’s good as it will help with the illustration.
As you begin to put the pieces together look to see if there are any wrong pieces – ones that doesn’t look quite right and see if you can correct them.
Think about how they knew that some of their pieces weren’t quite right. How were you able to complete the pictures and work out the faces of the people?
Sometimes with people something about them doesn’t seem to quite fit. They may say they are honest and trustworthy but you may know that in every maths test they try to cheat.
Or maybe you know someone who says they are a Christian but never goes to church or opens their Bible or maybe they aren’t kind or loving like you know Jesus is.
Today we are thinking all about integrity.
Remind yourself again what this word means.
If a person has integrity then what they say and do will match up.
More than that, if there are things that they really believe in then their words and actions match with those too. So for example, someone who believed that all red cars were bad and dangerous would never get into a red car and would do everything to try and stop his friends and family getting into a red car. They might be mad – but they would have integrity because their beliefs, words and actions match up!
What do you believe? And do your actions show what you believe? Do they match up?
Spend some time now in prayer. Ask God to help you think of ways you make sure your actions or the things you do, how you live show that you believe in God. Ask him to show you where you actions don’t match what you believe.
FUN ACTIVITIES + CRAFTS!
For those who LOVE colouring and activity sheets check these out:
Activity Sheet - We talked about how someone with Integrity matches their words with their actions. See if you can draw the other half and match your drawing with what’s already there
Servant Craft
You will need 2 pieces of paper. One should be A5 size and the other can be smaller, but preferably thicker like thin card.
On the larger piece of paper, draw a table half way up paper.
On the table they should draw plates and a meal ready to serve. There should also be cups and a jug of wine. Then colour it in!! Make the meal look AMAZING! You could even use other materials for the plates.
You could also draw a background if you want!When you’ve finished it cut along the top of the table.
Make sure you cut along the outline of the table and the if there’s any food overhanging you around this too.On the second piece of paper, draw a man the right height to stand behind the table.
He could have a jug or a fork in his hand and could be dressed either in Bible clothes, or as a servant, then cut out this man out.Thread the man through the cut in the paper so that he can move about behind the table.
Write along the bottom of the picture, “The good servant works well even when no one is watching.”
Remind yourself of todays passage and that someone with integrity means always doing your best, even when no one is watching.
Fun activity to help you think about Integrity!
On a baking tray, put a selection of small objects, such as raisins, dried pasta , breakfast cereal, plastic money etc. Cover the tray with flour and pat it down hard. Turn the flour cake out onto a board.
Take it in turns to cut a slice of ‘cake’ trying to have just flour in your slice. There is no rule as to what size of slice you cut. It can tiny or big.
How easy is it to just cut out flour?
People are like the flour cake – they may look as if they are one thing, but really they might be something else inside.
Would this flour cake have been any good for cooking with? No? Why not?
(There are too many things that don't belong there.)How about people who say they are one thing but actually act completely differently – do they make good friends? Why?
How many people do you know who are honest right through? The Bible calls it integrity.
How can you tell if someone has integrity or not? Is it easy?
You could do this same thing with chocolates. Unwrap them and take it in turns to eat one. See if you’re able to guess what is in side it by what it looks like on the outside.
You could cut them in half before eating if they don’t like particular flavours.How easy it was to guess which chocolates were chocolate all through?
How easy is it to tell if someone you have just met has integrity, or is just pretending to be what they say they are?
If someone has integrity, their thoughts and their actions should match so what you see is what you get. Someone who pretends to be our friend but then talks about us behind our back does not have integrity!
WORSHIP + PRAYER
Spend some time thanking God for what he’s done for you. He gives us a reason to be joyful as this song below explains. As you listen to this song think about how much Jesus loves you. He loves you even when you don’t have integrity or you’re at your worst. He loves you no matter what!
But obviously he wants to partner with us so that we can do life together and do it well. He wants for our actions to match how we feel and what we believe.
“If my heart could tell a story
If my life would sing a song
If I have a testimony
If I have anything at all
No one ever cared for me like Jesus
His faithful hand has held me all this way
And when I’m old and grey
And all my days are numbered on the earth
Let it be known in you alone
My joy was found
Oh my joy, my joy
Let my children tell their children
Let this be their memory
That all my treasure was in heaven
And you were everything to me
No one ever cared for me like Jesus
His faithful hand has held me all this way”
Created by Amy Farrar using several different sources including energize.net
