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Good Morning Friends!!
How are you guys? We are missing you all SO much! and we look are looking forward to when we can all meet back at the church. It will be such an exciting time! Until that time though, we hope you are well, staying safe and healthy and most of all, having fun and enjoying this extra time with your families. This morning before we move onto our next fruit of the spirit, let's watch and sing some of these songs together. They are songs that we have done before so they should be getting familiar now :) WORSHIPMusic Video: You Forgive Me from DIG IN on Vimeo. Music Video: The Love of God from DIG IN on Vimeo.
Okay, so we are now in week 7 of the Fruit of the Spirit series and this week we're learning about Faithulness.
Being faithful is defined in the dictionary as being loyal, constant and steadfast. So faithfulness is when we put these words into action, like when we stick by our friends, when we remain loyal to them. Do you have a best friend? or a friend that has been faithful to you? Our bible story a little later on is about two friends who showed God's faithfulness to each other, but what would happen if that story happened with rodents instead of people...... well, let's find out!
What did you think about this story acted out with hamsters and gerbils instead of people?
Can you guys think of another animal and tell of what the bible story would be like if it happened with those animals? David and Jonathan weren’t really rodents, or any other kind of animal. But they were faithful to each other. Jonathan protected David and was a faithful friend. BIBLE LESSON
Our bible story today comes from 1 Samuel 20.
The friends in our Bible story were named David and Jonathan. David and Jonathan were best friends, they were so close that they were like brothers. Jonathan was King Saul’s son. That meant he was in line to be the next king. But God had promised David that he’d be the next king, even though David was just a shepherd. Because of that, King Saul—Jonathan’s dad—hated David. David went to find Jonathan and asked him, “Why is your dad trying to kill me?” But Jonathan didn’t believe that Saul really wanted to kill David. So they came up with a plan to find out how Saul really felt. Let's read about it in 1 Samuel 20:5-7 David says “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon celebration. I am supposed to eat with the king, but let me hide in the field until the evening. If your father notices I am gone, tell him, ‘David wanted to go home to Bethlehem. His family is having its own feast for this celebration. If your father says, ‘Fine,’ then I am safe. But if your father becomes angry, you will know that he wants to hurt me." Next, David and Jonathan had to come up with a secret way to tell what Jonathan found out. If Saul really did want to kill David, Jonathan could get in trouble for telling him! Here’s what Jonathan came up with; "On the third day of the celebration I will go to that hill and shoot three arrows as if I am shooting at a target. Then I will tell the boy to go find the arrows. If everything is fine, I will tell the boy, ‘You went too far! The arrows are closer to me. Come back and get them.’ If you hear me say that, then you can come out of hiding. I promise, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe. There is no danger. But if there is trouble, I will say to the boy, ‘The arrows are farther away. Go get them.’ If I say that, you must leave. The Lord is sending you away. Remember this agreement between you and me. The Lord is our witness forever.” Very soon the new moon festival started. When it began David hid in the field, and Jonathan went to the festival. King Saul noticed that David's seat was empty but he didn't say anything about it. On the second day when King Saul noticed that David was missing he asked his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t David come to the New Moon celebration yesterday or today?” Jonathan answered, “David asked me to let him go to Bethlehem. That’s when King Saul got mad. He told Jonathan to go find David so he could kill him. But Jonathan was a faithful friend, so he refused. King Saul got so mad that he hurled a spear at Jonathan! Luckily, King Saul missed. But Jonathan had a clear answer: His dad wanted David dead. It was time for the second part of their plan, where David and Jonathan would use their secret code. Let's read 1 Samuel 20: 35-39 "The next morning Jonathan went out to the field to meet David as they had agreed. Jonathan brought a little boy with him. He said to the boy, “Run. Go find the arrows I shoot.” The boy began to run, and Jonathan shot the arrows over his head. The boy ran to the place where the arrows fell, but Jonathan called, “The arrows are farther away.” The boy picked up the arrows and brought them back to his master. The boy knew nothing about what went on. Only Jonathan and David knew." After Jonathan’s servant left, David came out of hiding to say goodbye to Jonathan. This was a really sad moment. They weren’t just saying goodbye for a little while; they knew they’d probably never see each other again. "Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace. We have taken an oath in the Lord’s name to be friends forever. We have asked the Lord to be a witness between us and our descendants forever.” This is a really sad ending to the story of two best friends eh? How do you think David and Jonathan felt when they said goodbye forever? When our friends move away, we can sometimes still keep in touch. We might text or call them. But there was no technology for David and Jonathan to keep in touch. They couldn’t even send letters; it was too risky since Saul wanted to kill David. Well, even though they wouldn’t see each other again, their hearts remained faithful to each other. Jonathan was willing to give up being king because he knew God’s plan was for his friend David to be king. He was willing to risk his life to help David escape. Jonathan was a faithful friend. Even years later when David became king and Jonathan had died, David found Jonathan’s son and showed kindness to him. Even after Jonathan was gone David was still being a faithful friend. Being a faithful friend means sticking with someone no matter what. God is the most faithful friend of all. The Bible tells us that Jesus made it so we can be God’s friend. "And not only will we be saved, but we also rejoice right now in what God has done for us through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is because of Jesus that we are now God’s friends." Romans 5:11 activities / CraftS
Today we learned that faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit, and we heard about two faithful friends in the Bible—Jonathan and David. Those friends stuck together always! Let’s look at some sticky things to see which is most like David and Jonathan’s friendship: super sticky! If you'd like you can try this experiment. Gather up the supplies and follow the directions below.
Supplies: Scotch tape, painter’s tape, duct tape, sticky notes Directions: 1. Cut strips from each of the rolls of Scotch, painter’s, and duct tape and peel off one sticky note. 2. Point out some surfaces to test such as clothing, and perhaps a window and a kitchen countertop 3. Test each piece of tape and the sticky note on each of the surfaces and decide together which surface you think is the stickiest. What did you do to test your sticky tapes? How do you know which tape was the stickiest? The stickier tapes where harder to pull away once they were stuck to something. That’s like Jonathan and David’s friendship. They were faithful friends and stuck together. Who’s someone you like to stick with, and why? It’s so good to have faithful friends, but the most faithful friend we’ll ever have is God. God sticks with us, and nothing will ever pull God’s love away from any of us. God’s friendship is the super-stickiest! 
We don’t see our friends here at church all the time, but we can still be faithful friends to each other like David and Jonathan were faithful when they were apart. We can make friendship necklaces to remind us we’re faithful friends. Each friend gets half of the heart to remind friends that they’re still friends, even when they’re not together.
1. Click the image to print off the sheet for this activity, or re-create your own by drawing a heart. 2. Once you've coloured your heart, cut it in half and punch a hole in each half. 3. Attach some string or thread to each half. You can keep one half and give the other to a friend.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for showing us how to be faithful friends like David and Jonathan were. Thank you for loving us so much that you sent your son to earth to show us how to be friends with you. Please help us be faithful friends to others. Amen MEMORY VERSE
Last but not least, don't forget about the bible verse that we're trying to memorize. It's from Galatians 5:22-23
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!” Comments are closed.
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