The parable of the wise and the foolish builders
Kids at home 17th January
Sometimes Jesus told stories when He wanted people to really understand important lessons. If the lessons were hard then Jesus sometimes told simple stories to help people understand the things that were hard to understand. These stories were called parables.
Over the next few weeks we are going to be learning some of the parables that Jesus told and looking at what Jesus is teaching us in each one!
Today we are learning about the parable of the wise and the foolish builders.
Let’s start with some worship! Feel free to sing and dance or just watch and listen, Jesus doesn’t mind how we worship, he just loves it when we spend time with him and sing his praises!
Great Big God – Vineyard Kids
You are Good – Bethel Kids
This is Amazing Grace – Bethel Kids
King of my Heart – Discoverylands
Story time
The parable of the wise and the foolish builders
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew 7:24-27 NIV
Some important points to remember…
- In the first part of this story, Jesus tells us about a man who builds his house on a rock. Think about what a rock feels like, it’s very strong and sturdy isn’t it? Well, Jesus is like a rock! When we have Jesus in our lives and we listen to Him and believe in Him, it’s like we are standing on a very strong rock.
- The second part of this story is about a man who built his house on the sand. Think about what sand feels like, it’s very squishy and it moves when you walk on it, it isn’t sturdy like rock is it? When we build our lives on Jesus by believing in Him and His amazing promises, it’s like we are standing on rock and so even when things get hard, we won’t fall over because Jesus is strong and will hold us up! But if we don’t build our life on Jesus and we don’t listen to Him and life gets a bit hard, it can feel like we are standing on squishy, moving sand and without Jesus we might fall over!
- Just like in the story, the foolish man’s house fell down when the big storm came because he hadn’t built his life on Jesus and on His word but the wise man’s house didn’t fall down because he had put his whole life and trust in Jesus! The wise man knew Jesus was with him in the storm!
- When we build our lives on Jesus, it means we listen to Him, learn from Him and trust in Him and His word. Jesus really wants us to build our lives on Him because He loves us so much and He loves to take care of us!
Some things to talk to your family about…
- Can you remember what a parable is?
- What did the wise man build his house on? Why do you think that was wise?
- What did the foolish man build his house on? Why do you think that might have been a bit foolish?
- In our lives, who do you think is our Rock?
- What happens when we build our life on the rock?
- How can we build our life on Jesus? What should we do?
Memory Verse
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock”. Matthew 7:24
Activity: Building block memory verse!
Resources needed: (Duplo/mega-blocks/jenga or any sort of building blocks)
Instructions: Write ‘Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock’ onto a sheet of paper and cut it up into individual words. Tape/blu tack each word on to a building block. Mix the words up and challenge children to build a wall/tower and get the words into the correct order. You could also get creative if you have more than one child / wish to make it into a game with the whole family and write the verse out a few times and see who can come up with the best ‘shape’.
Prayer time
God is so good and He always wants what is best for us! He wants us to build our lives on Him because He loves us and wants to take care of us! When we trust in Him and give Him our lives, He gives us His strength! What amazing news! Why don’t you choose to build your life on Jesus right now? Maybe you could pray together with your family and thank Jesus for always being your rock!
Dear God,
Thank you for the bible, thank you that we can read your word and hear these stories from Jesus! Help us to learn from these stories and help us to trust you and build our lives on Jesus, He is our rock!
Amen