Leader Guide

Adoption Card Game

Let’s say our SuperTruth together: “Through Christ, I am adopted into His family.”

This is what our game is about today.  

Hold up each of the twelve cards as you discuss them:

• Family: Jesus talked with some Jewish leaders who thought that because they were descendants of Abraham and born as Jews, they were automatically children of God. See Matthew 3:9. Jesus told them that everyone must have their sins forgiven and believe in Him to receive salvation. This is true for us today! If your mother and father are Christians, does that mean that you are automatically a Christian?No.

How about your grandparents—if they are Christians, does that mean that you are automatically a Christian? No.

• Church: Some people think that by attending church or being a member of a certain church automatically makes them children of God. Do you think that’s true? No.

We go to church because we love God and we want to praise and worship Him with other believers, but just going into a church building does not make us Christians.  

• Ten Commandments: Some people think that we can get to heaven by doing good things and by trying to keep God’s laws. Is anyone in here perfect? No.

Do you think I am perfect? No.

We have all sinned and done bad things—and we can never do enough good things to earn our way into heaven. Only Jesus is perfect and kept God’s laws perfectly; so by trusting in Him, and in His death on the cross, we are adopted as God’s children by faith—not by anything we do.

• Bible reading: Can we earn our way into heaven by reading the Bible? No.

What if we read the whole thing, from Genesis to Revelation—is that enough to get into heaven? No.

Reading God’s Word is very important—but simply knowing what the Bible says is not enough to receive eternal life.

• Getting good grades in school: What if we work really hard in school and get good grades on all of our papers, in all of our subjects? Will that make God love us more so He will adopt us? No.

God loves us no matter what grades we get in school. It is important to do your best in school, but no amount of good grades will earn us a place in God’s family. 

• Loving our neighbors: What if we help our neighbors every day—sweeping their sidewalks, or taking out their trash, or babysitting their children. Will that make God decide to adopt us? No.

We want to show God’s love by helping others, but doing good things for others will not give us eternal life. 

• Feeding the hungry: The Bible tells us that we put our faith to action by helping others such as giving them food or a drink.

However, this alone does not make us a child of God. 

• Giving money to the poor: We should always share what we have with those less fortunate.

 But this won’t “buy” our way into heaven! 

• Fasting: Fasting, or giving up food for awhile, can be helpful when we pray and seek God. But how many meals do we need to skip to earn a ticket to heaven—three? No.

Twenty-one? No.

It won’t give us eternal life.

• Obeying our parents: Okay, now; you all know how important this one is! What if we always obey our parents, and we do all of our chores perfectly?

Surely God will say, “Okay, that’s good enough! Now I’ll adopt you!” No.

• Brushing your teeth: Cleaning our teeth is taking good care of our body that God gave us, but can it ever cleanse us from our sin? No.

No, there’s only one way to do that.  

• Cross and scarlet thread: The only way to be adopted into God’s family and become a child of God is to ask Jesus to wash away our sins and to be our Lord and Savior. Only through Christ and the blood He shed for us on the cross can we be accepted into God’s family!

Explain to the children that the taped/marked area represents being in God’s family. Shuffle the cards. Divide the class into two even teams. One child may play twice if necessary. Have the teams make two lines outside the marked/taped square area. This game will have a twist at the end to make a point. Time each player, but don’t tell the children this won’t be used to determine a winning team. At the end, you will tell both teams that everyone wins by being adopted into God’s family though Christ.

Shuffle both sets of cards and place them face down on the floor, at the opposite end of the room from where the teams are standing. Each round consists of a player from each team walking quickly to the cards and turning them over until they find the one with the cross and scarlet thread that says, “Adopted Through Christ.” They should hold the card up and shout the SuperTruth: “Through Christ, I am adopted into His family.” The player will return the card to the other cards and then hop over the tape or mark and remain standing in the square. Record their times on the sheet, keeping in mind that you don’t have to be exact because it won’t matter in the end. Between each round, have assistants such as sixth grade helpers quickly mix the cards and place them face-down again. Continue until all players have played and all are standing together in the taped/marked area.  

The point of this game was to show that you could not enter or be adopted into God’s family unless you find faith in Christ. So, who won? Everyone did! I kept times so the game would be fun for you; but in truth, we are all winners when we become members of God’s family through Christ and can call God, Abba Father!