Teaching

Why did Paul go to Philippi? God gave him a vision of a man telling him to come to Macedonia.   

Paul and Silas followed wherever God’s Spirit led them. What about today—will God’s Spirit direct us? Yes.

Read John 16:13:

“When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own but will tell you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future.”

That’s a powerful promise—the Holy Spirit gives us God’s direction! Did the Holy Spirit force Paul and Silas to do anything? No.

When God told them to do something, they chose to obey. Here is what Paul says in Acts 16:10:

So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there. 

They decided to obey. And that’s what our SuperVerse is about. Let’s say it together. Galatians 5:25:

Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

As believers in Christ, we must choose whether to follow our own selfish desires or to obey Him. We must decide to follow God’s leading not just once, when we get saved—but moment by moment. The Holy Spirit will speak to our hearts as we seek God, pray, and read the Bible.   

Have the volunteer come forward. Place the rope around the volunteer’s waist like a “U” and hold the two ends in front of the person. Have the volunteer hold onto the rope at the waist.

Suppose you are at school. It’s lunchtime, and you sense the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart, telling you to sit with a new classmate who is eating alone. However, you would rather eat with your good friends! Have the volunteer resist a little as you try to pull forward. Will the Holy Spirit drag you over to the new person? No!

The Holy Spirit may keep tugging at your heart, but He will not physically drag you over like a game of tug-of-war. What would please God? Children answer.  

Now imagine you’re at home with your family. The Spirit speaks to your heart about spending time with your little sister or brother. Your parents didn’t tell you to, and your brother or sister didn’t ask. You’d rather be on the computer. Have the volunteer resist a little as you try to pull the person forward. What would please God? Children answer. 

We please God when we obey Him cheerfully. Look at the SuperVerse on the board. What two words come before “follow”? Let us.

We have a choice to follow Him or not. How do you think our hearts would feel if we disobeyed the Lord? Worried, upset, etc.

How will our hearts feel if we obey God? Happy, joyful, peaceful, etc.

The SuperVerse says we should follow God in which part of our lives? Every part.              

Can you name some parts of our lives where we should follow God? At school, home, church, on the playground, a friend’s house, at practice, everywhere!   

Now here’s a very important question. If we obey God, does that mean we will never go through hard times? Children answer.   

Were Paul and Silas beaten and put in prison because they did something wrong or because they obeyed God? Because they obeyed God.

So what did they do in prison—moan and grumble and complain? No.

They were singing and praising God! And because they obeyed God, they were able to share the Gospel with the jail keeper and his family, who all became believers!

Discipleship Challenge/Practical Application  

I’ll name some people in the Bible story, and you tell me how they were set free.

Paul and Silas. Their chains fell off.

The fortune teller. Paul prayed and she was delivered from a demon.

The jailer and his family. They were set free from sin when they were saved.

Galatians 3:22 says we all need to be set free from sin:

But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.     

Today, we will make a chain out of paper links to remind us that Jesus sets us free from sin so we can freely serve God and have eternal life!

Give each child a pair of scissors, a pencil, a glue stick, and an Iron Link Challenge. If using black and white patterns, hand out gray or silver crayons, colored pencils, or washable markers to color the strips. Have children cut out the strips and write their names on the first link. Display the sample chain you made and help them assemble the links in the correct order to make their own chains.

Take this chain home, and before we meet next time, memorize SuperVerse #1, do Challenge #1, and tear off those links. What does Challenge #1 say? Think of an area of your life where you need God’s guidance. Pray and ask Him to lead you each day—then watch and listen for His answers. 

Next time, I’ll ask who remembered to do it—and what happened when you did! 

Optional discussion: In the video, a girl was not being led by God’s Spirit. She was directed by something else and causing trouble for Paul and Silas. Who was she? She was a fortune teller with an evil spirit that gave false prophecies.  

God’s Spirit is more powerful than any evil spirit. Paul did not act in his own power. He was directed and empowered by God’s Spirit to cast the evil spirit out of her.