Many proverbs are “variations on a theme.” What major themes have you noticed in the book of proverbs?
Possible answers are : wisdom / fool; righteous / wicked; tongue/ speech; diligence / sluggard; honesty / dishonesty; Justice; pride / humility.

Proverbs has several ways it gets across a message:

Description
Jesus ends the book of Mark with the disciples going out and doing the things he did…In this ACTIVITY youth will do mirror-image movements to demonstrate discipleship

Materials

• a Bible

What to do

1. Form pairs and have partners sit facing each other.

Simply put, prayer is communicating with God. As a child of God you are invited to come boldly before His throne. ‘Since we have such a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,’ the apostle Paul writes, ‘…then let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.’ (Hebrews 4:14-16)

How to know you are growing older?

1. Everything hurts, and what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work.
2. Your little black book contains only names ending in M.D.
3. You get winded playing chess.
4. You join a health club and don’t go.
5. You look forward to a dull evening.

“How many times must I forgive my brother?” the disciple Peter had asked Jesus.

“Seven times?” Lisa’s Sunday school teacher had read Jesus’ surprise answer to the class.

“Seventy times seven.”

Lisa had leaned over to her brother Brent as the teacher continued reading. “How many times is that?” she whispered. Brent, though two years younger, was smarter than she was.

A lady takes her pet chihuahua with her on a safari holiday. Wandering too far one day the chihuahua gets lost in the bush, and soon encounters a very hungry looking lion.

A person checks into a hotel for the first time in his life, and goes up to his room.

Five minutes later he calls the reception desk and says: “You’ve given me a room with no exit. How do I leave?”

The desk clerk says, “Sir, that’s absurd. Have you looked for the door?”

“…Sit down and think for a moment, please. Find a quiet spot in your dwelling, just for sixty seconds. Think–just think about the two statements…’you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow…’ and ‘…you do not know what a day may bring forth.’

A new hotel employee was asked to clean the elevators and report back to the supervisor when the task was completed. When the employee failed to appear at the end of the day the supervisor assumed that like many others he had simply not liked the job and left. However, after four days the supervisor bumped into the new employee. He was cleaning in one of the elevators. “You surely haven’t been cleaning these elevators for four days, have you?” asked the supervisor, accusingly. “Yes sir,” said the employee, “This is a big job and I’ve not finished yet – do you realise there are over forty of them, two on each floor, and sometimes they are not even there….”

Description of the Children’s Sermon Idea
Jesus took a small boys lunch and fed a BIG crowd of 5000 people. Jesus can take whatever we give him, even if it is small, and make a BIG difference in the lives of others.

Scripture Text for the Children’s Sermon
Matthew 14:13-21; 26:26-30