The Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit Gives Gifts

The Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit Gives Gifts l Bible Summary Romans 12:4-10 & 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 God s church is a body where He gives different spiritual gifts to different people. All these gifts given by His Spirit. There are gifts of faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpretation of tongues, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, generosity, leadership, mercy, and more! Key Concept The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual gifts that we use to share God s love with other people. l Bible Verse Follow the way of love, and earnestly desire spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 14:1 l Objectives KNOW WHAT (LG): Kids will learn that the Holy Spirit gives us gifts to give away. SO WHAT (LG): We need the Holy Spirits to have the gifts of the Spirit. NOW WHAT (SG): Invite Holy Spirit to empower kids to walk in His gifts, discuss project books and hear stories from one another on how they are interacting with the Holy Spirit. l Supplies o Project Books o Chart for Tracking Project Points o Bible (NLT) o Spiritual Gifts Scripture Page o Dry Erase Board & Marker l In Advance (done by your administrator) o Photocopy & Staple Project Books if more are needed o Gather Dry Erase Board & Marker o Photocopy Spiritual Gifts Scripture Sheet (1 per child?) Unit Summary: The Holy Spirit Is My Friend Jesus said of the Holy Spirit You will know Him... John 14:17 - yet do we really know Him - and do our children know Him also? While standard Sunday School curricula effectively and thoroughly teach the essential truths of God, the Father and Jesus, the Son, they fall short in teaching children who the Holy Spirit is and leading them into a relationship with Him. Littleton Vineyard Promiseland - Inviting children to a LIFE adventure of friendship with Jesus 1

l Your Morning Schedule Arrive in the Kidatorium 30 minutes before the service begins to meet the rest of your team (Worship Leader and Large Group Leader) and pray. Check your Small Group supplies needed for the morning. Plan to be ready to help greet children 15 minutes before the service begin s, welcome new children and help draw children into a fun welcoming activity. Kids can stop at the memory verse station and earn Promiseland Bucks. (If a child is new, show them the verse sheets on the sign-in table and explain how they can earn Bucks.) Open the Promiseland Store. (One leader should man the store.) Invite kids to play a game with a new friend from the game cabinet. Help lead a simple craft or activity. Children start in Small Groups 5 minutes past the service start to meet YOU, their small group leader. Worship begins 10 minutes into the service. (9:10 a.m. or 10:55 a.m.) Participate with the kids in worship, help kids engage, and model worship! The Large Group lesson will run for about 10 minutes, then you will break into Small Groups for 20 minutes, when you ll then return to Large Group for the remaining of the lesson. Sit with children in Large Group and help them engage in the lesson. At the end of the service, help children at the Promiseland Store, help them work on their Memory Verses and tidy / clean up your Small Group area. Littleton Vineyard Promiseland - Inviting children to a LIFE adventure of friendship with Jesus 2 Curriculum Developed from The 5-STEP Prayer Model for Kids! by Vineyard USA

The Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit Gives Gifts Kid Connection (5 minutes) WELCOME the kids to your Small Group. Welcome each child warmly and personally. Make sure you know each child s name. Introduce new children to others and match them with one specific child to make them feel at home. ASK, What has God done for you this week? What have you learned from Him or about Him? ASK, Have any of you done any work in your project books on the Holy Spirit? (Give kids books that haven t received one yet. Remind kids to bring their project books in to receive the points for the projects they do. Tell the kids that when you come back to Small Group later you will look at the project books more.) TELL, If we get 20,000 points, all together, we are going to have an ice cream party at the end of the Summer, and make banana splits! Teaching Reminder: By empower we mean that the Holy Spirit might come and change us, giving us boldness, words of knowledge, etc. He will empower us, and kids, to do and know things that are not ordinarily possible. l Transition SAY, We re going to learn more about the Holy Spirit today. Last week we learned how God walks with us and empowers us to do the things He wants us to do. This week we ll be learning about what that looks like as He gives us different gifts to use. [When it s time for worship to begin, go with your kids to Large Group and be ready to participate in worship. Sit with your group. Help children stay engaged in the teaching.] If you like, you can look at the original curriculum we are working from, created by Joy Best, for further ideas. http://littletonvineyard.org/download/vineyard_kids/elementary_curr iculum/hs/the%20holy%20spirit%20is%20my%20friend.pdf Littleton Vineyard Promiseland - Inviting children to a LIFE adventure of friendship with Jesus 3 Curriculum Developed from The 5-STEP Prayer Model for Kids! by Vineyard USA

l Review Small Group (20 minutes) READ the following verses with the kids as review and to prepare to play the game Hangman. Romans 12:4-10 (NLT) 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. 6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. 9 Don t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 (NLT) 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. Activity: Hangman The purpose of this activity is to help kids identify and understand more of the meaning of different spiritual gifts that God can give at different times. l Supplies o o Whiteboard (one per group) Dry Erase Marker l Instructions As kids play they can earn extra points towards our ice-cream party by finding the word their guessing in the Bible passage, as well as guessing! 25 points per word found in the Bible passage! Littleton Vineyard Promiseland - Inviting children to a LIFE adventure of friendship with Jesus 4

DRAW a Hangman on your whiteboard with dashes or blanks for each of the letters of the words below. Have the children guess the following words/spiritual gifts. As they guess letters, write the letter on the blanks when they are correct, or draw another part of the body on the hangman if they are incorrect. FIND the gift in the passage. Once kids guess the word/spiritual gift, see if they are able to find where the 2 passages talk about that particular gift. (Every time a child finds the gift, your group can add 25 points towards our points towards the ice-cream party! NOTE: Some are a little trickier than others as the passage doesn t use exactly the same wording. This can help you lead into the discussion of the meaning of the gift and how it s used.) DISCUSS with the kids what that gift/word is or means. ASK or EXPLAIN what the gift might look like in action. WISDOM Biblical Meaning: the ability to judge correctly and to follow the best course of action. GIVING Biblical Meaning: to share what material resources you have with generosity and cheerfulness, without thought of return. TEACHING Biblical Meaning: to teach or instruct others in the truth of the Bible in a way that makes sense to people, giving people important information to help them understand God s ways and grow in their relationship with God. PROPHECY Biblical Meaning: to speak message from God to His people. NOTE: we prophesy in part, meaning, we teach that we share words from God with humility. We are still people passing on a message from God, and our own thoughts and ideas can be mixed in with what God is speaking to us. It s important to stay very humble with prophecy, as with all gifts. IMPORTANT Teaching Reminder: When someone uses a particular spiritual gift, like healing, tongues, prophecy, miracles, leadership, wisdom, or ANY spiritual gift, they are not better than others, or haven t acquired a special and higher level of spirituality than other followers of Jesus. They are just using a GIFT that God has given. We ALL can receive gifts from God and use them!. SERVING Biblical Meaning: to identify things that haven t been done in the church, or in the world that are important to God and people, however small and insignificant looking, and use whatever is available to get jobs done; to give support or assistance to others in the church to help free them up to do other things. TONGUES Biblical Meaning: to speak in a language not previously learned so we can speak privately to God, our spirit to His Spirit; or if speaking in tongues to other people, so others can hear a message from God to be encouraged, or even for those who don t know Jesus, can hear a message from God. HEALING Biblical Meaning: to be used in a way where God makes people well or whole either physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. DISCERNMENT Biblical Meaning: to clearly distinguish what s true from error (or lies) by being able to judge whether someone s behavior or teaching are from God, Satan, human error, or human power. Littleton Vineyard Promiseland - Inviting children to a LIFE adventure of friendship with Jesus 5

MIRACLES Biblical Meaning: to be enabled by God to perform something that a regular human could not do, with those around (witnesses) recognizing that what was done was super-natural and done by God. ENCOURAGEMENT Biblical Meaning: to come along side of someone with words of encouragement, comfort, consolation, and counsel to help them be all God wants them to be. INTERPRETATION Biblical Meaning: to translate a message someone has spoken in tongues. LEADERSHIP Biblical Meaning: to stand before people giving direction in a caring and diligent way, motivating others to get involved in the work that is important to God and important for moving a group forward towards their goals. Activity: Project Books The purpose of this activity is to give kids ideas for how to interact with the Holy Spirit throughout the week, and give them activities they can do to help them practice knowing the Holy Spirit s presence and moving and ministering to others with Him. During this time they will share stories of what they did to complete a project if any children did. l Supplies o Project Books (one for each child) o Markers (for writing their names on books) l Set-Up HAND OUT Project Books to new children. Have the kids write their names on their book. Have kids pull out their project books that brought them. EXPLAIN, as a review from last week, that these books are books they can take home with them each week, but to try to remember to bing them back when they come to be able to earn the points for the activities. If needed, go through the books with the kids and explain that they can earn points by doing the activities in the book. The whole purpose of the activities is the help them get to know the Holy Spirit better and to become more aware of His presence with them. The activities in their booklets, The Holy Spirit is My Friend Project Book, will include: 1. Go pray for someone not at your church who is sick. (175 points) 2. Have a quiet time with the Lord for 3 days in a row. (100 points) Talk to Jesus Sing to Jesus Read about Jesus 3. Choose a story from the book of Acts and act it out with a friend or show what happened with puppets. Show your play to the other children on Sunday. (250 points) 4. Tell a friend about Jesus. (150 points) 5. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you make up a dance to the Lord and show the other children on Sunday. (250 points) 6. Pray for a Christian friend for 7 days. Check off each time you pray. (50 points) Littleton Vineyard Promiseland - Inviting children to a LIFE adventure of friendship with Jesus 6

7. With your parents or on your own, read the book of Acts in the Bible. (500 points) 8. Help us, or help your parents pray for somebody on Sunday morning during ministry time at church, or after church. (75 points) 9. Read Acts, Chapter 2 (or have someone read it to you.) Draw a picture of what happened and color it. Bring it in to show us! 10. Make a little booklet with words and pictures about the work the Holy Spirit does: Comforting Teaching Healing Showing our sin Filling us with love Giving us joy (about 6 to 8 pages) 11. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to write a poem or song to Jesus. (150 points) 12. Can you think of a different project that you would like to do? That s fine as long as you ask your teacher first. They will tell you how many points it will be. (at least 50) ASK, What did you do this week to interact with the Holy Spirit? Have kids share and tell the group what they did for any projects they completed in their book, like if they prayed for someone, show our pictures, dramas, dances, poems, etc if they ve done them. l Memory Verse EXPLAIN, Today we ve been talking about how the Holy Spirit gives us gifts, and it s not only okay to want to receive this gifts, but the Bible tells us to want them! Follow the way of love, and earnestly desire spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 14:1 REMIND the kids "This verse reminds us that God is okay with us wanting Him to give us spiritual gifts to use to love others. At this point be sure to give each child 1 Promiseland BUCK just for being at church today. You can remind them that they can earn BUCKS by memorizing verses (5 BUCKS) for each verse, attending (1 BUCK), bringing a friend (1 BUCK), etc. Activity: Prayer & Ministry The purpose of this activity is to invite the Holy Spirit to be with us and to ask Him for spiritual gifts for us to use as He wants. l Set-Up CIRCLE UP with the kids, away from the distractions of snacks. l Prayer ENCOURAGE the kids to just sit with their eyes closed. They might want to put their hands out with their palms up as it s what we d do when someone is handing us something. It s a way of expecting something from God. INVITE the Holy Spirit to come. Littleton Vineyard Promiseland - Inviting children to a LIFE adventure of friendship with Jesus 7

ASK Him to let us be aware of His presence, and just wait on Him. Let the kids know it s o kay to just be quiet when we ask for God to come, and just listen and wait (like we did when we learned about the 5-Step Prayer Model.) Be sensitive to words of knowledge. Teaching Comments: As in 1 Corinthians 12:8, words of knowledge often come as impressions, hunches, mind pictures, physical sensations in the body, sometimes a word or words in the mind, a phrase. Any of these can be Words of Knowledge. Be open to God speaking and interacting with you as a group in these ways. You will probably have to explain to the children what you mean by words of knowledge. Ask them to share personally with you or with the whole group what they are hearing from the Lord. Kid Connection Continues Small Group Leaders, use this time to continue to build community and learn more about your kids and their concerns. Listen closely so you are better equipped to pray for and reach out to each child. At the end of the service time encourage kids to work on memorizing their Bible verses and earn Promiseland BUCKS. Show them the Promiseland Store and help them to shop with their BUCKS. Littleton Vineyard Promiseland - Inviting children to a LIFE adventure of friendship with Jesus 8

Spiritual Gifts Romans 12:4-10 (NLT) 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. 6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. 9 Don t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 (NLT) 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have. Littleton Vineyard Promiseland - Inviting children to a LIFE adventure of friendship with Jesus 9