CBC Lesson fro 28th to 31th of July

Unit 4 - JONAH AND THE BIG FISH

BIBLICAL REFERENCE
Romans 12:2 and Jonah 1, 2, 3, and 4

PURPOSE OF THE LESSON

Teach children that we can only understand the will of God to our lives when we change our minds.

MEMORIZE THE VERSE
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12.2)

INTRODUCTION

Educator, you start this moment by showing your Bible to your class. Choose a kid and ask him/her to close its eyes. Make sure that he/she is not seeing. Hide the Bible and ask the kid where the Bible is (wait participation). If it takes long to find, show where you hid it. Conclude by saying the following: You see, kids, we can play of hiding objects, even hide ourselves, but can we hide from God? Is it possible to run away from Him? On today’s story we will know a man who tried to run away from God. Let us know what happened? Then be quiet, it is about to start.

THE PERFECT WILL OF GOD

ONCE UPON a time, there was a man called Jonah. One day, God told Jonah to go preach to the inhabitants of Nineveh. You know, friends, those people were so mean and were always doing wrong things, including praying for gods of the world, and if they did not convert that entire city would be destroyed. Jonah packed up and went to his trip but he did not go towards the city of Nineveh as God had said to him, but he went to another city for he chose to run away from the command of God.

Jonah did not want to give the message from God to the Ninevites for he knew that if the people repent, God would forgive them, and Jonah did not want it to happen because the Ninevites were enemies of him and his people.

Jonah went to the city of Joppa and boarded in a ship which was going to Tarshish. He bought a ticket and left, but when the ship was in the middle of the sea, a great storm begun. The people who were on that ship have got really afraid because it was almost sinking, and then they started praying to their gods. Meanwhile, Jonah was sleeping in the basement of the ship. The captain woke up Jonah and said him to pray asking help to his God.

Jonah told to the people who were in the ship that he had ran away from the presence of God. You know, kids, Jonah knew that everything was happening was his fault for he had chosen not to do the will of God but his own, and because of that he asked them to throw him in the sea. Even against their will, those men had to throw him in the sea; at that same time the storm stopped and the ship continued the trip. What about Jonah? What happened to him? Oh, kids! Jonah was swallowed by a big fish and stood inside it for three days and three nights. He repented and asked for forgiveness because of his disobedience. Do you know what happened, kids? God heard Jonah and did the fish to throw him up on a beach.
After that, Jonah went to Nineveh and, when getting there, he told the Ninevites the message from God. The Ninevites did not know God, so they worshiped other gods. However, when listening to the message, they decided to do God’s will and abandon all the wrong things. All of them, including the king of the city, got dressed in sack cloth. Back then, people used to do it to humble before God. God saw they were being sincere and true, and He forgave them by giving up the idea of destroying the city of Nineveh. And so, the people of Nineveh received the forgiveness of God.

CONCLUSION

Class, before going to the belly of the big fish, Jonah did not accept the will of God because he thought like most of his people, that is, they did not want the enemy people to be forgiven by God. But Jonah repented for disobeying and was used to teach the will of God for the Ninevites. Children, we should also want to do the will of God and not our own. But, because of that, we need to ask Him to put on us His thoughts, amen!

FUN CHAT

Educator, for this moment you will need a filled up balloon, a fan or office paper. Start by saying the following: Class, see this ball. Educator, you put the ball on your table or on the floor and, with the fan or paper “fan” the ball but do not touch it with your hands. Change directions; the idea is to make the ball to move several directions only with the help of the wind. Ask the class: children, do you see how the ball moves? It goes to the direction the wind blows. You know, class, those who wish to do the will of God must be guided by the Holy Spirit. When we are following God’s guidance we understand His will in our lives and we start having His mind, His thoughts. First, Jonah did not want to be guided by God, so he ended up inside the belly of the fish. But, when he accepted the will of God, he was very used by Him. Who here will do the will of God say “I”! Amen!