FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – Summer of Sharing -- SUMMER GRACE PLACE

Parent/Teacher Notes for Fruits of the Spirit and Summer of Sharing:

God has given us spiritual Gifts and among these are the Fruits of the Spirit (FOS). These help us live lives that please God

and God intended for our lives to be a witness to Him. When we share these blessings from God by our thoughts, words

and deeds, we share Him with others.

This summer we will study one different “Fruit of the Spirit” each week, and give an actionable way to SHARE that fruit

and Jesus’s love during the week.

As children learn about the fruits of the Spirit (FOS) they will learn that God can use each of them to show his love to

others. Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s love and these qualities of the FOS are embodied in Jesus. We grow

closer to Jesus as we learn to love and share like He did.

During the course of the summer, younger children who are still learning who Jesus is, will learn through the FOS what

Jesus is like. Jesus wants us to be like that too, and to share His love.

Older children will learn to recognize the FOS in their lives and in others, and will realize the importance of each quality.

We will see that each quality is a tool that God has given us through the Holy Spirit to show Jesus love to others.

The servant project for the week will help them connect that quality to action.

Supplies: Below supplies were used for online teaching. Look at the lesson and decide if you wish to

use them as you lead the lesson at home.

Picture of a tree to add a fruit of spirit to weekly, and picture of Kiwis (attached)

2 fresh kiwis – have on cut open showing the green inside.

Pictures of jack rabbit and turtle (included at end of lesson)

Large pile of coins and just a few coins OR use the pictures of coins included at end of lesson.

LESSON 4 - “PATIENCE” Point for overall theme: God gives us the FOS to help us show others what Jesus’ love looks like Point for PEACE: We can be patient and trust God. FRUIT: Kiwi Sharing Challenge Project: Patience Pots; continue Peace, Prayers, and Pennies – for Faith Aid Recipe fun: Patience, Love and Joy Smoothie Scripture: Matthew 18:-21-34 The Unforgiving Servant Summer Verse: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23a PATIENCE Verse: 2 Peter 3:15a: Think of our Lord’s patience as an opportunity for us to be saved. (God’s Word Translation). Songs and videos for this lesson: Rocky Railway theme Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xS48-KihC0 Giver of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV5usNv4WEo Matthew 18:21-34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED3fzkS-bhA (Saddleback kids) God Forgave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZw6qQby24A Fruit of Spirit song/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ejASqf1VE (Go fish) From week 3: Seeds Worship-Phil 4:6-7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z984DP2NDgU

Parent notes on Patience: Impatience is a pretty standard feature of childhood. They lost the video game AGAIN! WHY can’t I watch ‘Trolls 2’ ten times in a row? Are we there yet? How long until my birthday? But it is not just kids, right? Right now EVERYBODY is impatient! We want to leave our house! We are tired of “too much family time”! We miss our friends, our routines. We get upset with the news. Why won’t this virus just STOP?! Is it time for the kids to go to bed yet? Impatience is goals not quite reached. Protests that timing is thwarted. It is a self-centered idea that “I and my own goals and plans are the most important, and everyone needs to make sure what I need happens!” Contrast this with our loving Savior who patiently taught, healed and served those he met physically in his time on earth, and then took the cross for us, even though nothing that we did or can do merits any patience on His part. Holy and just, He could toss us impatiently away, as the unforgiving servant in the story today. Instead, He leads and guides and forgives our every sin. =============================================== Sing Don’t forget to register for Rocky Railway VBS! VBS will be online, but you can register and pick up a package with all the fun Sciency Gizmos, and stuff you will need to do all the activity stations at home on you tube and facebook! Let’s sing the theme song to help us get ready! Rocky Railway theme Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xS48-KihC0 Intro This summer at Grace Place we are learning about how Jesus lived and how he wants us to live. He has given us some Fruit to have in our lives. We call this the Fruit of the Spirit. God gives us the FOS to help us show others what Jesus’ love looks like Remember, when the seeds of this kind of fruit is planted in our hearts, the Holy Spirit helps them grow in us so we can love and serve others like Jesus did. The fruit that people will see is the love of Jesus in our lives! Prayer: Let’s start our lesson time in Prayer as we ask God to help us listen and learn about this special Fruit! Pray: Father, sometimes we get impatient with other people. We get mad when people don’t do things our way or if they’re not fast enough. Sometimes we even get impatient with ourselves. Please help us learn how to be patient. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen Invite kids to unmute their computer devices Briefly review last 2 weeks. So far we have eaten Pineapples, grapes, and Cherries. Can anyone say what fruit of the Spirit they represent? LOVE; SELF-CONTROL, PEACE Our Point this summer is God gives us the Fruit of the Spirit to help us show others what Jesus’ love looks like. LOVE: God wants us to love as He does. Point for SELF-CONTROL: God wants each of us to practice self-control and Peace was: We can replace worry with PEACE because God is on our side. That was a long one! Ask if anyone made their offering collection jar. Remind them to pray for peace, and help Faith Aid. Intro Fruit of the Week: PATIENCE / Kiwi Have pictures of kiwis on the tree. Optional: Let’s sing our Fruit of the Spirit Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ejASqf1VE (Go fish) Say: Before we look at our fruit tree this week, I want to look at a couple of animal friends as a clue to our fruit of the spirit for this week. [Hold up a picture of a Jack Rabbit.] If you could put a

leash on one, what would it be like to take a jack rabbit for a walk for a walk? How tired would you feel after walking the jack rabbit? Why? [Hold up a picture of a turtle.] What would it be like to take a turtle for a walk? How would you feel after walking the turtle? Turtles are famous for being slow. If you had to wait for a turtle to walk anywhere, you would need a lot of patience! Think of something that takes a lot of patience from you. Maybe it is waiting for your birthday, or waiting until you get to play your video games. If you think it is hard to be patient, stand up! Don’t sit down until I say you may. (watch to make sure they don’t sit down. Both leaders should tell kids to keep standing, if they start to sit) Say: Today we are going to look at PATIENCE, our 4th fruit of the Spirit in our Bible verse for the summer. Let’s take a look at our Fruit of the Spirit tree. Hmmm. What seems to be growing on our tree? (Kiwis) Well, Tricked again! Kiwis grow on vines! Even though the fruit of the Spirit is NOT a fruit you eat, let’s look these kiwis to find out about our next Fruit of the Spirit. Say: Who has eaten a Kiwi? What can you tell me about this fruit? (Pause) Hold up the whole kiwi or the big picture of a kiwi. What can you tell me about a Kiwi? (Expect comments about size, color, sweet, tangy etc) Those are all good answers. If no one has mentioned brown fuzzy skin, mention it. What is kind different about a Kiwi? (brown, fuzzy. Doesn’t look like it would be sweet and juicy) Make sure kids are still standing Say: What do you think a Kiwi has to remind us about patience? (pause for answers) Well here are a couple of things. I did a little research, and you could grow your own Kiwi vine from seeds! Cool! But sadly, you will probably have to wait 3 to 5 YEARS before you get any fruit! I think I will just go to the store. I am not THAT patient. Make sure kids are still standing And, I guess you can eat the skin, but it doesn’t look too yummy to me. (Show Kiwi again) So I would have to be patient while I peel the skin off. But being PATIENT can bring a great reward! Look at the gift inside if I am patient! (Show cut open Kiwi) It is not at all like the boring brown, fuzzy skin! Inside it is beautiful, soft, sweet, and juicy. (Point for PATIENCE): So just like we might have to show a little patience when getting to eat our Kiwi, it can remind us that we can be patient and trust God! That is our Bible point for PATIENCE. You can sit down now. You probably got impatient with me while I kept you standing for no reason. We all get impatient sometimes. We don’t like to wait. We want to have everything go just the way we want. And right now too! It is especially hard to wait on people, when things don’t happen quickly enough. That is such a bother! In Today’s Bible lesson, Jesus’ friend Peter, must have had someone that was really getting on his nerves. He felt like he had to wait and forgive and forgive over and over. So he asked Jesus just how many times do you have to forgive someone? Peter was getting pretty impatient with the whole thing. Jesus gave him an answer with a story. Let’s find out about it. Bible Lesson Matthew 18: 21-34 The unforgiving servant Show video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED3fzkS-bhA (Saddleback kids) Or read the scripture from the Bible or children’s story Bible.

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked him, “Lord, how often do I have to forgive a believer who wrongs me? Seven times?” 22 Jesus answered him, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy times seven. 23 “That is why the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his

servants. 24 When he began to do this, a servant who owed him millions of dollars was brought to him. 25 Because he could not pay off the debt, the master ordered him, his wife, his children, and all that he had to be sold to pay off the account. 26 Then the servant fell at

his master’s feet and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay everything!’ 27 “The master felt sorry for his servant, freed him, and canceled his debt. 28 But when that

servant went away, he found a servant who owed him hundreds of dollars. He grabbed the servant he found and began to choke him. ‘Pay what you owe!’ he said. 29 “Then that other servant fell at his feet and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will

repay you.’ 30 But he refused. Instead, he turned away and had that servant put into prison until he would repay what he owed. 31 “The other servants who worked with him saw what had happened and felt very sad. They told their master the whole story. 32 “Then his master sent for him and said to him, ‘You evil servant! I canceled your entire

debt, because you begged me. 33 Shouldn’t you have treated the other servant as mercifully as I treated you?’ 34 “His master was so angry that he handed him over to the torturers until he would repay everything that he owed. 35 That is what my Father in heaven will do to you if each of you

does not sincerely forgive other believers.”

Discuss the Story and how it illustrates PATIENCE Say: In the Bible story, Peter learns to be patient when dealing with others, and especially be forgiving, as God is forgiving to us. Say: In our story, a king had people that owed him A LOT OF money. He was a king. He could just throw them in jail, or sell them and everything someone owned to help pay the debt. Let’s pretend that these pennies represents a million dollars. One man who owed the king a huge amount like this. If you had borrowed millions of dollars from someone, how long do you think you would have to work to have enough money to pay the person back? It probably couldn’t happen in your life time! But the man pleaded for the king to be patient, and he would try to pay it all back. The King decided the man did not have to pay him back at all. Wow! Maybe it was like if your mom said you didn’t have to make your be again -- EVER! Show me your best celebration! Say: After that super nice thing, the man saw someone who owed HIM some money, and not even a lot of money. Let’s say this handful of pennies is like what he owed the man compared to the pile that was owed the king. He demanded to be paid back immediately. The other man begged him to have PATIENCE, and give him more time. Ask: Did the man show patience? Show me what you think it might look like to be impatient. (pause) Nope. Even though this man might have been able to earn the money to pay back this smaller amount, he didn’t even get a chance. He was thrown in jail. When the king heard about it, he had the unforgiving man put in jail and would now have to pay the money back, afterall. Ask: So how does all of that show us that we can be patient and trust God? Remember, Jesus told the story to answer Peter’s question of how many times did he have to forgive someone. Jesus also told him before the story 70 times 7. That equals 490, but that was a way of saying, all the time. Keep being patient. Keep forgiving and forgiving.

Ask: Do you think God has to be patient with you? He is patient with us when we sin. He is patient with us when we are slow to do the things we know would make Him happy. All of these things add up every day, making us like that first servant. We owe God more that we could ever repay. Giver of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV5usNv4WEo Bible Verse Study Ask: Why do you think the Lord is patient with us? Read 2 Peter 3:15a: Think of our Lord’s patience as an opportunity for us to be saved. (God’s Word Translation). This was written by Peter, who had asked Jesus about how many times he needed to forgive. It looks like Peter understood the message about patience. God expects us to imitate His patience by forgiving others when they bug us, or sin against us, or make us wait. We should be patient with others in the same way God is patient with us. When we can be patient and trust God , we follow what Jesus told Peter. Keep on being patient. Keep on forgiving. Keep trusting God to be there. We can be patient and trust God. Being patient sort of sounds like doing nothing, but it IS an action word! Sometimes it is hard work to be patient, when we want thing to get going! Summer Challenge: Patience pots Say: For our project this week, you may have to be patient for results. You are encouraged to get a small pot and plants some seeds. Hopefully, you won’t have to wait 3-5 years for a flower like the wait for a kiwi! Patiently care for your little seed, and perhaps your patience will be rewarded!

Peace, Prayer and Pennies (Donations will Benefit Faith Aid) Remind everyone to keep doing the PEACE, PRAYER, and PENNIES project. (See Pdf from Website)

Our recipe – Patience, Love and Joy Smoothie Made from some of our fruits of the Spirit (it’s a sneak preview – our last fruit, Joy, is the strawberry!) Closing and Prayer: Say: We can be patient and trust God. Waiting is hard. Dealing with situations we don’t like is hard. There are many times that waiting calmly is tough, for children and grown-ups too. Sometimes we are impatient with God. We feel like he is not listening when we pray. But God is good. He gives good gifts. He hears our prayers, but we may have to be patient and wait to see the answer. And sometime we may not like the results. But God is in control. His timing and his ways—even when we must be patient as we see his plans unfold-are for our greatest good. Let’s close with prayer and after we say “Amen” Let’s ‘pass the peace’ like we learned last week. Review ASL sign for “Peace” and “Peace Be With You” (Video reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C5WhR2tHLw ) Pray: Dear Father in heaven, thank You for being so patient with us. We owe you more than we could ever repay. Help us to remember how much it cost you to save us from our sins so that we remain patient with others. In Jesus’ name, Amen.