The followers

These are some of my favourite film moments.

This collection came about through the love of film. I love film, you may have noticed already! These particular clips struck me as having a strong spiritual point all to do with individualism and doing your own thing. The question is are you a sheep or are you a goat, do you follow the shepherd or just keep on saying ‘butt, butt, butt’. Following Jesus doesn’t mean giving up your individualism just allowing
Him to use it for His will

Lesson 1 Cops and Robbers
Good Samaritan, Luke 10; 25-37 & Luke 11; 33-36
Monster inc. ch23

Objectives
 You can’t always tell good from bad.
 The Holy Spirit helps us to tell the difference.
 We must be faithful in doing good.

This story is always a good one to act out, maybe changing the characters to modern day contemporaries to help the children understand the principles better. Every boy at some time in their lives like to run about pretending to be a policeman, or a cowboy or a soldier, fighting the bad guys. The problem is that in real life, unlike in games, it’s not always easy to tell who the bad guys are. In the story of the Good Samaritan the guys who were supposed to be the good guys weren’t. The robbers said, ‘What is yours is mine’ and took everything he had including his health. The priest and the Levite said, ‘What is mine is my own’ and didn’t lift a finger
to help the man. The Samaritan, the one who had every right to walk past, said ‘What is mine is yours’ and used all he had to help the poor man in his time of need. It doesn’t matter what we might think of anyone, their colour of skin, and their position in life or whether they are rich or poor. If you are a follower of Jesus then be the good guy and help people in their time of need, if you can.

Object Lesson—The matchbox
Object; Matchbox and candle. Look at this matchbox, how can it light a candle? It can’t! No, it’s the matches inside that light the candle. (Take out a match) But, how can this match light a candle, it can’t spark on it’s own! It needs the matchbox to spark it into flame so as it can light the candle. In the same way we cannot bring light into the world the light must come from within. From the Holy Spirit that lives inside us if we are followers of Jesus we can pass that light on but Jesus uses us to do that. Like the moon that shines at night, Jesus wants us to shine for him in our actions. The moon has no light of it’s own but simply reflects the sun. We have no light of our own He wants us simply to reflect the light from
within, from the Holy Spirit he has placed inside. He wants us, like the moon to reflect the light of the Son, Jesus.

Lesson 2 Digging
The Great Banquet, Luke 14; 15-24
Trailer from LOTR

Objectives
 To look at the reasons why people take the easy way out.
 Only hard work gains rewards that are worthwhile.

In the film LOTR the hobbits are face with huge choices, they have lived an easy life with simple choices but now they were involved in decisions that would not only change their lives but everyone’s life. In the bible story, people of importance are asked to a wonderful feast. They were asked for different reasons, because they were rich, famous, relatives and supposedly friends. But, they all had excuses why they could not come, so many things in this world stop us from doing God’s work or being God’s friend, so many excuses. God doesn’t ask the rich and famous only to be His friend, He wants everyone to be related to Him to be His friend, once you have said sorry for all the bad things you have done and really meant it then the hard work begins. You have made a decision that will not only change your life but the lives of everyone around you, He has given you the tools to do this. The Bible to read, to be able to pray– talking direct to Him and fellowshipping (meeting) with others who believe. These all help us to live as God intended.

Object Lesson—Gardening tools
Lots of people love gardening, they spend all day weeding, tending, and cutting the grass. Some people get more out of doing the gardening than just sitting in it. Others just like to sit there and admire the beauty, but there would be no beauty if there were not someone doing all the hard work keeping it beautiful. So why do some people not like to do the gardening?
1. Maybe, they’re too busy with something else, maybe they just can’t be bothered. Being too busy, not being bothered means you miss out on so much we need to take time to notice what Jesus wants to tell us in our everyday lives.
2. Maybe, they think that they are too good to be doing gardening; it’s hard and dirty work involving a lot of bending and lifting. In our lives bending our knees in prayers and lifting our friends up to Jesus in prayer asking him to help them in times of trouble. Hard work but needs to be done.
3. Maybe, they don’t have the proper tools. It’s important to have the right tools to do the job properly. The tools needed to follow Jesus are simple, the word of God, our testimony in our words and our actions.
Don’t be afraid to dig for Jesus, help him to tend your garden making you more beautiful inside and helping him to make others more beautiful inside.

Lesson 3 The Magic Spectacles
The Prodigal Son, Luke 15; 11-32
Lilo and Stitch

Objectives
 Everyone has done bad things.
 Everyone needs to say sorry for the bad things they do
 Jesus forgives everyone if they really mean it.

Lilo almost can’t help himself even when he tries to be helpful he makes a mistakes a bit like all of us. Sometimes no matter how hard we try we just can’t do it right. That’s the bad news, the good news, Jesus loves us anyway and will help us do what’s right. The Prodigal son thought that his life with his dad was boring that being the obedient son was not the life he wanted to live. Like a spoilt brat he demanded what was his by birthright so as he could decide what to do with it not having to listen to what others think. He thought the grass was greener on the other side, but when he had spent some time with those who called him friend and the let him down, when
his money had all run out and no-one wanted to know him. With no friends, no money and no where left to go he had to go back to his Dad. Don’t be like this son don’t leave it too late to turn to God, the Father. Don’t leave it till your lives in a mess and you’ve nowhere else to go except God, go to Him now.

Object Lesson - Pair of Spectacles,
Let’s imagine these spectacles are magic, if I put them on then I can see every thought you are having. I can see everything you’re going to do and everything you have done. (Put the glasses on and pretend to see some thoughts, shaking your head saying a few tut tuts and maybe congratulations for some of the good things you are pretending to see) These glasses are not magic, they’re just glasses, but I know someone who can see your every thought, who does know everything you’re going to do and everything you’ve done, both good and bad. No matter how bad it gets He loves us, like a mother with a newborn baby or a father with his son He looks out for you. He always keeps his eye on you, always watching to see that no harm comes to you, always listening to what you have to say, always knowing what the trouble is and how to fix it. He loves you and all you need to do is return that love by following Him.

Lesson 4 Pigeons and Falcons
Rich young ruler, Luke 18; 18-30
Stuart Little 2

Objectives
 Life is full of distractions.
 Not only bad things distract us from God.
 Don’t let stuff distract from getting to know God better.

The rich young ruler had everything going for him, but he knew there was more to life than stuff which is why he came to follow Jesus. He didn’t realise though it would mean having to give up his stuff. He couldn’t do it, could you? God probably won’t ask you to give up all your stuff but we must never put our stuff before Jesus.
What are the falcons in our lives?
1. Lack of attention – we’ve all done it, settling down to do our homework, to do a chore or even to talk with Jesus and this falcon sweeps in and distracts us from the job, stealing our sense of purpose, doing the job half-heartedly. No wonder we don’t succeed because we haven’t done our best.
2. Temptation – It’s easy to be slack and careless, doing the wrong thing is easy, and doing nothing is even easier. A little cheating, a little lie, a little cheek, a little disobedience. It can seem harmless but they soon stop being little and begin to grow into big cheating, big lies, a lot of cheek, and a lot of disobedience. It steals your honesty it steals your best.
3. Sin – We need to tell Jesus of all we have done wrong, anything we keep to ourselves will just stop us getting closer to Him. It will just spoil the good things that Jesus has for us.

Object Lesson—Picture of a pigeon or a feather
Pigeons are well known to be carriers of news. Sometimes good and sometimes bad, but the news they carry is always important. Pigeons have an enemy though and pigeons with the news they carry have been lost to this enemy. The pigeon’s enemy is the falcon, a bird of strength and swiftness and many a pigeon has never reached home because of the falcon swooping down and carrying the pigeon off to feed on it.

Lesson 5 Fruit
Talents, Luke 19: 11-27
Ice Age

Objectives
 God looks for availability not ability.
 Faithfulness is better than talent.
 God gives the talent, He can also take it away.

In the clip they all fight very hard for this precious piece of fruit, the lion could have got it easy with his sharp teeth and claws, the mammoth would have no problem getting the fruit who would argue of win but no, it was the sloth who got the fruit. The least likely to get it got it. God works the same way, he does not look at size or talent. He does not want your ability but your availability, He gives you the talent to do the job He asks of you all you have to do is use that
talent as best as you can not for reward but because its right. God will reward you for being faithful.

Object Lesson - Bunch of grapes.
Hold up a grape and ask if anyone can tell you what it is? Ask if anyone knows where it comes from? In John 15:5 it says, ‘I am the vine and you are the branches.’ If you make Jesus your best friend then you are a branch to his vine, without being attached to the vine, the branch cannot bear fruit. So what is a branch for? To bear fruit, so if you are his follower then your main business is to bear fruit. Of course, by fruit I don’t mean that you are expected to sprouting apples and
oranges or even grapes. No, lets think about what fruit is. Firstly, you always know what type of tree you have by the type of fruit it produces. Apples always come from apple trees, oranges from orange trees and grapes from vines. So, with you people will know if you are truly a friend of Jesus by the way you act. Secondly, fruit brings refreshment; do people seem pleased when they see you? Are you seen as someone who is helpful, kind and considerate or unhelpful, unkind and inconsiderate? Do people see you as someone who behaves or misbehaves? What kind of fruit do you grow? He is the vine, be one of his branches and show his fruit.