What is Worship?

The children will learn that:-

  • Worship means giving praise to God for who He is and everything He’s done.
  • When we worship God, we use our hearts to express our love and respect for Him.

Bible Story Reference: Luke 10:38-42, John 12:1-3

Memory Verse: 

Matthew 15:8 (NIV)

“These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

Opening Activity

  • Today we will learn what the word “worship” means. Does anyone have an idea about how we worship God? (through songs, reading the Bible, praying, etc)
  • Worship is something we do to show God that we honour, respect, and love Him. However, we can easily worship God for the wrong reasons if we’re not careful! A character in today’s Bible story will teach us about true worship and the reasons we worship God.

Bible Story

  • As Jesus and his disciples were travelling, they came to a town where Martha lived with her sister Mary. The sisters welcomed Jesus into their home and Martha immediately began to work very hard to get supper ready for Jesus. While Martha busied herself in preparing the meal, Mary just sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to his teaching.

  • Martha was upset that her sister was not helping her, so she went to Jesus and said, “Do you see that my sister is not helping me? Tell her to help me.”

  • Jesus answered, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about too many things. Only a few things are important, perhaps just one. Mary has chosen that one thing and I will not take it away from her.”
  • Many of us make the same mistake that Martha made. We get so busy working, going to school, playing, or watching television that we often forget the most important thing. We forget to spend time with Jesus! We must be very careful that we don’t get so busy doing good things that we leave out the best! After all, Jesus is the most important thing!
  • There’s another time when Jesus was at a meal given in his honour, Mary expressed her devotion to the Lord by breaking open an expensive jar of fragrant oil, anointing Jesus’ feet with it, and wiping them with her hair. Some objected, but Jesus commended Mary for her actions.
  •  There are many ways we can worship God: singing worship songs, listening to a Bible lesson, praying, serving God and others, etc. But Mary teaches us that having the right heart about worship is what’s important.
  • We don’t worship God to show off, get what we want, or to be noticed. We worship God to honour Him and tell Him that He is greater and more wonderful than anything else on earth!
  • So, the next time we worship and praise God, we can remind our hearts to be ready to honour Him.

Questions

  1. Where is Jesus? (Martha and Mary’s house.)
  2.  What does Mary do? (She worships Jesus by sitting at His feet and listening to Him.)
  3. What does Martha do? (Distracts herself by getting ready for Jesus to stay.)
  4. Why does Martha get frustrated? (Because she feels like Mary should help her.)
  5. What does Jesus say to Martha? (That the best thing to do is worship Him instead of worrying about other things.)
  6. What does Mary teach us about worshipping God? (That we need to be still, be ready to listen, and seek nearness with Him.)
  7. What does Martha teach us about worshipping God? (That worship is less about actions and more about opening our hearts up to hear His word.)
  8. What else does Mary do for Jesus? (She pours expensive perfume on His feet and wipes it with her hair.)
  9. What do we learn from this act of worship? (That true worship means loving Jesus more than any expensive possession we own and even being willing to give it up for Him.)

Prayer

Dear Jesus, help us to remember that you are the most important thing in our lives. Don’t let us get so busy with other things that we forget to spend time with you. Amen.

Songs

Crafts

Time for Jesus

                         

What You Need

  • Coloured papers
  • Black Pen
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Circular object

Steps 

  1. Use a pencil and a circular object to draw a circle. This is the base of the paper clock.

  2. Once you have drawn the circle of the required size, take up a pair of scissors and cut along the drawn circle.

  3. Cut four circles of the same colour. These will form the four number places in the paper clock. All these places have to be at ninety degrees from each other.

  4. Stick these bright coloured circles in places on the edge of the paper clock.

  5. Cut eight circles of a smaller size as compared to the previous ones.

  6. Now stick two of these circles in between the two of the previously stuck circles. You have a complete twelve circles on the clock.

  7. You can add two ear shapes on the top of the clock to make it more fun.

  8. Fill in the numbers from one to twelve in the circles already stuck on the clock using a pen.

  9. On a piece of paper, cut two thin strips for the hands of the clock. The hour hand should be cut smaller than the minute hand.

  10. Once you have cut the hands for the clock, stick them, stemming from the centre of the clock circle.

  11. You can point them at any hour and use glue to stick them in place.

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