Week 967 · about 45 minutes
Matthew 6
Matthew 6 · Memory verse Matthew 6:24
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Matthew 6), the matching word search and answer key (Matthew 6 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a folded cloth
Hold a folded cloth. Read Matthew 6 in about four minutes, stopping at Matthew 6:24: ““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Matthew 6?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Matthew 6 is a real chapter from the New Testament. It starts, ““Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” That is not a motto invented for a poster. It is the first sentence a family hears when this page is opened at night.
Keep going a little further. The chapter also says, “so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6 opens with these words: ““Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in…” The line to keep is Matthew 6:24: ““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve…” Carry the word “serve” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Matthew 6:24: ““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Matthew 6? Then try this: Read ““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be…” once more. What does it show you about God? You do not have to finish every verse. You can close the book after the memory verse and still have read the Bible together.
Group game
Walk the room as if you are moving through Matthew 6. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Matthew 6:24. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Matthew 6 and write Matthew 6:24 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Matthew 6:24
““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Matthew 6. Help us remember Matthew 6:24 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.