The Wise and Foolish Builders Lesson idea

The Wise man that built his house on the Rock Matthew 7:24-27

 

 The Wise and Foolish Builders

 Everyone who hears His words and puts them into practice

                                                                         (For children 2-4) 

New International Reader's Version (NIRV)

     ²⁴ “So then, everyone who hears my words and puts them into practice is like a wise man. He builds his house on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man. He builds his house on sand.

     With Preschoolers it’s good to reinforce a biblical concept with a phrase that you repeat over and over throughout the lesson. In our story of the Wise and foolish builders we have two men that heard but one didn’t obey. We see the consequences of his decisions to ignore Jesus’s teachings. Its important for our children to know that can be the wise and foolish builder weather or not we listen and obey (apply) God’s teachings and instructions in our lives.

    Before we begin our class we review what we learned the week before (prayer) Prayer is us talking to God, and He always listens and he speaks to us. He will use things like the Holy Spirit in church, or while we read the Bible, and He will use people to minister to us such as our Pastor, Sunday school teachers and our parents.

   Sometimes God answers our prayers right away, sometimes it takes a while and other times it seems that He didn’t answer.  But it’s important to know that God knows what He’s doing and He does all things for our good.  Jeremiah 29:11New International Version (NIV) ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

    

 When Jesus teaches us it’s because He loves us and He wants to show us the way we should go, sometimes we like what we hear and sometimes it may be hard to do what He says but we should obey and trust in Him.

    Here I asked the children some questions

Jesus said for us to love your neighbor is it always good to love your neighbor? Is it easy when they’re being mean to you? So what should we do?

                                                               Mark 12:31 and Leviticus 19:18

Well Jesus said we should pray for them, it that easy to do? Sometimes we can be angry and it’s hard to pray for them but we should obey and pray for them.

                                                                  Luke 6:28 and Matthew 5:44

Jesus said we should obey our parents. Is it always easy to obey your parents? How about when we’re playing with our toys and it’s getting late and our parents say we have to go to bed… is it easy to obey? No but we should obey because they love us and know what’s best for us.  

                                          Ephesians 6:1, Colossians 3:20 and Exodus 20:12

   But what happens when we don’t obey? Trouble comes and we often get hurt and when we do obey we live long lives, safe and happy.

So what should we do? We should obey Jesus.

  (Object lesson) Today we’re going to learn about to men, one that obeyed what he heard and another that didn’t obey.

    When we listen to Jesus and His teachings it’s like us building our house on this rock, it’s safe, hard and sure. When we build on the rock we have to dig into the rock and its hard work! It’s not easy to build on a rock just like it’s not always easy to obey.

   But if we don’t listen it’s like us building our house on this sand. It’s a lot easier! We can finish faster but is it the right thing to do? Are our ideas better than Jesus’s?

   Let’s see what happens when hard times come, like a storm (fill the container with Water to cover all the rocks/sand- keep in mind both houses are made of paper- for the house on the sand have the house sit on the sand but for the house on the rock elevate it slightly so the water doesn’t touch it).  What happened? One was destroyed! But what happened to this one? It’s okay! Why was it okay? Because the builder obeyed what God had said.

   So it’s good to obey what God said! And He’ll keep us safe. It may not always be easy but He knows best because He made us and loves us.

     This is one of the best videos out there with the wise and foolish builders

                 theres another video on the wise and foolish builders

Finish the lesson with the Children with a prayer accepting Jesus in their hearts. Then it’s time for the craft!

For this lesson I had already purchased the birdhouses at Michael’s ($1 each) and hot glue gunned rocks to the base of the bird house (the rocks are from The Dollar tree-one bag is enough). 

I then had the kids paint their houses.  

This is optional.  After they finished I took them back home and put a coat of Mod Podge (glossy finish) to insure that the paint didn’t come off if they bird house was set outside. 

 

 there's also a great song to sing with preschoolers to go with this story. I don't have a video but I did find one on you tube that shows how to sing this song. I hope it helps