Pre K
Get an apple or other fruit.
Read Genesis 1:28a: God blessed humans and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth..."
*Cut open the fruit
Say: God made plants to make other plants. He gave them seeds to multiply. In fact he made people to make children like you. You are like a seed.
*Eat fruit
Pray: Dear Creator God, thanks for making us. Help _____ to grow in you and one day bear fruit. Amen.
Kindergarten
Get an apple or other fruit.
Read Genesis 1:28a: God blessed humans and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth..."
*Cut open the fruit
Say: God made plants to make other plants. He gave them seeds to multiply.
Q. Name some plants with seeds that you like to eat.
God made us to make more people. People have babies that grow up. You are like a seed.
Q. In what ways are you like a seed? (A. Like a seed you need to be taken care. You have to be fed. God's light needs to shine on you to grow spiritually. You have to be protected from the weeds of this life. One day you will grow up into the person in which God called you. Perhaps you will multiply too!)
*Eat fruit
Pray: Dear Creator God, thanks for making us. Help _____ to grow in you and one day bear your fruit. Amen.
Elementary
Get an apple or other fruit.
Read Genesis 1:28a: God blessed humans and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth..."
*Cut open the fruit
Say: God made plants to make other plants. He gave them seeds to multiply.
Humans are also called to multiply. People have babies that grow up to have more babies.
But multiplication can also happen through something called "discipleship". In Matthew 28 Jesus tells his followers, who were called disciples, to "go out and make more disciples...teaching them everything I have taught you." If we are Jesus' disciples then we are called to multiply more disciples!
Q. How can you make more disciples of Jesus? (A. You can help more people to follow Jesus by living like Jesus.)
Q. In what ways can you be like Jesus? (A. You can talk with kindness and truth like Jesus. You can serve others like Jesus. You can give to the poor like Jesus. You can pray like Jesus.)
Have your child pray this: Dear Jesus, help me to be a seed that bears fruit. Help me to be a disciple who makes more disciples. Help me to live like you. Amen.
Developing Disciple
Read Genesis 1:28a: God blessed humans and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth..."
God made us to multiply. But for disciples of Christ multiplication is more than having babies. He made us to be disciples who multiply. In the Great Commission of Matthew 28, Jesus tells his disciples to "Go out and make more disciples...teaching them everything I have taught you."
A disciple was someone who followed their Rabbi everywhere. They wanted to be like their Rabbi. They desired most of all to speak, act, give and pray like their Rabbi. Then these disciples went out to make more disciples to follow them as they followed their rabbi Jesus.
Q. How can you be more Jesus?
Q. What areas of your life look nothing like Jesus?
Jesus wants you to live like him. He wants you to reflect his image and likeness to others so that they might follow him too.
Q. Who is God calling you to "be like Jesus" to?
Pray: Jesus, help me to be a better disciple. Help me to bear your fruit. I want to give up those areas of my life that look nothing like you. Help me to go out and make more disciples. Amen.
Disciple Maker
Read Genesis 1:28a: God blessed humans and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth..."
God made us to multiply. But he did not make us to only procreate. He called his disciples to multiply. In the Great Commission of Matthew 28, Jesus tells his disciples to "Go out and make more disciples...teaching them everything I have taught you."
A disciple was someone who followed their Rabbi everywhere. They wanted to be like their Rabbi. They desired most of all to speak, act, give and pray like their Rabbi. Then these disciples went out to make more disciples to follow them as they followed their Rabbi Jesus.
Q. What ways are you not living like your Rabbi Jesus?
Jesus calls his disciples to make disciples who would make disciples.
Q. Who are you called to disciple right now?
Q. How will you do this? Write out a plan and give/mail it to someone who will hold you accountable to this commitment and pray for you.
Pray. Ask Jesus to help you to be a better disciple. Repent of the ways you fail to be like him. Ask him to help you to disciple ______. Then spend several minutes in prayer. He might answer you!
Additional reading on disciples multiplying: Acts 2:42-47, 2 Timothy 2:2