VBS Day 5: Jesus!

Jesus Can Make My Heart Clean!

Lesson

Who can tell me what our story was about yesterday? That’s right. Rahab. She hid the spies from the bad guys and trusted God to save her when her city got destroyed. I told you yesterday that God has a plan to save us too. Our city isn’t going to get destroyed, but God is going to save us from something even worse: sin. Does anyone know what sin is? Sin is doing anything that the Bible says not to. The Bible says not to lie, so anytime we lie, that’s sin. The Bible says to be kind. So anytime we’re mean and unkind, we sin. The Bible also says that everyone sins. You sin. I sin. Rahab sinned. Moses sinned. Your moms and dads sin. And sin is very bad. Sin makes our hearts all dirty and gross. Sin has to be punished. But like I told you at the beginning, God has a plan to save us from sin and make our hearts clean again. That plan involves Jesus. You guys have heard of him before, right? Jesus lived in heaven where everything is perfect and happy. But he knew that we were sinful and needed him to save us, so he came down to earth. He didn’t come down as a big, powerful man. He came down as a little tiny baby. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas time – that Jesus came to earth as a baby to save us. And do you know how he saved us from our sin? When he grew up, He died on the cross. Remember how I said that sin has to be punished? Well when Jesus died, he got punished for our sin instead of us. Imagine if you stole a cookie from the cookie jar and your mom said you had to get a spanking. Now imagine that your sister said “I didn’t steal the cookie. But I’ll take the spanking.” That’s just like what Jesus did! He’s the only one in the whole world who has never sinned. He was perfect all the time. But he took the punishment for all of our sins! But here’s the best part. Jesus didn’t stay dead! After he died on the cross, his friends put him in a tomb – which is like a cave with a huge, heavy stone in front of the opening. But after three days, Jesus came back to life! And he came out of the tomb. After a little while, he went back up to heaven. And guess what? After we die, we can go up to heaven with Jesus too! But only people with clean hearts can go to heaven. So how do we get clean hearts? We just have to believe in Jesus. We have to pray and tell him that we’re sorry for sinning and ask him to make our hearts clean. And he will! Our verse for today is all about Jesus and how he saves us from our sin: John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

"Flannel" board pictures.

Craft

On Wednesday, I took a picture of each of the kids holding a sign that said "Jesus Can Make My Heart Clean!" I had them developed and picked them up yesterday to use for our craft today. We glued our pictures onto a piece of construction paper, then added the pictures of Jesus' life from our "flannel" board. (All on one page for easy cutting.) 

Activity

I searched for "salvation object lessons" on Pinterest and discovered this hard boiled egg activity. I hard boiled an egg last night, then showed the kids how white and clean it was. Then I started to write sins on it with permanent marker, telling the kids that when we lie or steal or cheat that's called sin and sin makes our hearts dirty and yucky. Soon the egg was covered in black writing. I asked the kids if they would like to eat an egg like that. They emphatically responded, "no!" So I tapped the egg on the table and started to peel away the sins, explaining as I went that Jesus can peel away our sins if we ask for his forgiveness. Finally, I showed the kids the clean white egg and told them that our hearts can be clean like that because Jesus died for us! 

Water Fun!

This has nothing to do with Jesus, but I planned a few fun water activities for the kids today. It was a great time filler. We spent an hour outside going from station to station. 

First was the basic baby pool with all kinds of toys in it. I grabbed my girls' bath toys and pool toys - mostly bowls, spoons, cups, and funnels - and let the kids play to their hearts' content. I also added a few squirts of dish soap just to make it fun (and clean the girls' gross bath/pool toys while I was at it!)

Second, was a Pinterest find: rubber duck races. I filled an under-the-bed rubbermaid tote with water, plopped in two rubber ducks, and gave two kids a squirt bottle filled with water. Then I instructed the kids to race their ducks to the finish line by squirting them. This went over really well and the kids loved it!

The kids are supposed to be sitting next to each other at the same end of the tote to race their ducks.

We had a water balloon station, but I wasn't fast enough with the camera. Justin filled 80 water balloons for me last night, and the kids blew through them in 10 minutes. Lol.

Finally, the kids' favorite: the car wash station. This was so fun and kept them entertained forever. I'm going to have to remember this for my own girls in the future:

My mom brought home this water table top from Once Upon a Child last summer, and I knew it'd be perfect for this project. But you can use whatever you can find. I dumped a bunch of cars in it, then got out the sponges, toothbrushes, and cups full of shaving cream. The kids were in their glories! 

Wrap-Up Activity

We finished our week of fun by making verse booklets. Last night, I made booklets by stapling 6 pieces of small construction paper together. Then I printed and cut out all the verses we learned this week, as well as a cover page. Today I gave each kid a booklet then handed them the cover page/verses one by one to glue into their book. It was a little too advanced for the kids and required a lot of help. Haha. But I really wanted them to bring their verses home so they can keep working on them. 

Lucy made hers backwards. Haha.

For more VBS ideas (including Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Rahab), go here.