MATERIALS:
Weeds, branch, green cloth, bunch of flowers. A weed with a long root and flower. Wheat sheaves. Hat, fork. Black cloth. Blue & white cloth, red cloth. Bible Verse Card, crayons. Cut several lengths of green cloth about 2 foot long. A plant with a flower, Moringa plant. Parent Moringa Educational handout. Take home truth.

AS KIDS ARRIVE PRIOR TO THE LESSON: (10 minutes)
Get 1 child to colour the Bible Card prior to the lesson.
Examine the Moringa plants ensure there are no weeds today we will teach you how to plant your Moringa plant at home.

1. GUESSING GAMES: (5 minutes)
Hold your hand behind your back ask “which hand am I holding a weed in” guess a few times before moving on to the team game.

2. TEAM GAMES: (10 minutes)
Divide the class into two teams. Give each team paper with two column headings WEEDS and FRUIT. Have the children write examples of the "weeds" or sins in their lives and the "fruit" good things in their lives. See which team can come up with the most ideas.

3. ACTIVE PRAISE CHORUS: (10 minutes)
Oh, When the Trees All Sprout New Leaves (Use Music sheet in Visual Aid Manual)
Tune "Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In"

Oh, when the trees, all sprout new leaves,
(Wave branch of leaves)
Oh, when the trees all sprout new leaves
We know it must, be the rain-time,
When the trees all sprout new leaves.

Oh, when brown earth, gives way to green,
(Wave green cloth)
Oh, when brown earth gives way to green,
We know it must, be the rain-time,
When brown earth gives way to green.

Oh, when the flowers, begin to bloom,
(Wave flowers)
Oh, when the flowers begin to bloom,
We know it must, be the rain-time,
When the flowers begin to bloom.

Oh, when the pods begin to ripe,
(Wave pods)
Oh, when the pods begin to ripe,
We know it must, be the harvest,
Oh, when the pods begin to ripe.

Optional: Sing ‘Parts of trees’

4. INTIMATE WORSHIP: (5 minutes)
I'm trading my sorrows (Use lyrics n Visual Aid Manual and music video)

Prayer: "Dear Jesus, please take away the weeds in our life, so that we can grow into the person that you have made us to be. Amen."

5. TEACHING:
a. “Back Track”
Remember last week we learnt God wants us to grow Spiritually. In order to grow plants need sunlight and water. The light is like the presence of God, Jesus is our light. Get the children to hold their toilet paper candles and say John 6:12. Have prizes for the best candle, the biggest, the brightest etc.

b. Sword Play
Ready…Swords up… Matthew 13:26.… CHARGE!
When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. (Matthew 13:26)

Divide the group into two, one with wheat sheaves, one with weeds. Get the wheat group waving saying “When the wheat sprouted and formed heads” and the weed group will wave their weeds and say “then the weeds also appeared” both groups say together “Matthew 13:26” Shout it out, whisper it, stand up and say it, kneel and say it etc Use the Bible Verse Card as a visual aid.

c. Teach the Lesson (15 minutes)
Introduction:
God is like a gardener (put on the hat) and we are like His garden. He wants us to grow Spiritually. For plants to grow we need to weed them just like we weeded the Moringa plant. To grow Spiritually we need to weed the sin out of our lives.

Bondage of sin skit: Sin is anything we think, say, do or don’t do that displeases God. Sin will blind you from the truth, (blindfold a child) sin will stop you from hearing God’s voice, sin will bind you and trap (tie up a child) you and trip you up (trip up the child with the black cloth) sin can destroy a Christian just as weeds can destroy a plant. (Cover the child with the black cloth)

(Dress a child up in a blue and white cloth for Jesus, give them a red cloth to represent blood) Jesus enters and covers the child in the red cloth, who jumps up shouting ‘Thank you Jesus’

Weeds dig their roots deep down and they steal all the food and water from the good plants causing them to die. That’s why you have got to get rid of all the weeds. Weeds grow fast we must weed them when they are still little it makes the job easier.

Object Lessons:
1. Weeds are like sins in our life, but these are weeds you can’t see, they are inside us. (Having cut several lengths of green cloth long enough to be draped over your shoulder take one strips out.) I have a pretend weed, and I’m going to call it, ‘worry’. Yes, it is a sin to worry. I may worry how I look. (Drape that weed over your shoulder.) I may worry I am fat, (Drape that weed over your arm.) I may worry I am going to fail my tests. (Drape that weed over your head) The weeds could be called various things, such as stealing, yelling at your parents, not listening to the teacher, hating someone, making someone cry etc. The weeds in my life have changed me, look at me, you can hardly see who I am. Some people may think I’m just a big nasty green weed. There is good news. Jesus can take away the weeds in our life. Every time you pray to Jesus to forgive you, He takes away a weed. (Ask for forgiveness for each of the sins that you named eg ‘yelling at your parents’, as you do so - peel off the strips of paper weeds, using different examples.)

2. The roots of weeds go deep and choke out the life of other plants. It takes hard work to keep weeds down. Sin is like weeds and it tries to grow and choke out our Spiritual growth.

3. Farmer, wearing a hat and carrying a fork or hoe comes out and says, “I just over heard what you were saying and I was thinking that this weeding tool also teaches an important lesson. Jesus is our tool to remove weeds of sin from our hearts.

Some Christians try to just mow over the weeds so no one sees them, but that doesn't' get rid of the sin. Jesus gets rid of sin at the root. He died on the cross so our sins could be forgiven.

4. (Bring out a weed that has a flower. Bring out a flower.) Let’s compare the two. Both have flowers, but one is very deceiving. It might look beautiful but it is really destructive. It will kill everything around it by choking out the life of the other plant. Sin is like that too. It might seem fun, harmless but it destroys peoples lives. Sin creeps in and before long it takes over just like weeds take over a garden.

Optional: Sing ‘ Parts of trees ‘ (Use Music video and lyrics)

Discussion Questions:
1. What are weeds like? (Sin)
2. What is sin? (Sin is anything we think, say, do or don’t do that displeases God.)
3. What tool will remove sin? (Jesus.)

6. APPLICATION / ENCOUNTERING GOD: Refer to our Encountering God Handbook for ideas for this important section of the session. Experience the Holy Spirit Learning Centers creating a Spiritual atmosphere.

Close with a time of worship. Place the black cloth on the floor. Open the alters for those children who want to ask Jesus to forgive their sins. We can try to just get rid of what people see, but that isn't good enough. We need to get rid of sin completely.

CLOSING PRAYER:
Thank you Father, for sending your son Jesus to die for our sins, we are sorry for doing wrong and we ask you Jesus to forgive us our sins. Amen.

TAKE HOME PAGE:
Give each child a ‘Take Home Truth’.
Optional: ‘Take Home Quiz Books’ are available for the children found in your Visual Aid Manual. Plus a ‘Parent Moringa Educational handout’. They will need help to plant their Moringa sapling at home.

NEXT WEEK
We are going to learn about bugs and protecting your Moringa plant.