James 4:1-6a Warning Against Worldliness

Arrive before the official start of the class.
Set-up the chairs and tables according to the first activity.

Remembering students' name TIP: As the students come in, and since each Sunday sees new faces, I always have a ready activity for the students to do which involves writing their name.

Name Mnenomic
Hand out pieces of paper for the children to form an acrostic out of their name letters. This happens while the Worship Team inside the Worship Hall sings, and serves as an ice breaker for the class. At the same time, this allows late comers to still join in the main part of Sunday class.

Source: http://www.acrosticnamepoemsforboys.com/

Credit: http://appliedexpressions.com/

Credit: http://www.acrosticnamepoems.com/

Class Prayer

Ask student volunteer to be the prayer leader, or call on someone to start the session with a prayer.

Welcome Remarks

Quick introduction of who I am, our church, and our rules which basically are getting permission from teacher before leaving the group to go to the rest room, get water, etc; participate quietly and respectfully; and any other student suggestion the students they may have.

Scripture

Warning Against Worldliness What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions[a] are at war within you?[b] 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people![c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace.

Main points (Discussion)

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• As sons and daughters of God, we are not of the world. Worldliness is not a kingdom attribute. We must live in this world, but not like this world.
• But how do we apply that in our lives every day?
• To do this, all of our actions must:

1. Pursue God
2. Be in communion with God and the Holy Spirit
3. Bring me closer to Jesus Christ
4. Not make me self-centered, appetite-driven, God-hating
5. Not disobey God
6. Not make me proud

• These are all difficult, and our human nature makes it doubly hard. We need a helper.

Activity: Kingdom of God Passport

Credit: http://www.biblecraftclub.com/blog/2017/4/29/kingdom-passport-craft

Add Lazada/Nuffnang

James 2:1, 8-9 On Favoritism, Equality and Fairness

Scripture:
My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism.... If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. James 2:1, 8-9 (NIV)

Junior class (ages 8-12 years)
Ice breaker (5-10 minutes):
I am unique! Since Sunday School is informal, not a lot of the kids know the teacher. To promote eagerness and friendship among everyone, play this mini game.

1. Teacher mentions something about herself that is unique e.g. craving for food that is crunchy every after meals instead of sweet dessert.
2. Distribute bits of paper and pen/pencils to each student. 
3. Ask each one to write one thing that is unique about themselves within the amount of time teacher will set, without writing their name in the paper. The amount of time depends on the teacher. Feel free to adjust when you see kids having a hard time, but encourage them to write whatever comes to mind as usually, those are the correct things. 
4. When the time is up, collect the answers. 
5. Pick one paper from the submission and read out loud for the kids to guess. Depending on your time or size of class, teacher may read all or just choose several. 
6. (Optional) Give prizes! 

Summarize this activity by emphasizing that each one of us is unique. Like crayons, our individuality does not mean one is better or weaker than the other. God uses all of us to create HIS masterpiece.

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Bible verse reading (7 - 15 minutes)
At this point, I bring different Bible versions for the kids to read from and in our native language too.

James 2:1 English Standard Version (ESV) The Sin of Partiality 2 My brothers,[a] show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

James 2:8-9 English Standard Version (ESV) 8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

After reading, I ask two or three students what their thoughts are about the Bible verse we have just read, reassuring them that there are no wrong or right questions. My usual questions are:

• What is the most important idea that came to your mind after hearing about our verse for the day?
• Can you think of an example of where we can see this applied today? 

Credit: CrossCards

Group Activity (10 - 15 minutes) 
Verse Clues 

1. Write the Bible verse on various colors of paper, dividing the verse into several lines. Cut the verse according to line. 
2. Fold them and mix with other similar paper. 
3. Dividing the class into two, ask the student to properly arrange the Bible verse. 
4. (Optional) Make it a contest. The first team to arrange the verse correctly wins! You may add obstacles like distance, physical activity (jumping, spinning, skipping step, etc). 

A different version of this, from Sermons4Kids is called Color Clue. It goes like this: The teacher could give a child a color clue for the first part of today's verse, then give another child another color clue for the next part of the verse and continue until all of the Bible verse is in order and taped to the wall or to a poster board. Let children know that all the parts of the verse are very important but were all on different colors of paper or different shapes and sizes for the children to find.

I choose not to do to this because we share our venue with other ministries.

Individual activity (3 - 5 minutes) Word search Here is a handy printable from Sermos4Kids
 Other resources: Sermons4Kids