Forgive U

Chuck: (comes out onstage crawling on his hands and knees, looking closely at the ground) Lester? LESTER! Lesterrrrr! Here boy!

Leader: Chuck, what are you doing down there? Did you lose a contact lens or something?

Chuck: (looks up, exasperated) NO! Why would I name a contact lens LESTER? Sheesh! Everybody knows my contacts are named Tootsie and Frank. (goes back to crawling around) LESTER!!!!

Leader: WHO is LESTER??

Chuck: He’s my pet rock!

Leader: Oh, you’re pet – WHAT?

Chuck: Yeah! Lester the rock! I got him for my birthday! I wanted a puppy, but my mom says puppies “do their business” everywhere. I’m not really sure why that’s bad. If my dog owned a business I’d be proud of him…LESTER!!!!! (finally gets up) Oooooh she is gonna GET IT!

Leader: Lester is a SHE?

Chuck: NO, goof-head! My SISTER! She was supposed to take Lester out for a walk, but she watched cartoons instead and now Lester’s RUN AWAY!

Leader: How can a rock RUN?

Chuck: Well I guess he ROLLED way, then. GAAAH! I KNEW she would mess up! I just KNEW IT! I will NEVER forgive her for this!!

Leader: WHOAH, hold on! Did you just say you would NEVER forgive her??

Chuck: Thaaaaat’s RIGHT! I’ll never forgive her! Not in a million-bazillion-years!

Leader: Chuck that’s not the right way to act! God’s forgive you of tons of stuff, hasn’t he?

Chuck: Well, YEAH, but I’m not God! And this is REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD! She DESERVES to not be forgiven!

Leader: Well then if you can’t forgive her then that means that you’re not clothed in Christ.

Chuck: Exactly - wait, what?

Leader: That’s the lesson we’re talking about today! It’s all about FORGIVENESS! If we want to clothe ourselves in Jesus, we have to be forgiving! Not just some of the time, but ALL THE TIME! No matter what people do to us, we have to be willing to forgive them!

Chuck: And if we don’t…then we’re all messed up?

Leader: That’s right! God wants his children to be loving and forgiving, just like Jesus!

Chuck: Wow…I guess you’re right. I have been having a bad attitude. And my sister DID say she was sorry. I guess I better go and tell her I forgive her.

Leader: I guess so. What are you going to do about Lester?

Chuck: I dunno. I guess he’ll…wait a second…do you hear that?? (runs offstage and comes back holding a small rock and begins speaking in baby talk) LESTER!!! HEY BOY! Who’s a GOOD boy? You wanna do a trick? Speak! (pauses) Sit! (pauses) Play dead! (drops the rock and lets it sit still for a moment on the stage) Good boy!!!

Leader: Chuck, I think it’s time for you and your..um..friend..to go.

Chuck: Yeah, I think you’re right. We better go before he makes pebbles all over the place. I’M Chuck FOO!!! KICK IT!!!

Man: Son, are you all right?

Boy: (continuing to squirm) No, not really.

Man: (looking puzzled) Well, then what is wrong?

Boy: (continuing to squirm) I sat down on a bumblebee.

Man: (looking even more puzzled) Well, then why don’t you get up?

Boy: (continuing to squirm) Because...I figure I’m hurting him...more than he’s hurting me.

Man: (looks at the boy, shakes his head, gets up, and walks off)

Boy: (after a few seconds, jumps up, screams, and runs off holding his buttocks)

Give a hand for our skit today! (allow the children to clap for the actors) That was awful silly of the boy, huh? He sat on that bench going through all that pain, thinking he was hurting the bumblebee more than the bumblebee was hurting him. When, the truth was, HE was the one who was hurting the most. What he needed to do was to get up off the bench and walk away.

But, we do the same thing sometimes. We choose to try to get revenge on someone who has hurt us, thinking that we should make them feel pain just like they made us feel pain. But, the truth is when we choose not to forgive someone, we are really just hurting ourselves.

We’ve been talking about how to be clothed in Jesus Christ in this series called, “Dress Up.” Well, there was a “well-dressed” young man in the Bible we can learn a lot from. His name was Joseph. Joseph was given a colorful coat by his father as a gift. His brothers were very jealous of how well Joseph was treated. So, his brothers did a horrible thing.

His brothers grabbed him and threw him down into a well. They left him there for a while, but then they got the idea to sell him to some Egyptian traders who were traveling by. Joseph became a slave to the Egyptians.

Joseph found himself in a terrible situation because of his brothers. He went from being a favorite son to being a slave. How many of you would have been very angry if your brothers would have done this to you? (allow response) Most of us would have.

We’re going to skip WAY ahead in the story. Joseph actually is no longer a slave. God has raised him up to become the second in command of Egypt. It’s a really cool story how it happened. You’ll have to go read it some time in the book of Genesis. But, Joseph is second in command of the entire country of Egypt. Egypt has lots and lots of food in storage, while many other countries have nothing to eat.

All of a sudden, Joseph gets a visit by a group of young men from his home country.

These young men are asking for food. Do you know who it is? It’s Joseph’s brothers. WOW! Here they are standing in front of him, and they don’t know that the man in charge is actually their brother, Joseph.

Joseph could have killed them right there on the spot. He could have had them sold into slavery just like they did to him. But, that’s not what he did. Instead, he revealed to his brothers that he was Joseph, he gave them food, and invited them to come live with him in Egypt.

There was an amazing family reunion. It was incredible!

Why did Joseph do this? Why didn’t he take revenge? It’s because he was a well-dressed young man. Oh, I don’t mean his coat of many colors. I mean he was “Dressed Up” in Forgiveness, just like we need to be. Joseph understood what we need to understand...

It’s true. Nobody is perfect. We all are going to make mistakes. In fact, the Bible tells us in our Power Verse, Colossians 3:13 that we must “make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive the person who offends you.” That means that we all have faults. We all make mistakes. We all need forgiveness at one time or another. If we are going to be “clothed in Christ”, then...

Notice that our Power Verse says “for each other’s faults.” That means that one day YOU are going to be the one in need of forgiveness. You are going to do something that hurts someone else, whether accidentally or on purpose. You are going to be the one asking for forgiveness. You will want the person you have hurt to forgive you, so YOU must choose to forgive those who hurt you as well. You never know when you might be the one in need of forgiveness. That’s why you must choose to...

Jesus gave us the best example of all. He forgives every one of us when we sin against Him. He never holds a grudge. He never takes revenge. If we are going to be “Dressed Up” and clothed in Christ, we must follow His example. We must forgive every person of every wrong. It’s not easy, but with God’s help we can do it!

1. What was today’s Big Idea? Answer: “Do Me Wrong, That’s Ok! I’ll Forgive You Anyway!”

2. What Did Kat do that made Geaurbaux so mad? Answer: she deleted his creation

3. What “well dressed young man” from the Bible did we learn about today? Answer: Joseph

4. What did Joseph’s brothers do to him after throwing him down in the pit? Answer: sold him into slavery

5. Did Joseph take revenge on his brothers? Answer: No

6. In our lesson today, we learned “Nobody Is ___________.” Answer: Perfect

7. In our lesson today, we also learned “We Must Treat Others The Way _____ Want To Be Treated.” Answer: We

8. In our lesson today, we also learned we must “Forgive Every _______ Of Every __________.” Answer: Every Person Of Every Wrong

9. True or False: There are some people we don’t have to forgive. Answer: False

10. Where was our Power Verse found? Answer: Colossians 3:13