Side note for parents: We began this scripture verse last week. We focused on verse 19. This week, we were going to focus on verse 20. Read through it with your children. See if they remember any of the motions from verse 19! (It’s okay if they don’t!) Read verse 20 with them. See if they have any vocabulary questions! Do THEY have any ideas for fun motions to do with the words? Read through it one or two more times. At the end, congratulate your children! Scripture memory isn’t easy! We learn by repetition! And it is okay if they do not memorize it completely! 

“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.” - Ezekiel 11: 19-20 NIV

Hi parents!!! Thank you so much for taking time to go through our lesson with your children. We know how important learning the gospel is for everyone (kids and adults alike), and it means the world that you trust us to send you our curriculum! As always, please email me at julia.boyes@redeemer.com with any questions you may have. 

Each Sunday, we open up our classroom in prayer. We encourage you to say a prayer with your children. If you are unsure of what to say, here is a prayer you can say:
"Dear Jesus, we know that you are good! Thank you for this time we have to learn about you together. Thank you that we are a family. Thank you that we can trust you all the time. Even though our world is going through something scary right now, help us to remember that YOU are in control. Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross for our sins, rising again, and bringing us into your great big family. We love you! In your Holy Name we pray, Amen."

Here is a great song to start your morning off right!

Scripture references: Jeremiah 17: 1-10; 31:31-34; John 3:16, Romans 3:23, 6:23, 10:13
Parents - feel free to read this word for word, or include your own words! The bullet points are semi- arbitrary… just ways to split up the lesson into little chunks! Italicized portions are answers to the questions you ask your kids.

• Last week, we learned about a new prophet. Do you remember his name? (Jeremiah! That’s right!) What are some things you remember about Jeremiah? (He was very young when God called him; Judah was sinning against God; God gave Jeremiah 2 visions). Very good! Today, we are going to learn about a special message that God gave to Jeremiah.

• The people of Judah were continuing to turn away from God. It was a huge problem! God sent Jeremiah to talk to the people. Jeremiah told the people, “You have a sin problem. Every human does! Sin is when we disobey God. It breaks his heart. The problem is permanent, and it will spread. Your children will sin. Their children will sin. Everyone is affected!” 

• Sin separates us from God. God is holy! That is a special word that means perfect, pure, sinless. Because we sin, we are separate from God. Being separated from God is a big problem! 

• God had made a covenant- or special promise - with his people: if they would obey God, he would bless them. However, if they did not obey, God would have to punish their sin. God said the people would lose their land, their wealth, and their freedom. But God promised to NEVER leave his people. No matter what happened, God would always be with them. 

• Jeremiah taught the people that their hearts were tricky. The Bible uses a big word. The word is “deceitful.” Our hearts can deceive us- or trick us- into thinking we are better than we are, or to thinking our sin doesn’t really upset God that much. Our hearts can trick us into wanting or doing things that God does not want for us.

• Luckily for us, God is not deceived by our hearts. God knows our hearts. And God knows we need help. That’s why he made a new covenant- or special promise- to us. The new covenant was going to be even better than the old covenant. The new covenant would save us from our sin! And here’s the thing: the new covenant wasn’t a set of rules; the new covenant is a person!

• We can look at John 3: 16 to see who the new covenant is. Can you turn there in your Bibles? Who is God’s son? JESUS!!!! Jesus is the new covenant! 

• Now can you look up Romans 10: 13 in your Bibles? What does it say? “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved!” Because of Jesus, we know that we are saved! When we believe that he is our savior, and died on the cross for our sins, we know we are in the new covenant with God, and we get to be in his family forever! 

• One final note about Jeremiah: Back when God told Jeremiah about the new covenant, Jesus had not been born yet. God loves his people so much that he wanted to prepare them! Their sin was making him so sad, but he wanted the people to know that He loved them, he cared for them, and that His plan was perfect. 

• Can we close in PRAYER? Parents, you can say a prayer of your own, or say the following:
  "Dear God, we thank you for this lesson. Thank you for the new covenant of Jesus! God, right now, we know things are very difficult in our world. Please give us hope and faith in YOU. We know you can do anything! Please heal people who are sick, and please keep us safe. Help us to show your love to the whole world. We love you. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen."

 

Questions and Application (These questions can be done after you read through the lesson, or after you watch the video. Sometimes, application questions are good a little later in the day, once information has had time to settle in the brain. It’s okay if your children don’t remember every answer! These questions are great talking points to remind of us of how amazing God is.):

• What was the name of the prophet we talked about today? (Jeremiah)

• What was a prophet’s job? (To listen to God and give the people his messages)

• Where was Jeremiah a prophet? (In Judah)

• What was the problem in Judah? (The people had turned away from God and were sinning)

• Is the sin problem only in Judah? (No! The problem of sin is everywhere! Even with you and me!) 

• Sin separates us from God. What do you think that means? (Work with your child to understand why separation from God is the biggest problem we face as humans)

• In Genesis, God gave a covenant. What is the old covenant? (That if the people would obey God, God would bless them.)

• We learned a new word today: we learned that our hearts are deceitful. Do you remember what that means? (It means that our hearts are tricky! Our hearts don’t always want what is best. Our hearts are prone to wander and sin.)

• God told Jeremiah about the new covenant. What do we know about the new covenant? (The new covenant is that Jesus would come to earth and pay the price for our sins by dying on the cross.)

• Because of Jesus and the new covenant, how long do we get to be in God’s family? (Forever and ever!) 

• Does God love us? (YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 

• Each week, we watch a short video of what we learned in our lesson! 

• Here is a coloring page for our Kindergarteners and anyone else who would like to color!

• Here is a Bible search worksheet for our older friends

Thank you so much everybody! We hope going through this lesson with your child(ren) was fruitful. We are praying for you this weekend, and we are praying and waiting expectantly to see what God is going to do over the next few weeks. We are here for you and your family! Please reach out if you need anything! 


Take care,

Julia

Redeemer Presbyterian Church West Side is a Christ-centered gospel community that actively participates in the Spirit’s transformation of our neighborhood, New York City and the world.