FREE Do Not Worry Sunday School Lesson! When the school year begins, kids worry about a lot of things. What will I wear? Who will be my friend? Will I get good grades? Winning in God’s eyes doesn’t happen when we think about ourselves first. Instead, God wants us to put him first, and trust that he will add everything we need. By the end of this lesson, kids will make a plan to "add" time with God to start each day. Jesus came to save us from our sins and give us the personal relationship we could not have had otherwise. Jesus wants to give us direct access, 24/7, to God, so that we can lay all our worries at his feet. When you add Jesus to your day, you can stop worrying and just enjoy each moment as it comes. And, if you like this lesson we have over 100 more free Sunday School Lessons for Kids! You're also going to want to check out Bible Math 4-Week Children's Ministry Curriculum.

Do Not Worry Sunday School Lesson for Kids:

BOTTOM LINE:

Put God first every day.

OBJECTIVE:

Kids will make a plan to “add” time with God to start each day.

KEY PASSAGE:

Matthew 6:25-34 Do Not Worry

MEMORY VERSE:

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

SUMMARY:

When the school year begins, kids worry about a lot of things. What will I wear? Who will be my friend? Will I get good grades? Winning in God’s eyes doesn’t happen when we think about ourselves first. Instead, God wants us to put him first, and trust that he will add everything we need.

SIMPLE PRAYER:

Dear God,

Show us how to make time to add you to our day.

In Jesus’name,

Amen

 

MEMORY VERSE

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

“But put God’s kingdom first. Do what he wants you to do. Then all those things will also be given to you.”Matthew 6:33 (NIrV)

LARGE GROUP:

Have all the fifth/sixth graders (whatever the oldest age in the room may be) read the verse first. Then add the next grade down and repeat. Add the next grade down, and repeat. Keep repeating until everyone is reading together.

SMALL GROUP:

Pair the kids off and have them recite the verse to each other.

SKIT

MAD MATH: ADD IT UP

ITEMS NEEDED:

A whiteboard or chalkboard

Markers or chalk

CHARACTER BREAKDOWN:

1M, 1F

CHARACTERS:

Mr. Equation - A mad math teacher

Chloe - A math student

Chloe is seated in the audience.

EQUATION: All right students! It’s time once again for Mad Math. I’m your teacher, Mr. Equation. Today, we’re going to learn how to add with elephants.

CHLOE: Mr. Equation? We already learned how to add elephants!

EQUATION: We did, eh? Okay. Today, we will learn to add refrigerators.

CHLOE: We did refrigerators too, Mr. Equation!

EQUATION: When did we do that?

CHLOE: Yesterday!

EQUATION: What about badgers?

CHLOE: We’ve done badgers.

EQUATION: Rotten fruit?

CHLOE: Yes.

EQUATION: Chainsaws.

CHLOE: We did chainsaws, too!

EQUATION: Gas powered and electric?

CHLOE: Yes, sir!

EQUATION: I’ve got it. Things you shouldn’t say to a friend. Did we add those?

CHLOE: No.

EQUATION: Fine. Let’s add things we shouldn’t say to a friend. Let’s say you’re having a bad day, and your colleague, the science teacher says hello. You respond and call him a doofus. When the science teacher objects to being called a doofus, you call him a smelly rotten egg sandwich. Now, we add one insult to another…

Mr. Equation writes one plus one on the board.

EQUATION: What do we get?

CHLOE: We get a very annoyed science teacher.

EQUATION: Exactly! The science teacher’s mad at you…

He writes one on the board.

EQUATION: He tells another teacher.

He writes “+ 1 on the board.”

EQUATION: He tells the P.E. teachers.

He writes “+ 4”on the board.

EQUATION: And what do you get? A lot of worry to start to your school year, I assure you.

CHLOE: Mr. Equation? I don’t think you have to have a rough start. I think you need to add something else to all that and make it right.

EQUATION: You do, eh?

CHLOE: Yes, sir! A few years back, I was always worrying about tomorrow and what might go wrong. Then I added something to my day that made everything better.

EQUATION: Kid, if you know something that’ll take away my worry about what those P.E. teachers could do to me, by all means, tell me!

CHLOE: Just add a little Jesus to your day!

EQUATION: Jesus? That’s it?

CHLOE: That’s all you need! Spend some time with Jesus and put God first every day. I promise, it will add up in the end!

OBJECT LESSON

ITEMS NEEDED:

A peanut butter sandwich

Jelly

A knife

Ah peanut butter, the staple of every homemade school lunch. How many of you love a good peanut butter sandwich? Peanut butter is packed with good protein and other nutrients to help you power through the rest of your day. But peanut butter does have its drawbacks. It can get bland if you eat it every day, and if you eat it by itself, it can be very sticky.

There’s one thing that makes a peanut butter sandwich, and that’s jelly! The right jelly can add some more nutrition to that sandwich, but more important, it makes the sandwich a little more tasty and a whole lot of fun.

This school year, make each day the best it can be. Add some Jesus to each day. Begin your day with prayer. Read the Bible on the bus. Find some way, here and there, to put God first in your day. It won’t make every day perfect, and it won’t magically take away your trouble. But putting God first will set your heart right so no matter what happens, you can have a great day.

Add Jesus to your school year, starting tomorrow, and see what a difference he can make!

LARGE GROUP GAME

 

ADD A STRAW

ITEMS NEEDED:

Capri-Sun drinks and straws

Blindfolds

INSTRUCTIONS:

Are you a Capri-Sun veteran? Can you get one going with the straw blindfolded? Choose two or three players and blindfold them. The players must remove the straw from the packet, take it out of the plastic, and properly insert the straw to win this game. First person to properly insert their straw wins.

VARIATION:

If you want, you can also make drinking the Capri-Sun part of the race.

WHAT’S THE POINT?

God wants you to add him to every school day!

 

LARGE GROUP LESSON

BOTTOM LINE:

Put God first every day.

OBJECTIVE:

Kids will make a plan to “add” time with God to start each day.

KEY PASSAGE:

Matthew 6:25-34 Do Not Worry

INTRO:

Are you guys ready to go back to school? Come on, it’s been a long summer. You haven’t seen most of your friends since school let out. You’ve already caught up on every episode of your favorite show on Netflix. And admit it - you’re just plain bored all day with no place to go, aren’t you?

I know it’s not playing Legos and video games, but there’s a lot of good in back to school time. You’ll make new friends. You’ll discover new things about the world and yourself. And you might just have a little fun along the way.

Of course with the good comes the bad, and the bad usually comes in the form of worry this time of year. How many of you are worried about that first day? Who’s worried about what you’ll wear? Who’s worried about making new friends? Who’s worried you won’t find your best friend sitting next to you in class this year? Who’s worried about that new teacher? Or learning new things like cursive? Division? Fractions? Are you worried about getting good grades?

We’re going to help you with those worries today, and we’re going to do it with something that I’m sure worries most of you - math! I know, you get math five times a week, and the last thing you want to do on Sunday morning is talk about math. But math is hardly a five days a week activity. You do math every day, and you have since you were preschoolers. You count your money. You count how many kids can be on a team in basketball. You count your nuggets in your Happy Meal to make sure McDonalds isn’t shorting you. Every day, we’re adding and subtracting and multiplying and dividing.

Today we’re going to do a little addition and add something to this school year we all need. It’s the perfect remedy for the back to school worries, so listen close.

READ MATTHEW 6:25-34

MAIN POINT:

“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”Jesus knows that worrying about the future won’t add even a minute to our lives, yet every day, kids and adults waste hours worrying over stuff that just doesn’t matter.

Jesus wants us to focus on something higher than ourselves. He urges us to look at the flowers and the birds. Neither of them are worriers. They don’t spend their time worrying about the future. They know that God’s creation will provide, and they are content.

Don’t worry about things you can’t control, Jesus says. Instead, add the one thing that matters the most in this life. It’s not money, it’s not knowledge, and it’s not fame. It’s Jesus himself. Seek God first, Jesus says, and everything else will be added to you.

DRIVE IT HOME:

It’s pretty obvious when you look around our world that all of us are missing something. Commercials on TV and in print are constantly playing to that missing element. They tell us if we buy this, we will be happy. Or if we dress this way or get our hair cut in that new style or eat this new food, we’ll fill that emptiness we all feel inside.

That emptiness can only be filled by one thing.  Just like a math problem, there’s only one solution for our heart problems, and that’s Jesus.

Jesus is God’s son. He came to save us from our sins and give us the personal relationship we could not have had otherwise. Jesus wants to give us direct access, 24/7, to God, so that we can lay all our worries at his feet. When you add Jesus to your day, you can stop worrying and just enjoy each moment as it comes.

Flowers don’t worry about what to wear. They know that God will clothe them in the colors of the rainbow. And birds don't worry about harvest time. They know they will eat. They know that God will provide.

Imagine if you went through this school year and added Jesus to every day. What would it be like? You’d probably stay out of more trouble with Jesus, but there’s one thing more: you’ll worry a lot less. You won’t worry near as much about what to wear, where to sit, who to befriend, or what grades you’ll get. When you put God first, you give up your worries so you can simply enjoy life, knowing God is looking after you.

Seek God first, and all these things will be added. I can’t think of a better reason to add Jesus to each day.

CLOSE WITH A SIMPLE PRAYER:

Dear God,

Show us how to make time to add you to our day.

In Jesus’name,

Amen

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (K-2ND)

ICEBREAKER:

What new school supplies are you adding to your shopping list this year?

MEMORY VERSE ACTIVITY:

Matthew 6:33

Split the verse up into sections. Give a few kids the first section of the verse, then a few kids the middle, and the rest of the kids the end.Add it all up and see how well your group can read the verse together!

SMALL GROUP GAME/ACTIVITY:

Have everyone stand up in a line. Go quickly down the line with some easy addition flash cards. The kids have two seconds to answer correctly or they have to sit down. Who can last the longest?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Read Matthew 6:25-34

What does Jesus say we need to “subtract”from our lives?

What should we “add”in its place?

Why don’t flowers and birds worry?

What are some things kids worry about?

How are you going to add Jesus to your day every day this week?

SIMPLE PRAYER:

Dear God,

Help us to seek you first every day.

In Jesus’name,

Amen

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (3RD-5TH)

ICEBREAKER:

What new school supplies are you adding to your shopping list this year?

MEMORY VERSE ACTIVITY:

Matthew 6:33

Split the verse up into sections. Give a few kids the first section of the verse, then a few kids the middle, and the rest of the kids the end.Add it all up and see how well your group can read the verse together!

SMALL GROUP GAME/ACTIVITY:

Have everyone stand up in a line. Go quickly down the line with some easy addition flash cards. The kids have two seconds to answer correctly or they have to sit down. Who can last the longest?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Read Matthew 6:25-34

What does Jesus say we need to “add”to our lives?

How can Jesus help us with our worries?

What are some things kids worry about?

Do you have a regular time you spend with God each day?

How are you going to add Jesus to your day every day this week?

SIMPLE PRAYER:

Dear God,

Help us to seek you first every day.

In Jesus’name,

Amen

 

For your convenience, you can also download the entire PDF version of this Do Not Worry Children's Ministry Lesson (just click the link). 

Here's a video from Saddleback kids that you might find helpful to go along with your Sunday School Lesson on Not Worrying. 

Take a look at the links below for other ideas for teaching a Do Not Worry Sunday School Lesson:

"Do Not Worry" Bible Lesson from Matthew 6 - Ministry-To-Children

The Lilies of the Field - Group Activities - Sermons4Kids

The Lilies of the Field - Children's Sermons from Sermons4Kids.com

Kids' Bible Lesson About Worry - Children's Ministry Magazine