Henry Fork's Kids Program: March 15: The Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:18-27, Mark 10:17-30)

March 15: The Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:18-27, Mark 10:17-30)

A man asked Jesus, “What must I do to go to Heaven?” Jesus told him, “You know the 10 commandments.” The man answered, “Yes, I have followed them since I was a boy.” Jesus said, “You still need to do one more thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor. Then you will have treasure in Heaven. Come and follow me.” The man became very sad, because he was rich.

Jesus looked at him and said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” The man asked, “Who, then, can be saved?” Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

Is it impossible to be rich and still go to heaven? What was the young man supposed to do with all of his wealth? How do you think God feels when we turn to money instead of to Him to provide for us? If Jesus loved the man, why was He so hard on him? Why do you think Jesus told the man to give away the money to the poor instead of telling him to give it to the church?

This story kind of reminds me of Zacchaeus. Remember him from a few weeks ago? He was selfish and took more money than he was supposed to as a tax collector. I think the difference in this story is that when Jesus told Zacchaeus that he needed to ask for forgiveness for his sins, Zacchaeus immediately did that! He felt very sorry that he stole money and said he would donate half of his possessions to the poor and give back four times the amount of money he took from the people in Jericho.

This story ends a little differently, though. Did the rich man ruler apologize for being selfish? Did he ask Jesus to forgive him for putting money above his love for God? No, it says the man became very sad, because he was rich. This man didn't want to give up everything He had for Jesus.

I think when we are young it is easy to give our life to Jesus. We know that He will always take care of us and we want to make Him happy. Unfortunately, as people get older sometimes they forget to put God first. This man wasn't old, but he was old enough to have a lot of money. His money made him forget how much God loved him and how we can trust God to take care of all of our needs.

For this activity, the kids each had a strip of non-glossy poster board. Using pencils, we first drew a bird at the top of our page. Then we drew long legs. Along the leg part, with a black crayon, we wrote "God Will Meet Your Needs." Older kids added "Phillipians 4:19" at the bottom. Then the kids traced their bird with old crayons, pressing down pretty hard. Then we painted the bird a cool color (blue, purple, green) and the background a warm color (red, orange, yellow).