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(Read Matthew 9:9.)

“As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ He told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

Matthew was doing his job, but when Jesus said, “Follow Me,” Matthew got right up and followed Him.

Why do you think Matthew didn’t wait to follow Jesus until he got off work? (Matthew knew that nothing is as important as following Jesus. Jesus is the most important thing, no matter what we’re doing.)

What was Matthew’s job? (He was a tax collector.)

In those days, people hated tax collectors. The tax collectors’ job was to take some of your money and give it to the king. But the tax collectors would always charge you too much money, more than the king said you had to give him, and then, they would keep the extras for themselves. So, most people probably didn’t like Matthew because he stole from them and wasn’t a very good person.

But then, Jesus asked Matthew to follow Him and to believe in Him. Why do you think Jesus asked Matthew to follow Him when He knew that Matthew was stealing from people? (Jesus wanted to give Matthew a chance to change.)

(Read Matthew 9:10-11.)

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’”

The Pharisees saw Jesus eating with tax collectors, those people who stole money, and all kinds of other bad people, and they asked why Jesus was eating with them. They didn’t think Matthew and his friends were good enough to hang out with Jesus because they did wrong things. They didn’t think Matthew could change and be better. But Jesus knew that Matthew and his friends could change and be better.

Everyone, stand up… Now, everyone raise your hand.

Raise it up as high as it will go… Is it up as high as you can make it?

Now, everyone raise your hands a little more… It went up a little further, didn’t it?

Jesus knows that we can always do more than we think we can, and we can always do more than other people think we can.

People didn’t think that Matthew could change and be better, but he did. He believed in Jesus and stopped stealing and became one of Jesus’s twelve disciples.

That was a very important job. And Matthew even got to write one of the books of the Bible. That’s a really important job.

What I want you to think about today is that Jesus can change your life too. Even if you do bad things sometimes, like Matthew did when he stole from people, if you believe in Jesus, He will forgive you for those things and change you so that you don’t do those bad things anymore. And He can use to do great and important things for Him, just like He used Matthew to do important things, like being one of His disciples and writing a book of the Bible.

Jesus can change you and make you be great for Him, no matter what other people think about you.

Directions

1. Give each child a piece of construction paper and help them cut out a fish pattern.
2. Squirt some glue on a plate and let them use the tissue paper pieces to dip into the glue and decorate their fish! (You can talk about how God takes us and makes us new when we believe in Him and give our lives to Him the same way we are making the fish new)
3. Let them glue on a googley eye and then help them write the scripture Luke 5:10 "I will make you fishers of men"

Directions

1. Cut paper or cardstock into fish shapes.

2. Decorate the fish with notes about how to follow Jesus.

3. Punch holes in each fish.

4. String the fish on a ribbon or piece of yarn.

5. Add extra decorations as needed. Hang in a special spot to recall the story and celebrate following Christ!

Directions

Give each student two pennies or two playing cards. Then, choose 2-4 students to be Collectors. The Collectors are It. Their goal is to collect as many of the pennies or playing cards as they can. When they tag someone, they have to bring you one of that person’s pennies or playing cards. If they want to keep one of the pennies or playing cards, they have to ask for both of the person’s pennies and playing cards. The winner is the Collector who has the most pennies or playing cards at the end of the game.

When a student has no more pennies or playing cards, they’re out of the game.

Directions

1. Have the kids sit with their heads facing down on the table/floor/etc. Make sure they can't peak by putting their hands around their eyes as well.
2. Select a few people to be "it" and have them get up and go touch someone on the head. After everyone has selected someone, the kids can lift their heads and try to guess who picked them.