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Object: Today’s message will include a role-play. You will need one child to play the role of the shepherd and the rest of the children will be the people from town. I usually pick an outgoing child for my shepherd so they will act out a bit. Encourage everyone to have fun and ham it up a bit.

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! Our story isn’t really a Bible story, and instead of telling it to you, I thought it would be more fun if we acted it out. So, let me get us ready for our story.

First, we need our shepherd. (Pick the child who will be the shepherd and have them stand.) In our story, the shepherd is out in the fields with the sheep, so let’s have you stand over there. (Have the shepherd stand by themself on one side of the room.) Now we need the people who live in town. We’ll have you stand over there. (Have the rest of your children stand as a group on the opposite side of the room.) Now, we are ready for our story.

One day, a shepherd was out with their sheep. It was a quiet day. In fact, it was so quiet the shepherd was getting really bored. After a while, he decided it would be fun to play a trick on the people in the small town. The shepherd looked toward town and yelled as loud as he could yell, “WOLF! WOLF!” (Have the shepherd yell it as loud as they can.) When the people in town heard the shepherd yell, they got all excited because they thought a big, mean wolf was attacking their sheep out in the field. The people started shouting and ran all the way out to the field to fight off the big, mean wolf. But when they got there, what did they see? (Let them respond.) There wasn’t a wolf. All they saw was the shepherd laughing at them and making fun of them because of how the people had been tricked into running all the way from town. That wasn’t very nice, was it? (Let them respond.) The people were angry and told the shepherd to never do that again. Then they turned around and walked back to town, grumbling all the way. (Have the people do that.)

The shepherd sat down and laughed at the trick he had played, and after a while, got bored again. So, do you know what the shepherd did? (Let them respond.) Yep, the shepherd stood up and looked toward town, and yelled, “Wolf! Wolf!” (Have the shepherd do that.) The people had told the shepherd not to trick them again so they knew there must really be a wolf this time. So, they got all excited again and started running to the field to fight off the big, mean wolf. But when they got there, what did they see? (Let them respond.) There wasn’t a wolf. All they saw was the shepherd laughing at them and making fun of them because of how they had been tricked into running all the way from town. Again. How do you think the people felt? (Let them respond.) I’ll bet they were really angry this time, don’t you? (Let them respond.) The people were so angry this time they didn’t even talk to the shepherd. They just turned around and grumbled all the way back to town.

But the shepherd sat down and laughed and laughed because of how he had tricked the people again. And while the shepherd was laughing, he saw something moving in one of the bushes by the field. What do you think was in that bush? (Let them respond.) It was a WOLF! A real big, mean wolf. It started walking toward the sheep. So the shepherd jumped up, turned to the town, and yelled as loud as he could yell, “WOLF! WOLF!” (Have the shepherd do that.) When the people in town heard the shepherd yelling, they looked at each other and shook their heads. Did the people run to fight the big, mean, wolf? (Let them respond.) Nope, they said, “He’s not going to trick us again, that’s for sure!” So the boy tried to fight the big, mean wolf by himself, but it was too big and too mean, and the wolf took all of the shepherd’s sheep.

Let’s all say “Thank You” to our role players here as they sit back down. (Have everyone give a round of applause for the role-playing and have the children sit back down to continue.)

Now, let me ask you a question. What do you think about the boy who cried wolf? Would you trust him or follow him if he asked you to? (Let them respond.) I don’t think I would trust him since they lied twice before. That’s the problem with telling a lie, isn’t it? If someone lies to you, you always wonder if they are going to lie again, don’t you? If they lied once, you don’t know if you can ever trust them again, do you? (Let them respond.) It just might not be safe to trust them or follow them, would it? (Let them respond.)

One day, Jesus was talking with his friends because he was getting ready to leave them and go be with God. He told them that they needed to be very careful because now that he was leaving, some of the old religious leaders were going to come and try to get them to listen to them and get them to do things they wanted them to do instead of doing what Jesus asked them to do. The Pharisees and Sadducees believed that God loved laws more than God loved people, and the most important thing they had to do was obey all of the old laws. But Jesus told his friends that was not true, because God loved people a lot more than laws.

So if the Pharisees and Sadducees were not telling them the truth, just like the shepherd lied in our story, it would not be safe to listen to them or follow them, would it? (Let them respond.) Jesus told them that God was going to send someone they could listen to and follow because they would always tell them the truth. God’s spirit was going to come and would never lie to them, and that’s who they should all listen to and follow.

Telling the truth is important. It is important because if we do not tell the truth people won’t be able to trust us, and we want people to trust us so we can help those who need help.

Let’s pray and ask God’s Spirit to remind us that Jesus loves every one of us and wants us to follow him and take care of each other the way God takes care of us.

Prayer
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us and for forgiving us when we forget that. And please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.