Acts 25 and 26

 We continued to follow Paul as he goes before Festus. Felix is no longer the governor, and now that Festus is in charge, the Jews renewed their fight against Paul. They tried to get Festus to send Paul to Jerusalem, so they could ambush him again but Festus wasn't interested in playing their games. He held a fair trial for Paul and the Jews began to make up all sorts of crazy accusations. Paul then responded truthfully, telling Festus that he had done nothing wrong. Festus asked Paul if he wanted to go have a trial in Jerusalem but Paul insisted that he wanted to stand trial before Caesar as God had made it clear to Paul that he would testify in Rome before Caesar. 

 Festus didn't know what to do because he couldn't find anything wrong with Paul. So he called for his friend Agrippa, who listened to Paul's whole testimony. During his testimony, Paul explained that when God found him on the road to Damascus, He said "Saul, why are you kicking against the goad?". 

 We explained this funny expression to the kids. A goad was a pointy stick that farmers used to prod their cows in the way they should go. Sometimes, if the cow was really stubborn, they would kick at the goad and get hurt. Paul had been kicking against God's goed, or God's will, and it was only causing him trouble. But in the end, God's plan prevailed.

 At the end of Paul's testimony, Agrippa agreed that Paul had done nothing wrong. However, because Paul had insisted on seeing Caeser, he would now have to go see Caesar. Otherwise, he could have been freed. But Paul didn't care-he wasn't kicking aginst the goad anymore. He was now submitting to God's plan, instead of trying to do things his own way.

 We often do this in our own lives too. We showed different scenarios that God puts His children into to teach us to trust Him.  We showed how we often 'kick against the goad' or fight his will. Throught these skits we learned the memory verse which taught us that no plan or scheming will succeed against God.