252 Groups January 2015, Week 4 adjusted Large Group, 4-5. Show Me the Way

Transcription

1 Show Me the Way Bible Story: Show Me the Way (model prayer) Luke 11:1-4 Bottom Line: Practice praying to God. Memory Verse: Training the body has some value. But being godly has value in every way. 1 Timothy 4:8a, NIrV Life App: Commitment making a plan and putting it into practice. Basic Truth: I need to make the wise choice. You will have to explain to the children that the prayer as written in scripture is not the wording that we use in worship because it comes from tradition passed down based on a different Bible translation. Power Up: Engage the Heart (Large Group, minutes) Engage children s hearts in a Large Group setting through interactive worship, prayer, and an innovative re-telling of today s Bible story. 1. Opener/Closer What You Need: Host Storyteller GETTING READY Music and Sound Effects (SFX): Upbeat music to use as kids enter and exit the room Large Group Visuals (downloadable from the website): Shakespearean Commitment Slide Commitment Slide Bottom Line Slide What You Do: Download the slides and have them ready to use. If you do not have CG capabilities, you have Orange s permission to enlarge and print the slides on paper. Download the music from a resource such as itunes and have it ready to play. 2. Bible Story What You Need: Storyteller Bible Large Group Visuals (downloadable from the website): 1

2 Commitment Slide 4 Model Prayer Signs What You Do: Download the slide and have it ready to use. If you do not have CG capabilities, you have Orange s permission to enlarge and print the slides on paper. Print the four Model Prayer signs (Honor, Care, Guidance, and Forgiveness) and mount them on foam core or poster board. Then print and cut apart the prayer cards and mount them to the back of the corresponding poster. Note: If you have a larger environment (25 kids or more), use the 11x17 size signs, located in a separate PDF document on the download matrix. 3. Worship What You Need: Worship Leader(s) Music and Sound Effects (SFX): Unshakeable from Movin Me* All the Glory from Movin Me* Our God Reigns from Jesus Music Box* *Live lyrics video available from What You Do: Download all songs (available on AmberSkyRecords.com) and have them ready to use. Download and print this week s tech sheet for everyone helping with Large Group. 4. Additional Resources GET REEL: This month with Get Reel 2.0, create a Rehearsal Room to encourage kids to commit: to make a plan and stick with it! This week, we recommend playing the Dear God video to inspire the key faith skill of Dialoguing with God. Also on Get Reel 2.0, you can enhance your environment with graphic motion loops (animation slides) of the theme and Life App. 2

3 Show Me the Way Bible Story: Show Me the Way (model prayer) Luke 11:1-4 Bottom Line: Practice praying to God. Memory Verse: Training the body has some value. But being godly has value in every way. 1 Timothy 4:8a, NIrV Life App: Commitment making a plan and putting it into practice. Basic Truth: I need to make the wise choice. Power Up: Engage the Heart (Large Group, minutes) Engage children s hearts in a Large Group setting through interactive worship, prayer and an innovative telling of today s Bible story. SFX: Play high-energy music as kids enter. Worship Leaders greet the kids as they enter. Worship WORSHIP LEADER: Hello to all of you here at [name of your environment]! It s a great day to sing and celebrate. C mon, get up on your feet. Let s sing about how our God s love is so unshakeable! SFX: Unshakeable / track 3 from Movin Me Yeah! That was awesome. Let s continue to sing and give God all the glory and praise that He deserves. Here we go. SFX: All the Glory / track 4 from Movin Me Host enters dramatically as Worship Leaders exit. Host s performance is very theatrical. Opener HOST: Hark! I say it unto thee again hark! Come hither and gather unto me. Lo and behold, the time has draweth nigh! Our lesson for yonder day attendeth! Good. Good. I would like to commend to you kind and gentle greetings. Your visage, glowing and bright, greets me apace. Methinks this to be a fine morrow and thusly I am glad to partake of it with thee. Allow me to present this month s App-eth of Life-eth! CG: Shakespearean Commitment Slide 3

4 Commitment is endeavoring to maketh a plan and thusly putting forsooth all of thine endeavorings into practice presently. Why don t we sayeth that presently in one accord? HOST: Excellent! That recounting certainly wanteth not! Host begins to lead everyone in saying the definition together. Storyteller enters, very confused. STORYTELLER: Okay, what is going on here? Am I in the right place or the right century, for that matter? HOST: [Storyteller s name]! Come hither. Come hither unto me! STORYTELLER: Umm I think I ll just hither right here. I gotta ask, what s with the strange language? HOST: Strange? Dost thou considereth mine speech to be off kilter? STORYTELLER: SOMETHING is off kilter. No, seriously, why do you sound so Romeo? HOST: (Breaking character) Well, I saw today that we were going to be talking about praying and so (back into Shakespearean language) I have been practicing thusly for when the time draweth nigh to beseech unto Him! STORYTELLER: Wait. You re practicing how to talk to God? HOST: Thusly! STORYTELLER: Well, that s great! That is EXACTLY what we re talking about today. But to return to the original question: Why do you have to speak like that? HOST: Well, methinks STORYTELLER: (Interrupting) In English, please. HOST: Oh, this is English, my friend, in its truest sense eth. STORYTELLER: I mean OUR English. Not Shakespeare s English. HOST: (Breaking character) Okay. Well, God is holy, right? STORYTELLER: Absolutely. God is perfect and holy. There is no one like Him. Totally agree. HOST: And God deserves our best, right? 4

5 STORYTELLER: Certainly. HOST: Well then, it s rude for us just to talk to God in our everyday vocabulary. He deserves something better something formal something fancy! STORYTELLER: Ah. I totally get what you re trying to do. Hey, would you stick around and help me out with the story? I think it has a lot to say about how we should talk to God. HOST: Thusly! STORYTELLER: I don t think that word means what you think it means. Anyway, let s check out today s story from the Bible. Storyteller opens the Bible to Luke 11. SETTING UP THE STORY STORYTELLER: (Read Luke 11:1.) One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples spoke to him. Lord, he said, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples. (NIrV) Jesus disciples were asking the same question we are asking today: How should we talk to God? Jesus continued (read Luke 11:2-4), Jesus said to them, When you pray, this is what you should say. Father, may your name be honored. May your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we also forgive everyone who sins against us. Keep us from falling into sin when we are tempted. (NIrV) HOST: Okay. I see what you re saying here. Let me give it a try. Host repeats the exact words of the Lord s Prayer but in the same dramatic, drawn out style as earlier with the same Shakespearean accent. HOST: Father, may your name be honored. May your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we also forgive everyone who sins against us. Keep us from falling into sin when we are tempted. (To Storyteller) Like that? STORYTELLER: Ah, yes and no. What was with the accent? HOST: You know just making it fancy! STORYTELLER: I m not so sure that s what Jesus was after here. Jesus gave these words to help His disciples know how to talk to God HOST: (Interrupting) But won t it be kind of strange if we use these exact words EVERY single time? What if we want to say something else? 5

6 STORYTELLER: No, I don t think Jesus is saying you have to use these words and ONLY these words. The prayer Jesus gives here is a model an example. Listen, let s walk through it together and I think it will make sense. But to do this, I ll need some volunteers. Storyteller picks four volunteers and lines them up on the stage. Host will hand each a sign and prompt them to read the prayer on the back. A MODEL PRAYER STORYTELLER: Let s break Jesus prayer down into four parts and see what He is teaching us about praying to God. The first part says (read Luke 11:2), Father, may your name be honored. May your kingdom come. (NIrV) Host hands the HONOR sign to the first volunteer. The first part of Jesus prayer is about HONOR. (To volunteer) Could you please read your prayer? VOLUNTEER #1: (Reading from back of sign.) God, You are the greatest. There is no one like You. You are in control of everything and You know everything, and yet You still love us. Please help me to HONOR who You are with the way I live and the way I talk about You. I give You praise, because You are good and so worthy of my praise. You are my King and I will follow You. In Jesus name, amen. HOST: So honoring God is really about praising Him for how good and wonderful He is? STORYTELLER: Exactly! Now let s check out the second part. (Read Luke 11:3.) Give us each day our daily bread. (NIrV) The prayer Jesus gave His disciples was also about CARE. Host hands the CARE sign to the second volunteer. Storyteller prompts Volunteer #2. VOLUNTEER #2: (Reading from back of sign) God, thank You for the way You take care of me every day. I know there are a lot of things I WANT and I can be pretty selfish sometimes, but You always give me what I NEED. Help me not to worry about the future, but to trust that You will provide for me tomorrow just like You have provided for me today. I ask these things in Jesus name, amen. HOST: God really does take care of us, doesn t He? He gives us food to eat, a place to sleep, and a roof over our heads. Even when we don t recognize it, God takes care of us. STORYTELLER: You are definitely right about that. Now the third part (read Luke 11:4a): Forgive us our sins, as we also forgive everyone who sins against us. (NIrV) In His prayer, Jesus also talks about FORGIVENESS. Host hands the FORGIVENESS sign to the third volunteer. 6

7 Storyteller prompts Volunteer #3. VOLUNTEER #3: (Reading from back of sign) God, there are times when I have really messed up. I have hurt other people, and more importantly, I have disobeyed You. Thank You, God, that when I sin, I can ask for Your forgiveness. I also know there are times when others will hurt me and sin against me. In those times, please help me to forgive them the way You have already forgiven me. I ask these things in Jesus name, amen. HOST: So praying is also about being honest with God about our sins and failures? STORYTELLER: Yes, and trusting that He forgives us. It is also about forgiving others, even when we don t feel like it. And here is the last part of Jesus prayer. (Read Luke 11:4b.) Keep us from falling into sin when we are tempted. (NIrV) The prayer Jesus gave His disciples was also about GUIDANCE. Host hands the GUIDANCE sign to the fourth volunteer. Storyteller prompts Volunteer #4. VOLUNTEER #4: (Reading from back of sign) God, life can be pretty confusing sometimes. There are a lot of temptations and it can be pretty easy to mess up. I need Your guidance to stay away from the things You have asked me to and to live the way You want me to live. Please give me Your wisdom so I can make the right choices. I ask these things in Jesus name, amen. HOST: So not only can we ask God for forgiveness when we fall short, but we can also ask Him to guide us to make the right decisions in the first place? STORYTELLER: Exactly. Thanks to all our volunteers! Volunteers return to their seats. WRAPPING UP THE STORY HOST: You know, that was really cool to hear those kids praying. It is almost like they were talking to God like they would talk to a friend. STORYTELLER: You got it! That is exactly right! See, God doesn t need flowery language or dramatic pauses or thee and thusly in order to listen to us. He just wants us to talk to Him. He wants us to pour our hearts out to Him, to honor Him, to ask for His care, to tell Him where we have fallen short and need forgiveness, and to ask for His guidance so that we can make wise choices. This is the model Jesus was giving His disciples, and He gives it to us as well. Why don t we pray? HOST: Would it be okay if I did? STORYTELLER: Sure thing! 7

8 Pray HOST: Dear God, we love You so much. You are the greatest, and we honor Your name. Thank You for teaching us how to pray, and more importantly, thank You that You hear us when we talk to You. You are so big and we are so small, and yet You still have the time to listen to everything we say. Thank You for caring for us and forgiving us when we fall short. We need You to guide us so that we can live the way You want us to live. Amen. STORYTELLER: Thanks for all your help today. I ll see you later. HOST: You know what they say (with Shakespearean accent) parting is such sweet sorrow! Storyteller and Host exit as Worship Leaders enter. Worship WORSHIP LEADER: Today we learned a prayer that Jesus prayed. That prayer is this song we re gonna sing together. Our God reigns. He is victorious. Let s choose to allow our hearts to pray these words that Jesus modeled to us. Let s sing this together. SFX: Our God Reigns / track 12 from Jesus Music Box Host enters as Worship Leaders exit. Closer HOST: I don t know about you, but I m sure glad that God doesn t ask us to speak to Him like I was speaking earlier. It s exhausting! I learned a lot today, and I think it is really cool that Jesus gave us a model for how WE can talk to God. We can talk to God just to tell Him how great He is or to thank Him for something that He has done in our lives. We can pray and ask God when we need something, knowing that He knows us and knows what we need. It doesn t mean we will always get what we ask for, but we can trust that God will provide for us. We can talk to God when we have made mistakes, knowing that He offers forgiveness. And we can talk to God when we have tough choices to make and need wisdom. And that s not all! We can talk to God about ANYTHING at any time. Now for some people, praying comes naturally. When something great happens, you can t wait to thank God for it. Or when something bad happens, you run to God to share your hurts with Him and ask for His help. But for others of us, we sometimes have to remind ourselves when and how to pray. Praying can take practice. One thing you can do is to start to make praying a habit. Pick a time each day when you can take a minute or two to talk to God. Maybe it is right when you wake up in the morning or before you go to sleep at night. Maybe it is during lunchtime at school or while you re walking home from the bus stop. Pick a time, and stick with it! 8

9 Maybe you can think of a good time to pray, but you re not sure what to say. If you don t know what to pray for, just remember the four words we talked about today in Jesus model prayer. Do you remember what they are? (Pause for responses.) Yes! They are honor, care, forgiveness, and guidance. You don t have to include all of those every time, but it is a great place to start! Remember, last week we talked about how we need to practice hearing what God says. But that s only half of the conversation. CG: Bottom Line Slide Another way we can know God better is to [Impress] practice praying to God. That s our Bottom Line today. Well, it s a shame I spent so much time last night building my Shakespearean vocabulary. Wasted all that money on the Shakespeare Rosetta Stone, too. (Get an idea) Hey, maybe there s a travelling Shakespearean acting troupe that could use my assistance! (In accent) I shall go henceforth and search the Internets thusly! SFX: Play high-energy music as the kids exit. Host exits. He can be heard rehearsing lines like, What light through yonder window breaks. Dismiss children to their Small Groups. FOR LEADERS ONLY GOD VIEW: the connection between COMMITMENT and God s character, as shown through God s One Big Story Have you never had to endure a child learning how to play the clarinet? It s pretty awful. Sounds more like a person strangling a duck then anything close to actual music. But that goes with any musical instrument, doesn t it? To become great at playing an instrument, you need to practice to rehearse. You need to commit to sticking with it even when you don t feel like it. This is true for faith. To grow to mature takes practice. It takes commitment. Which is why we re taking a whole month to discover how commitment can show up in our lives as we practice our faith. Commitment is making a plan and putting it into practice. If we want to know God better, we need to practice our faith. But this isn t something that comes naturally to any of us. That s why we need a plan to put into practice. And the best place to start is with faith skills. Every so often we like to come back around and focus on four faith skills that kids can practice to help them grow in their faith and know God better. We use four words to help us remember these skills: 9

10 HEAR. PRAY. TALK. LIVE. Each week this month, we ll focus on one of the faith skills as we talk about making a plan and putting it into practice. This month, let s think about how: (1) God created commitment and exemplifies it in being committed to us. (2) Commitment is both a reflection of and a response to God s character. We can demonstrate His commitment to us as we commit to knowing Him more. (3) Commitment is how we follow through on the tasks set before us. This week, we re discovering: Pray. We hope kids understand that praying is an important part of growing in their faith. They can pray knowing that God knows them and wants to hear from them. They can pray with gratitude and honesty; they can pray for their needs and for forgiveness. They can pray anytime, anywhere, because God is always listening. That s why we ll look more closely at Luke 11:1-4 and the way Jesus taught His followers how to pray in the Lord s Prayer. Our Bottom Line is: Practice praying to God. We hope kids will come to believe that they can share anything with God. There s nothing too big or too small for Him to handle. Our Memory Verse is 1 Timothy 4:8a, Training the body has some value. But being godly has value in every way. (NIrV) When we commit to practicing our faith and follow through on our plan, we ll grow in such a big way that it will impact our entire lives. 10