God s Spirit Unifies. June 3, Acts God s Spirit Unifies, Part 2

Transcription

1 June 3, 2018 DATE Acts God s Spirit Unifies, Part 2 THE BIG GOD STORY God s Spirit Unifies PONDER POINT So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. REMEMBER VERSE Isaiah 41:10 Welcome and Worship (15 minutes) Begins class creating an inviting atmosphere for kids to feel welcome and engage kids in worship through singing and communion. The Big God Story (18 minutes) Creates space for children to hear God s word and prepare respond to the Holy Spirit in small groups Small Groups (20 minutes) Kids will build relationships with each other and their leaders, and respond to what they learned in the Big God Story as well as how to apply it to their lives Bless & Dismiss (4 minutes) Bless kids to send them out with a sense of peace so they can be a blessing to others. The large group room will be divided into three sections. Please help kids find which section they should sit in according to their grade: 1st- 2nd, 3rd-4th & 5th-6th. Toward the end of small group time, A/V Tech will play the 2 minute warning sound followed by a song. During or immediately following the song please regroup in the large group meeting space (not before). 5th & 6th graders can go directly to Snack Shack after small group time, rather than regrouping in the large group space. Host Administrative To Do s: Make sure no group is too large Make sure each group has enough supplies Close curtains and divider wall for small groups at 9:00 and 10:15 (and re-open after 9:00) Give a 3 minute warning knock to groups Open doors when it s time to dismiss groups Call names for dismissal after blessing SCHEDULE Large Group Small Group 2 Min Warn. Regroup/ Dismiss 5th-6th 1st Service (9:00) 9:00 9:30 9:57 10:00 2nd Service (10:15) 10:15 10:45 11:12 11:15 3rd Service (11:30) 11:30 12:00 12:27 12:30 1

2 GOAL: Worship & welcome is all about engaging kids and helping them enter into worship, letting them know that class has begun preparing their minds for what they are going to hear. WELCOME (Host): Stage Lights On VIDEO LOOPS: Welcome Loop, 5 Min Countdown, Welcome Image We are so glad you are here today. Welcome the kids in your own words and finish by saying, Let s all stand and hear God s word and sing our praise to Him OPENING WORSHIP SONG (Worship Leader): Turn out main overhead lights REMEMBER VERSE VIDEO WORSHIP VIDEO 1: Better Than the Best Thing WORSHIP VIDEO 2: You Are (Direct kids to get with their groups and circle up with their small group leader before sitting down) CONNECT QUESTIONS (Host): 4 MINUTE COUNTDOWN VIDEO What is one unique thing about yourself that others may not know? What is your favorite food to eat for dinner? What is your favorite thing to do in the summer. TIMELINE VIDEO (Storyteller) The Big God Story: Point out that what kids are about to hear is true and is recorded in the Bible. Open your Bible to the passage and leave it open and visible throughout The Big God Story. Invite kids to open their Bibles and follow along as you storytell. Children respond to what the Holy Spirit is teaching them as they reflect on the day s portion of The Big God Story. The Prayer of Release: This allows children and leaders to pause, be still, and ask God to quiet their hearts and minds. Before you pray, you might ask the kids to hold out their hands, palms up, in a spirit of releasing their worries and distractions in order to better receive what the Holy Spirit might have for them today. Then encourage the kids to quiet their voices, take a seat, and pray with you. 2

3 The Big God Story: Storyteller Script Invite six volunteers on stage. Have three kids sit on the far left of the stage and three on the far right. In the New Testament, two groups of people didn t get along and thought they were very different from each other: the Jews (point to group on left) and the Gentiles (point to group on right). Walk over and stand by group playing Jews. The Jews were God s chosen people, and they played a special part in The Big God Story. Walk over and stand by group playing Gentiles. Gentiles were people who weren t born into the Jewish community. Have each group turn away from and sit with their backs to the other group. Jews and Gentiles didn t hang out together. They ate different things and lived in different ways. However, the Holy Spirit unifies people from different communities. He helped the apostles and believers living during the time of Acts understand that everyone can be part of God s family. Let s begin in Acts 10:1 at the house of a Gentile named Cornelius. Tech: Cue Centurion image. Help children find passage. read Acts 10:1. A man named Cornelius lived in Caesarea. He was a Roman commander in the Italian Regiment. This man, Cornelius, wasn t just a Gentile; he also served in the army of a Gentile nation a nation the Jews really didn t like. Being both a Gentile and a Roman commander meant that Cornelius was far from being unified with the Jews. But there was something special about Cornelius. Read v. 2 Cornelius and all his family were faithful and worshiped God. He gave freely to people who were in need. He prayed to God regularly. Just like the Ethiopian official we heard about last week, Cornelius loved God, but he wasn t completely allowed into the faith community. Just like God s Spirit unified the Ethiopian man with the other believers, He did the same thing for Cornelius. God did this through two interesting visions a vision God gave to Cornelius, and then a vision God gave to Peter. Tech: Cue Two Visions video. (36 seconds) Remember the sheet with animals and what God said to Peter in the vision? Cornelius, and other Gentiles, freely ate the meat of all kinds of animals. Tech: Cue Animals images. Direct Gentile group to pretend to gobble up meat. But the Jews weren t allowed to eat certain kinds of animals because God gave them laws about what they could and couldn t eat. Direct Jewish group to fold their arms and shake their heads disapprovingly. Because of differences like this one, 3

4 Jews considered Gentiles to be unclean and weren t friends with them. In fact, they didn t even go into each other s homes! God used this vision to help Peter see that His Spirit was unifying all people together. Direct both groups to move one step closer together. While Peter was still thinking about the vision he d seen, the men sent by Cornelius arrived where Peter was staying. The man who owned the house told Peter several men were looking for him. Peter went out and asked why they had come. Read Acts v. 22 as kids follow. After that, Peter did something Jews never did: He invited the Gentile men into the home where he was staying! Only God s Spirit could bring these people together. Direct both groups to move another step closer together. Then God led Peter to go to Cornelius s home. God led him there because God wanted to show the Jews that He was inviting all people into His faith community. Direct groups to move another step closer together. After Cornelius told Peter about the angel and his instructions to get Peter, Peter realized something. Read Acts v as kids follow. Then Peter began to speak. I now realize how true it is that God treats everyone the same, he said. 35 He accepts people from every nation. He accepts anyone who has respect for him and does what is right. In that moment, God s Spirit showed Peter that everyone no matter the person s culture, race, gender, or nationality could be included in His faith community! In that moment, Peter understood that God s Spirit had unified the Jews and Gentiles. Direct both groups to stand, rush toward each other, and high-five each other. Then thank and dismiss the kids. Peter spread the good news to everyone listening, and the Holy Spirit came to them just as He came to the disciples and all the people at Pentecost. When Peter returned to his home, he told the other Jews what had happened. They were amazed! (Acts 11:18.) They praised God for the unity He brings! Have everyone stand, high five someone nearby, and say, God is good! He brings unity! Have them repeat with two more people and then return to their seats. After this, more and more Gentiles started to believe in the good news of Jesus and became a part of God s faith community. The Bible says the new believers were called Christians. God doesn t show favoritism. He wants all people to be part of The Big God Story. We can invite others, even those who are very different from us, to be part of His story. God s Spirit unifies, and He will show us how to love others and share the good news about Jesus with those around us and around the world. Share a time you experienced the unity that God s Spirit brings. Tell the kids we are going to close the Big God Story by worshipping Him. Ask the kids to wait until they are asked to come forward to take communion. VIDEO 3: Glory to God After a time of worshipping have kids come and take communion if they have made Jesus their Savior and been baptized. Please remind kids response is also a time they can give offering or take communion if they have made Jesus their savior and been baptized, and bring their offering. 4

5 Fade out slowly at worship leaders prompting As the song comes to a close Worship Leader tells groups to head to their small groups, Say something like Let s continue responding to what God is teaching us as we dismiss to our small groups. Please follow your small group leader at this time. IMAGE: It s time for small groups Turn main overhead lights on Dismiss for small groups refer to map for small group location. At the end of small groups Tech cue: 2 minute warning with exit song, using ceiling speakers, at the host s prompting Turn speakers back to wall speakers for blessing, closing song and dismissal. 5

6 GOAL: Kids build relationships with each other and their leader as they respond to what they heard in the Big God Story. God s Spirit Unifies SUPPLIES Craft Sticks with Velcro (2 per child) Markers Bibles Poster Board (one per group) Additional Velcro dot s ENGAGE The Jews and the Gentiles were so different from each other, but God s Spirit unified them. Is there a relationship or friendship you need God to unify? Maybe you find it hard to get along with a particular person. Maybe it s difficult to talk with someone because he s so different from you. Today you can bring those relationships to God and ask for His Spirit to unify you. Start passing around baskets of craft sticks and markers. As the basket comes to you, you can take out two craft sticks and a marker. Then, take a moment to talk with God about the person on your mind. Print your name on one craft stick and the other person s name or initial or nick name, on the other craft stick. Create a design on your craft sticks with additional colored markers while waiting for everyone to finish. Leader of small group can Write on the poster board at the top God s Spirit Unifies, while kids work on their craft sticks. Once everyone has completed their two craft sticks, work together to create a unique design by putting your craft sticks together. Remembering God s Spirit Unifies. Use the extra Velcro dots to connect your craft sticks to the Poster Board. Hang the Poster board in your room to remind your group that God s Love and His Spirit connects us to each other. Pass out Bibles and ask the following Discussion questions to keep the conversation in your group going: What does unify mean? What is a Gentile? Colossians 3:11 What is a faith community? Acts 2:44 47 What did God tell Peter about eating different kinds of animals? Acts 10:10 15 How did the Jews respond to Peter s message about including the Gentiles? Acts 11:18 How does God view different people from different cultures? John 3:16; Acts 10:34 35 BLESSING Close your small group time reading a final scripture and blessing your kids using the Blessing Card from your supply bin in your cart. 6

7 GOAL: Bless kids to send them out with a sense of peace so they can be a blessing to others. CLOSING REMARKS/ANNOUNCEMENTS (Host): Wall Speakers On VIDEO LOOP: Thanks, glad you were here. TRANSITION ACTIVITIES (HOST): Play Regrouping Video Announce the expectations verbally as kids regroup in the large group room Have a seat on the floor Stay seated until your name is called or you see your parents Meet up with your parents and exit the middle door. Play Fun Video: Cow, Chicken, Pig Video (Kids will stand up and pick and animal by doing the hand/face motion on the screen, then if the animal they picked is chosen they sit down and are out). Transition Activity: Game of Would you rather? (supplies provided: deck of Would you rather? cards) Choose a card from the deck and read it out loud. Instruct kids that if they would rather choose the first choice put up a number one with fingers and hold it up in the air. If the kid would choose the second choice put up 2 fingers. After each question, look around the room and estimate which one had the most and wins. Then move on to the next question, reminding kids of dismissal expectations as needed. DISMISSAL (HOST): Call names of kids as parent come to pick up and welcome kids who are being dropped off. Encourage parents to enter the room and encourage kids and parents to exit out the middle door (103) 7

8 I don t remember the day, but I remember the heartbreak. There, before me, on his knees on the bathroom floor, my husband knelt with grief, begging me to forgive him for the financial doings that threatened to break apart everything in our lives. Though he begged for forgiveness that day, I had none to give him and not for many days to come. After struggling to keep afloat financially and emotionally, my husband did what he could to help us survive: He took a job several hundred miles away. Every phone call ended in another argument. I wondered if, one day, he would come home and I would be gone. During that time, I told God this was too hard even for Him. Little did I know that God was doing a deep work in my heart. He was breaking down barriers between my husband and me as well as barriers in my relationship with Him. Though it didn t happen overnight, forgiveness came and love returned. Our marriage was saved. God s steadfast love brought about humility and repentance in my husband and a spirit of mercy inside my own heart. God s Spirit miraculously unified us. Ann Lund Mariners Church When Peter agreed to fellowship with Cornelius, it wasn t just a casual lunch. It was an earthshattering step for Peter and for the early church and a major theological paradigm shift. Something as simple as eating a meal with Gentiles was something devout Jews never did. When God set apart Israel as His people in the Old Testament, He gave them several means to keep themselves separate, distinct, and holy from the nations around them. One of the primary ways involved dietary laws and purity practices. Over time, though, the Jewish teachers went beyond what God had intended and forbade even keeping company with Gentiles. When Messiah came and instituted the new covenant by sending the Holy Spirit, the makeup of the people of God changed. The family of God was no longer a distinct people called out from among the nations. It was now comprised of people called out from many nations. The people of God were no longer a nation, a monarchy, ruled by God. They were now many peoples from many different nations comprising this new organism called the church, the bride of Christ. What this new organism needed more than anything was an understanding of the unity they possessed but didn t realize they possessed. This is what God accomplished at Pentecost. He unified His people, Jew and Gentile, into one new body. This was the lesson God was teaching Peter and the church through Cornelius. Sin always divides and separates. It separates us from God. It separates us from one another. The main point of salvation and of all history is that God is joining the previously divided. This is one of the main works of the Holy Spirit in the world. He unifies. Psalm 133:1 says, How good and pleasant it is when God s people live together in unity! Is there someone in your life with whom you ve been feeling a lack of unity? Take some time to talk with God about that relationship. Consider going for a walk or finding a place in nature where you can hear His voice. Then pour out your heart to Him about that person. Invite Him to bring healing, restoration, and unity. Listen for what He says. Bring a journal to record your thoughts and prayers or a Bible so you can meditate on the way God unified His people in Acts Also pray for your kids, who will have the chance to ask God to unify their relationships as well. The God who brought the Jews and the Gentiles together can bring unity to any relationship even in the ones that seem impossible. 8