REMEMBER & CELEBRATE

Transcription

1 Date: November 28th REMEMBER & CELEBRATE Remembering and Celebrating God as Redeemer: Feast of Unleavened Bread Schedule ANTICIPATE REMEMBER & CELEBRATE RESPOND/BREAKING OF BREAD 1

2 SMALL GROUP S E C T I O N ANTICIPATE// 10 min. Small Group Leaders Children engage in fun, creative activities designed to pique their curiosity about the day s biblical feast or festival. The Israelites began their Feast of Unleavened Bread the day after Passover. It was their time to remember their hasty exodus from Egypt when there was not time to even let the yeast rise. During this festival, the Israelites would refrain from eating bread with yeast for seven days, and they were to take the first and seventh days to rest. Read the attached Festival of Unleavened Bread information. 4 Corner Questions: WHAT S HAPPENING: We will have 4 questions on Poster boards around the room. Parents are supposed to answer each question with their children and then write their answer on a post-it note and stick it on the poster board. While answering the 4 questions, people can snack on the unleavened bread. Question 1: What is something hard your family went through together? Question 2: What is the best vacation you ve gone on together as a family? Question 3: How often do we read the Bible together as a family and as individuals? Question 4: What is your favorite restaurant that your family eats at? LEADER SHARES THIS AT TRANSITION: Today we re celebrating the Israelite Feast of Unleavened Bread. During this celebration, the Israelites would remember how God had redeemed His children and freed them from slavery in Egypt. You may remember that the Israelites had to pack up their things very quickly; they didn t even have time to make bread with yeast in it. They made a bread similar to crackers, which didn t require time for the yeast to make it rise. 2

3 LARGE GROUP S E C T I O N REMEMBER & CELEBRATE// 30 min. Host/Worship Leader/Storyteller Children pause and look back at what they ve discovered about God during the past several weeks in The Big God Story. For more information on Traditions or any aspect of the lesson please see the How It Works document for Large Group/Small Group in the Resources. Welcome and Traditions Mementos for your church Traditions (rocks, marbles, gumballs, etc.) RELATE Offered twice per quarter, Remember & Celebrate lessons invite children and their parents to pause and look back at all they ve discovered about God and the ways they ve experienced Him in the past weeks. Each lesson focuses on a biblical festival and explores the origin of the festival and what it shows us about God. Take this time to remember the awesomeness of our God and celebrate who He is! After everyone gathers as a large group, open with Traditions. During Traditions, you re helping the children work toward a common goal and giving them mementos to celebrate accomplishments such as memorizing the Remember Verse, inviting friends to church, or bringing their Bibles. Once children receive their mementos, have them put the objects in the designated container. Once kids fill the container, hold a celebration. Connect Encourage the members of your community to get to know one another through engaging questions, energizing games, and creative activities. Question What are three important things to have at a party? Activity: Clothespin Wars Connect Activity image (see Resources) 3

4 Connect Question image (see Resources) Clothespins (2 3 per child) Upbeat music (suggestion: Celebrate, TruWorship Sincerely Yours) RELATE Give each child two to three clothespins. Explain that while you play music, they will try to pin their clothespins onto their friends clothes. When the music stops, they will freeze. The child with no clothespins on his clothes wins the round! Play as many rounds as you d like. Note: Assign volunteers to facilitate the game so the children don t become too rowdy. Remember and Play Images: ZONK! Questions, ZONK! Answers (see Resources) Optional: ZONK! Directions, Building the ZONK! Wheel (see Resources) At the Jewish feasts and festivals, the people would eat special foods, see special people, and engage in special dances and ceremonies. It s easy to imagine that the Jewish children might have been so excited about the upcoming festivals that they couldn t sleep for days in anticipation. The feasts and festivals were both fun and meaningful. God s people reveled in how good it was to be together as they remembered what God had done in their lives. During this time, we will seek to remember in a spirit of fun and celebration making the experience exciting and interesting as well as meaningful, community-building, and spiritually forming. Engage the Parents & Children by playing the game of ZONK! to help them remember what they ve discovered during the past several weeks. The 4 Elements of the Zonk Wheel: 1. Leader Trivia 2. Team Challenge 3. Sword Drill 4. Parent Challenge There will flashcards ready for each of these challenges. There will be 4 Zonk cards(each worth 1000) and 4 point cards(300, 500, 800) Parent Challenge: Parents have the choice of answering a tough bible question or finding a passage of scripture within 10 seconds. ZONK! Questions and Answers (These are only for 1 st & 2 nd ) I am sending new questions for 3 rd 6 th 1) What did Jacob dream about while he slept alone in the desert? a. Angels walking up and down stairs b. That he was flying c. That he could breathe underwater d. That he was hairy like his brother ANSWER: A. In his dream, Jacob saw a stairway going up to heaven. Angels were walking up and down 4

5 the stairs. 2) True or False: Jacob and Esau never spoke again after Jacob stole Esau s blessing. ANSWER: False. Even though they didn t talk for many years, God drastically changed Jacob s life, and the two brothers happily reunited. 3) What does redeem mean? a. Fly through the air b. Eat a sandwich c. Give a hug d. Buy back ANSWER: D. Redeem means buy back. Jesus redeemed us by paying the debt for our sins when He died on the cross and rose again. God redeemed Joseph s life by turning bad situations into something good. 4) What did Joseph s brothers do to him instead of killing him? a. Threw him into a water well b. Tore up his coat c. Sold him into slavery d. All of the above ANSWER: D. Joseph s brothers harmed him in a number of ways, but God redeemed those difficult situations and used them for good. 5) How did God redeem Joseph s life? a. Made him second-in-command of Egypt b. Brought Jesus to earth through Joseph s family line c. Put Joseph in charge of storing up lots of grain for a famine d. All of the above ANSWER: D. Joseph faced many difficult circumstances in his life, but God redeemed the hard times in good ways that benefited many people. 6) True or False: Joseph cried and hugged his brothers the second he saw them. ANSWER: False. Joseph pretended he didn t know his brothers. 7) What did God tell Moses to do when He spoke through the burning bush? a. Eat a pickle b. Jump around in circles c. Take off his sandals d. Bow down ANSWER: C. God told Moses to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground. 8) True or False: When God fought to free His people from Egypt, He sent an army. ANSWER: False. God used 10 different plagues to prove to Pharaoh and His people, the Israelites, that He is the one true God. 9) How many plagues did God bring down on Egypt? a. 10 b. 5 c. 25 5

6 d. 15 ANSWER: A. God used 10 plagues from frogs to locusts to darkness to free His people. 10) What protected the Israelites from the Egyptian army while God held back the waters of the Red Sea? a. A giant b. A big pile of rocks c. A pillar of cloud and an angel of the Lord d. A tornado ANSWER: C. God provided a pillar of cloud to guide the Israelites by night, and an angel of the Lord stood between the Egyptian army and the Israelites until they safely crossed the Red Sea. 11) True or False: The Egyptian army followed the Israelites all of the way through the Red Sea to the other side. ANSWER: False. God brought the waters crashing down on the Egyptian army. RESPOND// 15 min. Host/Storyteller Children gather as a faith community and celebrate who God is and what He has done. They participate in storytelling and connect through fun and engaging worship. God redeemed Israel and bought them back from slavery. Then He led them into the Promised Land. The people had so many reasons to remember and celebrate God s goodness! The Feast of Unleavened Bread was one of many reminders of God s redeeming power. Once a year, for a week, the people would celebrate by eating bread without leaven, or yeast. This kind of bread is kind of like a cracker, and it s called matzo. On the last day of the week, the Israelites would gather, take a break from their work, and worship God. In fact, in the Bible, when the Lord established this feast, He commanded His people to celebrate it every year. He wanted them to use this celebration to teach their children what God had done that the LORD brought [them] out of Egypt with his mighty hand (Exodus 13:9). Remembering My Experience with God Bibles Worship Response and Create/Engage pieces from previous weeks Optional: Worship Response Stations SET UP From the Worship Response and Create/Engage pieces, choose three or so you might want to discuss and have them available. Talk and pray about this with your team and choose the pieces that most impacted your group. Place the Worship Response and Create/Engage pieces around the room in lesson order. Optional: Set up the Worship Response Stations you have chosen to use for Remember and Celebrate lessons. RELATE 6

7 Invite children to look back at how they ve experienced God during the past several lessons. Optional: Discuss the Worship Response and Create/Engage pieces and encourage kids to share memories of those response experiences or activities. WORSHIP RESPONSE Lesson 7, God Is Faithful: A relationship with God is a journey. How have you seen your relationship with God differently since you heard about how God worked in Jacob s life? Lesson 8, God Redeems: How does it feel to know God has redeemed you so you can be in relationship with Him? Lesson 9, God Saves: God s plans are bigger than our plans. We took pieces of maps and asked God to lead us. How has He been working in your life to bring others to Himself? Lesson 10, God Is I AM: How does knowing who God is, and how God defines you, change the way you want to live your life? How does it help you think about the person you want to be when you grow up? Lesson 11, God Is Warrior: During this lesson you may have laid down the heavy things in your life so God could fight for you as your Warrior. Has God used this experience to change the way you live your life? Lesson 12, God Is Victorious: After God freed the Israelites they sang a song of worship to celebrate God s victory. Do you have a song you like singing to celebrate God? CREATE/ENGAGE Lesson 7, Three-Legged Race Home: God is always faithful. He speaks to each one of us individually, and He also unites us into one body as His church. How have you seen unity among Christians recently? Lesson 8, Scenes of Redemption: God redeems broken lives, broken hearts, and broken situations. How have you seen God s redemption in your life? Lesson 9, Famine Flee: During this lesson, we heard about how God used Joseph to save thousands of people from starvation by placing him as the second-in-command in Egypt. How have you seen God provide in times when it felt impossible? Lesson 10, I AM: As we created a burning bush, we wrote statements about God by completing the phrase I AM What new statements would you add today? Lesson 11, Fetching Frogs: During this fun activity we remembered how God sent a plague of frogs. God sent a lot of plagues to convince Pharaoh to let God s people go, and Pharaoh eventually did! How have you seen God fight for you or someone you know? Lesson 12, Red Sea Run: After the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry land, Pharaoh s armies chased after them, but then God sent the water crashing down on them! God had the victory. Are there any areas in your life where you want to see God s victory? Storytelling Optional: Campfire video (see Resources) Bibles Storytelling Ideas Set up open mics around the room and allow kids to tell their stories. How God answered their prayers How God used the Remember Verse in their lives What God did in their hearts during the last few weeks (such as what they learned about God and how that 7

8 changed them) How they saw God with their families or outside of church Gather stories from the community. Ask parents for stories about their experiences with God at home with their children Ask parents to pictures of spiritual experiences with their children (such as a baptism) Take pictures of family church experiences Show a video or picture collage gathered during the last few weeks Interview someone about what he experienced, discovered, or learned about God. Someone who has recently come home from a mission trip A parent who had a God experience with his child, or a child who experienced God with her family Someone who recently accepted Christ Celebrate by Breaking Bread Food, drinks, plates, napkins, utensils, cups RELATE Celebrate with the kids by breaking bread together. Explain that we will be having snacks of some kind. 8