Daniel. November 22-23, Daniel 1; Philippians 4:6 Adventure Bible for Early Readers (pp , 1382) Following God means taking a stand.

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1 rd 3 5 November 22-23, 2014 Daniel 1; Philippians 4:6 Adventure Bible for Early Readers (pp , 1382) Connect Time (15 minutes): Five minutes after the service begins, split kids into groups and begin their activity. Large Group (30 minutes): Begin 20 minutes after the service starts. Model what it looks like to be engaged in large group. th Daniel Following God means taking a stand. Today, we re talking about strength. Be sure to stress that strength doesn t necessarily mean muscles. It can refer to a lot of different things, one of which is the ability to take a stand and follow God, even when it s hard. Small Group (15 minutes): Keep kids in small groups until parents arrive. If you all have extra time at the end, you can review the video and songs together. Daniel took a stand and was willing to do something different than everybody else. He was more concerned with what GOD wanted him to do than with what other people wanted him to do. The best part is, God gave him extra strength because God loves it when we choose to follow him even when it means being different!

2 Goal: Connect Time is all about engaging kids in an activity that allows them to connect with each other right away while simultaneously piquing their curiosity for Large Group and preparing their minds for what they re going to hear. THINK STRONG *If breaking into small groups, split each small group into 3 equal-sized groups *If working as a large group, break kids into teams of 4-6 Give each individual group of kids a large tear-off sheet of paper Each group s job is to think of the strongest thing in the world (that really exists, not made up), and draw it. In normal small groups (6-15 kids), share the object. Discuss: o Why is that the strongest object? o Are there different types of strong? (Refer to objects) o When would you use that object? Then ask kids about the best and worst parts of their week. Option: If you have extra time or a rowdy group, give them a strength test by having kids see who can do the most push-ups or crabwalk across the room the fastest. You can also test other types of strength by doing a staring context and see who can keep from blinking. Or a smile contest and see who can keep from smiling the longest! Before you head into Large Group, remind them about your expectations for their behavior: (1) be kind, (2) listen when somebody speaks, and (3) follow the leader s instructions.

3 Goal: Kids will (1) recall the ways Daniel followed God, (2) recognize that God gave Daniel the strength he needed and (3) understand that God will equip them to follow him too. Why: We talk a lot about how it s important to follow God. But sometimes that s really hard. Tip: Prepare to share a way you are following God (or plan to follow him) even though it s hard. REVIEW ACTIVITY AND DISCUSSION: Turn over the large, tear-off sheets of paper from Connect Time. This time, have the same groups work together to draw a picture of the strongest thing Daniel did in today s story (the thing that took the most strength/the hardest thing he had to do). Use the drawings to review the story. Talk about the 3 events and any others kids recall. Then move to the questions below: 1. What did Daniel do that may have been hard for him? Why was it hard? 2. When do we need to be strong? 3. How can following God be hard for us? 4. How can we be sure we will have the strength to follow God? 5. Did anybody think of a way God may want you to follow him or stand up for what s right this week? (Share one way you could follow God this week.) 6. Read Philippians 4:6 in the Bible (p. 1382). Say it out loud a couple times. INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION Have each kid consider his/her response to #5. They can choose either the carrot and leaf top or the corn and green husk. Have them glue the leaf to the carrot or the husk to the corn. Then they can draw or write one way they will follow God this week, even if it s hard. Just like Daniel ate only vegetables and drank only water and trusted God to make him strong, kids can trust God to help them do whatever they drew/wrote! *Pray, asking God to help each kid follow him even when it s hard. Refer to examples they ve shared, if appropriate. Extra Time? Try to memorize the verse! You could go around the circle, saying one word at a time. Or say it all together and make up motions.

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5 1 Read Daniel 1:1-21 to make sure you re ready to tell today s story! Kids may need help figuring out how to respond to the question you ask them to answer while watching the video clip. Preview it ahead of time at so you can help them figure it out. *Click to play the intro music. Hi everybody! Welcome to Kids Club. I m so happy to see you here today. You guys were all coming up with the strongest thing that you could think of. And I want to hear what you guys chose. Can I have 3 volunteers from different groups to come up here? (Have three kids come up. Ask them: What did you draw?) Thanks, now go ahead and have a seat. (Let kids sit.) So those are all strong but in different ways. (Summarize the ways that each object is strong.) And when do we need something to be REALLY strong? Any ideas? (Let 1-2 kids respond.) That s right, if it s going to be tested in some way. Basically, an object needs to be strong if it s going to do something difficult. Just like a person needs to be strong if they are going to do something hard. DIFFERENT WAYS TO BE STRONG Now, we re going to watch a clip from Despicable Me 2. In this clip, we are going to see the minions chase after ice cream. Raise your hand if you like ice cream (let kids respond). Me too! Well, these minions all go crazy trying to get ice cream, but it ends very badly for them. As you watch, see if you can figure out where one of them could have been strong. And maybe not just physically with bigger muscles but any kind of strong! Ready? (Be prepared to help kids determine where a minion could have showed strength.) Video: Despicable Me / Ice Cream Trick OK, so what happened to all the minions? Did they get ice cream? (Let kids respond.) No, they got taken by the ice cream truck and we don t get to see what happened to them. But it probably wasn t good, huh? But how could any of them have been strong? (Let kids say: run fast enough to get away or said no to the popsicle). Yep, they could have been fast runners or been strong enough to get away from the cone.

6 But sometimes being strong means saying no to something that looks or feels good but that we know isn t good for us. If that last one had said no to the popsicle, do you think he could have gotten away? (Let kids say: Yes.) That s right, if he would have been willing to stand up and do something different, he could have gotten away. Now, do you have to be strong to say no to something to you really want to do? (Let kids respond.) Yes! Why? (Let kids respond.) Yep, because saying no to something that looks or feels good... is hard! DANIEL WAS STRONG Today, we re going to look at a guy named Daniel who was willing to be strong and take a stand and be different. Daniel said no to something that sounded really good to him. But he did it because he was following God. Can anybody guess when Daniel had to be strong to follow God? (Let kids guess.) Because sometimes following God is hard. (Show picture of Babylon.) Daniel was living in the palace of a man named King Nebuchadnezzar. Let s call him King Neb. King Neb ruled in a place called Babylon. This is what Babylon looks like today, but in Daniel s time, it was a huge, bustling city (refer to images). At the time, King Neb was in control of God s family, and he forced all the smartest and most handsome men to come and work for him. He was planning to train them for three years to get them ready to serve him. (Show picture of a feast.) Part of their training was getting really good food to make them strong. The king wanted them to eat nice meats from his own table. Raise your hand if you see something that looks good in this picture (let kids respond). Yum, I agree! In fact, this picture makes me hungry. And the king s food would have looked really good to Daniel, just like the ice cream looked really good to the minions. But there was a problem: these meats came from animals that were gifts to pretend gods, idols that the king worshipped. Daniel knew that God wanted him to say no to idols, which meant saying no to meat and food that had been used to worship them. So Daniel asked the official in charge of him if he could eat something else. The official said, No way! See, the King was a very strict man. The official was afraid that if Daniel and his friends weren t healthy and strong, the king would kill him for not forcing them to eat all the good food he offered. Daniel knew the king might have the official killed for something like that. So Daniel made a suggestion. He said: SLIDE: Daniel 1:12-13 Daniel said to him, Please test us for ten days. Give us nothing but vegetables to eat. And give us only water to drink. Then compare us with the young men who eat the king s food. See how we look. After that, do what you want to. So guess what the official said: raise your hand if you think he said yes. (Let kids vote.) Raise your hand if you think he said no. (Let kids vote.) Those of you who voted yes are right! For ten days, Daniel and his friends ate only vegetables and water, while everyone else feasted like the king. And in ten days, who do you think looked better? Raise your hand if you think Daniel looked better (let kids vote) and raise your hands if you think the other guys looked

7 better (let kids vote). You guys are good: Daniel looked even healthier! Now, how do you think it was possible that Daniel and his friends were healthy even though they ate only vegetables and water without getting the protein of the nicer meats? (Let kids respond.) That s right: because God gave them the strength they needed to follow him when it was hard. FOLLOWING GOD REQUIRES STRENGTH And Daniel s story shows us that following God can be really hard. It requires strength. Everybody think of one thing Daniel did that would have been hard. When you ve got one thing in your head, hold up one finger. (Let kids respond.) Now, stand up and tell one person ONE thing Daniel did that would have been hard. (Let kids stand and mingle.) Let s hear what you guys thought! (Let 3-5 kids share. They might say: Daniel said no to really good royal feasts, Daniel asked an official for special treatment, Daniel risked eating only vegetables and trusted God to make him physically strong, etc.) You re right, those things would have been really hard! And you know what? Following God today is sometimes hard for us too. Sometimes it means doing something different than everybody else, saying no to something that looks or feels good to us, or standing up for what s right even when everybody else is doing something different. Let s think about some things that are hard to do now. I m going to show you guys a picture. If you think you know what kind of a stand the person is taking, I want YOU to stand. Ready? (Show the following pictures and let kids stand. Then have them sit and ask the follow-up question. Start the standing exercise again with the next picture. You might have to help describe the picture.) Girl obeying her dad o ASK: Why is it hard to obey your parents sometimes? Girl refusing to talk bad about others o ASK: Why is it hard to stand up to bullies sometimes? Boy talking to a new kid at school o ASK: Why is it sometimes hard to sit with a new kid at school or someone who s lonely? Boy sitting alone and praying o ASK: Why is it hard to get away and listen to God sometimes? Sometimes, following God is hard. But the good news is, God will ALWAYS give us the strength we need to take a stand and live for him. Remember our verse from Philippians 4:6 SLIDE: Philippians 4:6 Don t worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him.

8 Why didn t Daniel need to worry about getting weak and making the king mad, even when common sense told him eating only veggies would make him weak? And why don t we need to worry about anything either? (Let kids respond.) Exactly! GOD is strong and will give us the strength to follow him through anything. That s why we can give him thanks! For the next minute, I want you to sit quietly and think about one way God might be asking you to take a stand. What might he want you to do that s hard? When you ve got something in your head, don t tell anyone, just stand up. When everyone s standing, we ll start our worship. (Give kids a minute but then ask everybody to stand.) WORSHIP Awesome. Now we re going to worship. Let s tell God we want to be like him, even if it s hard. We can do that in a brand new song called More Like You Are. Our second song reminds us that even when things are going badly around us, he s all we need. He s all our hope! Music Video: More Like You Are (dance moves are on screen) Music Video: All Our Hope (kids can watch or sing along) PRAY Ask somebody to come and thank God for helping us follow him, even when it s hard.

9 Per group: 3 large tear-off sheets of paper markers Per kid OT: IN-48/8083 (discard the V )- vegetable cutouts Per group Adventure Bible for Early Readers (pp , 1382) Markers Glue sticks Adventure Bible for Early Readers (pp , 1382) 1. Song slide: for when kids enter the room (All that You Need instrumental; mp3 only; can be downloaded on website) 2. Video: Ice Cream Trick ( 3. Image: Babylon (2 images, place side by side, either side) 4. Image: feast 5. SLIDE: Daniel 1:12-13 Daniel said to him, Please test us for ten days. Give us nothing but vegetables to eat. And give us only water to drink. Then compare us with the young men who eat the king s food. See how we look. After that, do what you want to. 6. Image: Obeying parents 7. Image: Bully 8. Image: Lonely kid 9. Image: Solitude 10. SLIDE: Philippians 4:6 Don t worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him. 11. Music Video: More Like You Are (in production; Mae will have file) 12. Song: All Our Hope ( Tell me about Daniel. How does God give us strength? Daily Talk Starts sep doc