Unit 01: Knowing God s Voice

Transcription

1 Unit 01: Knowing God s Voice Lesson 01: Who Heard God? Lesson 02: What Does God Sound Like? Lesson 03: How Does God Speak? Lesson 04: Strange Ways that God Speaks Lesson 05: How Can I Hear God? Lesson 06: My Sheep Hear My Voice

2 Lesson 1: Who Heard God? MEMOR VERSE: Speak, Lo r d, for our servant hears. 1 Samuel 3:9 Teacher: I want you to think about your mom calling you for lunch, what would she sound like? (Allow for answers.) How about a big truck picking up dirt on a construction site, or a fire engine racing down the road? (Allow children to answer with sounds.) How do you hear words, beeps, and sirens? (Allow for answers.) es, with your ears! God gave us two ears to hear! Close your eyes and I want to see if you can identify the sounds. What is this? (Play the knock at the door.) And what is this one? (Play the sound of a baby crying.) And here is the last one, what is it? (Play a cat s meow.) Good job! ou used your EARS to HEAR. (Put on BIG ears) Optional Activity Sound Bingo (Available through Discovery Toys or other versions online) This is a great activity for younger children. If not available, a sound effects CD is a good alternative to practice sound identification. LESSON PREPARATION Sound bites of a knock at the door, a baby crying, and a cat s meow Big ears»» White board and markers to write the verses on the board with picture cues Paper, colored pencils, crayons, or markers Journals for every student Optional Activity eparation KNOWING GOD S VOICE John Paul Jackson & Jodi oung

3 Optional Game: WHITE BOARD WHISPERING Teacher: Let s play a game to see how well you hear. Divide the class into two groups and have each group form a line on each side of the white board. Each team will need an adult leader to stand at the head of the board and whisper a word to the first person in line. Use the following suggestions of words feel free to add your own. The leader will whisper the first word to the first student. The first student will have to walk quickly to the last person in line and whisper the word. They then walk quickly back to the board and the one that heard the word from the first student has to write the word on the board to the best of their spelling ability. They both will then go sit down at their seat. The team that has the most correct White Board Whispers wins! Group One Word List Peanut Street Water Fire Group Two Word List Banana Straight Thunder Earthquake Teacher: Can you think of a time in the Bible when a man or woman of God heard God speak? (Allow children to raise their hand and brainstorm. Write their ideas on a dry erase board.) God loves girls and boys, and men and women. He wants to talk to those He loves, just like you love your mom and dad and you want to talk with them. God is constantly trying to tell us stuff! Think about what your mom and dad say to you. Raise your hand and tell me some things your parents talk to you about. (Allow students time to share.) God wants us to be able to hear Him clearly and without distraction. Who would like to wear my big ears? (Give to one child to wear.) For the next few months you are going to be learning how to hear God speak to you. Now, I want to introduce you to my friend, omotional Shama, we ll call him Shamie for short. COP His name, Shama, means to hear in Hebrew. Hebrew is the language that is spoken in Israel and the whole Old Testament was written in this language long ago. Shamie is an elephant who has really big ears but doesn t always hear the best because sometimes he doesn t pay attention. Shamie: Hi boys and girls! My name is Shamie. Do you like my ears? They re big aren t they? I can hear really well with them! Hey! That kid has ears like mine Ha! Ha! Ha! (Point to the child wearing the big ears.) What do you want to know about hearing God? (Write responses on the whiteboard.) 14 Lesson 1: Who Heard God? 2014 John Paul Jackson & Jodi oung

4 Bible Story Teacher: We want to introduce you to some people from the Bible today people just like you and me who heard God. The first person we want you to meet is Samuel. He was a kid just like you who heard God speak to Him. Shamie is going to go and lie down for a while just like Samuel did before he heard God. (Lay Shamie down.) I will read the story to you and I will need some volunteers to act out the story for me. omotional I will need a Samuel and an Eli for the COP skit. I will pretend to be God. (Choose children to participate.) Now actors, I want you to act out the skit for me as I read the story from 1 Samuel 3. Actors won t have to speak. ou will pretend you are speaking and I will read the real words out loud from the Bible. As we begin the story, Eli was lying in his bed and he was so old he was blind. Samuel was lying down in the Tabernacle of God by the Ark. and the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, Here I am! So he ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. And he said, I did not call; lie down again. And he went and lay down. Then the Lord called yet again, Samuel! So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here I am, for you called me. He answered, I did not call, my son; lie down again. (Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor was the word of the Lord yet revealed to him.) And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. So he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here I am, for you did call me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord had called the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, Speak, Lord for our servant hears. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel! Samuel! And Samuel answered, Speak, for our servant hears. Then the Lord said to Samuel: Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them. And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. KNOWING GOD S VOICE John Paul Jackson & Jodi oung

5 Teacher: So Samuel lay down until morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son! He answered, Here I am. And he said, What is the word that the Lord spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He said to you. Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him. So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord. Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. For the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. Remembering & Understanding 1. How many times did God call Samuel before he knew it was God? 2. How did he understand how to listen to God s voice? 3. What did God tell Samuel? Optional Activity Make a My Listening Ears headband for younger students. epare the ears, eyes, headband, and trunk before class. Students can color and glue the parts together and wear home. Be sure to talk about listening skills as you make it and why an elephant. Shamie, is a good mascot for our class on hearing God. Teacher Notes: 16 Lesson 1: Who Heard God? 2014 John Paul Jackson & Jodi oung

6 Journal Teacher: I have a special gift for each of you today. An Art of Hearing God Journal! (Hand out the journals to the children.) As we learn to hear God this year, we are going to practice hearing Him and we will use our journals to write, draw, or sketch what we hear and what He shows us. Why would it be important for you to write down or draw what God tells you? (Allow students time to respond.) Now that we have learned about Samuel hearing God, Shamie thinks that we should be like Samuel and practice hearing God s voice. Where was Samuel when he heard God the first time? That s right; he was laying down in the Tabernacle. Let s all lie down and listen to the voice of the Lord for a few minutes. Now Shamie has a special talent. He is an artist. He uses his trunk. Now we are blessed, we don t have to hold our markers or paintbrushes with our trunk! God gave us hands! Let s draw or write what the Lord showed us today when we were practicing hearing His voice. (If students did not hear anything, encourage them to draw a scene from the story of Samuel.) Allow students time to share in class the impressions they received when they were listening to God. Encourage them to write or draw in their journals what they felt God was saying to them. Memory Verse actice (Allow students to come up and use Shamie to tell the memory verse to the class.) Teacher Notes: Speak, L o r d, for our servant hears. 1 Samuel 3:9 KNOWING GOD S VOICE John Paul Jackson & Jodi oung