Lesson 6. God Hears My Prayers! Lesson Goal: The children will learn that even though we may not get the

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1 Lesson 6 God Hears My Prayers! Lesson Goal: The children will learn that even though we may not get the answer we want, we can be sure that God hears our prayers. Main Point: God Hears My Prayers! Bible Story: God hears and answers Joshua s prayer. Joshua 10:1-15 Bible Verse: Psalm 116:1 I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. NLT What Is The Purpose Of These Activities? Basic Training (Weekly General Opening Activity) This series of weekly opening activities will allow the children to immerse themselves in the military environment while learning the Main Point for the day. Verbal Commands (Specific Opening Activity) This activity will teach the children that God always hears and answers our prayers, no matter if they are spoken out loud or said in our personal thoughts. The Skit and Bible Story (Large Group Activity) This Skit and Bible Story will teach the children that even though we may not get the answer we want, we can be sure that God hears our prayers. Marching Orders (Weekly Small Group Activity) This activity will help the children review the content of the Bible Story in today s lesson. Target Acquired (Weekly Small Group Activity) This activity will help the children memorize the Bible Verse by targeting parts of the Bible Verse in the correct order. Roger That (Small Group Activity) This activity will teach the children that God answers our prayers in many different ways. Gobbledeegook (Small Group Activity) The purpose of this activity is to teach the children that God hears each of our prayers. Impossible Answers To Impossible Prayers (Small Group Activity) This matching game will teach the children that God hears and answers prayers. Mission Debriefing (Weekly Small Group Activity) This activity will help children reflect on what they have learned today through discussion, looking up verses in the Bible, and writing or drawing in a journal. General Specific s Obstacle Course Of Obstacles, Of Course! (Review Game Activity) This is a strategic time to review and reinforce the content of the lesson.

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4 Sweet! CO-TEACHER TEACHER However, we won t always get the answer we want. Sometimes God answers our prayers with a yes and sometimes with a no. And sometimes God answers our prayers by letting us know we should wait. Yes, no and wait are the ways God answers our prayers. CO-TEACHER Okay, that makes sense. That s awesome that God always hears and answers our prayers. TEACHER You re right. Answered prayer is also a big part of our Bible Story today. So far in our training we ve been learning about Joshua and the battles he faced as the Israelites leader. Today we re going to hear about an incredible prayer that Joshua prayed and God s equally amazing answer. If you d like to follow along in your Bibles, you can find the story in the book of Joshua, chapter Bible story intro video 4 Note: Play Bible Story Intro Video chapter # 4. # 27 TEACHER (CD Track # 27) Hello, class. Today we are talking about a very important subject: Knowing that God listens to us. Note: Insert a personal story about talking with friends using a paper cup and string telephone. For reference see the Watch and Train video. # 28 # 29 5 # 30 But I could never be assured that my friend heard any word that I said, or that my friend was even on the other end trying to listen. It would be just like I was speaking only to myself. Do you ever feel that way about God? (CD Track # 28) Do you ever feel that He is so far away that there is no way that He can hear everything that you say, or that even if He could He probably isn t listening anyway? If you have ever felt that way I want you to listen to another story about Joshua because there is something I have learned about him. He always seemed to know that God could hear him and was paying attention to him, so he talked to God and asked Him for things all the time. TEACHER (CD Track # 29) After the victory over the city of Ai, Joshua and the Israelites continued to move through the Promised Land. (5) (CD Track # 30) Soon word of the Israelites and their victories began to spread throughout the entire region, and many of the kings in the area started to become nervous. They were afraid 5 animation Fellowship Church

5 6 7 8 that when Joshua and Israelites got to them, they would be defeated just like the people of Jericho and Ai were. (6) And so, in response to this fear, the people of Gibeon, a group of people living in the Promised Land at the time, tricked Israel into signing a peace treaty with them and when they did they became allies of Israel. This new peace treaty made the other kings living in the Promised Land very angry. They wanted the Israelites gone, not making treaties with other groups of people. (7) So five different Amorite kings joined forces and decided to attack the Gibeonites for making this treaty with Joshua and the Israelites. They gathered all of their troops together and began to attack the city. Immediately the people of Gibeon sent messengers to Joshua at his camp. (8) anim 2 anim 3 anim 4 MESSENGERS (IN VIDEO) Come at once! Save Us! Help us! For all the Amorite kings who live in the hill country have joined forces to attack us. 9 anim # TEACHER (9) When Joshua heard this he knew what he had to do. He rallied his entire army and set out for Gibeon. Now the Israelites had fought armies before, and they had defeated kings...but this time would be different. (10) This time they would be facing five kings and their armies all at once! This was not going to be a small battle. But God told Joshua, (11) (CD Track # 31) GOD (IN VIDEO) Do not be afraid of them, for I have given you victory over them. Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you. TEACHER (12) Joshua and his army traveled all night and took the Amorites by surprise. Just minutes earlier the Amorite armies had been attacking the Gibeonites with their superior force. Now they found themselves being attacked by Joshua and the entire Israelite army! (13) The Bible says that God threw the Amorite armies into a panic. And very quickly the Israelites began to defeat and chase the Amorite armies. (14) But after a long day of chasing and fighting, Joshua had not yet achieved total victory. And fearing that the Amorite armies would escape, Joshua prayed to God in front of all the Israelite people, (15) JOSHUA (IN VIDEO) Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon. TEACHER Not a very long prayer, actually it was pretty short. But did you hear what Joshua was asking for? Joshua was praying for the sun to stop moving in the sky. He was asking God for enough daylight to finish this battle and defeat the Amorite armies. And you know what? I ll bet you Joshua wasn t worried about whether or not 10 anim 6 11 anim 7 12 anim 8 13 anim anim 10 anim Fellowship Church

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8 Ahh! Bees! Get em off! (stops swatting and looks around) Oh... uh...heh heh. (sighs) # 37 SERGEANT NIECE The reason you are here this early is to complete the next section of your training. (CD Track # 37) This next session is called the Transmission Tower Assembly Time Trial! The Transmission Tower Assembly Time Trial? That s right. SERGEANT NIECE What s a transmission tower? SERGEANT NIECE Excellent question. A transmission tower is a device used to send and receive radio signals. Many times when one of our operatives is in the field, they may find themselves in danger. They need a way to receive their orders and send their responses. That is why everyone in this brigade needs to be able to assemble a working transmission tower in the allotted time. Looking around you will see a lot of boxes. These boxes are filled with parts you ll need to assemble your transmission tower. You ll also find all the tools you need lying around here as well. But we ve never assembled a transmission tower before! We don t have any experience with electrical or radio equipment either. (starts pointing to objects) I don t know what that is over there, or that over there, or even that. SERGEANT NIECE That s the point. This test is supposed to be a challenge. But don t worry, you ll have this to help you. (hands over a large, heavy instruction manual) This is the Transmission Tower Assembly Instruction Manual. Boston and Beans look through the manual. But sir, where do we even start? SERGEANT NIECE Excellent question. You start right here...at the motor pool Fellowship Church

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12 Really?! That s great! What s your idea? Remember what Sergeant Niece said about the briefing and God answering our prayers? Joshua needed more light and now so do we. Let s do what Joshua did. Wait, so you want us to pray that God will make the sun stand still in the sky? He s not going to do that for us! The Israelites were trying to do something huge! We re just trying to put together transmission tower! I didn t say we should pray that God makes the sun stand still. I m saying that we should pray to God and ask Him for help. God hears our prayers, and He always answers them. Okay...let s try it. They both bow their heads. # 44 # 45 (CD Track # 44) (praying) God, we have a very hard task in front of us and we need your help. We don t have enough light to finish building this tower but we have to finish it before morning. Please help us to finish this job. Amen. Amen. (looks around) (CD Track # 45) The sun is still going down...it s getting harder and harder to see...and the tower still isn t finished. You said God would answer our prayer but nothing has changed. Hold on a second. God doesn t always answer our prayers like we expect. Now let s calm down and think for a minute. Sometimes God answers our prayers by helping us think of an answer. I d rather He help us by allowing us to see in the dark. (gets an idea) Hey...I just remembered something. In one of the toolboxes in the motor pool garage I saw some boxes labeled night vision goggles. That s it! We can use those to see in the dark and finish building the tower. Let s go find them! Fellowship Church

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14 SERGEANT NIECE Yes. Most soldiers give up when it starts getting dark, or they try to rush the job and the tower ends up not working. A few have even begged me for more time to finish. But you two did it in one night. Tell me, what did you do that was different? Well, we were having trouble as the sun was going down. But like Joshua in the Bible, we prayed and asked God to help us. And God did help us! He helped me remember that there were some night vision goggles in a garage tool box. We used them to help us see in the dark. SERGEANT NIECE So, you took what you d learned from the briefing and from what I told you and put it into practice. You two did an excellent job and you passed this test with flying colors. Start making room on those uniforms for a couple of medals, you two. Your training is almost complete. Now I m sure you re both very tried from staying up late to put together that tower. Go get some rest. (salute) Yes sir! AND Boston, Beans and Sergeant Niece start to exit. Oh, one more thing, sir. We ve been talking it over and we both thought up a name for the Brigade. SERGEANT NIECE (sighs) What is it this time? The Blister Brigade! (confused) What? SERGEANT NIECE Putting together that tower all night gave us some mean blisters! (shows hands to Sergeant) See? Sergeant Niece pushes their hands away and exits. Sir, you didn t see. These blisters are huge! Sir? Boston and Beans exit Fellowship Church

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