God Uses Unlikely People

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Luke Evans
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1 God Uses Unlikely People BIBLE PASSAGE Judges 3-4 (Ehud) REMEMBER VERSE God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 1 Peter 4:10 (NLT) SCHEDULE Large Group minutes Small Group minutes Theme: SERVING 1

2 This lesson highlights the environment of SERVING by showing how God inspired two judges to ask the question What needs to be done? and to serve Him by battling for His people. Equipping Volunteers In Judges 3, God showed through Ehud, the left-handed Benjamite, that He uses unlikely people to accomplish His plans in the world. The fact that Ehud was left-handed may seem like a small detail, but it s actually a key point. The Hebrew text literally says Ehud was hindered (bound or handicapped) in the right hand, which was ironic for a descendant of the tribe of Benjamin, a name that means son of my right hand. This implies that either through disease or disuse, Ehud made little or no use of his right hand and used his left hand only. Even in modern times, left-handedness is sometimes seen as unusual. In recent history, people have been encouraged to correct their left-handed children by forcing them to use their right hand. Left-handedness has been seen as a curse in some cultures. At the very least, left-handedness was considered unnatural and peculiar in Ehud s day. Because Ehud was left-handed, he hid his sword along the right side of his body (reaching across his body to grab his sword). But the men in King Eglon s chamber assumed he was right-handed and therefore kept his sword on the left side of his body. This faulty assumption would lead to Eglon s death. Ehud could have been devastated by being left-handed. Instead, he depended on God. And God used Ehud s condition to carry out His work. The Israelites went through cycles of rebellion, repentance, and restoration. When the Israelites repented, God raised up a deliverer a particularly unlikely deliverer in a man named Ehud, who would take on King Eglon and deliver Israel. 2

3 Large Group// min 1. Worship Through Music Open Large Group time with singing music to worship Jesus together. 1. Rise and Sing 2. King of Majesty 3. Cannons 2. Large Group Welcome WELCOME VISITORS- Open Large Group time with singing music to worship Jesus together. If they are a friend then have the regular attender who brought them introduce them to the group. Give all visitors a big round of applause for coming! And have a nearby leader give each visitor a high five AND a gumball (just for coming)!!! And how do we welcome new visitors to our group?! With a dance party! Play the We are Family song for a minute and everyone just dance around and have fun :) (BUT- if no visitors, no celebration... motivation to bring your friends!) CONNECT- To finish up welcome time, let kids engage in today s connect question- our mini ice breaker to get everyone knowing each other a little better! Show Connect Slide for kids to view. Encourage them to ask someone they might not know yet. Tell the children to go around the room and find three people they don t know well. Shake LEFT HANDS (or right hand if the person is a lefty) and say, My name is, if I could eat anything for 100 days straight it would be. 3. Earning Gumballs This year, we have a new community goal... Gumball Goal! Children can earn 1 gumball for the day by showing one of the following. (One gumball no matter how many things they do). Know the Word- Memorizing this month s memory verse (NO mistakes for older kids!) Share the Word- Bringing a Friend Cling to the Word- Bringing their Bible Live the Word- Sharing a story of how they lived out what they are learning Give small groups 3-4 minutes to talk amongst themselves and earn their gumballs. They can go add their gumballs to the gumball machine. After a few minutes bring everyone s attention back together and make note of how we re seeing the gumball machine get emptied week after week! What a representation of how, as a community, we are learning to KNOW the word, SHARE the word, CLING to the Word, and LIVE the word! AWESOME WORK!!! Last month s memory verse for any new kids who memorized it: God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 4. Remember Verse Go over this month s Remember Verse. Open your Bibles and read it together. When finished pass out Memory Verse cards to take home. Tell kids about the incentive for memorizing their verses... Colored tags of the verse they memorized! Earn all 12 this year and make a necklace, bracelet or keychain out of 3

4 them! God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 1 Peter 4:10 (NLT) 5. Offering As a response of thankfulness and trust in God, we give a part of our money to the church to be utilized in big ways for the Kingdom! It is because we thank God for all that He has given to us, and because we trust Him to provide for us no matter how much or how little we may have. Pass around the Offering Bucket. Remind kids of how God is using our offering this year- to support your overseas sponsor child! Challenge your kids to continue to give out of what they have so that God might give it to your campus s sponsor child. 6. Prayer Take a moment to pause, be still, and ask God to quiet your hearts and minds as a room. Encourage kids to quiet their voices and take a seat. Then ask them to pray with you as you begin the lesson. 7. The Big God Story- God Uses Unlikely People SUPPLIES- Bible, Timeline animation, slides, SET UP- Cue up your timeline and images ENGAGE- A few minutes ago you greeted one another using your left (or nondominant) hands. What was that like? (Allow kids to answer.) Today we re going to hear about a leader of God s people who was also left-handed. This might not seem strange to us today, but it was really strange back then! When the Lord led the Israelites out of slavery, He promised them a land of their own, called the Promised Land, where they would be free to worship Him alone. But before God lead them into the Promised Land, He gave His people instructions about what needed to be done when they settled in the new land. God knew other people already lived in the land people who worshipped false gods. So He told the Israelites that the best way to serve Him would be to worship Him alone and not mix with the people in the land. He also told them to destroy the altars of their false gods (Joshua 23:12 13, 15 16). The first commandment God gave to His people said, You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3). God warned His people that mixing with these people, and abandoning God, would lead to disaster. The Israelites chose to disobey God anyway. When they got to the Promised Land, they destroyed some of the altars of the false gods but not all of them. And they started mixing with the other people. This started a cycle in the lives of the Israelite people of (show Rebellion slide) rebellion, which means disobeying or going against God; repentance (show Repentance slide), which means turning away from sin; and restoration (show Restoration slide), which means coming back to God. We re going to see this cycle happen for a few weeks, so make sure to remember it! It s important! For 400 years the Israelite people forgot what needed to be done serve God alone and they continued to disobey God. WOW- 400 YEARS!!! Because of the Israelites disobedience, God allowed the people in the land to conquer the Israelites in wars. But every so often, the Israelites cried out to God for help (even though they were worshipping other gods as well now), and God would raise up leaders to deliver them 4

5 from their enemies. These leaders, that would defeat their enemies, were called judges. Who knows what a judge is like in our world? What do they do? Allow kids to answer. Well that s what a judge today looks like, but that s not what it looked like back then. A judge was kind of like a warrior or soldier- who would fight the enemies that were attacking the Israelites. Well in today s part of The Big God Story we re going to talk about one of the first judges that God provided the Israelites- a very unlikely judge! His name was Ehud. Could anyone come up and write Ehud on the board? It s not a name we re used to is it? Help the child spell it if they can t figure it out. So today is about Ehud. The Israelites had been defeated by one of their enemies, and they came under the rule of a cruel king named Eglon for 18 years. Eglon made the Israelites lives miserable- he was truly a selfish and evil king. So the Israelites cried out to God for help- save us from Eglon s rule they cried! And even though they d been unfaithful, God heard their cries and gave them a deliverer: a judge named Ehud. Ehud was an unlikely choice. You see, Ehud was left-handed. This might not mean a lot today, but back then it was considered pretty weird! When soldiers went into battle, they held their shields with their left hand and their swords with their right hand (show slide of sword) And stand like a soldier- with your shield in your left hand your right hand at your right hip- pull out a pretend sword. If you were left-handed, it would be hard for you to fight because everyone else was fighting right-handed. Yet God still chose left-handed Ehud to serve Him by delivering His people. Remember what our memory verse is this month? 1 Peter 4:10- God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. This was one of Ehud s gifts! And God was asking Him to use it for the sake of the Israelites. So God helped Ehud come up with a plan to get rid of the evil King Eglon. (Show slide of king s chamber). Ehud decided he would visit the king to pay tribute by giving money or gifts to him on behalf of the Israelites. When he got to the king s chamber, Ehud told the king he wanted to give him a secret message. So King Eglon told his servants to leave the chamber so they could talk in private. Now it was just judge Ehud and King Eglon. (Act this part out) Ehud leaned forward to whisper in the king s ear, the king slowly lifted himself out of his huge throne to listen. Ehud then pulled out a hidden knife with his LEFT hand and stuck the knife in Eglon s belly! The king hadn t been expecting Ehud to use his left hand! And so he died by the sword of Ehud, a left-handed judge. And then Ehud slipped away and the Israelites were no longer under the rule of an evil king. God used Ehud to free His people from the rule of a king who treated His people terribly. The people were finally free from the terrible king who kept God s people from doing what needed to be done: serving Him. With King Eglon gone, the Israelites were once again free to serve God alone! For the next 80 years they lived in peace and worshipped our one and only God. BUT... remember our cycle? Rebellion - Repentance - Restoration. Do you think they did what was right after that? Or do you think they rebelled again? You ll have to come back next week to find out! 8. What does this say about Jesus? ENGAGE- 5

6 So after hearing our story, our first questions should always be... What does this say about Jesus?! Say that with me (say as a group, and have them do it loudly!)- WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT JESUS? Well, just like the Israelites, we all fall into this same pattern don t we? Rebellion - Repentance - Restoration. Does anyone have an example of this in their life? Who can share with us a quick story about how you might have experienced this cycle? Let a child or two share a story. If no children offer to talk, be prepared to share an example from your own life. Those are encouraging stories- God is at work helping us to rid our sin, our rebellion! BUT... what happens after we learn a lesson once? How easy is it to be perfect after that and never mess up again? It s not easy at all is it? Say with me- it s not easy! (kids repeat- It s not easy!). No it s not. In fact... it s impossible! God would ALWAYS have to send us judges to rescue us out of our sin, just like he sent Ehud. But it s always just for a little bit- not for always- because we still rebel! So you know what God had to do? He had to send a PERMANENT judge. One who would rid us of our pattern once and for all! The final judge was... drumroll please... Lean forward with your ear, prompting the children to yell out JESUS! That s it! That s how our story tells us about Jesus. It tells us that we are just like the Israelites- following this pattern over and over again. And even though we are thankful that God used Ehud to rescue the Israelites once, it didn t last! But with Jesus, the work has been done once and for all. Our rebellion is restored for good! And He was the last judge that was EVER needed. 6

7 Small Group// min. Small group time is not only a time to go deeper into the lesson and find some take home application together, but it is also a time for you to grow in relationship with your kids. As you spend time together the rest of today, go further than just the review questions and the Create project. Spend time asking kids what they thought about the lesson. What surprised them? What questions do THEY have about this part of God s story? How do they learn more about Jesus through this story? What was is their faith challenged by today? Talk about these things as you work on the project. Kids are much more apt to talk while their hands are busy. If you have extra time, start a prayer journal as a group. Write down every child s prayer request and follow up on them week after week. Before you Review... Grab a print out of the Rebellion, Repentance, and Restoration sheets. Discuss these words as a group. Is your group starting to understand the definitions of these three words? Review what they mean and what you ve learned about them. Then as a group, write your own definitions, in your own words, and write these down on the back of your sheets. Then discuss the review questions. 1. Review Questions: Questions for Younger Kids What did God warn the Israelites about before they went to the Promised Land? (Joshua 23:12 13, 15 16) What got the Israelites in trouble in the Promised Land? (Judges 2:2 3) What did God do to help them? Give an example of God choosing unlikely (or unexpected) people to do His work. How can He use us to do His work? Questions for Older Kids What did God warn the Israelites about before they went to the Promised Land? (Joshua 23:12 13, 15 16) What got the Israelites in trouble in the Promised Land? (Judges 2:2 3) What did God do to help them? How did God use Ehud to deliver His people? How did God show His grace toward the people? (Judges 3:15) Give an example of God choosing unlikely (or unexpected) people to do His work. How can He use us to do His work? What does it mean to serve God and be faithful to Him? 2. Create: An Unlikely Choice SUPPLIES- magazines, glue sticks, scissors, prints of body for older kids, print outs of blank face and attribute sheets for younger kids, markers/crayons SETUP- set out magazines for the kids, give each older kid a body outline sheet, and give each younger kid a face outline sheet and attribute sheet 7

8 ENGAGE- One of the pieces that can be so interesting about all of this is that God still chooses to use us. We mess up again and again. There is no hope anytime when we re in charge because we will always rebel and God will always have to be the one to restore us. BUT- He still uses us. Ehud was a faithful man, but he was just as easily tempted to rebel as any other Israelite. But God used Him still. And not only that, but was one of the most unlikely choices because of his left hand! We are also stuck in this cycle without the rescuing work of Jesus. But God will use us- even though we might be unlikely. Go around your group and have each person share one thing about themselves that would make them an Unlikely Choice for God to use them. But guess what- God still used Ehud and He still uses us! Remember- even Jesus was an unlikely choice to save us- but God wanted it that way. He loves using unlikely people. We might be unlikely, but if we re willing He will use us. If not sure which option below will be best for your kids, default to the Younger Kid option. For Younger Kids- Today we are making a picture sheet that reminds us that we might be an unlikely choice, but God still uses us if we re willing! You can either color a picture of your face or you can cut out different face parts from a magazine to create your own face. Then you can write in the different pieces of information about yourself or you can cut out and glue the options that are already there for you (for kids who can t write). If your kids finish, have them share their pictures and information with the group. For Older Kids- Today we are making an image that reminds us that we might be an unlikely choice, but God still uses us if we re willing! You can either color this person or can cut out different body parts from a magazine to create a collage person. Then write on the side different reasons why this person might be an unlikely choice- physical reasons (blind, too weak), mental reasons (not smart enough), spiritual reasons (not enough faith), age reasons (too young, too old), etc. Create a person (or yourself) that we wouldn t think God could use... and then remember. God uses us all! If your kids finish early, have them share their pictures and stories with the group. And review the memory verse with each other. 3. Group Games if extra time: Play simple games as a group where everyone has to use their left hand (or non-dominant hand). You can play thumb wars, Rock-Paper-Scissors, wad up some paper and try to shoot hoops into the garbage. Just have fun together using your non-dominant hand. Remind them that using out nondominant hand today reminds us that God uses unlikely people to accomplish His work, including people like the left-handed judge Ehud. 4. Closing Prayer Before your kids leave today, end your group time with this prayer and blessing. Open a Bible and read 1 Corinthians 1:26, 28, (NLT): Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you, God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. God has united you with Christ Jesus Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord. May you rest in the knowledge that God can and does use unlikely 8

9 people to accomplish His purposes! May you know that God loves you and has a special plan to use you to further His kingdom. 9

God is Faithful. BIBLE PASSAGE Joshua 1-6 (Jericho)

God is Faithful. BIBLE PASSAGE Joshua 1-6 (Jericho) God is Faithful BIBLE PASSAGE Joshua 1-6 (Jericho) REMEMBER VERSE God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 SCHEDULE Celebrate & Respond