2.3 Large Group Lesson Elementary

Transcription

1 September 16, 2018 Slime Time Jacob and Esau BIG IDEA: God has a plan for my life, so I can trust Him even when something unfair happens. BIBLE BASIS: Genesis 25:19-34; 27:1-35 KEY VERSE: I know the plans I have for you, announces the Lord. I want you to enjoy success. I do not plan to harm you. I will give you hope for the years to come. Jeremiah 29:11 (NIrV) 7 15 minutes minutes 7 15 minutes minutes Scripture marked NIV is taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of Biblica. Scripture marked NIrV is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Reader s Version, Copyright 1995, 1996, 1998 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. All scripture references are taken from NIrV unless otherwise stated Mooblio. All rights reserved. 1

2 User Agreement: The GO! curriculum by Mooblio is intended for download and print by subscribing entities only. It may not be transferred electronically to or duplicated by other non-subscribing entities. If the GO! curriculum is cost prohibitive for your organization, please contact us about assistance. We are awesomely generous! All use must be in accordance with the Terms of Use agreement as described on the website Sometimes in my walk with God I find it so easy to take for granted the bazillions of blessings He bestows on me. Good health, food, family, friends, a church community when you ve had these things so consistently for so long, it s easy to forget that these really are gifts straight from God. Unfortunately, it s often times not until I ve lost them that I really begin to cherish them. In a way, this is the malady that Esau suffered from. Two of his most cherished possessions should have been his birthright, which gave him an extra portion of his father s inheritance, and his blessing, which established him as the eventual leader of the family. But this wasn t the case for Esau. In fact, Genesis 25:34 says that Esau treated his birthright with contempt. The Greek word that is used for Esau s attitude describes someone standing in front of a temple, the holy dwelling of God, rather than within it. The idea is that Esau was standing outside the place of true knowledge. He treated something sacred as if it were common. Did you catch that? He treated something sacred as if it were common. In the Old Testament Jewish culture, the sacred gifts of the birthright and the blessing almost always went to the oldest son. There were very few exceptions to this. Is it possible that Esau always assumed that these gifts would be his? Is it possible he began taking them for granted? If Esau is anything like me, that s a distinct possibility! There s a good chance that, like Esau, we ve all been treating sacred things like they re common. Unfortunately for Esau, he didn t really realize what amazing gifts he had until they were gone. More than that, it was in part because he took them for granted that he lost them. Let s not make that same mistake. What have you been taking for granted? What blessings do you need God to open your eyes to? I ll bet that if you stop and really think about it, the magnitude of God s graciousness in your life will be absolutely overwhelming! David Rausch Mooblio President 2017 Mooblio. All rights reserved. 2

3 Telling Personal Stories There are few communication tools as engaging and powerful as a well told personal story. At times the GO! curriculum will prompt you to tell a personal story, but feel free to add one anywhere you think it s appropriate. Consider these few things when telling a personal story: Be sure it s age appropriate. For some of us, our lives before Christ may have been rated PG-13 (or dare I say R). Be mindful that the content and details of your story are appropriate for General audiences. Be sure it s relevant. Your recent conversation with a co-worker about the rumors of a corporate takeover may be the perfect metaphor for sin s infiltration of the world, but your kids could care less. Be sure your story takes place in a world that is familiar to your audience. Consider telling a story about something that took place when you were a kid. The kids in your ministry will eat that up! Be sure that it fits. Sometimes we have a story that is so great we can t wait to tell it, even if it doesn t fit. Don t force a story to fit the lesson or vice versa. The perfect story is one that you can tell and the kids will understand the connection with little explanation. If you have to explain the connection too much, you might just want to save it for another time Mooblio. All rights reserved. 3

4 What kid doesn t secretly like a little slime? It s ooey, it s gooey, and it s perfect for telling the next part of The Big Bible Story! During the Slime Time series, kids will be molding, shaping and diving into (with their hands that is) green globs of goo to uncover some of the grosser parts of God s Word. Place the clear bin of slime in the teaching area at a level where the kids in the audience can easily see it. See the Resource Folder for instructions on how to make the slime. Write down each of the 4 Bible Story references on different slips of paper. Place each slip of paper into a different plastic egg (or other sealed capsule). At some point prior to service time, place the 4 eggs into the bin of slime. Consider placing a plastic tarp in the Slime Pot area to help manage the mess. Put a bucket of water and a towel near the Slime Pot in order to clean off hands and eggs. Using a different slime recipe, create moldable slime for the kids to form their story pictures. Divide the moldable slime up evenly between the small groups. See the Resource Folder for instructions on how to make the moldable slime. Place a Bible in the teaching area for the Large Group Leader to use. Consider providing additional Bibles for kids who don t bring their own. Each small group will need to have at least one Bible during the large group lesson. Place the bag of candy in the teaching area for the That s Not Fair game show. Have a different bag of candy for each service. Print out a copy of the That s Not Fair game show questions included in the lesson below and place in the teaching area for the Large Group leader to read from. Choose which of the Reflect and Respond stations you would like to make available. Set out the appropriate materials for each of those stations Mooblio. All rights reserved. 4

5 Sound: Slime Time title graphic PLAY upbeat music as kids move to large group area Note: During Small Group Connect, the groups will have used slime to form some pictures or objects that will be used during the telling of the Bible Story. See the corresponding Small Group lesson for more directions. If the slime pictures begin to lose their shape before the Big Bible Story, give the kids 10 seconds to reshape it before they present. For added excitement, do a 10 second countdown. SLIME TIME INTRO Large Group Leader: Hello everybody and welcome back to another week of Slime Time! During our 4 weeks of Slime Time, we re getting our hands a little slimy to uncover the next part of the Big Bible Story. The Bible is filled with the most amazing stories of God s love for us. Some of the stories have action, some of them have adventure, and some of them have well gross things. Check out this story to see what I mean VDO: PLAY Slime Time: Jeremiah s Stinky Underwear Jeremiah s Stinky Underwear VDO script: Are you afraid that you might be wearing the stinkiest underwear in the world? This next story will be sure to put your mind at ease. In the Bible, in the book of Jeremiah, God comes up with a pretty rotten idea. He tells Jeremiah to go get a new loincloth. A loincloth is like underwear for old Bible dudes. But then he tells Jeremiah, whatever you do DON T wash it. There it is kids! It s in the Bible, God said don t wash your underwear well, not really. It gets worse, though. Jeremiah s underwear still wasn t stinky enough, so God told him to go to the river, dig a hole, and bury it. Then, a long time later, God said go dig up your underwear and put it back on. So he did. But now, the underwear was rotten and falling apart. Pretty gross right? So what gives? Does God love stinky underwear? Probably not. At the time, God s people were having trouble following His plan. In fact, they weren t following God at all. So God told them, You re just like Jeremiah s underwear. In other words, God was saying you stink! So in conclusion: following God s plan is good; smelling like stinky underwear is bad. show Slime Time title graphic Wow! I ll bet some of you have probably worn your underwear a little too long, but that story was pretty wild. As you could probably guess, today s story doesn t have any stinky underwear in it, but it does teach us about following God s plan. In order to find out more about today s story, though, I need some volunteers who aren t afraid to reach into the Slime Pot! Sound: Slime Pot graphic (Optional) PLAY upbeat music as kids are searching through the slime There will be a clear container on the stage filled with a slime mixture. Inside of the slime will be a number of plastic eggs or other containers with a Bible reference in them. Choose some volunteers to reach into the slime pot. Ask them each to pull out one egg Mooblio. All rights reserved. 5

6 Have a bucket of water nearby to clean off hands as well as the plastic eggs. When all of the eggs have been pulled out of the slime, open them up and pull out the slip of paper with the Bible reference on it. Divide the Bible references up between the small groups and have them each open their Bibles to that particular reference. Have some towels handy so that the volunteers can clean themselves up. The Big Bible Story graphic THE BIG BIBLE STORY JACOB AND ESAU In last week s story, we heard about Abraham s son. Does anyone remember what his name was? (Take answer.) His name was Isaac. Well, in today s story Isaac is all grown up and married now. And he has some really big news. Let s see what it is. Have the group or groups who made the twin babies out of slime hold it up for the rest of the groups to see. Let the other groups guess what it is. When they ve guessed correctly, have someone from the group who looked up Genesis 25:21-22 read it aloud. For younger kids, consider having the leader read it. The twins haven t even been born and they re already fighting. In fact, God warned them there s more to come. He said their sons would become two nations who fight with one another and the older son will serve the younger son. Wait time out! Did you hear that part? The older son will serve the younger son. In the Old Testament, it was supposed to be the other way around. If you were the older son, you d probably want to yell, That s not fair! Can you yell that with me? (Yell with kids.) When the twins were finally born, the older was named Esau. He was covered with thick hair like a fur coat. Isn t that interesting? A super-hairy baby! The younger son was named Jacob and thankfully, he wasn t nearly as hairy! As the boys grew up, Esau became a hunter. He was the rugged outdoorsman type. But Jacob was kind of quiet and crafty. Let s take a look at what Jacob does to Esau. Have the group who made the bowl and spoon hold it up so the other groups can guess. Have someone from the group who looked up Genesis 25:29-33 read it aloud. Let me explain what the birthright is. In the Old Testament, the birthright was supposed to go to the oldest son. That means the oldest son was supposed to get twice as much money and stuff. But God had a different plan. God s plan was that Jacob would get the birthright. That probably didn t seem fair to Esau, though. Can you imagine what he wanted to yell? (Prompt the kids to yell that s not fair! ) Jacob wasn t done, though. He had another trick up his sleeve. Let s see what it was. Have the group who made the bow and arrow hold it up so the other groups can guess. Have someone from the group who looked up Genesis 27:1-4 read it aloud. The Bible says that Rebecca overheard what Isaac had said. Jacob was her favorite kid, though, and she wanted him to get the blessing. So she told Jacob to take Isaac a special meal, pretend to be Esau, and trick his father into giving him the blessing instead of Esau. There was just one problem, though. Does anyone remember what was different about Esau? (Call on kid.) He was super hairy. So Rebecca took goat s skin and covered Jacobs arms and neck. She dressed Jacob in Esau s favorite clothes and sent him in to his father s room with the special meal. Do you think the trick is going to work? (Kids respond.) 2017 Mooblio. All rights reserved. 6

7 Have the group who made the hands hold it up so the other groups can guess. Have someone from the group who looked up Genesis 27:21-23 read it aloud. The blessing was supposed to go the oldest son. It meant that the oldest son would be the leader of the family. But God had a different plan. God s plan was that Jacob would get the blessing. But can you imagine what Esau wanted to yell when he found out? (Prompt kids to yell, that s not fair! ) Actually, Esau did more than just yell. He started to think about how to kill Jacob. So Jacob fled to another land to live with his uncle Laban. Even though Jacob went about it the wrong way and it seemed totally unfair, it was God s plan all along that Jacob, not Esau, would receive the birthright and blessing. BIG BIBLE STORY QUESTIONS At the end of the Bible story, have the kids turn briefly to their small groups and discuss the following questions: For Younger kids: It was God s plan all along for Jacob to get the birthright and blessing, but do you think what Jacob did to get them was fair? Why or why not? If you were Esau, what would you have done when your brother tricked you? For Older kids: What do you think this story teaches us about God? If you were Esau, do you think you would have been upset with God s plan? Why or why not? After a few minutes, draw their attention back to the teaching area. THAT S NOT FAIR QUIZ In today s story, Esau got pretty mad about being tricked out of his birthright and blessing. Esau s not the only one who feels that way, though. In fact, we all kind of get a little upset when things aren t fair. And right now we re going to find that out by playing a game called show That s Not Fair game show graphic yell it with me That s Not Fair! Invite two volunteer kids to the stage. For younger kids: be sure to choose someone who won t get too upset with losing. If you want to be exceedingly cautious, you might consider using a kid to get the easy questions and a leader for the hard questions. Explain to everyone in the room how the game will work. Each contestant will take turns answering questions. If they get their question right, they ll receive a piece of candy. If they get their question wrong, they won t get anything. Contestant #1 will always receive difficult questions, whereas contestant #2 will receive easy questions. Additionally, when it s her turn, tell contestant #1 she only has three seconds to answer. When it s contestant #2 s turn, tell her she can have as much time as she needs. Contestant #1: What is the average distance from the earth to the sun in kilometers? Sound: Play the Slime Time Buzzer sound effect. (Answer: million kilometers.) Contestant #2: Which is hotter, the sun or an ice cube? Contestant #1: How many rooms are there in Buckingham Palace? Sound: Play the Slime Time Buzzer sound effect. (Answer: 775) Contestant #2: (Hold up two fingers.) How many fingers am I holding up? Contestant #1: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Sound: Play the Slime Time Buzzer sound effect. (Answer: cubic centimeters per day) 2017 Mooblio. All rights reserved. 7

8 Contestant #2: Do you like woodchucks? (Answer: any answer is acceptable) At the end, announce contestant #2 as the winner and have everyone applaud. Dismiss the contestants back to the audience. Slime Time title graphic TRUSTING GOD S BIG PLAN Did it seem like that game was fair? (Kids respond.) No it wasn t. The questions for contestant #1 were impossible to answer, but they were super easy for contestant #2. And you know what that kind of thing happens to all of us sometimes and we just want to yell, (prompt kids to yell with you) That s not fair! So how do you respond when something seems unfair? Do you get really upset like Esau and yell, That s not fair! or do you trust that even unfair things can be a part of God s incredible plan for your life? Take a look at what the Bible says about this. Let s read this together: I know the plans I have for you, announces the Lord. I want you to enjoy success. I do not plan to harm you. I will give you hope for the years to come. Jeremiah 29:11 That verse tells us that God has an amazing plan for our lives. Even when something unfair happens to us, we have to trust that God can use it as a part of His amazing plan. In fact, if we look hard enough, we might even see how what we thought was unfair was actually good for us. Think about our two contestants for a second. It wasn t fair that contestant #1 got all of the super hard questions. But she probably didn t realize that there wasn t just a prize for getting the answer right. There s also a prize for having a good attitude! (Give the rest of the candy bag to contestant #1 and have the kids applaud for her.) In fact, the prize for having a good attitude was a lot better. It s kind of like that with God. Sometimes unfair things happen, but if you keep on trusting God and following His plan for your life, your life will be out of this world amazing! So what about you? Have you had some unfair or bad things happen to you? Do you need to trust that it s all a part of God s wonderful plan for your life? If you re really upset about something that s happened in your life and you want to talk or pray with someone about it, be sure to find me or one of your leaders in a little bit, and we would love to help you! Close the Large group time by praying for the kids in whatever way the Holy Spirit prompts you. Following the prayer, explain to the kids which of the Reflect and Respond Stations will be available. Remind them to move about the stations very quietly. Tell them they are free to respond to God in whatever way the Holy Spirit leads them, but if they need suggestions, some of the stations will give them ideas for how to pray, write, or draw. Give each child one GO! Home sheet and instruct them to take it with them to the stations. Place small group leaders at the different stations to quietly help the kids. The stations listed below are just the ones that have prompts that are specific to today s lesson. For more instructions on how the Reflect and Respond Stations work as well as a full list of possible stations, see the GO! Guide. Sound: Slime Time title graphic (Optional) PLAY quiet instrumental music 2017 Mooblio. All rights reserved. 8

9 Prayer Station prompt: Write a prayer to God telling Him you trust His plan for your life. Ask Him to help you follow Him even when something unfair or bad happens. Journal Station prompt: Write a letter telling God about something unfair that has happened to you. Tell Him that you trust it s all a part of His wonderful plan for your life. Bible Station prompt: Read it for yourself: Genesis 27: Tell God or write to Him what your favorite part of that story was. Tell Him why you liked it. Art Station prompt: Create a picture of Esau hugging his brother Jacob. Above it write, God s plan for me is good! 2017 Mooblio. All rights reserved. 9