Fall Lesson 9 Bible Passage: Exodus 24 (Mount Sinai) God Initiates Relationship Remember Verse

Transcription

1 Classroom Edition 1st, 2nd & 3rd Grade Fall Lesson 9 Bible Passage: Exodus 24 (Mount Sinai) God Initiates Relationship Remember Verse Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5 6 LESSON OVERVIEW 8:15-8:45 10:30-11:00 Be in class for CONNECT/ CHECK-INS - playtime - coloring pages - word searches 8:45-9:05 11:00-11:25 WORSHIP 9:05-9:35 11:25-11:50 GATHER: - Remember Verse - God s Big Story - Discuss and Investigate 9:35-9:55 11:50-12:10 RESPOND - application - activity 9:55 - end 12:10 - end BLESS and Snack - playtime until end

2 LEADER PREP Each week you ll find encouraging articles that help you prepare your heart to present the lesson. Inspire Shares personal stories from fellow ministry leaders about how God has worked in their lives I used to babysit a boy named Luke. As a baby, he always wanted to be cuddled and hardly ever cried. But something happened after Luke turned three. He didn t want to be cuddled, his favorite word became no, and some days he wouldn t say a word to me. I still loved Luke, but most of the time I didn t want to go out of my way to show my love because it wasn t reciprocated. After a year of this, I received a call that would change everything. Luke s mom told me that he d said to her, Mommy, I miss Lauren. Where is she? She asked him why he missed me, and he replied, Because today she said she loved me even though I didn t share my toys with her. The situation with Luke may have been a struggle, but in the end it modeled a valuable lesson: Because God loves us, I m called to love others no matter what. Because He initiates relationship with us, I m called to initiate relationship with others. Though we re sinful, unloving, selfish people, God still initiates relationship with us. Lauren Francis Tru Team Equip Offers perspective and context to the lesson s Bible passage God initiates relationship. The Mosaic covenant gives a great example of this in that it arose out of God s desire for relationship with His people. God initiated relationship with the future Israelites through the covenant He made with Abraham (formerly Abram). Through this covenant, God took the first steps in setting in motion His plan to redeem His people back to Himself. He continued to initiate relationship when He revealed Himself to Moses as the Lord who had heard His people s cries (Exodus 3), freed them from slavery (Exodus 12), and provided for them in the wilderness (Exodus 16). In Exodus 19 24, God gave His people the Ten Commandments as part of the Mosaic covenant. This marked the beginning of a new era in the history of God s people. God had freed them from Egypt so they could worship only Him. This covenant with Moses was God s revelation of how He wanted to be worshipped (Exodus 3:12). More specifically, it was the administrative covenant that served to regulate the life of the people to protect and preserve them for receiving the blessings promised in the Abrahamic covenant. The Mosaic covenant demanded not only that the Israelites conform to a set of laws but also that their hearts be oriented toward God. And from this point on, the plight of the Israelites hinged on whether or not they stayed faithful to the covenant with God that they accepted at Mount Sinai. The Mosaic covenant was a conditional covenant with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. The Mosaic covenant was also a foretaste of what was to come the new covenant that would not be written on tablets of stone but on the hearts and in the minds of all those who believe (Hebrews 8:10). Support Provides reflection and assessment through encouragement, prayer, and time in God s Word Jesus spoke of the Ten Commandments in Matthew 22:37 39, saying, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

3 !! Some days, following these commands seems impossible. But as those who ve chosen to trust and obey Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit to empower us and Jesus life to show us what living out these commands looks like. Spend time reading these verses and pray God will soothe your weary soul and help you learn from the life of your Savior. Pray God will teach you how to love Him and others by showing you how to be more like Him. Children develop relationships with their leaders and one another through simple activities and conversation starters. Playtime, Coloring Pages, Word Searches WORSHIP// 8:45 and 11:00 Children experience and learn more about God through memorizing Scripture, storytelling from The Big God Story, prayer, and discussion. Remember Verse Each week children will spend time memorizing a portion of Scripture together. The Remember Verse focuses on a character trait of God that s highlighted in today s portion of The Big God Story. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5 6 Storytelling Bible Passage: Exodus 24 Storytelling Technique: Drawing Key Images and Actions God Initiates Relationship SUPPLIES Optional: Investigate Questions (see Resources) Bibles Butcher paper (approx. 3') Tape Markers (1 of each color: blue, red, black, gray, and orange) SET UP Tape the sheet of butcher paper to the wall at a height easy for the kids to reach. Lead children in a Prayer of Release to pause, be still, and ask the Holy Spirit to quiet their hearts and minds. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt. He rescued them and kept His promises to them. Then He gave them His Ten Commandments and the rest of His law so they knew how to live a life of worship to God. The Israelites were supposed to show the rest of the world what it looked like to live for God. They would model God s love to the nations around them so that others could

4 know the one true God. Ask a child to use a red marker to draw a small heart at the top middle of the butcher paper. God initiates relationship with us. What does it mean to initiate? Invite kids to respond. Walk over to a child in your group, hold out your hand, and invite her to shake it. It s so good to be here with you today. I just initiated this handshake. It means that I held out my hand first. I started the handshake. When you initiate something, you start it. God initiates relationship with us He reaches out to us first. This is just what He did with the Israelites too! Have your kids open their Bibles to Exodus 24 so they can follow along throughout this part of The Big God Story. God wanted to make a covenant with the Israelites. What s a covenant? Pause for kids to respond. A covenant is a very special promise, and when God makes a promise, He keeps it! God gave the Israelites His law His rules for how He wanted them to live. God told the Israelites that among all of the people in the world, they would be His treasured possession. He would keep His covenant with them and share His law with them. So God called to Moses and asked him to come up to a mountain to receive the law. Ask a child to use a black or gray marker to draw the shape of a mountain up the middle of the page. The peak should reach the heart. The people had to decide if they would follow God. Read Exodus 24:3 4 or ask a volunteer to read the verses aloud. Encourage all of the children to follow along in their Bibles. The people responded with a big Yes! to God. Invite kids to raise their fists in the air at Yes! Ask a child to write, Yes! on the top right side of the paper. The Israelites wanted to be in a covenant with God. So Moses made an altar to God. Ask a child to use a gray marker to draw a small stone altar on the bottom left of the page. Some of the Israelite men also brought sacrifices to God, and they worshipped Him together. Then Moses read all of God s law to the people. Ask a child to use the gray marker to draw two small stone tablets on the bottom right side of the page. How do you think the people responded when they heard all of God s law? Invite the kids to respond. Read Exodus 24:7 aloud. Again, they responded with a big Yes! Invite kids to raise their fists in the air at Yes! Point to the Yes! on the paper. They were entering into a covenant with God. He initiated this relationship with them through His law, and they promised to obey Him. They would follow His law and model to others what it meant to be in a relationship with God! So Moses and some of the other leaders of Israel went up the mountain to meet with God. Ask a child to use the black marker to draw a few stick figures climbing up the mountain. And something amazing happened! Read Exodus 24:9 11 aloud as your kids follow along. Moses and the other leaders saw God! Under God s feet, the ground was made of blue stone as bright as the sky. Ask a child to use the blue marker to draw a shining stone on the top left of the butcher paper. Then invite kids to close their eyes as you read these verses again. Ask them to imagine what it might have been like at this amazing moment. Wow! It s amazing to think that God invites us to be in relationship with Him because He loves us so much. He even let Moses and the Israelite leaders see Him and have a meal with Him! If you had been there, what do you think you would have felt when you saw God? What would you have done or said? Invite responses. Then God called to Moses and told Him to come to the very top of the mountain so He could finish giving Moses His law. The glory of God came down in a cloud on the mountain. Read Exodus 24:17 aloud slowly. Pause and repeat key phrases. Ask a child to use the orange marker to draw flames at the top of the mountain. God s presence looked like a fire on the mountain! Moses stayed on the mountain with God for 40 days and got to know Him better. What do you think that might have been like to spend more than a month getting to know God? Invite responses. God initiated a relationship with the Israelites. He called them His treasured possession, and He invited them to know Him. God gave them His law so they could show others how to live for Him. God initiates relationship with us too! He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for us so we could have a restored relationship with God. What an amazing God! Share with your kids about a

5 ! time when you felt God initiating a closer relationship with you. Discussion Questions What did God give His people so they could live for Him? Exodus 24:7 How did the Israelites respond when they heard God s law? Exodus 24:7 How did God initiate a relationship with Israel? How has God initiated a relationship with us? Children reflect on what the Holy Spirit is teaching them and respond to God through creative activities and games. Relationship with God Children draw or write a response to God for initiating a relationship with them. SUPPLIES Paper (1 sheet per child) Crayons, colored pencils, or markers After the kids have spent some time learning the Remember Verse, ask them to put away the Remember Verse supplies and sit in a circle in the middle of the room. What did you notice about God in today s portion of The Big God Story? Invite answers. God initiates relationship with us as well. He reaches out to us and invites us to know Him and love Him. Give each child a sheet of paper and some crayons or markers. Our amazing, awesome God is reaching out to you today! What would you like to say to Him today? How would you like to respond to Him? Invite the children to draw their thoughts and responses on the paper. (Optional) Moses Says Part of our relationship with God is following Him. In this time kids will play a version of Simon Says. SUPPLIES None We re going to play a fun version of Simon Says to help us remember our great God who shows us how to live for Him. Choose one person to be Moses and to stand at the front of the room. When he calls out a command, he ll say, Moses says, followed by the command. If he says, Moses says at the beginning of the command, the kids should follow the command. However, if Moses just shouts out the command without saying, Moses says the kids shouldn t follow the command. If any kids do, they re out for the rest of the round. The last child to remain in the game wins. Play a few rounds as time allows. God gave His people the law so they could do the things He asked them to do. Moses helped the people hear the law and modeled what it looked like to live for God. Discuss together: What are some things God asks us to do? Who is someone in your life who lives for God?!

6 Children receive a blessing from their leaders and sometimes one another. A blessing can be a prayer of commission, a portion of Scripture, or words to encourage and guide. Invite the children to gather in a circle. God initiates relationship with us by reaching out to us first. Take the hand of the person standing to your right. Then invite her to take the hand of the person to her right. Continue around the circle until everyone has initiated holding hands with someone next to him. God reaches out to us, just as we reached out to one another. What a good God we serve! While everyone is still in the circle together, read 1 John 4:9 over the children as a reminder that God has reached out to us through His Son. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. May God remind you this week that He reaches out to you and invites you to be a part of His story through the love and grace of Jesus! Send home the At Home Weekly with your kids.