God Keeps His Promises

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Bertha Mason
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1 God Keeps His Promises BIBLE PASSAGE Luke 1:26-55 (God s Promise to Mary) REMEMBER VERSE Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength Mark 12:30 SCHEDULE Large Group minutes Small Groups minutes 1

2 Equipping Volunteers Because of His great love for His people, God keeps His promises to them. From the beginning, God promised to send a Redeemer who would restore peace and conquer sin. After the fall of man, God told the serpent that one day an offspring of a woman would crush [its] head (Genesis 3:15). Throughout the Old Testament, God repeated His promise to send a Redeemer and revealed more details about the Redeemer s life and ministry. Isaiah described the Messiah as a child who would be the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). In the first few pages of the New Testament, God repeated this promise to Mary. Mary descended from the line of David, and she was a virgin. God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Mary she d been chosen to bear a son who would fulfill God s promises and prophesies. Gabriel told her this son would be the Son of God, who would reign on the throne of David and bring an everlasting kingdom of peace (Luke 1:31 33). Mary asked one question: How can this happen? (v. 34 NLT). Gabriel s response: The Holy Spirit will come upon you (v. 35). This explanation was enough for Mary. In faith, she believed God would keep His promise. When Mary went to her cousin, Elizabeth, to share the news, Elizabeth declared, Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished! (v. 45). Throughout The Big God Story, God showed His intent to keep His promise to His people. Through Jesus, God fulfilled His promises to Israel. Through Jesus, God fulfills His promise to us too His promise to bring us into relationship with Him forever, if only we believe in His Son. 2

3 Large Group// min 1. Worship Through Music Open Large Group time with singing music to worship Jesus together. 1. Christmas Medley 2. Oh Come All Ye Faithful 2. Angels We Have Heard on High 2. Large Group Welcome WELCOME VISITORS- As you welcome everyone to your day together, start by celebrating visitors! 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! Encourage them to ask someone they might not know yet. After a minute or two, ask several kids to tell their friends answers to the group- What is the biggest surprise you ve ever experienced? 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 Give small groups 3-4 minutes to talk amongst themselves and earn their gumballs. 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!!! 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 them! Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength Mark 12:30 5. Offering 3

4 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 our overseas sponsor child- Vivian from Kenya! Challenge your kids to continue to give out of what they have so that God might give it to our sponsor child, Vivian. 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 Keeps His Promises SUPPLIES- Bible, Wrapped Candy, 5 Small Boxes, Ribbon, Verses printed out, How Great is Our God song in your music folder or on CD SET UP- Cut the verse references apart and place each one in a separate box. Tie a ribbon around the boxes like a present and label each box in the order the verses should be read in. Hide the boxes around the room. When you begin the Big God Story, tell the kids they have to find the boxes. If they find a box, hold on to it! They are going to use them in today s lesson. ENGAGE- You re starting today s lesson a little different as children are supposed to look for the 5 small gift boxes that you have hidden around the room. Do this before you begin today. After the children have found all 5 gift boxes have them sit back down for today s story. Children with the gift boxes should just hold on to them quietly. (Note: if any child is having trouble holding their gift box quietly during today s lesson, then you can hold the gift box up front for them to help them sit quietly. They can come get it when it s their turn). God always keeps His promises. And He made a very important promise when He said He would send His Son, Jesus, into the world to be our Savior and Redeemer. We talked last week about all that happened before Jesus arrived. God had promised Him, and so we listened to a loooong story as we waited for that promise. Today we re going to learn about some other promises God gave before Jesus arrival on earth! Before we do that, let s do a quick review from last week. (Ask the questions to the group and give a piece of candy for each answer- even if it s just a good try! Remember that some kids will need a few extra seconds to think, wait so that it s not just the fast kids that are getting to answer) 1) After the Israelites had asked for judges, then what did they ask for? (Answer: kings) 2) Which king s lineage would eventually lead to Jesus? (King David s) 3) And after God sent kings for a while, then He started sending people that would share His messages, that would tell the Israelites what God wanted to say to them. What were these people called? (Answer: prophets) 4) But eventually there were no prophets, and no kings, and God stayed silent for a very long time. How long? (Answer: 400 years) 5) And even though that was a very long time, eventually an angel came and told a priest a very important message. What was the priest s name? (Answer: Zechariah) 6) What was the important message? (Answer: he would have a son) 7) And what was this son s name going to be? (Answer: John the Baptist) 8) Last question- what was John the Baptist s job going to be when he grew up? (Answer: a prophet- to let everyone know that Jesus was not just coming, but he was here!) Good job everyone! Great memories as you learn God s Story! 4

5 So, by announcing the birth of John, God showed that His promise to send the Redeemer was finally coming true! Today we re going to hear about another messenger angel who told a woman she would have a baby. This part of The Big God Story starts in Luke 1:26. (Have everyone open their Bibles- help children who can t find it). It begins with a young woman named Mary. Back in Bible times, women got married much, much younger than we do today. Does anyone have any idea how old Mary might have been? (Take some guesses- Answer is 12-14yrs). Mary was only a teenager when these very important events started happening in her life. Wow! That s not much older than some of you. So let s see what happened with Mary. One day God sent an angel named Gabriel to speak to Mary. Remember- God had started sending messengers again after His 400 years of silence. So we have another angel here. And Gabriel said to Mary... (instruct the child with box #1 to open it and read the verse reference inside. Then have that child read the verse from their Bible- Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you (Luke 1:28). Wow! An angel gave a pretty amazing greeting to Mary- he called her highly favored and said that God was already with her! What do you think that was like for her? (Encourage the kids to answer.) Well, even though it was a lovely greeting, when the angel spoke to Mary she became a bit afraid. After all- wouldn t that be a little scary if an angel really did just show up in your room?! And Mary was thinking to herself, Why would an angel visit HER of all people? But the angel was not there to scare her, he was there to give her a message. So the angel said to her... (instruct the child with box #2 to open it and read the verse reference from their Bible- Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David his kingdom will never end (vv ). Do you remember talking last week about how God prepared the way for His Son, Jesus, to be born? Through Mary, God was keeping His promise! From the very beginning of The Big God Story, when sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, God promised He would send a Redeemer to rescue His people and bring them back into relationship with Him, and away from the evil one. This is kind of a tough question, but does anyone know where in the story of Adam and Eve we first see Jesus? How do we know Jesus was promised all the way back in the Garden of Eden? (Answer: In Genesis 3 it says He shall crush your head - this was God telling Satan that one day a Savior, Jesus, would come and would crush Satan!... see- even back in Genesis, Jesus was promised!) If anyone asks you what is the very first mention of Jesus in the Bible, you can say- Genesis 3! Let s practice that. When doe the Bible first tell us about Jesus? (Kids shout out- Genesis 3!... if they don t do it confidently enough, have them do it again louder). Just a fun fact of information- but it shows us how long God had been preparing for this moment! It was literally thousands of years from the first time God first spoke about Jesus, to this moment when He was about to prepare Mary for the big news of Jesus coming! So, back to Luke chapter 1! Mary not only had an angel come visit her, when she was only years old. But then the angel Gabriel tells her that she is going to give birth to God s son! And not only that, but that this son, who she was going to be called Jesus, would be King forever. Mary may have been a little freaked out, but the coolest thing is that EVERY promise and EVERY prophecy was leading right up to this moment in time when the Messiah would finally be born! Mary wondered how this could happen. So the angel told her that the Holy Spirit would make it possible, and that it would be a miracle for Mary to give birth to Jesus! Gabriel also told Mary that her cousin, Elizabeth, who was thought to be too old to have a child, would also have a baby. Who remembers who 5

6 Elizabeth was? Answer: Zechariah s wife- the priest from last week- she would give birth to John the Baptist! The angel said to Mary, (instruct the child volunteer with box #3 to open it and read the verse from their Bible- Nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37). Why? Because God always keeps His word. He always keeps His promises. Do you think it was important that the angel remind Mary of this- that nothing is impossible with God? Why? (Encourage kids to answer). Truly- what was about to happen really would be a miraclethat Mary would have a baby, and that this baby would not be Joseph s son (her betrothed), but would be God s Son Jesus! Man- I DEFINITELY would need to be reminded that all things are possible with God! (Instruct the child with box #4 to open it and read the verse inside- I am the Lord s servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said. Then the angel left her, Luke 1:38). Mary was willing to do whatever God called her to do. She responded like a woman who truly loved God and trusted His plan for her life. So after the angel left her, Mary went to her cousin Elizabeth s house to tell her the good news. As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary enter her home, the baby inside of Elizabeth leaped with joy! (Note: Elizabeth had been pregnant for a little while at this point). Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and apparently so was the baby, John the Baptist, since he leaped for joy inside his mom s tummy. Let s hear what Elizabeth said to Mary- (instruct the child with box #5 to open it and read the verse inside- in a loud voice she exclaimed: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished! (vv. 42, 45). Elizabeth instantly recognized that God was with Mary. And He was going to be with her not just on the day He sent the angel, but everyday through Jesus birth, and life, and even death- though she probably didn t know about that very important part yet. After Mary met with Elizabeth, she began to sing praises to God. Mary praised God for using her to give birth to the Messiah. She praised Him for His work throughout all of history. She praised Him for His faithfulness, and for keeping His promise to send a Rescuer! He d kept His promises all along, and He never forgot His people. His Son, Jesus, was finally about to born through Mary! 8. What does this say about Jesus? God loved His people so much that He wanted to send them a Redeemer- a Rescuer! To bring them back into a renewed relationship with Him. Remember, ever since Genesis 3- we ve been God s enemies. Truly, every time God would help us and intervene- we would still wander and go another way. Every time we disobey His commands. Every time we take charge of our own lives and our own futures. Every time we think something else in life is greater and more awesome than God... we turn away from Him. But He has always been faithful even in promising to send us someone to Rescue us from this horrible cycle of sin. Jesus life reminds us that God loves us, that we can have a relationship with Him, that we can live a life that honors God and obeys God, and that even death can t defeat us anymore! His promised birth means so much to us- and Mary understood this, which is why she was singing and praising God with deep joy. Let s close today s lesson a little differently than normal and praise God for His Savior Jesus, with all the same joy that Mary had. Let s really sing it with joy! with arms raised! with smiles! Because God is so great- it s truly a miracle to us every day! Sing How Great is our God together- loudly and joyfully! 6

7 Then pray and dismiss to small groups. 7

8 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. 1. Review Questions: God loves His people so much that He promised long ago to send them a Redeemer. God kept His promise and chose a young woman named Mary to become the mother of the Messiah. (Leaders, encourage the kids to open their Bibles and read the suggested passages.) Questions for Younger Kids Have you ever made a promise you didn t keep? What was the promise, and why didn t you keep it? What do you think it was like for people to hear from God after 400 years of silence? What did Mary think when the angel Gabriel spoke to her? (Luke 1:29) Who was the baby God promised to give Mary? (Luke 1:31 33) How did Mary respond when the angel told her she would have a baby? (Luke 1:38, 46 55) Why do you think God keeps His promises to His people? Questions for Older Kids Have you ever made a promise you didn t keep? What was the promise, and why didn t you keep it? What do you think it was like for people to hear from God after 400 years of silence? What did Mary think when the angel Gabriel spoke to her? (Luke 1:29) How would you react if you saw an angel? What did the angel mean when he said Mary was highly favored? (Luke 1:28) Who was the baby God promised to give Mary? (Luke 1:31 33) How did Mary respond when the angel told her she would have a baby? (Luke 1:38, 46 55) What was the promise about the Redeemer that God made to His people long ago? What are some promises God has made to you? Why do you think God keeps His promises to His people? 2. Create: God s Promises are a Gift SUPPLIES- Bible Promises Worksheet, pencils/pens, Gift Wrap Bow, cardstock paper, markers ENGAGE- Bible Promises Worksheet- Start out by doing the Bible Promises Worksheet. Older kids can do it alone or in pairs. If you have a younger group do the worksheet all together. Read God s promises out loud that are on the left side of the church. And decide who He made that promise to out of the last of people on the right side. Draw a line connecting the two. Talk as a group about how God has kept every one of His promises that He ever made. God is faithful. 8

9 Card of God s Promises- Today during our Big God story time, we unwrapped little boxes that contained Scripture verses telling us of God s promises to Mary. Why were those verses wrapped up like presents? (Because God s promises are literally gifts to us). God s promises have always been about us, not Himself. He is a gracious God that not only blesses us with His promises, but He is a faithful God that keeps these promises. This month, we re celebrating His biggest promise of all- sending Jesus to be our Savior. Give each child a piece of cardstock paper and have them fold it in half. For younger children- On the inside of their card tell them to write Jesus really big and to decorate it. And to write Luke 1:26-38 inside the card to remind them of the story when Mary learned of the promise of Jesus. Then on the front of the card have them write God s Promise... And let them stick a bow on their card to remind them that this promise is a gift from God! For older children- Help them to think through promises that God has given us about Jesus- the foretelling of Jesus coming, who Jesus would be, promises He told Mary, promises of what we receive from Jesus- anything that comes to children s minds around God s promises through Jesus. Have them write these promises on the inside of the card. Remind them that these promises are gifts from the Lord- He did not have to give us these things! Then have them decorate the outside of their card like a present or have them write God s Promises... Let them attach a bow to the front of their card as a reminder that God s promises are a gift. 3. Closing Prayer Before your kids leave today, end your group time with this prayer and blessing. Open a Bible and read Ephesians 3:17-19 (NLT): I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the [Lord s holy people], to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. May you be rooted in God s love. May you know and understand how wide, how long, and how deep His love is for you, and may you know it will never end. 9

God Uses Unlikely People

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)