WORD UP! SMALL GROUP TIME INTRODUCTION. The Patriarchs: God s Plan Unfolds

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1 INTRODUCTION Where do all of the different languages come from? Many children you teach will not know the answer to this question. Today s lesson is a Growth Narrative giving you an opportunity to help the saved children learn how they can glorify God with their lives rather than bringing glory to themselves. The people in the story were going their own way and seeking their own glory by disobeying God s command to fill the Earth. Help the children see how going God s way is honoring to Him. In the memory verse time, saved child applications, and Wonder Time; give specific examples of how the children can bring glory to God through how they live. The Gospel Spotlight in this lesson uses tower illustrations to talk about different ideas on how to get to Heaven. The visual aid for this Spotlight can be found at the end of the flashcard book. Ask the Lord to work in the hearts of any unsaved children in your class so they see Jesus is the only way they can come to God. As you teach today s lesson, ask God to reveal any areas where you want your own glory rather than His. Spend time with the Lord searching your heart to see if you are living a life that brings Him glory. Concepts covered in this lesson include: Man: Consecration/commitment/challenge to do what God asks I can live my life to please the Lord. I give the Lord Jesus my whole life to use for His glory. Jesus: Jesus is the only way to God. Demonstrations of the lessons and songs in this series are available at: cefonline.com/ freedemos/thepatriarchs WORD UP! Give glory to God! It s really special when people notice something nice that you have done, isn t it? Maybe they tell you thank you or give you a gift for helping them. As I think about all that our wonderful God has done for us, it reminds me that we should give Him thanks for what He has done. Today you will be hearing more about how you can give God glory in all kinds of ways. When you hear one of your teachers say Word Up! in club today, we are going to say, Give glory to God! (Say with children.) SMALL GROUP TIME Honor God (Optional activity) I m the Best skit Child: Hey, Mrs. Todd, look at my new trophy! I won the spelling bee last night! Mrs. Todd: Wow, Sam. That s great. You must have studied hard. Child: I did. It took months to learn all those words. I love to spell. I beat all the kids in two grades above me. It was fun! No one at our school can spell better than me! Well, see you later. I ve got to go show my friends what I did! Do you think Sam s friends will be as excited about his trophy as he is? (Allow response.) It s exciting to win a trophy or receive an award but how should we respond to that honor? Can you give me some ideas of the right way to respond when you win a trophy or get a prize? (Allow response.) Listen carefully in today s club for some ways to give God glory when you are awarded. Word-Up! Booklet Show the card and have the children repeat the statement: Give glory to God! Tell them that anytime you call out Word Up! they are to shout the phrase back. Call it out during transition times, times when they are restless or just anytime! If you want to add actions to the Word Up!, stretch both hands outward with palms facing upwards when saying give. Point upward with both hands when you say God. If I said, I really like your shoes! what could you say back to me? (Allow response.) If someone gives you a snack, what should you say to them? (Allow response.) Thank you is something you should say when someone says something nice to you or gives you something. Did you know you can say thank you to God for helping you do things? Let s say thank you to God right now! (Lead preschoolers in saying Thank you, God! ) I m the Best skit reproducible Trophy (optional) 1

2 Lesson 1 Preschool Introduction Have children repeat this phrase after you one word at a time: Cristo (CREE-sto) me (may) ama (AH-mah). Do you know what that means? It s a different language, called Spanish. It means Jesus loves me! (Have children say Jesus loves me! ) There are many, many languages in the world and the Bible tells us why! Pass the brick word card LESSON INTRODUCTION Slide 1 (Show a word card with a message Pass the brick written on it in a different language.) Do you understand this? Why not? (Allow response.) It is in another language! Perhaps you ve heard people talking to each other and had no idea what they were saying. Have you ever wondered: Why don t we all speak the same language? That would make life a lot simpler! The Bible answers that question for us. PROGRESSION OF EVENTS Slide 2 Point to God creates the world on Timeline. (See GNC Starter Resource Pack.) Bring in a flower for children to smell and touch as you talk about the beautiful garden. Have children pretend to rock a baby. Nothing but the Blood Point to God floods the world on Timeline. (See GNC Starter Resource Pack.) God wanted people to fill the Earth by having families. When God created the Earth and everything in it, His first commandment to the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, was for them to have children and fill the Earth. God loved this new Creation and His plan was for the Earth to be filled with people who would know Him, love Him and live for Him. God set Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden and told them they could eat of every tree except one the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Adam and Eve disobeyed and God sent them out of the garden. He still wanted them to have children and fill the Earth with people. God s plan never changed! As the number of people grew, the people became more and more evil. The sin of Adam and Eve passed down to all mankind, causing them to do evil continually. The sin of Adam and Eve has also passed down to you and me. The Bible says, (read Romans 5:12). Since Adam, everyone is born with the want to to sin to go against God s way and want our own way instead. The punishment for sin is to be separated from God. God, in His love for you, made a way for you to be forgiven of your sin and no longer separated from Him. He sent His only Son, Jesus, to take the punishment that you and I deserve. Jesus died on the cross, giving His blood as payment for what you and I have done. The Bible says, (read I John 1:7b). Jesus bled and died, was buried, and then came back to life on the third day, winning against sin for you! When you believe on what Jesus did for you, you no longer have to be separated from God because of your sin. Jesus came to save you from the sin that passed to all people from Adam and Eve. The sin of Adam and Eve caused the people who lived after them to do evil. God saw their evil and judged (rightly punished) the people. He looked at their sin and knew they were guilty. He punished their sin by sending a great flood over all the Earth. God saved one man and his family from the flood. Do you know that man s name? (Allow response.) The man s name was Noah. After Noah and his family came out of the ark, God told them to fill the Earth. God hadn t changed His mind about His plan. God never changes. 2

3 After the flood, people all spoke one language. (Read Genesis 11:1.) God told them to spread throughout the Earth. But they disobeyed Him. The people chose to stay together to build a great city to show how great and powerful they were. Slide 3 Have children follow you around the room as they pretend to look for new lands. Have them stop and pretend to build a house. They said to each other, Let s build a great city with a gigantic tower. It will stand on Earth and reach to Heaven. This way we can all stay together and we will not be scattered all over the Earth. The people were feeling proud and confident in themselves and wanted everyone to know how important they were. They should have been bringing glory to God instead. Do you remember what it means to give glory to God? (Allow response.) It means to live in a way that shows how wonderful and important God is. If you have believed on Jesus as your Savior, ask yourself this question, Am I living my life to bring glory to God? Maybe you don t care about bringing God glory. Perhaps you just want to have fun and do whatever you feel like doing instead of what God wants you to do. Or maybe you have a talent or ability and all you think about is being famous someday, drawing attention to yourself and not to God. Maybe in school you want to do your best and get the highest grades so you can impress others or feel good about yourself. Or maybe instead of grades, your focus is on being the best athlete you can be so others notice you. There is nothing wrong with doing your best but you shouldn t do it for the wrong reasons. (Read Matthew 5:16.) If you know the Lord as your Savior, live your life to bring glory to God. Praise Him, Praise Him v. 1 Use examples younger children will relate to such as being good at art or being kind or making crafts. Slide 4 Say with me, Give glory to God! (Say with children.) This means that every part of your life can and should be lived in a way that pleases God. The focus of your life should be living God s way, not your own way. Are you living your life to bring glory to God? Were the people building the tower, bringing glory to God by what they were doing? (Allow response.) No, they weren t. Slide 5 The people continued to go their own way, working hard to build the tower. Higher and higher it rose! Crouch down really small then get taller like the tower they were building. (Do with children.) They were so proud of it! The tower reached toward Heaven. They thought this tower would make them great. Have the kids pretend to be laying bricks and shade their eyes to look up at how tall the tower is growing. But God saw what the people were doing. He had created people to know and achieve great things. But they were using their God-given creativity and intelligence to do what they wanted, not what God wanted. They were disobeying God on purpose. Building towers or being creative is not wrong. What was wrong is that the people were pridefully choosing their own way instead of bringing glory to God. 3

4 Lesson 1 God had told them to spread throughout the Earth but they chose to disobey Him because of their pride. The people were about to learn how important it was to bring glory to Him instead of themselves. Praise Him, Praise Him v. 3 If you have believed on Jesus as your Savior, live your life to bring glory to God. Slide 6 Visualized Bible Verse Booklet Refer to the examples for younger children you used in the first application. Say with me Give glory to God! (Say with children.) Bringing glory to God starts in your heart with the reason why you want to do your best. Is your reason so others will notice you? Or so that they will see how wonderful and important God is? When you get good grades or are good at sports, how can you bring glory to God? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you have the right attitude whether you win or lose. Ask Him to help you be happy when others do well in school and be willing to teach others what you have learned. Remember our memory verse? Let s say it together. (Quote 1 Corinthians 10:31.) The Holy Spirit can help you bring glory to God. He helps you live in a way that pleases God, live the best you can for Him, and point others to Him by how you act and live. If attention comes to you because of your talents and abilities, say thank you then say something like God helped me to do this. By saying something like this, you will be using the opportunity to tell others what God has done for you. The Bible says you can glorify God no matter what you are doing in every area of your life! The people were about to learn how important it was to bring glory to God instead of themselves. Slide 7 Pass the brick word card So God went down and confused their language. Imagine that you are working on the tower. Turn to the person next to you and say, Pass the brick. (Do with children.) But the words you say are in a different language that you have never spoken before! Slide 8 (Show word card from the introduction.) Imagine how confusing that would be for you and for the other person! Slide 9 To show that He was in control, God caused the people to speak many different languages! They could no longer understand one another. Have children say Babel with you. Because God had confused their language, the people left the city and the tower without finishing it. The city where the unfinished tower stood became known as Babel (BAY-buhl). That word means confusion. 4

5 CLIMAX The people moved to all different parts of the Earth. Those who spoke one language moved to one part of the Earth while others moved somewhere else. God s plan to fill the Earth never changed because God never changes. CONCLUSION Because the people spread to lands far away, the Earth was now filled with people, in many lands and speaking many languages. The true story of the Tower of Babel not only tells us where the languages of the world come from, but it also tells us how important it is to do things for God s glory and not our own. Have children get up again and follow you around the room. Tell a small group of children to stop in one place and pretend to build a house, then keep going and tell another small group to stop and build a house. Tell children the families moved and built houses in different parts of the world. CHALLENGE All through time, God has planned that all people would live in a way that would bring glory to Him. Even today this is what God wants. If you know Jesus as your Savior, live your life to bring glory to God. Praise Him, Praise Him v. 3 Slide 10 INVITATION Say with me, Give glory to God! (Say with children.) You can bring glory to God by living in a way that pleases Him, doing your best for Him, and helping others want to know Him because of how you act and live. This week if attention comes to you because of your talents and abilities, ask the Holy Spirit to help you to say Thank you. God helped me to do this. Use the opportunity to tell others what God has done for you. Let s say our memory verse one more time as we remember what God wants for us. (Quote 1 Corinthians 10:31 with children.) Will you choose to bring glory to God this week by how you act and live? God can help you live your life to bring glory to Him. If you have never believed on Jesus as your Savior, the first thing you need to do to bring glory to God is to trust in Jesus as the only one who can forgive your sin. Jesus died to take the punishment for your sin and rose again so you can be saved. The Bible says, (read Acts 16:31). When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in Him alone to forgive your sin, you will be saved from sin s punishment. You will have the Holy Spirit to help you know God better and how to live for Him here on Earth. Will you believe on Jesus as your Savior today? Bow your head and close your eyes. If you would like to believe on Jesus today or if you want to talk to me about what that means, show me by standing up quietly. (Acknowledge responses.) You may all open your eyes. If you are standing to show me you want to believe on Jesus today or you want to talk to me more about it, please meet me (designate time and location) and we ll look at God s Word together. Visualized Bible Verse Booklet Preschool Invitation When presenting the invitation to preschoolers, use Acts 16:31 and believe on terminology. Ask those who want to believe on Jesus or who have questions to stay with you while the others move on to another activity. Caution, teacher! You have to be certain that the children are not led to believe that the words of a prayer or coming to speak with you saves them. They need to know they are saved only by putting their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. The invitation is the time during club when you invite or urge the children to put their faith in Christ and let them know you are willing to meet with them to answer questions and show them from the Bible what it means to believe on Jesus. 5