252 Groups October 2018, Week 1 Saturday and Sunday 4 5 Large Group: 20 minutes in length

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2 252 Groups October 2018, Week 1 Bible Story: Paul in Prison Philippians 4:11b-13 Bottom Line: God can help you be okay no matter what. Key Question: What do you do when things don't go your way? Memory Verse: Then he said to them, Watch out! Be on your guard against wanting to have more and more things. Life is not made up of how much a person has. Luke 12:15 (NIrV) Life App: Contentment Deciding to be okay with what you have Communicator Props Bible Empty food tray Food tray with food on it Empty piggy bank Full piggy bank Newer cell phone Flip phone Sports ball Towel INTRODUCTION COMMUNICATOR: Hey everybody! Good you see you all here today! Tell a personal story similar to the following story or set up the following as a hypothetical ( Imagine if... ). I have a question to start us off. Have you ever had a time where something didn t go your way? Like, no matter how much you planned and tried, nothing seemed to work out in your favor? Maybe something like this. See, there was this one vacation my family went on when I was a kid. My parents had planned the spring break trip of a lifetime to Disney World! Some of you may be thinking that you go to Disney World all of the time, but this was HUGE for us. We had never been, and this was finally THE year. But when we got to the airport, our flight had been delayed so delayed that we missed our connecting flight to Florida! We ended up having to rent this tiny car and drive the rest of the way. But it doesn t stop there. When we got to our hotel, the pool was closed for renovations. Our first day in the parks the lines were so long that we hardly got to ride any rides. And on one ride, when we had already waited an hour, they shut the ride down because somebody had gotten sick! And on top of that, it rained... it poured. Every. Single. Day. When we were planning our trip, this was NOT how it was supposed to go. I can tell you THAT! TENSION COMMUNICATOR: Have you ever experienced something like this? I bet many of you have. And because almost all of us can relate to a situation like that, here s a follow-up question: when things don t go your way, how do you react to it? I mean if I'm being honest, I didn t react the best on our soggy Disney vacation. But who wouldn t react like that, right? Everything you planned was ruined, nothing went the way you wanted, and life during that time was downright miserable. But I wonder...

3 252 Groups October 2018, Week 1 is there another way we can respond? That s a big question. And with big questions, we need big answers. And the first place we should look is God s Word, the Bible. TRUTH COMMUNICATOR: You might remember a guy named Paul. We talk about him a lot. Paul lived about two thousand years ago around the time of Jesus. God used him to tell all sorts of people about Jesus and help them start churches. From time to time, he d write letters to these churches to help them understand more about what it means to follow Jesus. He wrote one of these letters to Christians in a place called Philippi. The letter is now part of the New Testament and is called the Book of Philippians which is what you were called if you live in Philippi. Makes sense, right? Now, check out what Paul says... Open the Bible to Philippians 4:11b-13 (NIrV) and read. I have learned to be content no matter what happens to me. I know what it s like not to have what I need. I also know what it s like to have more than I need. I have learned the secret of being content no matter what happens. I am content whether I am well fed or hungry. I am content whether I have more than enough or not enough. I can do all this by the power of Christ. He gives me strength. (Dramatic) Seriously?! Who is this guy, right? Who is this guy to tell US to be content no matter what happens? I bet this guy has never seen a day of hardship in his life! Probably writing these words from a beach chair, soaking his feet in the warm Mediterranean Sea and drinking a cold lemonade with an umbrella in it! Pause for a moment and then change tone. Well, we might be able to say those things if they were all true, but if we dig a bit more into Paul s life, you might be surprised when you find out where he s writing this letter. But before we get to that, let s take a look at Paul s life. See, Paul wasn t always a follower of Jesus. In fact, he was actually AGAINST Jesus. See, Paul was a devoted Jewish man, a member of a religious group called the Pharisees. He thought Jesus was a liar, and because of this, he thought all of his followers were, well, wrong. Paul made it his personal mission to stop the spread of Jesus message. He even went as far as to have followers of Jesus dragged from their homes and thrown into prison. But Jesus spoke to Paul on the road one day, and Paul s life was completely turned upside down. That day he became a follower of Jesus, but that wasn t it for Paul. Jesus had a special mission for Paul. He wanted Paul to lead the charge and spread the message of Jesus to the countries where people had never heard. Now you might think that just because Jesus called Paul and gave him this mission everything would have been pretty easy. But that is definitely not the case. Paul s journeys were not easy. In fact, life for him was harder as a follower of Jesus than before. If you don t believe me, listen to Paul s own words as he recounts his struggles in another letter he wrote to Christians in Corinth, now called the Book of 2 Corinthians. Check this out! (Reference: 2 Corinthians 11:24-26, NIrV) Five times the Jews gave me 39 strokes with a whip......three times I was beaten with sticks. Once they tried to kill me by throwing stones at me. Three

4 252 Groups October 2018, Week 1 times I was shipwrecked.... I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I have had to keep on the move. I have been in danger from rivers. I have been in danger from robbers. I have been in danger from my fellow Jews and in danger from Gentiles. I have been in danger in the city, in the country, and at sea. I have been in danger from people who pretended they were believers. Now if this weren t enough, one day Paul was arrested, and it s true! He hadn t done anything wrong, but the people in charge arrested him because they didn t like how he was telling everyone about Jesus. They made him stay in a house in chains like a prisoner. It was from this house prison that Paul wrote the words I read at the start. Let me read them again. (Read directly from Philippians 4:11b-13) I have learned to be content no matter what happens to me. I know what it s like not to have what I need. I also know what it s like to have more than I need. I have learned the secret of being content no matter what happens. I am content whether I am well fed or hungry. I am content whether I have more than enough or not enough. I can do all this by the power of Christ. He gives me strength, (NIrV). Do you see what Paul is saying? His contentment is not based on his circumstances. He says there are times I ve been well fed......and there have been times when I ve been hungry. Hold up tray with food on it. Hold up empty tray. There have been times when I have had more than enough... Shake full piggy bank... And there have been times when I haven t had enough. Turn over empty piggy bank. APPLICATION COMMUNICATOR: I wonder what it would be for us. I have learned to be content with the latest technology Or without the latest technology Hold up newer cell phone. Hold up flip phone. I have learned to be content with the starting spot on my sports team... Hold up a sports ball.

5 252 Groups October 2018, Week 1... Or watching the game from the bench. Hold up a towel. I m sure you can think of others, too. That s tough, right? So what s Paul s secret? How could he be content in any situation... in beatings and shipwrecks, even prison? Well, he wrote, I can do all this by the power of Christ. He gives me strength. You see? When you put your faith in Jesus, He doesn t fix every problem and just give us what we want all the time. But He can give you the strength you need to be content in all situations. LANDING COMMUNICATOR: As you go to small group today, think about this question: CG: Key Question Slide What do you do when things don't go your way? Not what do you wish you did or what do you think you did, but really think about it. What s your go-to attitude when life doesn t go your way? Talk about some of your own stories of times when things did not go as expected. You ll get to talk about it with your Small Group, too. Before you head there, though, let s pray. CG: Small group slide Timing - Goal is to end by 5:40, 9:40, or 11:40 Communicator leads group in a prayer related to what they just heard. After prayer, Communicator dismisses kids to Small Group.

6 252 Groups October 2018, Week 2 Bible Story: Don't Be Controlled by Money Hebrews 13:5 Bottom Line: Stuff can't keep you happy. Key Question: Why do you still want stuff if it can't keep you happy? Memory Verse: Then he said to them, Watch out! Be on your guard against wanting to have more and more things. Life is not made up of how much a person has. Luke 12:15 (NIrV) Life App: Contentment Deciding to be okay with what you have Communicator Props Bible Remote control car with an action figure in the driver s seat (or pretend if it is a closed car) INTRODUCTION COMMUNICATOR: Hey, everyone! It s always great to be with you. As we get started this morning, check this out. CG: Black Friday shopping video That. Is. Crazy! Be honest have you ever wanted something so badly... I mean SO badly... I mean SOOOOO badly... that you would do ANYTHING LIKE THAT to get it? (Pause for response.) Yeah, I hope not. But for the people in this video, the answer was a definite YES! Could you imagine wanting a TV so badly that you run people over to get it? Or yanking a coffee maker or toy out of somebody else s hands?! OK, maybe you shouldn t answer that! TENSION COMMUNICATOR: But while watching a video like that is funny, it also sheds a bit of light on how much people want stuff. Now, it s not that money or stuff is actually bad in and of itself. But what happens when it is the ONLY thing you think about or talk about? What happens when it becomes the MOST important thing to you? What happens when it drives you to start thinking about knocking over the person in front of you to grab a 4K TV? That can t be good for you, right? TRUTH COMMUNICATOR: To answer that question, let s turn to the Bible. Not sure if you know this, but the Bible includes a lot of verses that talk about how we use our money and the power that money can have in our lives, including this verse that comes from a letter near the end of our Bible. In the letter to the Hebrews, the author says, (Read directly from Hebrews 13:5a NIrV) Don t be controlled by love for money. Be happy with what you have. Seems pretty simple, right? Well, while this might be a simple verse, simple is definitely not the same thing as easy. I know the verse says money, but really it could also say STUFF or THINGS. The person who wrote this verse is talking about money or the things that can be bought with money. Now the verse didn t say don t HAVE money or don t HAVE things, but what did it say? Don t be... (Pause for responses). Yeah! The author said don t be CONTROLLED by the LOVE of money... or

7 252 Groups October 2018, Week 2 stuff. Maybe this will help... What s this? CG: Picture of a car Right... it s a car. That was easy. Now, I know you re not all driving around your neighborhoods yet, but does someone want to explain how you go about driving a car? Call on a volunteer and interact with him/her as he/she explains how a car works. The goal is to make it clear that you tell the car what to do and where to go by sitting in the driver s seat. The driver is in control. Wow... that s a pretty good explanation. Are you sure you don t drive? Somebody check his/her ID! All right, so basically a car drives because the driver makes it happen. Got it. What about this? Reveal Remote Control Car. How does this one go? Does this little guy (pointing to action figure driver) make it happen? Call on a volunteer to explain how the RC car works. Of course not. This car is controlled by something on the outside. This little guy has NOTHING to do with the direction of the car. Now some of you already see where this is going... but what if this is what the Hebrews verse is talking about? No, not RC Cars... I m pretty sure they didn t have those back then. I mean control. Don t be controlled by the love of money (or stuff). Our stuff can be like the car on the screen. WE are the drivers. WE tell our stuff where we are going and what we are doing. WE are in (pause for response) CONTROL, yes! Or our relationships with our stuff can be more like this RC Car. We re sitting here in the driver s seat, but we really have no say as to where we go or what we do. Why? Because we are being CONTROLLED by something else. And the love of money or stuff can DRIVE us places we never imagined we d go. What about those people in the video clip shopping? Do they look like they were in control or do they look like they were being controlled? (Pause for response) It s amazing what the love of stuff can do to a person. I bet they didn t wake up thinking, You know, I m going to wrestle somebody for a blender today! No! But in the moment, stuff became so important that they were willing to do anything to get it, including making the stuff more important than people! APPLICATION COMMUNICATOR: When our money or our stuff becomes the MOST important thing, it can make us

8 252 Groups October 2018, Week 2 do some pretty crazy things. But more than that, we also miss out on what we do actually have... and, even more importantly, the people around us. Look at that verse again. (Read directly from Hebrews 13:5a NIrV) Don t be controlled by love for money. Be happy with what you have. Notice the second part... be happy with what you have. The word happy there is probably better understood as content be content with what you have. It is very hard to notice what you DO have when you are driven by what you DON T have. When you obsess over the next game, the next gadget, the next fashion accessory, you can miss what s already right in front of you. So when you start to obsess over stuff... when you start to find that all you can think about is that thing you want... I want you to stop and think about the car and ask yourself, Who is driving? Am I in control or is my love for stuff controlling me? Who is driving? Now one last thing. There s actually more to the verse. Let me read it all now. (Read directly from Hebrews 13:5 NIrV) Don t be controlled by love for money. Be happy (or content) with what you have. God has said, I will never leave you. I will never desert you. The truth is that money runs out. Stuff breaks, and clothes wear out. But God has made us a promise that He will never leave us, and that is a promise you can take to the bank. (Pause) See what I did there? And let s be honest being content, controlling our actions toward our stuff? That can be really hard, especially when we watch people spend gobs and gobs of money on TV or when see our friend show up to school in new sneakers. But thankfully we don t need to do this on our own. Not only will God never leave us but also He is there to help give us the strength to have contentment. Let s rely on Him for help! LANDING COMMUNICATOR: As you go to small group today, think about this. CG: Key Question Slide Why do you still want stuff if it can't keep you happy? Have you ever wondered about that? I mean we know that stuff breaks, toys get lost, and even if they don't, over time, we just lose interest in them. It s a good question: Why do you still want stuff if it can t keep you happy? Think about that as you head to small group, but before you go, let s pray and ask God for some help with this. CG: Small group slide Timing - Goal is to end by 5:40, 9:40, or 11:40 Communicator leads group in a prayer related to what they just heard. After prayer, Communicator dismisses kids to Small Group.

9 252 Groups October 2018, Week 3 Bible Story: King Ahab and Naboth's Vineyard 1 Kings 21:1-19, 27 Bottom Line: Wanting what others have can make you miserable. Key Question: What can you do when all you can think about is what someone else has? Memory Verse: Then he said to them, Watch out! Be on your guard against wanting to have more and more things. Life is not made up of how much a person has. Luke 12:15 (NIrV) Life App: Contentment Deciding to be okay with what you have Communicator Props Prop Box Containing: o Crown o Scepter o Straw hat o Bunch of grapes o Woman s wig o Cards with volunteer s lines INTRODUCTION COMMUNICATOR: Hey everybody! Great to see you today. I loved watching that game. Well played! And thinking about that game, I have a question for you. Have you ever wanted something so badly that... well... you kind of lost your cool about it? Maybe you begged and pleaded with your parents. Or... maybe you even went this far... check this out! CG: Temper tantrums in stores video(s) That s crazy, right? Okay be honest how many of you have done that event as a little kid? Come on... (Pause for response) I thought so. I have, too... last week. (Pause) No, just kidding, but I have before. I think all of us, whether or not we remember it, threw some tamper tantrums that could have gone viral on YouTube. TENSION COMMUNICATOR: Now, all of us have maybe wanted something from a store or something we saw on TV, but how about this? Have you ever wanted something that somebody ELSE has so badly that it totally ruins your day? Or puts you in a bad mood? Or makes you think less about what you already have? Yeah... that can happen, right? We see something that somebody else has, and it just drives us wild! And when that happens, we can start to do some pretty crazy things. But I think that deep down we know that s not the best way to respond. But maybe we re just not sure how to respond when we want something that badly. When we have issues like that, the best place to turn is the Bible. TRUTH COMMUNICATOR: In God s Word, we can learn from people who did some amazingly great things with their lives, but sometimes we can learn from those who made mistakes, too. That s what happens in the story today, but to tell it, I need a volunteer to help me out.

10 252 Groups October 2018, Week 3 Pick a volunteer and have them come to the stage. You can find this story today from 1 Kings, a book in Old Testament that shares some of what happened during a period of time when the nation of Israel was ruled by... you guessed it... kings. Some of these kings were wise and led God s people well. Others were not so wise and led the people far away from God. The king in this story, Ahab, was one of the bad ones. In fact, King Ahab was the most wicked king that would ever rule Israel. Communicator reaches in the box and grabs a crown and places it on the volunteer s head while grabbing a scepter and putting it in the volunteer s hand. (Open and read from 1 Kings 21:1a NIrV) Sometime later King Ahab wanted a certain vineyard. It belonged to Naboth from Jezreel. So, we ve got this man named Naboth. He s just a common Israelite who owns a vineyard. Communicator has the volunteer swap crown for a sunhat and hands volunteer a bunch of grapes. Now this vineyard was close to Ahab s palace (Communicator switches volunteer back to Ahab costume). Who knows... maybe Ahab went out on his balcony every day and could see the vineyard and just how nice it was. Maybe he walked by it every day. Whatever the case, Ahab wanted it. Badly. (Read from 1 Kings 21:2 NIrV) Ahab said to Naboth, Let me have your vineyard. It s close to my palace. I want to use it for a vegetable garden... Ahab wants his vineyard! And he doesn t even want it for the vineyard; he wants to tear that down and plant some kind of vegetable. Can you believe that? Let s keep reading. (Read from 1 Kings 21:3 NIrV) But Naboth replied (Communicator switches volunteer back to Naboth costume and instructs them to read the Naboth part from a card), VOLUNTEER: (from card) May the Lord keep me from giving you the land my family handed down to me. COMMUNICATOR: In other words, Naboth says no. I can t give up my family s land. All right, so before we keep going, let me tell you something about how land worked back then. I m sure that some of you have moved from one house or another, but it didn t quite work like that back then. In the ancient world, land was an inheritance. Your family s land had been passed down from generation to generation. Meaning, to lose your land would be absolutely devastating, not only to your family but also to every generation after you who would no longer have a plot of land to call their own. Okay, back to the story. Naboth s response does not go over so well with Ahab (Communicator switches volunteer to Ahab). Listen to this. (Read from 1 Kings 21:4 NIrV) So Ahab went home. He was angry. He was in a bad mood because of what Naboth from Jezreel had said... So Ahab lay on his bed. He was in a very bad mood. He wouldn t even eat anything.

11 252 Groups October 2018, Week 3 (To Volunteer) How do you feel, Ahab? (Volunteer responds, pouting) That is when Ahab s wife comes in. Communicator looks at Volunteer and smiles. Then takes wig out of box and puts it on Volunteer s head. (Read from 1 Kings 21:5-6 NIrV) His wife Jezebel came in. She asked him, VOLUNTEER: (from card) Why are you in such a bad mood? Why won t you eat anything? COMMUNICATOR: He (Volunteer to Ahab costume) answered her, VOLUNTEER: (from card) (as Ahab) Because I spoke to Naboth from Jezreel. I said, Sell me your vineyard... But he said, I won t sell you my vineyard. COMMUNICATOR: In other words... (temper tantrum) I want my vineyard, and I want it now! Does that sound familiar? This guy could be on that video from earlier! Well, Jezebel has something to say about that. (Looks at Volunteer and puts the wig back on him/her). (Reads from 1 Kings 21:7 NIrV) His wife Jezebel said, VOLUNTEER: (from card) (As Jezebel) Is this how the king of Israel acts? Get up! Eat something! Cheer up. I ll get you the vineyard of Naboth from Jezreel. COMMUNICATOR: And Jezebel puts a plan in place to take the vineyard for Ahab. She hired two scoundrels to lie and say they heard Ahab curse God and the king. So they took Naboth (Communicator switches volunteer to Naboth) outside of the city and got rid of him... for good! Yikes! Communicator takes hat and grapes away. Once Jezebel (Volunteer puts on wig) heard the plan had been carried out, she said to Ahab (reads from 1 Kings 21:15-16 NIrV) Get up. Take over the vineyard of Naboth from Jezreel. It s the one he wouldn t sell to you. He isn t alive anymore. He s dead. So Ahab (Volunteer as Ahab) got up and went down to take over Naboth s vineyard (Communicator hands Volunteer the bunch of grapes). Now Jezebel and Ahab probably thought they had gotten away with it. Ahab had wanted a vineyard, he whined about a vineyard, and now he had the vineyard, and nobody knew what had happened. Well, of course, somebody knew. God knew, and God was not happy with Ahab. So God sent a prophet named Elijah to tell Ahab and Jezebel that there would be a consequence for what they had done to this innocent man. (Read from 1 Kings 21:27 NIrV) When Ahab heard what Elijah had said, he tore his clothes. He put on the rough clothing people wear when they re sad. He went without eating. He even slept in his clothes. He went around looking sad. Ahab recognized that he had done evil in God s sight, and he humbled himself before God. God spared Ahab s life, but Ahab still caused a lot of misery with what he did, all because he was so wrapped up in the one thing that somebody else had that he didn t.

12 252 Groups October 2018, Week 3 Communicator excuses volunteer back to their seat. APPLICATION COMMUNICATOR: But what about us? This seems extreme, right? Hopefully, we ll never go as far as Ahab. But I can almost guarantee that you will face a time when you want something that someone else has. People have cool things, and it is natural for us to want those cool things for ourselves. Here s the key, though: HOW you respond in those moments makes all the difference. Do we lose our cools and throw tantrums about it and say things we can t take back? Do we make life hard on the people around us because we act miserable, like Ahab pouting and refusing to eat dinner? Do we treat stuff like it is more important than the people in our lives who may or may not have anything to do with the fact that we don t have the latest and greatest thing? LANDING COMMUNICATOR: As you go to small group today, think about this: CG: Key Question Slide What can you do when all you can think about is what someone else has? Think about the times when you ve struggled with wanting what someone else had. How did you respond? How could you have responded? This question could be answered all sorts of ways, and you ll have a chance to do that in Small Group. Before we head there, though, let s pray and ask God for some help. Because the truth is that our source of contentment is God. He s the One who can change our attitudes as we learn to trust Him no matter what. Let s pray. Communicator leads group in a prayer related to what they just heard. After prayer, Communicator dismisses kids to Small Group. CG: Small group slide Timing - Goal is to end by 5:40, 9:40, or 11:40

13 252 Groups October 2018, Week 4 Bible Story: Don t Look Back (Israelites Long for Egypt) Exodus 16:2-21; 17:1-7 Bottom Line: Don't miss out on what you have now. Key Question: What is good in your life right now? Memory Verse: Then he said to them, Watch out! Be on your guard against wanting to have more and more things. Life is not made up of how much a person has. Luke 12:15 (NIrV) Life App: Contentment Deciding to be okay with what you have Communicator Props Prop Box with the Following: o Brick o Handcuffs/shackles o Keys o Steak (fake dog toy steak will work) o Saltines o Empty water pitcher o Bowl of sand/dust o Grapes An index card and golf pencil for every child INTRODUCTION COMMUNICATOR: Hey everybody! So who knows what it means to be a Debbie Downer? What do you think? (Pause for response.) Yeah, that s a Debbie Downer! You know who else is a Debbie Downer? CG: Incredibles Clip TENSION COMMUNICATOR: Okay, so that was kind of funny and Dash is a little dramatic, but you know, it s amazing to me how some people can t ever see the good in what s happening to them. Have you ever met someone like that? They are great and awesome things happen but all they could see was what they felt was going wrong. I guess it really is possible to miss the good things that are happening around us because we are so focused on what is not going so well. That doesn t seem like a joyful way to live life, huh? But how can we change our attitudes? How can we start to focus on what s good, even when things aren t as great as we d want them? TRUTH COMMUNICATOR: That s a big question one that if we get it right could completely change how we see the world around us. Let s dig into God s Word and see what we can do about this! We start way back in the Old Testament. God had made a promise to a man named Abraham. God said that He would bless Abraham s family and make them a great nation who would bless the entire

14 252 Groups October 2018, Week 4 world. Generations later, Abraham s family was in Egypt, and just as God had promised, they became the size of a nation, too numerous to count! God had kept his promise! Many years later, a new Pharaoh came to power in Egypt. The growing number of Israelites concerned him because he feared that they might turn against him one day and defeat him. So Pharaoh set plans in motion to hold the Israelites down and decrease their numbers. He made them his slaves and worked them ruthlessly. Communicator holds up handcuffs/shackles. Communicator holds up a brick. Brick by brick, the Israelite slaves built Pharaoh s empire. Pharaoh kept his slaves well fed... Communicator holds up steak.... so that they would have the strength to do his work. This went on like this for many years. But God was not going to stand by and watch this happen to the people He loved. He called on a guy named Moses to be his deliverer and to lead his people out of Egypt and out of slavery. Communicator holds up keys. The people of Israel were finally free! In one night, the Israelites were out of Egypt and into the wilderness on their way to a new land God had promised long ago to give to his people. But it didn t take long for the joy of this newfound freedom to wear off. (Read directly from Exodus 16:2 NIrV) In the desert the whole community told Moses and Aaron they weren t happy with them. Not happy? What is there not to be happy about? The shackles are gone! (Communicator holds up and drops) No more bricks! (Communicator holds up brick and sets down). They were free... so what s wrong? (Read from Exodus 16:3 NIrV) The Israelites said to them, We wish the Lord had put us to death in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat. We ate all the food we wanted but you have brought us out into this desert. You must want this entire community to die of hunger. Ouch. This is brutal. The Israelites thought that Moses was against them, but there is one thing they forgot: God, not Moses, came up with the plan to rescue the Israelites. (Read from Exodus 16:4 NIrV) Then the Lord spoke to Moses. He said, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. God heard his complaining people, and He planned to take care of them. God miraculously rained down bread from heaven... Communicator holds up a handful of saltine crackers. And if that wasn t enough, God gives more. (Read from Exodus 16:12 NIrV) I have heard the people

15 252 Groups October 2018, Week 4 of Israel talking about how unhappy they are. Tell them, When the sun goes down, you will eat meat. In the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God. Bread in the morning and quail meat in the evening. Sure, it wasn t Outback, but God was taking care of his people on the way to the land He was giving them. But soon they were faced with another problem... (Read from Exodus 17:1b-2 NIrV) They traveled from place to place, just as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim. But there wasn t any water for the people to drink. So, they argued with Moses. They said, Give us water to drink. Communicator holds up empty water pitcher. (Read from Exodus 17:3b) Why did you bring us up out of Egypt? Did you want us, our children and our livestock to die of thirst? Same song, different verse. First, they thought they had been brought out of Egypt to die of hunger. Now it was thirst. But they were missing the point that God had brought them out to free them and to make them his people. It may not have been easy, but He was there with them. Once again, God provided for his people. He instructed Moses to strike a rock with his walking stick, and when he did, fresh water came pouring out! Now while this is a pretty incredible moment, God had already been providing for them all along! The problem was they could only see what was wrong in the moment. It s like this... They remembered the meat (Hold up steak) but they forgot about the bricks (Hold up the bricks). They thought about the food they ate in Egypt, but they forgot that the food they ate was so they could do hard labor every single day for Pharoah. They longed to have water (Hold up empty water pitcher) but they forgot about the shackles (Hold up shackles.) They were so focused on the hot desert they were in now (Hold up some sand/dust from the bowl) that they forgot the amazing land where God was leading them to (Hold up grapes). They remembered the best of Egypt without remembering the worst of Egypt. And by doing so, they missed out on what God had done for them and what He was doing for them right now. APPLICATION COMMUNICATOR: You know, sometimes we can give the Israelites a pretty hard time for what happened in the desert. I don t know about you, but I can get pretty hangry if I haven t eaten in a while. But in these moments, it was less about their complaining and more about what they were forgetting. If God had been able to work an incredible plan to rescue them from their slavery in Egypt, wouldn t God also be able to provide for them on the way to the land where He was taking them? But they were so focused on what they used to have that they were missing out on the chance to recognize what God was doing for them NOW. Think about it. Maybe you re upset because you don t have your own room like your friends and have to share with your brother or sister. But what can we be thankful for now? You have a place to live! You have family around you!

16 252 Groups October 2018, Week 4 Or maybe you re frustrated that you aren t playing as much as you think you should on your sports team. But you re a part of a team! And you have the health and ability to play your sport. We can miss the good when we only see the bad. LANDING COMMUNICATOR: We re going to do something a little different before we head to small groups. Your small group leaders have index cards and pencils to pass out. I want you to take a couple of moments to write down as many things as you can to answer this question. CG: Key Question Slide What is good in your life right now? Even if it doesn t seem like you have anything good happening, really think about how God is caring for you and how Jesus saved you! Take a moment now. SFX: Quiet Instrumental Music Small Group Leaders hand out index cards and pencils and give the kids a chance to write down a few things. After two or three minutes, dismiss them to Small Groups. Now, one of the best ways to remind yourself how God has been caring for you is to talk about it. Take the index card with you to Small Group and share some of the things you wrote down with the rest of your group! But first, let s pray and thank God for always being there for us and being so trustworthy! Let s pray. CG: Small group slide Timing - Goal is to end by 5:40, 9:40, or 11:40 Communicator leads group in a prayer related to what they just heard. After prayer, Communicator dismisses kids to Small Group.