meekness : : : lesson 3

Transcription

1 meekness : : : lesson 3 BEATITUDE Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 (NIV) COMPASSION Having the power to prove your point but choosing not to do so. November Episode 3 Mary s Announcement Luke 1:26 38 MEMORY VERSE For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and now generation after generation will call me blessed. Luke 1:48 (NLT) KEY POINT When you are meek God will use you big time. Lesson 3 page 22

2 Let's Create : : : lesson 3 EARLY ARRIVAL (before service) Have some upbeat music playing. Welcome children warmly. Have some simple toys available to make the environment welcoming. Teachers should take this time to engage in conversation with children as they sit to play with them. Ask them about their week, school, and home. Begin to establish relationships. BEGIN CLASS (service time) Introduce yourself and your assistants. Before the discussion questions, PRAY that the Lord will bless your time together. Have a set of supplies for yourself to demonstrate as you explain. November Supplies for game No supplies needed Optional: index cards (to write the dares and questions on) PREP it : : : instructions 1 Divide children into two teams. 2 Have the first child on each team walk to the front of the class and decide if he/she wants a truth question or a dare. 3 Randomly select from the list below. 4 Repeat until everyone has had a turn. (You may use questions/dares more than once if you have a large class). 5 Everyone gets 10 points for participating. OPTIONAL: Write each truth and dare on an index card and have the child select when it s his/her turn. DO it : : : DARES 1 Jump up and down on one foot. 2 Say, Sally sells sea shells on the sea shore three times fast. 3 Pretend to be a coo-coo clock. 4 Act like a monkey. 5 Bark like a hungry dog. 6 Act like a daisy in the rain. 7 Act like a cat that fell into a swimming pool. lesson 3 Kindergarten 1 st grade page 23

3 8 Crow like a rooster waking up the neighborhood. 9 Pretend to sit in the middle of a fire-ant pile. 10 Make the silliest funny face you can think of. ASK it : : : QUESTIONS 1 Did you ever use a pacifier? 2 What is your favorite dessert? 3 What is the name of your favorite stuffed animal? 4 What color is your room? 5 What is your hardest school subject? 6 What is your favorite TV show? 7 What Bible person are you like the most? 8 If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? 9 Tell the truth, do you like Barney? 10 What is your favorite Virtuality character? CONNECTIT CONNECT it : : : say We had some fun with this game. The truth questions were simple, and the dares were pretty silly. Today, we re going to read about a young, Jewish lady who was faced with a very difficult challenge (a dare you might say), and she told the truth about how she felt about it. Because she had a meek heart and was willing to accept her situation, she has affected everyone in the world. Let s watch Virtuality now and learn what the challenge was and why it affected so many people. WATCH it : : : Go to large group to see the Virtuality DVD, Beatitude Series DVD (volume 3, episode 3) lesson 3 Kindergarten 1 st grade page 24

4 Bible Story BIBLE STORY : : : Mary s Announcement Luke 1:26 38 BEFORE YOU BEGIN As you read the story (from the International Children s Bible) encourage children to act out their roles. Instruct them to do their best to portray what you are reading. Be animated as you read, if you are excited they will be also. Throughout the story there will be hand motions, instruct the children to make these motions with you. BACKGROUND INFORMATION : : : say it in your own words Read and study the background information at home. Before you begin reading today s Bible story give children the background information your own words. The year was 1, the town was Nazareth (a Jewish community), and the occasion an engagement. Wedding customs during this time were very different from today. Marriages were arranged; this means that parents decided whom their children would marry and when. Sometimes parents would promise a son or daughter to another parents son or daughter when the children were babies. Then, when the parents decided the time was right, the children would become engaged. The future husband would pay the girl s family a bridal price for the right to marry her, and the couple would be engaged, or, in those days, betrothed. A betrothal is more serious than today s engagement. Once a girl was betrothed, she legally belonged to her future husband. In fact, if the groom died during the betrothal period, even though they weren t actually married yet, the girl was considered a widow. If, for any reason, the engagement had to be broken, they would have to file legal divorce papers. The betrothal lasted about one year before the actual wedding. During these 12 months, the groom-to-be prepared the home where the couple would live after they were married, and the bride s family prepared for the wedding feast (which often lasted a week). Marriages in small towns were a huge event for the entire town. Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Everything about their engagement and soon-to-be wedding was typical until one day when everything changed. Their engagement was like no other before or since. The unusual circumstances began when Mary s cousin Elizabeth was expecting a child. That s not so unusual except for the fact that up to that point Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah, had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old. Their hope of ever having children lesson 3 Kindergarten 1 st grade page 25

5 Bible Story continue was gone. Zechariah was a priest. One day Zechariah was serving God in the Temple.... As was the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. It was here that Gabriel, God s messenger angel, appeared to Zechariah with incredible news. He said, Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. (John is the man we know as John the Baptist.) The angel told Zechariah many things about John, but then Zechariah said to the angel, How can I be sure this will happen? I m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years. In other words, he had a hard time believing this would really happen. So, God punished Zechariah. The angel told him, Since you didn t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. Imagine for a minute that you are Zechariah; you just had an incredible meeting with an angel of God, who gave you the most amazing news, but now you can t tell anyone. I m sure he was a bit frustrated and sorry he didn t have more faith. Regardless, God s Word came to pass. Soon afterward his wife, Elizabeth, became pregnant and went into seclusion for five months (Luke 1:1 25 NLT). Around this time, the angel Gabriel once again had news. This time, he visited Elizabeth s cousin Mary. Let s go to the Bible and read about that visit. PREP for Bible Story : : : props and characters 1. Question mark [?] sign 2. Optional: prize stickers for correct answers (bring from home) 3. As you read the story (from the International Children s Bible), urge the children to act out the instructions in parentheses. Be animated as you read. If you are excited, they will be also. 4. Have a volunteer hold up the [?] sign whenever you say the underlined words in the story. Ask the children to pay close attention when they see the sign because you will be asking questions about what they have just heard. You can also repeat the underlined words for emphasis and to help them retain the info. Give stickers as prizes to those children who answer correctly. READ Bible Story : : : begin story During Elizabeth s sixth month of pregnancy, God sent the angel [?] Gabriel to a virgin who lived in [?] Nazareth, a town in Galilee. (Everyone, flap your wings like an angel.) lesson 3 Kindergarten 1 st grade page 26

6 Bible Story continue She was engaged to marry a man named [?] Joseph from the family of David. Her name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, Greetings! The Lord has blessed you and is with you. But Mary was very confused by what the angel said. Mary wondered, What does this mean? (Everyone, act confused and scared.) The angel said to her, Don t be afraid, Mary, because God is pleased with you. Listen! You will become pregnant. You will give birth to a son, and you will name him [?] Jesus. He will be great, and people will call him the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of King David, his ancestor. He will rule over the people of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. Mary said to the angel, How will this happen? I am a [?] virgin! The angel said to Mary, The [?] Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you. The baby will be holy. He will be called the Son of God. Now listen! [?] Elizabeth, your relative, is very old. But she is also pregnant with a son. Everyone thought she could not have a baby, but she has been pregnant for six months. God can do everything! Mary said, I am the [?] servant girl of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say! Then the angel went away. (Everyone, bow and say, I am the Lord s humble servant. )? QUESTIONS 1. What was the name of the angel God sent to Mary? (Gabriel) 2. Where did Mary live when the angel came to her? (Nazareth / Galilee) 3. What was the name of the man Mary was engaged to marry? (Joseph) 4. What did the angel Gabriel tell Mary to name her son? (Jesus) 5. Why wasn t Mary sure she could have a baby? (She was a virgin. / not married) 6. By whose power did the angel tell Mary she would have a baby? (By the Holy Spirit) 7. What relative of Mary s was also going to have a miracle baby? (Elizabeth) 8. What did Mary finally say to the angel about what she was? ( I am the servant girl of the Lord. ) lesson 3 Kindergarten 1 st grade page 27

7 Bible Story continue CONNECTIT CONNECT it : : : say Mary and Elizabeth were both having miracle babies, but the miracles were very different. The way people took their news was very different also. In those days, women that couldn t have children felt very ashamed. Elizabeth didn t have any kids and was too old to ever hope to have any. Her news made everyone very happy, and no one doubted it was a miracle baby. She was beyond happy; she said, Look what the Lord has done for me! My people were ashamed of me, but now the Lord has taken away that shame (Luke 1:25 ICB). Mary s miracle was even bigger, but no one believed it. In fact, Mary s life was in danger. Mary was a young woman, engaged to Joseph but not married yet. Unlike Elizabeth, the people would not think it was a miracle that she was having a baby; they would say it was against the law. The angel visited Mary and told her she would have a baby by the power of the Holy Spirit, then he told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was also going to have a baby. Mary was so happy that she immediately went to visit Elizabeth. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home (Luke 1:56). That means that Mary had been pregnant for three months by the time she returned home. People probably thought she had been unfaithful to Joseph. But we know that s not true. The Bible tells us that while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18 NLT). Mary couldn t prove her baby was a miracle from God. People would have to believe her, but even Joseph didn t at first. But whatever he thought, he still loved Mary and didn t want her to be harmed. (The law would have stoned her to death.) So, in order to save her life, he planned to... divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy lesson 3 Kindergarten 1 st grade page 28

8 Bible Story continue Spirit (Matthew 1:19 20). Joseph believed what the angel said and now knew that Mary had told the truth all along. We all know what happened soon after baby Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. KEYPOINT The story ended well for Mary, but when the angel first told her the news, she knew that people probably would not believe her and she would be in danger. That is why she said, I am the Lord s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants (Luke 1:38). She was willing even to die to serve the Lord. Mary was meek. When you are meek, God will use you big time. Mary could have said no. She could have said, I love you, God, but I m not willing to risk my life. She didn t say that. She was willing to do whatever God asked of her. God knew her heart. Because of her obedience and meekness, she was blessed to be the mother of Jesus. MEMORYVERSE For he [God] took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. Luke 1:48 (NLT) Through Mary s humble willingness to serve God by giving birth to Jesus, the entire world was blessed. If we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we can be saved from death and can live eternally in heaven. PRAYER LET S PRAY : : : say Thank You for Your Son, Jesus. Thank You for seeing Mary s willing heart and choosing her to be the mother of our Savior. I pray that I will serve You with the same meekness she had, with a humble attitude in all I do. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. lesson 3 Kindergarten 1 st grade page 29

9 Review for Lesson 3 BEATITUDE Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 (NIV) MEEKNESS Having the power to prove your point but choosing not to do so. Today s lesson Bible Story Mary s Announcement Location Luke 1:26 38 Memory Verse For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and now generation after generation will call me blessed. Luke 1:48 (NLT) Key Point When you are meek God will use you big time. Time fillers Ask if anyone would like to play the teacher and review today s lesson with the class. Play games to help children memorize today s Bible memory verse. Take HOME VIRTUE Quest is the take-home sheet designed for children to do with their parents. The sheet contains information about today s lesson. The goal is to partner with parents to continue and to reiterate the lesson. Be sure to hand all parents a sheet as they pick up their children. lesson 3 page 30