ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM A stand-alone lesson BIBLE VERSE Don t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything, Philippians 4:6. Kids Wanna Know: Fear is a stand-alone lesson that s part of a collection we created to explore the basics of believing in Jesus. Kids will hear the fundamentals of faith through these questions: What Should I Do When I m Scared? How Can I Hear from God? What Are the Rules for Following Jesus? What s So Special About Christmas? Use these stand-alone lessons one at a time, or as a multi-part series. LESSON CONCEPT Kids will see how our fears can stop us from trusting God. They ll hear the Bible story of the fiery furnace from the book of Daniel and see that sometimes faith can be stronger than fear. Summit Creative Company. All rights reserved. summitcreativecompany.com 1
KIDS WANNA KNOW: What Should I Do When I m Scared? Elementary Stand-Alone Lesson LESSON CONCEPT Kids will see how our fears can stop us from trusting God. They ll hear the Bible story of the fiery furnace from the book of Daniel and see that sometimes faith can be stronger than fear. BIBLE TRUTH What Should I Do When I m Scared? The Fiery Furnace, Daniel 3 BIBLE VERSE Don t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything, Philippians 4:6. SUPPLIES Bible offering container free-standing clothes rack yarn Velcro strips ball labeled God will take care of you. scissors one water container for each small group pepper for each group soap for each group NOTES All yellow highlighted text are cues for visual and audio slides. Assign a volunteer to play the slides. Stick to the times in blue to ensure you stay at a kid-friendly teaching time. Set up the clothes rack and stick Velcro strips to the sides to hold the string as you wrap it around. SMALL GROUP Kids will see an object lesson about fear. Summit Creative Company. All rights reserved. summitcreativecompany.com 2
TEACHER DEVOTIONAL Read: Daniel 3 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had earned favor in the eyes of the unpredictable King Nebuchadnezzar. Winning the favor of an emotional, powerful man, who gave and revoked his approval on a whim, was not an easy accomplishment. Above all else, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego honored the one true God, and so when loyalty to God clashed with obedience to the king, they bravely disobeyed. Their counter-cultural behavior and resolve to stand firm on God s truth came at a great cost. The Bible says that when the king heard of their disobedience, he became furious with rage and he changed his mind about them (Daniel 3:13). He heated the fiery furnace seven times hotter than usual and made sure that his strongest soldiers were responsible for tying up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. To all of this, they replied to the king, If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up, Daniel 3:16-18. That is a declaration of confidence in the one true God. That is courage. That is faith. God chose to glorify himself through saving those three men that day, and King Nebuchadnezzar declared the truth that there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way, Daniel 3:29. It s a good ending. But we know that isn t always how the story ends. The question is, but even if he does not... are we still able to say what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said? When we re going through the fire, are we willing to remain steady in our faith, even if the fire never slows down, even if the fire gets hotter? If Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego s faith had been based on their circumstances, it wouldn t have been faith at all. Is your faith based on your circumstances or on the one true God? Summit Creative Company. All rights reserved. summitcreativecompany.com 3
WELCOME Hey everyone! I m so glad you re all here today. (Welcome kids.) FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD 2-3 minutes (Share with kids how God asks us to love all his children through giving and praying. Talk about a global or local outreach program and encourage kids to give by collecting an offering.) WORSHIP 6-7 minutes (Encourage kids to worship God through song and dance. Play worship songs.) INTRO 3 minutes Amazing job worshiping! I love getting to worship God with all of you every week. We get to worship, and we get to learn about God. That s great, because I don t know about you, but sometimes I have some big questions. We ve asked some of our friends these questions, and they had some good stuff to say. Check it out! Show Video: Intro Kids Wanna Know Fear BIBLE TRUTH 3-4 minutes Show Series Graphic: Kids Wanna Know Fear Everyone did a great job answering the questions on that video. But I still want to know more about what I should do when I m scared. Because I don t know about you but sometimes I get scared about something and then I can t stop thinking about it. I m sure the Bible has something to teach us about being scared. That s our big question today. (Look at the slide on the screen.) Show Graphic: Question Kids Wanna Know Fear What should I do when I m scared? Being scared is an emotion that God gave us. Being scared can be helpful and it s ok to be afraid. It can be a way for our body to tell our brain we re in danger. Like we know we shouldn t play with fire because we could get burned, or we know it s not a good idea to play in the street because there are cars. But sometimes being scared can take over our brains in a not helpful way. I have an activity that can help us understand what happens in our brain when fear takes over. Check it out. I have this clothing rack. Let s pretend the clothing rack is our brain. I also have some yarn that s going to represent our thoughts. Sometimes at night I get scared of noises I hear. I get so worried I can t relax and fall asleep. (Stick the yarn to the Velcro tape strip on the clothing rack.) Option 1: Raise your hand and tell me some things you re scared of. (Let kids respond. Crisscross the yarn from one side of the clothing rack to the other as the kids are sharing what they re afraid of. Make sure there is a messy web of yarn when you are done.) Summit Creative Company. All rights reserved. summitcreativecompany.com 4
Option 2: Raise your hand if you ever feel scared of the dark? Raise your hand if you re scared of snakes? Raise your hand if you re scared of getting hurt? Raise your hand if you get scared of going to places you ve never been before, like a new school? (Crisscross the yarn from one side of the rack to the other as you ask each question. Make sure there is a messy web of yarn when you are done.) Wow look at our brain! It s a mess. Our thoughts of being scared have taken over our brain. I have a ball and it says, God will take care of you. This is a true statement. God will take care of us, but it can be hard to remember when our brain is full of fear. (Toss the ball at the web and watch it bounce back.) The truth about God taking care of us can t get through our brain to our heart. (Point to your head and then move your hands to your heart.) God will still take care of us, but our brain is such a mess we forget. The Bible says 365 times not to be afraid. That s another way of saying don t be scared or worried. God wants us to remember he is in charge and he will take care of us. Bible Truth (Pick up Bible.) The Bible has a story in it about three guys who didn t let fear take over their brain. They remembered God would take care of them. You may have heard about these guys before. Their names are Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Show Series Graphic: Kids Wanna Know Fear These three guys loved God with all their hearts, but they were living in a country where people did not believe in God. In fact, the people worshiped fake gods. The King of the country made a gold statue that was as big as a building. The King told everyone they had to worship the statue or he would throw them into a hot fiery furnace. But Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to worship the gold statue. They knew the one true God and he was the only God they would worship. They told the King (Read from the Bible.) We will not worship your statue. The one true God will save us from the fiery furnace. But even if we re killed, God will be with us. We know God can be trusted. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were probably scared. They knew they would probably be thrown into the furnace. They knew they would be killed, but they loved God. So, they didn t let being afraid stop them from doing what was right. The King did exactly what he promised. He took Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and threw them into the furnace! He stood back and watched the fire burn. But then, he looked closer into the furnace and he realized (Pantomime counting to four.) an extra person was in the furnace. He had thrown three men into the fire but four men were now in the furnace. And what was even more amazing was that these four men were walking around. They weren t Summit Creative Company. All rights reserved. summitcreativecompany.com 5
burning up! Guess who was in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? (Let kids respond.) It was angel! God sent an angel to be with them. The king yelled for the men to come out of the furnace and sure enough they came out with not even a hair burned on their head. Application Show Graphic: Question Kids Wanna Know Fear Our big question today is, what should I do when I m scared? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were scared, but they focused on God. We can do that too! The Bible tells us, not to be afraid because God is with us. He will make us strong and help us. He will hold us safe and always do what is right. When we believe this, we ll experience God s peace. Peace means knowing God will be with us and help us no matter what is going on. (Pick up a pair of scissors.) The Bible says to fix our thoughts on what is true, (Cut piece one of the yarn.) and honorable, (Cut more of the yarn.) and right, (Cut more of the yarn.) and pure, (Cut one of the strings.) and lovely (Cut more of the yarn.) and worthy. (Cut more of the yarn. Pull down any extra yarn.) When we focus our thoughts on God our worries can t take over our brain. We ll still be scared but our brains won t be a crowded mess because we ll be filling our brain with good, true thoughts of God. The truth that God is with us and can be trusted will get through our brains and into our hearts. (Throw the ball through the clothing rack.) Just like in our story today, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew that God would be with them. They knew even if they died God would take care of them. They didn t worry about the danger of the furnace; they focused on God. Bible Verse Check out what God says to us in the Bible. Show Verse: Don t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything, Philippians 4:6. We know that in every situation God is with us and he is promises to help us. That is amazing! Let s pray and thank God for all he has done. PRAYER Dear God, thank you for always being with us. We re so grateful that you give us strength and help us. You are so good. We pray in Jesus name, amen. SMALL GROUP (Have kids sit down in circles, in small groups, with volunteer leaders.) Summit Creative Company. All rights reserved. summitcreativecompany.com 6