Write kids names on board with total attendance!

August 20, 2017 God Leads His People (Planet 1) All Authority Belongs to God!!! Lesson Highlights: Scripture References: Genesis 1:1-25 Teaching Point: God alone has all authority and power and demonstrates it through and in His creation of all things. Unit Memory Verse: Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Story Snap Shot As we jump into fall semester, we will be focusing on God leading us as His people. This first lesson highlights God s authority and power. It also demonstrates God s power as well as His goodness in all He does. From the very beginning of Scripture, we learn first that God is the creator of all things. God can create things out of nothing. All of creation shows a mere glimpse of His creative mind and character. Your group will learn that all of creation obeys God s commands. It is our hope to give the kids an understanding God s right to do with creation what He wills, and to display our delight in the sovereignty of God. Write kids names on board with total attendance! After the Rally Idea: use the icebreaker question to introduce this morning s topic and get the kids talking! 1 P a g e

Planet 1, OT Lesson 1: All Authority Belongs to God Icebreaker Question: Open your Bibles!!! (Get the kids to open their bibles..for a dramatic affect you can stand up as the kids are sitting!) In a real deep voice: Read: Genesis 1:1-13 In verse 2, what was the earth like before creation? (formless dark.water) Would that be a pretty scary place to be in the middle of the ocean in pitch black? What was the Spirit of God doing? (He was moving over the waters.) Can you picture that in your mind? What is the first thing that God creates in verse 3? Why is light important? (light exposes us to truth.what is good and what is bad...we cannot live without knowing the difference.) Did you know Jesus claimed to be the light of the world? (John 8:12) What did God create in verse 4 and 8? (God made a separation of night and day) What did God make in verse 9-10? (He created land by separating it from the sea.) What adjective did God use at the end of all of his creation? (He called it good.) 2 P a g e

August 20, 2017 God Leads His People (Planet 1) All Authority Belongs to God!!! What did God create in verse 11 and 12? What do you think is the favorite fruit or vegetable of the person on your left? In a real deep voice: Read: Genesis 1:14-25 What did God create in verses 14-16? (Sun, moon, and stars) What did God create in verse 20? (God created the birds.) What do you think is the favorite bird of the person on your right? What did God create in verse 21? Do you like to fish? Did you notice that God created some pretty interesting sea creatures? What did God create in verse 24 and 25? (God created the animals.) What animal does your leader remind you of? Why? Did you notice that God used the word good to describe all of creation? Do you think God s creation was perfect? (God s creation was good but not the word used is good not perfect. Isn t that interesting?) 3 P a g e

Planet 1, OT Lesson 1: All Authority Belongs to God Take Home: What does this story tell you about God? God is the Creator of all things. God s power is His Word. All God has to do is say it and it is so. Can you imagine power like that? All you have to do is say it and it is so! That is greater than any power we can imagine. In John 1, it says the Word became flesh. That means this power lived within a human body. That Word in a body was Jesus. In John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16 Jesus is not part of the creation but is in perfect union with God and the Holy Spirit! This trinity.god the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the creators of all things! Prayer Time Before you pray, allow the kids to share with you things that are happening in their lives. Be sure you write these down with their names for you to pray for as the week goes along. Ask them the things they mentioned the previous week. Older kids can be asked if they will pray for another who mentions something. As the leader, begin by opening in prayer and thanking God for this lesson: Praise God for being a good and wise Creator. Ask God to give us hearts that want to do what He commands. Pray for any specific requests named either by praying yourself or by opening it up to those who said they would pray. 4 P a g e

August 20, 2017 God Leads His People (Planet 1) All Authority Belongs to God!!! Activities and Crazy Ideas: Activity 1: Creation Order Poster Give the kids one large piece of butcher paper write down the creation order on slips of paper and get more detailed depending on the size of your group. The children draw a piece of paper and they must draw and color that part on the butcher paper. Allow them to all color at one time. It will look chaotic as they scramble and I am sure argue. In the end, show the poster and share how God put things in good order. The chaos began when several people wanted their order. Talk about the importance of God s order verses our order. God s perfection in creating these things and our imperfection. What a great way to tell them our need for a Savior! Activity 2: Animal Charades Have the kids choose an animal or sea animal. Each child can act it out and the class has to guess what it is. Remind the kids how God created all things! Activity 3: God Says Play Simon Says but use God says..remind them that all authority begins with God. You see that authority in Genesis 1 of creation! Activity 4: Does It Belong to God? Point to random things in the room and ask does this belong to God? The kids will repeat.. All things belong to God..begin serious then get sillier! Remind them that all authority begins with God. Activity 5: Strange Sea Animals Google some pictures of strange sea animals. Some strange sea animals have been discovered after tsunamis. Read Genesis 1:21. 5 P a g e

Planet 1, OT Lesson 1: All Authority Belongs to God Notes and Commentary 1:1 God s act of creation is the foundation for the entire biblical history. A considerable number of passages refer back to creation (e.g., Psalms 8; 104; 148; John 1:1 3; 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:15 17; Heb. 1:2; 11:3; 1 John 1:5 7). All the rest of the Bible depends indirectly on it. 1:2 The initial description of the earth as being without form and void, a phrase repeated within the OT only in Jer. 4:23, implies that it lacked order and content. The reference to darkness over the face of the deep points to the absence of light. This initial state will be transformed by God s creative activity: the Spirit of God was hovering. This comment creates a sense of expectation; something is about to happen. There is no reason to postulate that a long time elapsed between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2, during which time the earth became desolate and empty. Critical scholars argue that the word deep (Hb. tehom) is a remnant of Mesopotamian mythology from the creation account called Enuma Elish. Marduk, in fashioning the universe, had also to vanquish Tiamat, a goddess of chaos. These scholars believe that the Hebrew God had to conquer the chaos deity Tiamat in the form of the deep (notice the similarity of p 50 the two words tehom and Tiamat ). There are many linguistic reasons, however, for doubting a direct identification between the two. In any event, t there is no conflict in Genesis or in the rest of the Bible between God and the deep, since the deep readily does God s bidding (cf. 7:11; 8:2; Ps. 33:7; 104:6). 1:3 5 And God said. In ch. 1 the absolute power of God is conveyed by the fact that he merely speaks and things are created. Each new section of the chapter is introduced by God s speaking. This is the first of the 10 words of creation in ch. 1. Let there be light. Light is the first of God s creative works, which God speaks into existence. the light was good (v. 4). Everything that God brings into being is good. This becomes an important refrain throughout the chapter (see vv. 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). God called the light Day (v. 5). The focus in v. 5 is on how God has ordered time on a weekly cycle; thus, let there be light may indicate the dawning of a new day. God is pictured working for six days and resting on the Sabbath, which is a model for human activity. Day 4 develops this idea further: the lights are placed in the heavens for signs and seasons, for the purpose of marking days and years and the seasons of the great festivals such as Passover. This sense of time being structured is further emphasized throughout the chapter as each stage of God s ordering and filling is separated by evening and morning into specific days. there was evening and there was morning, the first day. The order evening, then morning helps the reader to follow the flow of the passage: after the workday (vv. 3 5a) there is an evening, and then a morning, implying that there is a nighttime (the worker s daily rest) in between. Thus the reader is prepared for the next workday to dawn. Similar phrases divide ch. 1 into six distinctive workdays, while 2:1 3 make a seventh day, God s Sabbath. On the first three days God creates the environment that the creatures of days 4 6 will inhabit; thus, sea and sky (day 2) are occupied by fish and birds created on day 5 (see chart). By a simple reading of Genesis, these days must be described as days in the life of God, but how his days relate to human days is more difficult to determine (cf. Ps. 90:4; 2 Pet. 3:8). See further Introduction: Genesis and Science. 1:3 God created physical light. The Bible also says that God is light in a moral and spiritual sense (1 John 1:5). By God s design, the physical aspects of creation can serve as vehicles for developing themes about God and his salvation. Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12). 6 P a g e

August 20, 2017 God Leads His People (Planet 1) All Authority Belongs to God!!! 1:3 God speaks, and it is done. The centrality of the word of God in the acts of creation anticipates the deeper truth given in John 1:1, that the second person of the Trinity is the Word. The Days of Creation Location Inhabitants 1. Light and dark 4. Lights of day and night 2. Sea and sky 5. Fish and birds 3. Fertile earth 6. Land animals (including mankind) 7. Rest and enjoyment 1:6 8 waters. Water plays a crucial role in ancient Near Eastern creation literature. In Egypt, for example, the creator-god Ptah uses the preexistent waters (personified as the god Nun) to create the universe. The same is true in Mesopotamian belief: it is out of the gods of watery chaos Apsu, Tiamat, and Mummu that creation comes. The biblical creation account sits in stark contrast to such dark mythological polytheism. In the biblical account, water at creation is no deity; it is simply something God created, and it serves as material in the hands of the sole sovereign Creator. As light was separated from darkness, so waters are separated to form an expanse (vv. 6 7), which God calls Heaven (v. 8). As the ESV footnote illustrates by offering the alternative term sky, it is difficult to find a single English word that accurately conveys the precise sense of the Hebrew term shamayim, heaven/heavens. In this context, it refers to what humans see above them, i.e., the region that contains both celestial lights (vv. 14 17) and birds (v. 20). 1:6 8. On the second day God separated the atmospheric waters from the terrestrial waters by an arching expanse, the sky. This suggests that previously there had been a dense moisture enshrouding the earth. God s work involves making divisions and distinctions. 1:9 13 Two further regions are organized by God: the dry land forming Earth, and the waters forming Seas (vv. 9 10). These are the last objects to be specifically named by God. God then instructs the earth to bring forth vegetation (vv. 11 12). While the creation of vegetation may seem out of place on day 3, it anticipates what God will later say in vv. 29 30 concerning food for both humanity and other creatures. The creation of distinctive locations in days 1 3, along with vegetation, prepares for the filling of these in days 4 6. 1:9 13. Dry land with its vegetation was formed on the third day. Vegetation is part of the ordered universe of the true God. There is no cyclical, seasonal myth to explain it. God started it, once and for all. Moreover, ESV English Standard Version 7 P a g e

Planet 1, OT Lesson 1: All Authority Belongs to God while pagans believed in deities of the deep as forces to be reckoned with, this account shows that God controls the boundaries of the seas (cf. Job 38:8 11). 1:14 19. Day four included the sun to rule (govern, v. 16) the day and the moon and the stars to rule the night. Either these were created with apparent age, or they had been previously created and were then made visible on the earth on days one and two when God separated light from darkness and waters above from water below. These heavenly bodies were to serve as signs for seasons and days and years (v. 14). These terms, as well as day and night in verse 5, are meaningless without the existence of the sun and the rotation of the planets. In astrology unbelievers use stars and planets for guidance, but the Bible says they merely display the handiwork of God (Ps. 19:1). What folly to follow astrological charts of the Babylonians or worship the sun god in Egypt; rather, one should trust the One who made these objects in the heavens. However, many humans repeatedly reject the Creator to worship the Creation (Rom. 1:25). 1:14 19 This section corresponds closely with the ordering of Day and Night on the first day, involving the separation of light and darkness (vv. 3 5). Here the emphasis is on the creation of lights that will govern time, as well as providing light upon the earth (v. 15). By referring to them as the greater light and lesser light (v. 16), the text avoids using terms that were also proper names for pagan deities linked to the sun and the moon. Chapter 1 deliberately undermines pagan ideas regarding nature s being controlled by different deities. (To the ancient pagans of the Near East, the gods were personified in various elements of nature. Thus, in Egyptian texts, the gods Ra and Thoth are personified in the sun and the moon, respectively.) The term made (Hb. asah, v. 16), as the ESV footnote shows, need only mean that God fashioned or worked on them; it does not of itself imply that they did not exist in any form before this. Rather, the focus here is on the way in which God has ordained the sun and moon to order and define the passing of time according to his purposes. Thus the references to seasons (v. 14) or appointed times (ESV footnote) and to days and years are probably an allusion to the appointed times and patterns in the Hebrew calendar for worship, festivals, and religious observance (Ex. 13:10; 23:15). 1:16 and the stars. The immense universe that God created (see note on Isa. 40:25 26) p 51 is mentioned here only in a brief phrase, almost as if it were an afterthought. The focus of Genesis 1 is on the earth; the focus of the rest of the Bible is on man (male and female) as the pinnacle of God s creation and the object of his great salvation. 1:20 23. The great creatures of the sea and the air were created on the fifth day. In this section (v. 21) is the second use of bārā ( created ; cf. v. 1). Great creatures of the deep, worshiped as dragons and monsters in the ancient world, were nothing more than creations by Almighty God. Moreover, fertility of life comes from the blessing of the true God (v. 22). 1 ESV English Standard Version ESV English Standard Version 1 Ross, A. P. (1985). Genesis. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, pp. 28 29). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books. 8 P a g e

August 20, 2017 God Leads His People (Planet 1) All Authority Belongs to God!!! 1:20 23 Having previously described the creation of the waters and the expanse of the heavens, this section focuses on how they are filled with appropriate creatures of different kinds. As reproductive organisms, they are blessed by God so that they may be fruitful and fill their respective regions. 1:21 The term for great sea creatures (Hb. tannin) in various contexts can denote large serpents, dragons, or crocodiles, as well as whales or sharks (the probable sense here). Some have suggested that this could also refer to other extinct creatures such as dinosaurs. Canaanite literature portrays a great dragon as the enemy of the main fertility god Baal. Genesis depicts God as creating large sea creatures, but they are not in rebellion against him. He is sovereign and is not in any kind of battle to create the universe. 1:24 31 This is by far the longest section given over to a particular day, indicating that day 6 is the peak of interest for this passage. The final region to be filled is the dry land, or Earth (as it has been designated in v. 10). Here a significant distinction is drawn between all the living creatures that are created to live on the dry land, and human beings. Whereas vv. 24 25 deal with the living creatures that the earth is to bring forth, vv. 26 30 concentrate on the special status assigned to humans. 1:24 25 livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth. These terms group the land-dwelling animals into three broad categories, probably reflecting the way nomadic shepherds would experience them: the domesticatable stock animals (e.g., sheep, goats, cattle, and perhaps camels and horses); the small crawlers (e.g., rats and mice, lizards, spiders); and the larger game and predatory animals (e.g., gazelles, lions). This list is not intended to be exhaustive, and it is hard to know where to put some animals (e.g., the domestic cat). See further Introduction: Genesis and Science. 2 God created the heavens and the earth. The word bārā ( created ) may express creation out of nothing, but it certainly cannot be limited to that (cf. 2:7). Rather, it stresses that what was formed was new and perfect. The word is used throughout the Bible only with God as its subject. Lecture Notes Hey, guys! I m so glad you re here as we start learning more about the Old Testament today. By the way, does anyone know what the Old Testament is? (see what they say) Let s take a look for ourselves. Does everyone have a Bible? If you don t, raise your hand so we can get you one. (pass out Bibles) Okay, let s see if we can all find the book of Matthew. It should be about twothirds of the way through the Bible. If you ve found it, turn to others and help them. (wait on everyone) Okay, now grab all the parts of the Bible that came before Matthew. That s called the Old Testament. The Old Testament is really just the story of the one true God. It s about how He revealed Himself to the world by working in just one family and how that work actually then 2 Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (pp. 49 51). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. 9 P a g e

Planet 1, OT Lesson 1: All Authority Belongs to God blesses every family of the world. So it s a bunch of stories but better because it s all true. And more than just any old story, it s a story that is really headed somewhere a story that tells us about ourselves as it tells us about others from a long time ago. Most important, it s a story that finds its end in Jesus Christ. It talks about Him. It tells us why He came. But before we see that, we have to go back to the beginning to the book of Genesis. Can you turn there now? Let s look at Genesis 1. We re going to start at the very beginning. Would someone read the very first five words of Genesis? (In the beginning, God created) What does that tell us? It tells us that before everything, there was God. He wasn t created. He s not a part of our world. He is God. And it tells us God is the Creator. He alone has the power and the right to make everything else. Let s keep reading and while we re going through it, you re going to help me fill in this chart (see chart at end of story) on the board. So, as I read, listen for what God is doing each day. (read verses 1-13) Okay, let s look at what happened. On day 1 it says God created the heavens and the earth then what did He do (vs. 3-5)? (created light, separated light from darkness, called the light Day and darkness Night ) We re going to put this under the word Location on our chart. Before we go on to the second day, tell me what it tells us about God that He created light. Was the Sun here yet? (No.) God just created light. He has power and authority over light and darkness. When He speaks, light must obey Him. He is the all-powerful creator. What about day 2? What did God do (vs. 6-8)? (separated the waters into sea and sky) Let s add those. Did it say the water fought against God? Did the water complain about what was happening? No, of course not. Notice at the end of verse 7 it says, And it was so. When God speaks, creation obeys God as its creator. He has the right to put the water where He wants it He has authority over it. Then on day 3, God separated out what? (dry land, earth) Okay. So now we have this part filled in. We know what places God created. Let s look at the rest of the story and see what He put there. Let s read verses 14-26. Now let s go back to day 4. What did God make? What are the lights in the heavens? (stars, planets, supernovas, sun, moon, etc.) Did you notice God didn t just put them up there to be shiny, did He? What were they for? (vs. 14 signs, seasons, days, years) They were put there to give order. God created the day He has the authority to make it last as long as He wants it to last. Can we change the number of hours in a day? Can we decided we want the temperature to change over all the earth? Can we change where the Sun sits in space? No. God does. He has all authority over all creation. He rules. Creation obeys. 10 P a g e

August 20, 2017 God Leads His People (Planet 1) All Authority Belongs to God!!! What about day 5? What did he make? (fish, water mammals, sponges, anemones, birds) Notice in verse 22, God blessed them by telling them to multiply. To have them live, find mates, make baby fish that was part of God not only ruling them, but wanting good for them. He is a good leader a good ruler over all His creation. Then on day 6, God created what? (animals, insects, reptiles, man, woman) So that goes in our chart. What about day 7? We didn t read it. Anyone know what happens? (God rested.) Yeah. God rested from all the work He did and He blessed that day and made that 7 th day holy. And how did God feel about all this stuff He d just done? (thought it was good 1:31 very good) Well, we ve seen what God did. Look at the chart. He made the places and then He put everything in its place. What does that tell us about God? (possible answers to bring out: He is powerful. He created it all out of nothing. He has the right to put it where He wants it. He has authority to decide what to make and how to make it. He is creative. He cares about His creation. He blessed His creation cares that it does well.) So, what does that mean for us today? Remember, when we said that when God told there to be light, what happened? (there was light.) And when He said the seas would be filled with fish, what happened? (filled with fish.) When God speaks, creation obeys. He is the leader. But what about us? Do we always obey God? (no) Why do you think we don t do what He tells us? (see what they say: don t like what He says want to do what we want sin.) Yeah. One of the first things we need to understand is that God is the leader, the ruler of us all whether we like it or not. He has the right to do with us as He decides is right. He has the power to have us be born right where we are, to the parents He decides to give us. We live where He puts us just like the Sun. And God wants us to be obedient just like the rest of creation. We re going to talk in the next couple of weeks about how God made us and what happened to us to cause us to not follow Him as our leader. But today, let s close by praising God for what He did for being a wise and good Creator of all things and by praying and asking God to teach us from this Word about who He is as our all powerful leader and to help us to obey Him just like the rest of creation does. The Days of Creation 11 P a g e

Planet 1, OT Lesson 1: All Authority Belongs to God Location Inhabitants 1. Light and dark 4. Lights of day and night 2. Sea and sky 5. Fish and birds 3. Fertile earth 6. Land animals (including mankind) 7. Rest and enjoyment Chart adapted from The ESV Study Bible, copyright 2008 Crossway Bibles. Suggested Follow-up Activities Teachers are free to choose the activities that they feel are best for their group. The idea is that as the children work and play, remind them of the truths they just learned. Scripture Memory: Figure out your reward system for memorizing the Scriptures provided in this section. Give the children several opportunities to tell it to you in class. Play a memory game with the kids if you have time. Craft: You Create Remind the kids that today we learned about our all-powerful, all-wise Creator God. He was before the beginning and everything that is came from Him. He decided how it should all look, where it should all go and how it should all work. Everything in God s creation went where He told it to go and did what it was supposed to do. Give the children a piece of cardstock and place several piles of construction paper that have been cut into various shapes. Have the kids make their own animal or creature to live in God s creation. Have older kids draw the background to show the place it will live, what it will eat, where it will dwell, what it can do. Point out to them that if it s going to have wings, it can t live in the water or that if it lives in the water, it needs the ability to breathe there, etc. Provide sheets of animals or plants for the younger kids and allow them to use the construction paper to make them whatever color and pattern they d like. 12 P a g e

August 20, 2017 God Leads His People (Planet 1) All Authority Belongs to God!!! Ask them as they do it for the name of it and have them write it at the top. Point out that as they plan for it and create it, they do not think to ask if it wants to be created. They are in charge. They are the leader. They decide what it is like and where it will go. Point out similarities with how God created everything (see also Acts 17: 26-27). Materials: one piece of cardstock per child; pre-cut construction paper; glue or glue sticks; markers or crayons Game: Days of Creation Race Remind the kids that today we learned about our allpowerful, all-wise Creator God. He was before the beginning and everything that is came from Him. He decided how it should all look, where it should all go and how it should all work. Everything in God s creation went where He told it to go and did what it was supposed to do. Have the children divide into 2 or 3 teams and position them an equal distance from you. Have a list prepared of specific items from creation that you will use. For younger children, these will be things like stars, land, light, sky, man, fish, etc. For older children, use a much more specific list like Orion, Bermuda, Andromeda, stratus clouds, President Lincoln, whale, etc. Tell the kids that you ll be calling out two items. The teams then each decide which one was created first. When they think know it, they must send a team member to race to the teacher. The first one to touch the teacher and say the correct answer is the winner. The teams get a point for each correct answer, but lose a point if they tell the wrong answer. If you are concerned that they won t remember well, leave the chart on the board for them to reference. To make the game more difficult, make them find the reference in their Bibles and say the correct verses as well. Craft: Little Creators Remind the kids that today we learned about our all-powerful, all-wise Creator God. He was before the beginning and everything that is came from Him. He decided how it should all look, where it should all go and how it should all work. Everything in God s creation went where He told it to go and did what it was supposed to do. Give the children a small piece of play dough or clay. Ask them to imagine they were walking in a park. Ask them to name some things they might see. Prompt them to think of things in nature like trees, flowers, rocks, grass, animals, the sun, etc. Ask them to use their clay and make one of 13 P a g e

Planet 1, OT Lesson 1: All Authority Belongs to God those. Next, ask them to think of their favorite food. Ask them to squish their clay and make it into that food and see if others can guess what it is. You could then ask them to make whatever they want and see if you or others could guess what it was. Provide baggies for them to take their clay home if you d like. At the end, ask them questions about creating: Did they like it? Who decided what to make the clay into? Did the clay ever gripe at you and tell you it didn t want to be made that way? Remind them that God was also very happy with His creation. God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit were all there at creation, and they were rejoicing over what they did. They decided what to make. They decided what colors it would all be, where everything would go, and how it all would work together. God is before creation, above creation, ruler over creation. He is NOT a part of His creation. Materials: clay or play dough; zip-top baggies 14 P a g e