A Lesson for KIDS CHURCH Lesson Title: Truth and Consequences Text: Number 13-14 This lesson by: Pastor Karl Bastian Lesson Summary: This story is one with an unhappy ending. While on the brink of receiving all that God has promised them, the Israelites choose instead to doubt God and fear their enemies rather than trust Him. The result is a judgment of forty years in the wilderness. The lesson for kids today is that not only is God loving and forgiving, but he is just as well. Our world loves to emphasize God s love often as a license to sin. But God s love is balanced by his justice. Kids need to be reminded that while God is love He is also just, and there are consequences to sin. Main Point: God is Just and Worthy of Trust ELEMENT DETAILS Welcome Show the Sacred Agent Man Video (?) Intro There is someone in the hallway! Send 2 spies! 1) tall, dark, evil and menacing looking! We are dooooomed! 2) skinny and flimsy we can take him! We can take him! KIDS VOTE on what to do who to believe! Go and get the person it is a cardboard cut out of Darth Vader. Both reports were true but only one was right. (refer back to in lesson) Henry Comes in pulling a huge bag filled with candy from trick or treating he is still going door to door. Talks about how wonderful it was for people to give away alllll this candy. Karl pulls some of the candy out and shows it. (We used sleeping bag and pillow to fill most of huge bag and then filled with candy, but it looked like it was all candy!) Molly Has TONS of candy. Thanks Pastor Karl for calling her and reminding her to go trick or treating. She is still dressed in her costume. (She is dressed as a bee she is a Bee-Attitude) Gus Dressed as Jedi Oobi-Gus-Benubi - Has empty bag with no candy. Didn t you go trick or treating? I was afraid. Of what? The scary costumes? No, that no one would give me candy and my trip would end up being a waste of time. But I told you to go the candy was for the taking! Really? I ll go tonight! It s too late, now you have to wait another whole year! Just like the Israelites. God told them to GO TAKE THE PROMISE LAND! But they were afraid. It was theirs for the taking. Now they had to wait, not one year, but 40 years! Bible Lesson Numbers 13-14 The twelve spies travel into the promise land, they see how good it is, but 10 are afraid, and only two believe they can take it because God is with them. Everyone who doubts is punished by 40 years in the wilderness. General Epistle Only voice is heard. PK! (what?) It s General Epistle. (it is? Where are you?) I am right next to you. (you are?) Yes, I am invisible. (I don t believe you) OK, I ll prove it to you. (OUCH! That hurt) Sorry, just meant to give you a little poke. (why are you invisible?) I am demonstrating new spy technology! (wow so you are invisible, cool!) Yes, this way I can sneak around and see what the enemy is up to. It is very important not to be seen when you are spying. (yeah, it is. So what kind of thing do you do?) Oh, whatever I want like. (HAHAHA! Stop tickling me!) tickling
Lesson Skit Krew Puppet Cue: talking about God is Love Object Lesson people. (don t DO that) Sorry. I ll let you get back to your lesson now. (OK, thanks.. are you there? Hello? General Epistle? Hello? <to kids> Well, I guess Major Pain is gone.) IT GENERAL EPISTLE, PK! (haha got ya!) Haha, you tricked me, ok, I m really leaving now. Bye. (Bye. Hello? OK, I think he s gone. Anyway, kids, as I was saying.) BOO! (STOP THAT!) Lessons from Moses: 1) God desires to give us good things. 2) God only sends us where He will go with us. 3) When we don t trust God, there are consequences. 4) We have only ourselves to blame when judgment comes. The Popped Balloon. A family is out enjoying a day at the amusement park, when a fellow comes up with a long needle and POPS the little girls balloon! The dad grabs the fellow, and calls the police. They are about to arrest the fellow when he blames it on the balloon and the needle, so the police arrest the balloon and the needle and let the fellow go. The Point: People do sinful things that hurt people and they blame everything except themselves for the trouble. God is not so fooled! He knows we are guilty and there is punishment for sin. God is love, but He is also Just. His love does not excuse sin, it forgives sin, there is a difference! Puppet: My friend says that if God was love, he would not send anyone to hell. What do I say? How can a loving God send people to hell? Karl: Good question! It is easy to say God isn t loving if he sends people to hell. But there is another side to it. If God wasn t love he would not have created us free to chose. If God wasn t love no one would go to heaven. If God wasn t love Jesus would not have died for us. If God wasn t love he would not punish evil. BUT GOD IS LOVE enough to make us free, BUT enough to make a way to be saved when we misuse our freedom. If God was not loving, NO ONE would be forgiven for sinning again their Creator! CANDY or NO CANDY? Bring out a table with 12 cups on it, upside down so that candy can be hidden underneath. (Put candy under every cup!) Choose a volunteer from the audience. Explain that under each cup there might be candy or there might not be candy. You are going to point to each cup one at a time and ask them: Is there candy under this cup? After they answer, you will lift the cup. If they say there is and there is they get to keep that candy. (put in a baggie they are holding, adding to any previous candy won) But if they say no candy and there is candy they lose all the candy they have won so far. If they say there is and there isn t they can keep what they have, and go on to the next cup. If they say there isn t and there isn t, they can keep what they have, and go on to the next cup. (don t say this, but the only way to lose is say there isn t when there is) If a child is out choose another. Go until a child has gone through all twelve. They should figure out that there always is candy under the cup. THE POINT: There was candy under every cup. Actually, the only way to lose candy, was to doubt there was candy there. There was no penalty for thinking there was candy when their wasn t or from thinking their wasn t when their wasn t. Any cup without candy offered no threat. The only threat was to think their wasn t when there was. Cup after cup had candy, and yet rather than get more confident that there would be candy, most likely the child became more suspicious that there would not be because they were afraid of losing all the candy they had already collected. Greed prevented them from trusting. It might help to explain why the Israelites, after all God had done for them, over and over and over again, they would continue to
doubt him. It s like the more He did for them, the greedier they became. We need to look at all the things God has done for us, and instead of doubting Him more TRUST HIM MORE! Verse The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and W/ Kid James rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. Numbers 14:18 Toybox Tale The Danger Ranger - An X-treme Sports dude thinks 'if it's dangerous - it's fun' but he learns the hard way that only a fool follows danger! See www.toyboxtales.com Review Game Noggin Knocker Review Game Show Qualifier: How many spies were sent into the promise land? (12) 1) What was the land flowing with? (Milk and Honey) 2) What did the spies bring back? (Grapes also pomegranates and figs) 3) What was their punishment for not trusting God? (40 years in wilderness) 4) What was the name of the land they spied on? (Canaan) 5) Who were the spies with faith? (Joshua and Caleb) Assignment Make a list of things God has forgiven you for. Then take a BIG RED MARKER and write JESUS over them, since Jesus has covered them. OPTIONAL: Game Object Lesson Story WHO TO BELIEVE? Choose 12 kids. Pass out SPY CARDS.* Let each look into a box. Then ask each one to say out loud what is in the box. But only TWO say the truth. The other TEN make something up, or say. Then ask each WHAT S IN THE BOX? And each answers according to what their SPY CARD said. After all 12 have answered, choose kids from the audience to stand up and guess what THEY think is in the box based upon who they think is telling the truth. Once someone is right change the item in the box and collect, mix up, and repass out the SPY CARDS for another round. *SPY CARDS: Make 12 cards, 10 say up or repeat one of the others, only 2 say Tell the truth, say what is in the box. (see below or PDF) RAT TRAP: Demonstrate Cause and Effect. But then demonstrate FAITH to do what God says, no matter how bad it looks! The Perfect Judge
KID JAMES SCRIPT Pastor Karl: Hello Kid James. Today we are talking about God s love, but also how he is Just. And how the two balance each other. He wouldn t be loving if he wasn t just, and he wouldn t be just without love. Do you know of a verse that might help brings both God s love and his justice into focus? Kid James: Sounds like you are studying the Israelites, when they sent the 12 spies into the Promise Land? Pastor Karl: Yes, exactly, after all God had done for them, they still doubted him to do what He said He would do. Kid James: Well, there is a verse right in the middle of that story that talks about God s love and his justice, in Numbers 14:18 Pastor Karl: Great, what does it say? Kid James: It says, The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. Pastor Karl: THANKS, Kid James, that is a great verse. Tell me if I got it right, The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. Kid James: Perfect!
CUT OUT AND USE FOR THE GAME: TELL THE TRUTH what was in the box? TELL THE TRUTH what was in the box?