Lesso 6 63 God Floods the Earth Geesis 7 8; 9:8-16 M ay third-ad fourth-graders make promises to oe aother all the time. They promise, I ll be your best fried or I ll ivite you to my birthday party. Promises are ofte disregarded as carelessly as they re made. Sometimes eve promises made by parets ad other adults are broke, resultig i disappoitmet ad hurt. Use this lesso to help kids discover that God s promises are differet. I a world of broke homes ad broke promises, kids ca fid comfort i God who faithfully keeps his promises. LESSON WHAT CHILDREN DO SUPPLIES EASY PREP 1 Gettig Started 2 Bible Exploratio Promises, Promises (about 10 mi.) Lear the differece betwee promises we make ad the promises God makes. Noah s Photo Album (about 35 mi.) Preted they re photographig Noah s experiece o the ark, ad draw pictures. Bold text withi the lesso is spoke text. Bibles, 1 idex card per child, pes, a permaet marker, medium-size rock Bibles, Bible Truth Sleuth, CD player, colored pecils Teacher Pack: CD Tear out the Lesso 6 pages from each Bible Truth Sleuth studet book. Bible Poit We ca cout o God s promises. Key Verse The Lord is faithful to all his promises ad lovig toward all he has made (Psalm 145:13). Weavig Faith Ito Life Childre will discover what s special about God s promises. Grades 3 & 4 Lesso 6
64 LESSON WHAT CHILDREN DO SUPPLIES EASY PREP 3 Weavig Faith Ito Life 4 Lastig Impressios Raibow Remiders (about 15 mi.) Make jourals to keep track of God s faithfuless. Daily Challeges (about 5 mi.) Choose a Daily Challege to apply God s Word. Weavig Faith at Home (about 2 mi.) Talk about how to share what they leared with their families. CD player, costructio paper i at least 6 colors (several sheets of each color), scissors, pes, stapler Teacher Pack: CD Bible Truth Sleuth Bold text withi the lesso is spoke text. Lesso 6 Grades 3 & 4
65 God Floods the Earth Geesis 7 8; 9:8-16 BIBLe BACKGROUND FOR LEADERS God Speaks to Noah Noah Obeys Geesis 6 wraps up with Noah obeyig God (Elohim). Chapter 7 begis with the Lord (Yahweh) speakig to Noah. The use of these two ames i these places is oteworthy. The ame Elohim teds to be used to emphasize God s justice, ad the ame Yahweh most ofte deotes God s mercy. I Chapter 6, Noah carried out God s orders that showed God s judgmet o humakid. I Chapter 7, we see the admiistratio of God s mercy i the salvatio of Noah s family ad the aimals. The Flood Arrives Whe the flood came, it was t caused oly by rai. We read also that the sprigs of the great deep burst forth. Water came shootig upward from uder the earth s surface as rai deluged the earth from above. There was so much water that it covered the highest moutais by more tha 20 feet! Some scietists believe that this evet ivolved the slidig of cotiets ad the creatio of moutai rages as subterraea plates slid ad crashed together. leave the ark (Geesis 8:15-17). God was takig care of Noah ad his family, just as he had promised. God Makes a Promise I Geesis 9:12-16, God agai demostrated his love for Noah. He made aother promise, sigified by the raibow. The raibow will always remid us of God s promise to Noah ad the fact that God always keeps his promises! The Jesus Coectio Everyoe adults icluded struggles to keep commitmets ad promises. As we juggle resposibilities to family, job, spouse, ad frieds, we ofte fid these commitmets coflictig with each other. Ad to add to the challege, we live i a world where the character trait of faithfuless is t ecessarily valued. Pray for idividuals i your miistry that as they model faithfuless ad promise-keepig to others, they also pait a picture of a promise-keepig God. You ca write your prayer here. Noah ad His Family Retur to Dry Lad Oce the rai stopped, it took almost a year for the water to recede sufficietly for Noah ad his family to leave the ark. It s iterestig that oe of the birds Noah had set out to see if the earth was gettig dry retured with a olive leaf. The olive brach has come to symbolize peace. Perhaps i the time of Noah it symbolized a ew peace betwee God ad his creatio. Notice that Noah had a method for testig to see if the earth was dry, but God told him whe he should Grades 3 & 4 Lesso 6
66 GETTING STARTED Promises, Promises Supplies Bibles 1 idex card per child pes a permaet marker medium-size rock Promises, Promises What You ll Do Welcome kids warmly as they arrive, ad ask them how their week wet. Have kids form pairs, ad give each pair a pe ad two idex cards. Say: With your parter, write o oe idex card three thigs other people have promised you ad what they did to keep their promise. Maybe your mom or dad promised to take you to your favorite restaurat ad took you there for dier. Or maybe a fried promised to help you pick up your room after playig ad kept that promise. You ll have oe miute to write three promises. Go! Allow time. Ivite willig kids to share their aswers. Say: Now work with your parter to write o your other idex card three promises you ve see broke. Maybe a fried promised to ivite you over to play ad the forgot. You ll have oe miute to write. Go! Ivite willig kids to share their aswers. After kids have shared, have them tear the cards ito pieces. Say: We ve all made promises we sometimes ca t keep. Broke promises ca leave us feelig disappoited ad eve tor up like these cards. But God always keeps his promises. Hold up the rock. This rock is a symbol of the promises God makes. Have kids ame a few promises God makes, ad use a permaet marker to write a oe-word summary of each oe o the rock. Have kids pass the rock ad try to tear it apart, like they did the idex cards. Have pairs discuss this questio, ad the ivite willig pairs to share their aswers with the rest of the group. What s differet about the promises o the cards (hold up pieces of the tor cards) ad the promises God makes? Hold up the rock. Give each pair a Bible, ad the help kids tur to Psalm 145:13. Read the verse aloud first, ad the have kids repeat it with you: The Lord is faithful to all his promises ad lovig toward all he has made (Psalm 145:13). Say: This verse helps us uderstad that WE CAN COUNT ON GOD S PROMISES. They re rock solid. Hold up the rock agai. We ca trust God to do as he says. Lesso 6 Grades 3 & 4
67 Talk With Kids Lead kids i this discussio. What do you like about promises that are kept? What do you ot like about broke promises? What makes it difficult or easy to keep the promises you make? Say: WE CAN COUNT ON GOD S PROMISES. God s promises ever break, similar to the way we ca t tear up the rock. Let s fid out about a special promise God made to a ma amed Noah. 2 BIBLE EXPLORATION Noah s Photo Album What You ll Do Have kids form trios, ad give each trio a Bible ad several colored pecils. Help kids to tur to Geesis 7 i their Bibles. Say: Noah ad his family were about to start a amazig jourey. Ofte whe people go o trips, they take pictures of their adveture to capture importat memories. The photos ca go ito a photo album after the trip to keep the special memories safe. Today we ll preted we re with Noah o the ark to take pictures for Noah s photo album. Distribute today s Bible Truth Sleuth pages, ad have kids fid the Noah s Photo Album sectio. Say: I your trios, read the directios for the Noah s Photo Album activity o your Bible Truth Sleuth page. Allow time. After readig the Bible passage for Photo #1, draw what you imagie would be i that photo. You ll have four miutes to read ad draw before movig o to Photo #2. I ll play a soud clip for each photo ad whe it eds, that ll be your cue to move o to the ext photo. Ready? All aboard the ark! Noah s Photo Album Supplies Bibles Bible Truth Sleuth CD player colored pecils Teacher Pack CD: Life o the Ark (track 13) Noah s Photo Album Easy Prep Tear out the Lesso 6 pages from each Bible Truth Sleuth studet book. Play Life o the Ark (track 13 o the CD) to provide the appropriate soud effects. Life o the Ark has six sets of soud effects to go alog with the six photo sectios o the Bible Truth Sleuth page. You ll be istructed to pause the CD at the ed of each set. Give kids the time they eed betwee sets to fiish readig, ad the play the CD agai for the ext soud effect. After kids fiish drawig, have them joi aother group to share pictures ad discuss each drawig. Allow five miutes, ad the have kids sit i a circle. Grades 3 & 4 Lesso 6
68 Talk With Kids Lead kids i this discussio. Which of the pictures you drew shows the greatest example of havig to rely o God? Explai. Tell about the pictures you drew that ca help you remember how God always keeps his promises. Noah, his family, ad the aimals had to wait a log time for the flood water to go away as God said it would. What makes it easy or difficult to wait for what s promised to you? If you were to draw a picture of a time you kew God kept his promises, what would you draw? Tell about it. Say: God promised Noah ad his sos that he d ever flood the earth agai. As a sig of his promise, God put a raibow i the sky ad still does to this day! God certaily has kept his promise. Every time you see a raibow i the sky, remember that WE CAN COUNT ON GOD S PROMISES. God will ever lie to you. There are lots of remiders of God s promises all aroud us ad it s good to write them dow. Let s practice doig that ow. 3 WEAVING FAITH INTO LIFE Raibow Remiders Supplies CD player costructio paper i at least 6 colors (several sheets of each color) scissors pes stapler Teacher Pack CD: All His Promises (Psalm 145:13b) (track 14) Raibow Remiders What You ll Do Say: Jourals ca be very helpful because they remid us of thigs that have happeed. If Noah had kept a joural, he could have looked back at it ay time he ever questioed whether God keeps his promises. Oe look at how God had take care of him durig the flood would ve remided him that WE CAN COUNT ON GOD S Lesso 6 Grades 3 & 4
69 PROMISES. Ad he would ve kow for sure that God would keep his promise ever to flood the earth agai. Let s make somethig to remid us of God s promises. You ll be makig Raibow Remiders jourals you get to take home. I your jourals, you ca write about how God keeps his promises or make otes of ay remiders of God s promises that you see. Demostrate for kids how to cut six sheets of costructio paper ad layer the sheets i varyig colors ad legths (so the colors of the pages show oe behid the other). See the photos for a example. While kids work, play All His Promises (Psalm 145:13b) (track 14 o the CD). Staple the edges of each joural, ad have kids cut a arc from the bottom right to the top left of their jourals to create a raibow shape. Play All His Promises (Psalm 145:13b) (track 14 o the CD) agai while kids fiish makig their jourals. Say: O the first page of your joural, write your favorite part about the way God kept his promise to Noah. Talk With Kids Lead kids i this discussio. What did you write about your favorite part of the way God kept his promise to Noah? Why did you pick that part? What ca you do the ext time you have a hard time believig that God will keep his promises? Say: Use your Raibow Remiders to help you remember that WE CAN COUNT ON GOD S PROMISES. Keep close watch for how God keeps his promises, ad cotiue to write i your joural about what you see. Ad every time you see a raibow, remember the promise God kept to Noah ad all of us. The write a ote i your joural to thak God for always keepig his promises. 4 LASTING IMPRESSIONS Daily Challeges What You ll Do Say: Let s thik about ways to remember this week that WE CAN COUNT ON GOD S PROMISES. Daily Challeges Supplies Bible Truth Sleuth Have kids fid this week s Daily Challeges o their Bible Truth Sleuth pages ad choose oe to do this week. They ca choose oe or more of these three optios: Grades 3 & 4 Lesso 6
70 Look i the Bible at 2 Samuel 22:31 (God s promises prove true), 2 Corithias 1:20 (God fulfilled his promises through Jesus), ad Hebrews 13:5 (God will ever leave you). Write i your joural about which of these promises is most special for you this week, ad why. Write i your Raibow Remiders joural at least oce this week about a promise you see come true. Talk to God about ay promises you ve made ad ask for help i keepig them. Make sure you choose a Daily Challege as well, ad tell kids what you chose. Kids will be more iclied to follow through o their commitmets whe they see you doig the same. Talk With Kids What s a practical way you re goig to do your Daily Challege? Share a time, a place, or other ideas. Allow time. Say: All these years later, God has ever flooded the earth sice he made his promise to Noah. He kept his promise! Let s thak God that WE CAN COUNT ON GOD S PROMISES as we follow through o our Daily Challeges this week. Weavig Faith at Home Ecourage kids to talk with their parets about the Daily Challeges they chose ad what they leared about God s promises. Kids ca also do the activities i the HomeCoect sectio of their Bible Truth Sleuth pages with their families. Talk to your Director about emailig the FREE FamilyCoect to all your church s families. Available at group.com/digital. Close with prayer. Allow oe miute for kids to tell a parter why he or she believes God will keep his promises. After pairs share, have them each raise their arms above their heads ad joi hads to make a raibow shape. The pray aloud: God, thak you for puttig a remider i the sky to show us we ca always cout o you to keep your promises. Ivite willig pairs to tell God why they believe he will keep his promises. Close with: We believe i your promises, God. I Jesus ame, ame. Lesso 6 Grades 3 & 4