Lesson 12: God takes Elijah to Heaven November 20/21 Bible Point: God Wants us to be faithful Key Verse: So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31) Pre Activity 10 min ICEBREAKER: First 5 Min: Welcome children to the classroom as they arrive. Ask children one fun thing that they did this past week or weekend. Ask what they remember from last week s lesson. (God spoke to Elijah). Have children share with a partner how they followed last week s Daily Challenges to be reminded of God s presence when they felt alone last week. Tithing Tithing Buckets Small Group Icebreaker- Fun Question of the Day: What is the one thing that you are the most thankful for? (each child will give an answer, then the group decides on the most creative; they will then share their group answer at the beginning of large group lesson time: may the group with the most creative answer win!) *Take kids to 203 for worship and the lesson at ten after. Worship 15 min WORSHIP: Lesson Leader (LL): Welcome children and state the lesson name and bible point. Open in prayer. Begin worship by getting kids excited! Live It Out CD Laptop Worship: 1. We Shine 2. Live It Out When songs are completed, have the kids sit in a big circle. (teachers joining the circle; preferably sitting near those that are more quick to distract) Lesson 15-20 min LARGE GROUP LESSON: LL: Before we begin our lesson today, let s let each small group share their best answer for the fun question of the day! What is the one thing that you are the most thankful for? Have the kids vote by applause on the winner. PRAYER BACKGROUND INFORMATION
As we are going to be mentioning a few new names, I d like everyone to have some background information. Today we will be learning about God taking Elijah to heaven. Elijah was a prophet to Israel (Does anyone know what does it mean a prophet? ) but God knew that Elijah wasn t going to live for much longer and so he chose Elisha to become a prophet to Israel after Elijah goes to Heaven. Immediately Elisha becomes an assistant to Elijah. Ahab was king of Israel at the time but because he and Jezebel (I didn t find info on him ) continued in their evil ways, Elijah pronounced God s judgment upon them. Ahab was killed in a battle and Ahaziah became kind of Israel. Ahaziah only ruled for two years and then he died. He was punished by God by worshiping another god name Baal. Bible Elisha knew that Elijah was soon to be taken to heaven, he had a lot of respect for him and was learning a lot of things from him. Elisha was determined to stay with Elijah until the last moment. At that time there were 3 other companies of prophets and we know that Elijah visited each of these companies one last time before being taken to heaven. He wanted to visit them without Elisha. By saying that, he was testing Elisha s faithfulness. Elisha wouldn t hear of it and insisted on going with him. Elisha s faithfulness and persistence were rewarded when Elijah asked him what he could do for him before he goes to heaven. Instead of asking for material things or anything else, he wanted double portion of God s power to help him deal with the responsibility of becoming a prophet to Israel. God had supported and protected Elijah throughout his ministry of being a prophet and he was the second person in the Old Testament (the first one was Enoch), who never experienced death. He was simply taken to heaven by a chariot of fire and horses of fire. After Elijah went to heaven Elisha picked up Elijah s cloak as a symbol that he now will do what Elijah was doing before. Elisha was blessed by the power of God in him and was able to experience strength given to him by God. He needed this strength to be prophet among the evil conditions in Israel. TEACHING Today we are going to have a unique opportunity to define a word that is often really difficult to understand. Please think of a one-word description of the word faithfulness. Raise your hand and one by one you can tell me
the word that comes to your mind your balloon, but they all have to relate Now that most of you told me your words that relate to faithfulness, we ll discuss what the words mean. I d like you and your partner to use that word in a sentence that explains how it relates to faithfulness. For example, if the word was consistent, you might say Being faithful to someone means that you are always consistently there for them. LL: Questions 1) How would you define faithfulness? (it means not to quit on someone or something even when you want to.) 2) Why is faithfulness important? (It shows you can be trusted; it builds trust between others; if people just gave up, nothing would ever get done.) 3) How have you been impacted by someone s faithfulness? (Answers will vary) 4) What does it mean to be faithful to our friends? To God? (It means to stick by our friends even when things get tough, it means to do what God asks us to do) Faithfulness is an important quality. God wants us to be faithful to him in everything that we do. Today we are going to talk about what it means to be faithful to God and how we can develop as Faith Weavers. Faithfulness isn t a quality that lots of people have. It s actually something that takes a lot of work to refine. Let s open our Bibles to 2 Kings 2:1-15. What did you notice about Elisha s attitude? What about Elijah s? (Elijah was determined, and confident that whatever he asked would be provided. Elijah did amazing things as if he knew all the time that God would help him.) Who were the faithful ones in this passage? (Elisha, Elijah, and the prophets were all faithful, in their own ways.) Who were they faithful to? (They were faithful to God; Elisha was faithful to Elijah, and vice versa) This passage says a lot about faithfulness. Faithfulness usually involves our emotions. How we feel about someone or a situation often shapes how
faithful we are. I d like you to look at the passage again and consider the emotions that each person might have been feeling. Small Groups 10 minutes SMALL GROUPS: K-2 nd Small Groups: Both Sides of Faithfulness Have students form pairs and then look up today s Key Verse, 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paper Markers So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. ALL SMALL GROUPS: Key Verse Key Verse Let s remind ourselves of the key verse. Question: Does anyone remember 1 Corinthians 10:31? Question: How we can try to memorize it as a group? Have your small group help brainstorm best ways to memorize it and practice together. Ideas: repetition, turn into song, write it, turn it into pictures. In our small groups let s recap today s lesson. Can anyone briefly summarize for me what we learned about? What do the emotions in this passage tell you about faithfulness? (It s easier to be faithful when you care about something; being faithful can be painful sometimes). How did faithfulness impact this situation? (it helped Elisha to stick by Elijah when he didn t have to, it enabled Elijah to bless Elisha) Why does God want us to be faithful? (Being faithful pleases God, by being faithful, we get to see the fruit of what God wants us to do) What are the results of being faithful? (We are blessed by God, we stay under God s protection, others are often more faithful to us). Another person who never waivered in his faithfulness to God is Jesus. Like Elijah and Elisha, he promoted God s kingdom. In fact, when Jesus first began his ministry, some people thought he was Elijah, returned from
heaven. These biblical examples tell us a lot about how God wants us to be faithful. Prayer Take prayer requests from the children. Write them down and then repeat them in summary to the group before you pray. Pray as a group for one another (popcorn prayer, or in order around the circle, or have 2 volunteers- 1 opens and 1 closes)