Refuse to Stop Praying episode 2 Daniel Word to the leaders This lesson is for Week Two of the Choose to Be Different series. During this lesson, kids will see Daniel as a star as he decides to pray even when nobody else would. We really want to show kids that people today go to every source but God when they have problems. This isn t what God intended for us as Christians! His desire is that we would go to him first! Today s trend is to write about it on Facebook, gossip, call hotlines, search Google, talk to psychics, and just about everything else before talking to God. Daniel was challenged to stop talking to God, and start prying to the king. This was a huge contradiction to what Daniel knew as the right thing to do. Knowing that no one would be able to help him like God did, Daniel chose to keep praying to God instead of following the popular trend and praying to king Darius. As we study Daniel s life, pray and ask God to help you go to him in all things, even though this isn t always the popular thing to do. Ask for strength to keep focused on what God has for your life! Don t let anything stop you from placing your confidence in God s hands as he maps out the life he has for you!
Slide 1 Your Children s ministry slide Intro Say this Here we are in Week Two of our Stars series where we are learning what it means to be different than everyone else! (Slide 2 - Refuse to Bow Down to Anyone But God ) Last week we learned that we are to refuse to bow down to anyone but God! This week did you remember to care more about what God thinks of you than everyone else? Today we are learning the next step to being different than everyone else! Slide 3 - Refuse To Stop Praying Skit (As Presenter finishes Intro, character enters stage. This character should have on a tin foil hat that has a phone cord coming out of it, running to an old phone of some sort.tape wires everywhere for effect, to make it look like some sort of communication device. The character should come out holding the phone up in different spots as if trying to find a cell signal). Presenter - What we are talking about today is very important, because it involves us talking with our Heavenly Father! (As you say this part, the character from the skit will walk in!) Character Can you hear me now? Hmmmm. Presenter Umm, can I help you? Character Well, I m trying to get a signal here, can t you tell? Presenter I knew you were trying to do something like that, but why are you wearing that ridiculous hat? And what s with the phone? You trying to contact aliens or something? Character How did you know that? Did they tell you? Presenter Did who tell me what? Character The aliens. Did they tell you? Presenter Ummmm. Don t know that I ve ever talked with an alien before. Sorry.
Skit (continued) Character Then how did you know I was trying to contact them? Presenter Are you being for real? Character Yes I m for real! I need to ask an important question! Presenter I m sure you do, but we are in the process of learning how to become a star here, so..... Do you mind? Character Oh, my bad! By all means, proceed! Presenter Okay, so where was I? Oh that s right, if we are going to be a star, we must choose to be different than everyone else at times. Now sometimes when our friends have problems or questions they need answers to, they choose to talk with their friends about it. Some people go online and look it up or call a psychic hotline. If we are going to be a star, we must choose to be different than everyone else! That is why-- (Character interrupts). Character Talk to aliens! That s what I am doing! Presenter Again, we are having a serious discussion here! Character Oh, sorry! I thought you wanted the kids to know how to be different than everyone else! Presenter I do!!!!! Charcter Okay, that s why I am sharing this brilliant piece of information with the kids! Presetner What brilliant information? Character I ve figured out how to be different than everyone else! Presenter You did? Let s hear it! This should be good! Character Well, I noticed that when all my friends have questions in life, they seem to do all sorts of things. They talk about it on Facebook, they text all of their friends for advice, they even ask people who don t even care about them for answers. Well, I decided I wouldn t be like that! Presenter Well, good for you! That s exactly what we are talking about today! We shouldn t be like everyone else! We need to-- (Interrupted again) Character Talk to aliens! Presenter Talk to... what? Character Oh yeah! That s why I need to get a hold of the aliens! I don t want to just be like everyone else. I want to talk with the aliens about my questions! Then I will have all the answers I need!
Skit (continued) Presenter But that s a little weird, don t you think? Character You would say that! Well listen, I learned last week that sometimes our friends have ideas about what we should do but we shouldn t always listen to them! Presenter - I know, but you should listen to what I m about to tell you! Character Nope! I don t want you trying to change how I do things just because it doesn t fit into the way everyone else is doing it! I want to do what is right! Presenter Okay, will you at least sit through service and hear what we are talking to the kids about today? Character Well, I guess I could. Doesn t seem like the aliens are receiving a signal right now anyway. They must have AT&T or something! Presenter Okay, let me take you backstage! Character Alright. But if they get my signal, I m going outside to talk with them! Presenter You betcha! Hey kids, I m going to take him backstage, but you just keep your ears tuned in, because we are going to show you how important it is to refuse to stop praying! Alright, come on backstage with me alien man! Big Deal Slide 4 - Big Deal video (This video also introduces the game!) Print the Big Idea banners out and hang them throughout the room during the entire series. Refer back to them as often as possible throughout the series. This slide will present the Big Idea (Refuse to Stop Praying) to the kids as well as intro the game. As the video is finishing, have the game set up and ready to go!
Game Slide 5 - Telephone Today s game is a good old-fashioned game of telephone with a twist! You will need 2 sets of note cards with words written on them; 10-15 words written on each set of cards one word per card; two dry erase hand held boards with marker; prizes. You can add a twist by playing loud music during game play. You also need anywhere from 5 to 10 people per team. In this game, the first person will be shown a card containing a word on it. They will not be allowed to say that word to anyone else, but will have to whisper an explanation of the word to the next player. For instance, if the word is cat they might say, This is something that is soft and furry and cute and says MEOW! Then that person will whisper a message (hopefully similar to the first message) to the next person in line. Each person passes their message to the next person, until the last person in line receives the message. Their goal is to write down what they think the original word was on their dry erase board. As they are doing this, the line is already in the process of passing on the message for the next word. Have two lines compete for 4 or 5 minutes. After you call time, let them finish up on the word they were doing. Check to see which line got the most words correct. Give that team a prize! After game, say this This game was kind of hard, wasn t it! It s not always easy for people to understand what you are trying to tell them when they are being distracted by so many other things. Then add to the fact that everyone was trying to pass the message down from one person to another, and in the end the message was so messed up that the last person was saying something that wasn t even part of what you were talking about! That s kind of what it is like when we go to our friends instead of going to God! Our friends might love us and even want to help us, but no one has the understanding and insight like God has! People will always get things wrong, but God will always know what s best! Which do you want? I choose to have what s right! That s why our Big Deal is so important today! What is it again? Say it with me! Slide 6 Refuse to stop praying!
Star Character Video Slide 7 Star Character video introduces the star for the day As video ends, say this Today as you saw, we are learning about a man named Daniel. He is a star to us, because he chose to be different than everyone else! Do you remember what he did that was so different? Don t answer that now. We will talk about it in just a minute! But first, we want you to learn a verse that helps us remember just what it means to be different. This verse will help us to figure out what it takes to be a star! If you are ready, I want you to say, Refuse to stop praying! What? I couldn t hear that! Say, Refuse to stop praying! Slide 8 - Refuse to stop praying! Scripture Verse Slide 9 - Scripture Verse video Slide 10 Don t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 There are three main ways the scripture verse will be taught each series. There is a work out video that was produced on the beach in California to represent the way stars get in shape. You may choose to play that video all three weeks of each series. There is also a computer prompted video in which the kids are prompted to say different parts of the verse and then all together. The third way is to say it live with presenters prompting the kids as they go. It is recommended that you use all three styles in each series, but you may choose to use the videos more if you want to save on presenters. If you are doing it live, choose creative ways to say the verse and have kids compete. Make it a boys vs girls competition.
Bible Story (Message) Slide 11 Daniel Poster We are learning what it means to be different than everyone else, and the way we can do that in order to be a star is to refuse to stop praying! But let me share some interesting statistics with you for a minute! Slide 12 82.4% of the U.S. population of all ages is estimated to have one of these... Do you know what it is? Slide 13 A cell phone! Slide 14 4.6 billion people worldwide own a cell phone! Slide 15 Over 3 Billion of these happen per day. What do you think that could be? What happens over 3 billion times a day? Slide 16 Google searches online. Slide 17 That s 34,000 searches per second, 2 million per minute, 121 million per hour, 3 billion per day, and 90 billion per month. That s a lot of searches on the internet for answers! Slide 18 1700 people use this each day. Slide 19 Psychic 1700 people a day in the U.S. call a psychic to get their fortune told. Slide 20 Daniel Poster People today just don t know who to go to for answers. People seem to want to ask everyone they can for advice without ever going to the one person who can really help them! God! In Daniel s day, things weren t much different. Our story finds us following a king named Darius. He was friends with Daniel and loved talking with him. Daniel was not born in Darius kingdom though. When Israel was taken captive, Daniel was one of the men brought to the king s palace to study and learn how to do things their way. Daniel continued to live out his faith, though he was constantly surrounded by a different way of life. Because of Daniel s faithfulness to God, Daniel found favor in the eyes of the king. This made some of the king s men very jealous! So they looked for a way to trap Daniel. The only thing they could find was that Daniel was very devoted to prayer. He prayed to God because he knew that was the only way to know what God wanted for his life! The men went to Darius and said that for the next 30 days, people shouldn t be going to anyone but the king with their thoughts and questions. They shouldn t be praying to their God. All prayers should be directed to King Darius. King Darius liked the sound of this. He said that anyone who broke this edict would be thrown into the lions den. Since all of the king s officials agreed, the king had no reason to suspect that Daniel wasn t in agreement with this. But Daniel knew better than to pray to anyone but God. He wasn t interested in what any man was doing. All he was interested in was keeping his relationship with God strong.
Bible Story (continued) So Daniel prayed on his knees three times a day. And when the king s men saw him do this, they brought Daniel in front of the king. The king had no choice but to throw Daniel into the lion s den. But God was with Daniel, because he served the Lord faithfully! So when the king opened the den the next day, Daniel was still alive! God protected Daniel because he chose to talk to God everyday! While everyone else was willing to pray to the king, Daniel chose to be different and continue praying to God no matter what the cost! That s what we are talking about today! Remember our Big Deal? Slide 21 Refuse to stop praying! Object lesson #1 (For this object lesson you will need a candy bar and one volunteer. Call up the volunteer and say this. Do you like this candy bar? This will be yours if you just do whatever I tell you. But I m only going to keep talking to you when you are looking at me. Oh, and I am going to put you all the way over there on the other side of the room. (Place volunteer on the other side of the room and begin telling them to do simple commands jump, clap, sit, spin around, etc). That was easy, wasn t it! Let s try it one more time! Oh, I forgot one last thing. This time you have to do everything I tell you, but while I am telling you, I am going to have everyone else in the room trying to yell different things to you while waving their arms and trying to get your attention. So everyone in this room: When I say GO I want you to yell to our volunteer and try and get their attention while I give them instructions to carry out. Are you ready? Audience, are you ready? GO! (Start giving instructions while the audience yells. Keep your voice and your animation at a calm state while calling out instructions as before stand on one foot, blink twice, whistle, etc).
Object lesson #1 (continued) STOP! Okay, come on up here to the front again. Was it hard to do what I was telling you to do when we first started? No it wasn t, because everyone was still quiet, and you could focus on me. You heard what I was saying and you carried it out with no problem. But once everyone started yelling, you missed quite a few of my instructions. Is it easy to hear when everyone else is making so much noise? Give our volunteer a hand. I will still give you the candy bar because you did a good job! This is how it is with God. He already has everything figured out for us to have the best life possible. The problem is, we tend to let our friends and what everyone else is doing get in the way of us hearing God s instructions. When we go to our friends first before going to God, it s like letting them stand in between us and God and begin yelling and waving their arms while God is trying to talk to us. Now don t get me wrong. God puts our friends in our lives so that we will have a support system. But God needs to be our first line of communication. Some people like to write stuff on Facebook to tell everyone and get advice from people. If God isn t the first person they are talking to about their issues, then they have got it all wrong. I know it isn t always the most popular thing to do, but we must remember to talk to God at all times about all things! And if we are going to be different in order to be a star, we must... Slide 22 - Refuse to stop praying! Object lesson #2 Sometimes we have a hard time praying to God when we know that others don t fully support us in our relationship with God. Today, however, we are all together as a family! God brings us together so that we can support each other and encourage one another. For that reason, we thought it would be a great thing for us to show that support by praying with one another today. Find two or three people to pray with, and share your request with them so that they may encourage you in your desire to listen to God through all things!
Closing Allow the kids to pray together for a few minutes. As their prayer time is coming to an end, ask the kids how it feels to be able to pray with their peers. Encourage them to never stop praying no matter if they get the support from their friends like that or not! Pray with the kids that they will have the courage to always go to God first, no matter what their friends would say. Pray over them that they will be strong and courageous, and that God will bring friends along who will encourage them to pray no matter what! Small Group Questions 1. Have you ever gotten bad advice from a friend? If so what was it? 2. It s not wrong to talk with your friends about the things you are dealing with. But, why is it easier to talk with them than God, when He is the only one who can do anything about what we are going through? 3. Share a time when you asked God for help, and He answered your prayer. 4. Daniel prayed even though it meant he would be thrown into the lion s den and could potentially lose his life. What type of things distract us from praying when we need to? 5. Who are some people your friends talk to when they are in need? 6. What are some things you would like us to pray about with you?