18.6 EL March 4th/5th Malachi the Prophet Bible Passages: Malachi 1-4 Main Point: God told His people to repent and get ready for Jesus. Big Picture Question: Does God keep His promises? Yes, God is always faithful even when we are not. Key Bible Verse: Lamentations 3:22-23- The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Leader Preparation Your role as a leader in the classroom is the most important role in the Loop as you are the direct connection to the whole reason we gather - to share the love of Christ with kids at Park! If you are not prepared to lead well in your service, then that affects the experience of the children in your care. To help prepare for this lesson, use the following study guide to set the context for this week s lesson. And don t forget to pray before, during and after! After many years living as prisoners in Babylon, God s people had returned to Judah. They had worked hard and overcome opposition to rebuild the temple and the walls around Jerusalem. Surely God would restore them finally! But nothing happened. As they waited, they faced drought and economic uncertainty. God s people probably didn t feel like God had blessed them at all. It is useless to serve God, they said. What have we gained by keeping His requirements? (Mal. 3:14). Did God still care? It wasn t long until they fell back into the same patterns of sin that led to their exile in the first place: idolatry, covetousness, hypocrisy, arrogance, and abuse of the poor. But God did still love His people. He had been working out His divine plan of redemption, and He never gave up on them. God sent a message to His people through the prophet Malachi. Malachi was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He spoke to God s people approximately 100 years after the end of the Babylonian captivity. Malachi s message from God was a wake-up call. God communicated through Malachi that the people s lack of blessing didn t mean that God didn t care. God exposed His people s sin and made clear that their actions merited a curse. God s people needed to repent and turn back to God. But for you who fear My name, God said, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings (Mal. 4:2). Explain to kids that 400 years of silence followed Malachi s prophecy; God did not communicate to His people. This period brings us to the New Testament, when the silence would be broken by the last prophet before Jesus, John the Baptist. His words about Jesus in John 1:29 offered hope to all who heard: Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Welcome // (15 minutes) Leaders: Pay attention to kids as they enter the room and be sure to greet them with a big smile! Make sure that you make each kid feel special when they arrive each week. Invite them to come sit with you and ask the discussion question below, allowing every child the chance to share. Arriving Discussion Younger As kids arrive, ask them if they have ever received hand-me-downs from someone else. Talk to them about whether they prefer used things or new things. Say: New things can be expensive, and we don t always use up things before we grow out of them. Giving them away is a great way to make sure we don t waste things. However, in our Bible story today, we will learn that giving God things that we don t want anymore isn t a good way to sacrifice. God deserves our very best! Older Ask kids to think of the best news they ve ever received. What made the news so special? Say: Good news is often about something that has already happened a baby was born, a sports team won a game, you earned a good grade on your math test, and so forth. Today we are going to hear about good news that hadn t happened yet. The prophet Malachi had news about what would happen in the future. Coloring Page/Activity Page Younger Invite kids to complete the Mmm s the Word activity page. Invite them to use the spaces provided to list as many words that start with M as they can. Say Those are some great M-words! Our Bible story today comes from the Book of Malachi. He said a messenger from God would prepare the way for the Messiah. I can t wait to hear more! Older Invite kids to work in pairs or small groups to complete Who Am I? on the activity page. Provide Bibles and challenge kids to fill in the blanks. Then kids should unscramble the circled letters to find out whom the prophet Malachi spoke about. ( John) Say Malachi was a prophet. He said God was going to send a messenger to get people ready for the promised Messiah. The messenger s name was John. Today we will hear more about Malachi s message. Pre-Lesson Activities (Optional) Younger: Pathway Use tape to mark a path on the floor in the classroom. Place obstacles along the path that will make it difficult. Form pairs of kids and invite them to go through the Older: Messenger Commands Invite the class to stand on one side of the room. Stand at the opposite side. Choose one child to be the messenger and come to you. Whisper to the 2
course together, maneuvering around or over the obstacles. Once all the kids have walked the path in this way, invite one kid in each pair to clear the path in front of her partner to prepare the path for the other kid to walk along. Say Was it easier to walk the path before or after the obstacles were moved? In today s story, we will learn about God s messenger who would come to prepare the way for the Messiah! I m so excited! messenger a command (hop on one foot, spin around, and so forth). The messenger will listen to the message, run to her classmates, and announce the message so the class can do the motion. Choose another messenger to retrieve the next command. Play several rounds. Say Today we will hear about a prophet, or messenger, named Malachi. Through Malachi, God told His people to repent and get ready for Jesus. TRANSITION TO LARGE GROUP LESSON Large Group // (25 minutes) Opening Time: Use this time to welcome all of the kids to Loop Kids this weekend! You can open this time by asking the group if anyone has any epic week highlights or asking a fun group question! Songs: Choose 2 songs to sing at the beginning of your large group time. If you have older kids in your group, invite them to come to the front to help lead the others! Ask the group why we sing songs of praise and worship each week? Answer: To praise God for who He is and what He has done for us! Visitors & Birthdays: Ask the group if there are any first time visitors today. If there are, have them stand and introduce themselves (share their name, age, and a fun fact like favorite ice cream flavor or pizza topping). Then, ask if there are any kids in the group that have a birthday this week. If you have any kids with a birthday, invite them to stand and sing happy birthday as a group. Then let them pick a toy out of the prize bucket! Offering: As you move into the time to collect offering, ask the group why we collect offering each week. Help them come to realize that we should give back to God because He has generously given to us. Not only has He blessed us with physical and material things like health, food, and a home, but even more so He has met our deep spiritual needs of a Savior to forgive our sins! Encourage them to see the many reasons we can generously give back to God. Share that when we give to the offering box in Loop Kids, our money and tithes go to help sponsor our friends- Vivian, who lives in Kenya, Africa, and Birat, who lives in India. It helps provide them with money for food, clothing, and school. Intro the Lesson: [Large Group Leader enters wearing a track suit. A race bib with a number on it is pinned to the front of his or her shirt. Leader stretches briefly before addressing the kids.] Hello, boys and girls! Today is the day of my big triathlon race! I have been preparing for this day for months, and I can t believe it s finally here. It takes a lot of endurance to train for and run such a long race. Having endurance means not giving up when things are difficult. Have you ever done something that required endurance? What helped you to not give up? [ Allow kids to respond.] 3
One thing that helps me have endurance is to think about a goal. For my triathlon, my goal is to do the very best I can. Training might be hard, and I might have a rough day here and there, but I know that my hard work will pay off in the race. Following Jesus requires endurance too. There might be times when God seems far away or silent. Even in those times, we can remember God s promises. He is always with us and will never leave us. God has a great plan for us, sort of like a goal. He is making us more and more like His Son, Jesus. God promises in His Word to complete this work in us, but it won t happen overnight. That s why we must have endurance! The Israelites in our Bible story today needed endurance too. Show the giant timeline or big story circle. Review previous Bible stories and then point out Malachi the Prophet. Last week we heard about how the Israelites had returned to Jerusalem after spending 70 years in exile. Nehemiah helped them rebuild the walls, and Ezra read the Word of God to the people. Israel waited for God s promised blessing, but it didn t come right away. They were disappointed. Had God forgotten them? We will find out in our story. Big Picture Question Who remembers the big picture question we have been learning the last few weeks? Does God keep His promises? Yes, God is always faithful even when we are not. In our Bible story, we will hear how God s people were not faithful to Him. They had become lazy in how they worshiped God, but God did not abandon them. As you hear the story, listen for the ways that God was faithful to His people. Bible Story Video Open your Bible to Malachi 1 4. Tell the Bible story in your own words, or show the Bible story video Malachi the Prophet. It sounds like the Israelites needed a lot of endurance, didn t they? Their lives had been full of difficulty and suffering. They had lived in exile for decades, and when they finally returned to their homeland, things didn t seem much different. They waited for God to bless them, but nothing happened. Have you ever felt like God was silent? Was it hard to continue to worship God during those times? God can use those times to bring us even closer to Him. Even when God seems silent, He is still with us. Does God keep His promises? Yes, God is always faithful even when we are not. How was God faithful to His people? He promised them that the Messiah was coming, the One who would rescue them from their sin! Malachi was a messenger a prophet. Through Malachi, God told His people to repent and get ready for Jesus. Malachi also told about another messenger God would send. This messenger, John the Baptist, would call people to repent and get them ready for a final Messenger, Jesus Christ. Jesus would bring good news of salvation. The Book of Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. After Malachi s message, the people didn t hear from God for 400 years. Can you imagine how the people must have felt? They probably thought that God had abandoned them. But even though God seemed far away, He still loved His people. He had a plan, and He would keep His promise of sending a Savior for Israel and the whole world! Ask the following review questions. Where does the book of Malachi fall in the Bible? (last book in the Old Testament) What did the people offer as sacrifices to God? (animals) What job did Malachi have? (a prophet) 4
Who did Malachi prophesy about? (John the Baptist- he would come to announce the coming Messiah) Key Bible Verse Show the key passage poster. Lead the boys and girls to read together Lamentations 3:22-23. This passage is such a great reminder that even though we deserve punishment, God shows us mercy. God has promised to save us from our sins when we trust in Jesus. Does God keep His promises? Yes, God is always faithful even when we are not. Discussion Starter Video God spoke to His people through the prophet Malachi. He said that Jesus was coming. God told His people to repent and get ready for Jesus. Can you think of a time you were surprised by someone showing up? Watch this. Show the Unit 18, Session 6 discussion starter video. Lead kids to discuss the following: Why do you think the kids wanted to play near the bridge even though it was not allowed? Would they have stopped playing if they knew a parent was nearby? Why or why not? Have you ever been caught doing something you weren t supposed to be doing? Why do you think God wants us to stop sinning? How do we show God that we are sorry for our sin? Remind kids that the Bible says Jesus will come back one day. (See Acts 1:11.) He will undo every bad thing and set up His kingdom to rule as our King forever. (See Acts 3:19-21; Rev. 11:15.) Will we be ready for Him? God told His people to repent and get ready for Jesus. We do not know when Jesus will return. God calls us to tell others to repent and trust in Jesus before it is too late. DISMISS TO SMALL GROUPS Small Group (30 minutes) Bible Story Review: Choose one of the following review activities that best fits your small group. If your campus doesn t have enough kids to do either of the activities, feel free to just use the review questions as your review time. As often as you re able to, encourage your kids to open their Bible and find the passage to help them become familiar with using the Bible. You can even take time to help familiarize them with using the Bible (finding the Old and New Testaments, using the Table of Contents, understanding the difference between a book, chapter and verse, etc). Younger Distribute a Bible to each kid. Form two teams of kids. Alternate asking each team a question. Teams should work together and use their Bibles to find the answers. If the team answers correctly, they receive a point. If they answer incorrectly, the other team may answer for a chance to steal the point. After you ask all the questions, the team with the most points wins. Feel free Older Prior to small group, draw 10 sections on an inflated beach ball. Number the sections 1 to 10. Toss the ball to one kid and invite him to answer whichever question corresponds with the number his right thumb lands on. After he answers, he may toss the ball to another kid. If a kid does not know the answer, guide him to search for the answer in the Bible. If necessary, share the referenced Scripture passage. 5
to come up with your own questions to add during your prep time. Questions: In what way were the people becoming lazy with their worship? ( The priests were offering to God stolen, lame, or sick animals instead of their best animals; Mal. 1:13) Whom was God going to send? Who would come first? ( God would send a Messiah to the people, but He would send a messenger to prepare the way first; Mal. 3:1) What did God say when His people did not give an offering or tithe? ( God said they were robbing Him by not offering a share of their wealth to Him, Mal. 3:8-10) What did God promise if they would give generously? ( to return blessing on them even more than they could count, Mal. 3:10-12) What did God say the righteous people would be like? ( playful, jumping calves; Mal. 4:2) Say God s people were back in their land, waiting for God s blessings and the promised Messiah. They began to drift away from God again; they grew lazy in their worship. God told His people to repent and get ready for Jesus. He reminded them of His promise to send the Messiah to rescue them and destroy the wicked. Jesus is the Messiah! Jesus came and defeated sin and death by dying on the cross and rising from the dead. One day, Jesus will return to destroy all evil and fix everything bad in the world. 1. What is the last book in the Old Testament? ( Malachi) 2. How long did the Israelites spend in exile? ( 70 years, Jer. 29:10) 3. In our Bible story today, who was God s messenger to the Israelites? ( Malachi, Mal. 1:1) 4. What kinds of animals did the priests offer as sacrifices? ( stolen, lame, or sick animals; Mal. 1:8) 5. What was the priests job? ( They were to lead the people by teaching them about God, Mal. 2:7) 6. What did God promise to do if the people willingly offered back to God what they had? ( He would bless them, Mal. 3:10) 7. Who was the prophet that Malachi said would come to announce the Messiah? (John the Baptist, Mal. 3:1) 8. Malachi said that on the Day of the Lord, those who honor God will playfully jump like what animal? ( calves, Mal. 4:2) 9. What did God tell His people to do? (God told His people to repent and get ready for Jesus, Mal. 3:7) 10. Does God keep His promises? Yes, God is always faithful even when we are not. Say Nice work, everyone. Malachi was the last prophet of the Old Testament. After God spoke to His people through Malachi, God was silent for 400 years! Can you imagine not hearing from someone for such a long time? But God s people did not forget His promises. They trusted that God would be faithful. Does God keep His promises? Yes, God is always faithful even when we are not. God did keep His promises! After 400 years, God told a man that he would have a son named John. John s job was to get people ready for Jesus. Bible Story Activity Younger: Lazy Race Form two teams of kids. Invite the teams to line up at one end of the room. When you say go, the first kid in Older: News Headlines Invite the kids to create a front page newspaper article about the coming Messiah. Encourage them to use 6
each line will army crawl on his belly to the end of the room. When he reaches the other side, the next kid may begin. The first team to have every member army crawl to the far side of the room wins. Say Our race looked lazy since we didn t stand or run, but it was actually much harder to complete! In many ways, serving God is the same way. Sometimes we think we can save time or effort by giving God less than our best. However, in the long run it ends up making us feel more tired than ever! When we love and trust Jesus, serving God doesn t feel like a burden. We see that all our blessings, including the best one of all salvation come from Him. Serving God and giving generously should come naturally when we remember that Jesus generously gave His life to rescue us. their imagination and include interviews with people from Malachi s time who heard the prophet speak. They may also draw pictures and write captions. Say The Bible doesn t give us details on how the people reacted to hearing about the coming Messiah, but we can imagine that they were eager for God to keep His promise. Israel s enemies had caused God s people to suffer, so the people looked forward to God rescuing them. God told His people to repent and get ready for Jesus. The message God had for His people is the same for us today. God wants to rescue us from our sin as well, and we can get ready for Jesus second coming by repenting. We must acknowledge our sin before God and ask Him to help us turn away from it. When we ask God to forgive our sin and change our hearts, He will answer our prayers! Key Bible Verse Activity Write words or phrases from the key passage on separate index cards. Prepare one card per kid. Tape a card to each kid s back. They must put themselves in the right order without speaking. Display the key passage poster for kids to check their work. Say Great job learning our key passage these last few weeks! You can keep working on it at home too. The more time we spend in God s Word, the more we will remember what is true about God. Prayer Requests If time remains, take prayer requests or allow kids to complete the Bible story coloring page. Pray, praising God for being the one true God. Thank Him for sending Jesus to be our final sacrifice, and for saving us even though we cannot earn it. Ask God to help us worship Him alone. 7
Appendix I: Sharing the Gospel One of the greatest privileges we have as leaders is sharing the Gospel with the kids who come to the Loop! You are encouraged to be prayerful and expectant when looking for opportunities to share the good news, whether it is during the Large Group Lesson or in a conversation in your small group. Use the following guide to share the Gospel, pausing for understanding and answering any questions the child might have. If a child is ready to give their life to Christ, lead them in prayer and let your Coordinator know so we can celebrate together! Ask kids if they have ever heard the word gospel. Clarify that the word gospel means good news. It is the message about Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation. Use the following guide to share the gospel with kids. GOD RULES. Explain to kids that the Bible tells us God created everything, and He is in charge of everything. Invite a volunteer to read Genesis 1:1 from the Bible. Read Revelation 4:11 or Colossians 1:16-17 aloud and explain what these verses mean Implications: God made you, and you belong to God. God created you to know, trust, and love Him most of all. God is holy and righteous. God s commands are holy and righteous. You must obey God s commands all the time. WE SINNED. Tell kids that since the time of Adam and Eve, everyone has chosen to disobey God. (Romans 3:23) The Bible calls this sin. Because God is holy, God cannot be around sin. Sin separates us from God and deserves God s punishment of death. (Romans 6:23) Implications: You have disobeyed God s commands. You are a sinner. You deserve God s punishment of death and hell. You are helpless to save yourself. GOD PROVIDED. Choose a child to read John 3:16 aloud. Say that God sent His Son, Jesus, the perfect solution to our sin problem, to rescue us from the punishment we deserve. It s something we, as sinners, could never earn on our own. Jesus alone saves us. Read and explain Ephesians 2:8-9. Implications: You must depend on God s mercy in order to be saved. Jesus came into the world to save you. JESUS GIVES. Share with kids that Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again. Because Jesus gave up His life for us, we can be welcomed into God s family for eternity. This is the best gift ever! Read Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21; or 1 Peter 3:18. Implications: Jesus died on the cross to be punished in your place. WE RESPOND. Tell kids that they can respond to Jesus. Read Romans 10:9-10,13. Review these aspects of our response: Believe in your heart that Jesus alone saves you through what He s already done on the cross. Repent, turning from self and sin to Jesus. Tell God and others that your faith is in Jesus. Offer to talk with any child who is interested in responding to Jesus. Implications: God tells you to believe in Jesus and repent of your sins and you will be saved. If you are trusting in Jesus for your salvation, you must follow Him. Jesus has promised that when you die He will bring you to heaven to live with and enjoy God forever. Implications: God tells you to believe in Jesus and repent of your sins and you will be saved. If you are 8
trusting in Jesus for your salvation, you must follow Him. Jesus has promised that when you die He will bring you to heaven to live with and enjoy God forever. 9
Appendix II: Bible Lesson The following is this week s lesson written out in story form. You can use this if your video doesn t play or if you just want to read the story out loud to your group of kids. If you have mostly younger children, read only the bold words to make it a shorter, easier to understand story. Malachi the Prophet Malachi 1 4 The Jewish people had returned to the promised land, and they were ready for God to bless them. The people waited, but nothing happened. Sometimes their lives were hard, and they wondered if God really loved them. The people became lazy in how they worshiped God. The Lord loved His people, and He wanted them to be holy. He wanted them to obey Him completely. So God sent a message to His people through the prophet Malachi (MAL uh kigh). God s message told the people about their sins and called them to turn back to Him. The priests had disobeyed God. They were supposed to lead the people in worship, but instead of offering God the best animal sacrifices, the priests offered animals that were stolen, lame, or sick. God said, I m not pleased. I will not accept your offerings. God also said to the priests, It is your job to help people follow Me; they look to you for instruction. But you have turned them away from Me. You taught them wrong things. God warned the people that a day of judgment is coming when God will punish sin and reward righteousness. God said, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. The messenger would have a very important job: to get the people ready for God s promised Messiah. Next, God talked about some of the wrong things the people were doing. You are robbing Me! God said. The people were not offering to God a share of their wealth. But everything they had was a gift from God. Bring a tenth of your wealth to Me, God said. And test Me! See if I will not give you even more blessings more than you can count! Some of the people were saying things about God that weren t true. It is useless to serve God, the people said. People who live however they want to are better off than we are. But other people did honor God, and God noticed them. They will be Mine, God said. I will have compassion on them. He said, A day is coming when everyone who is wicked will be destroyed. But those who honor Me will go out and playfully jump like calves. Malachi told the people to be patient. God had not forgotten about them. Life was not easy, but if they served God and followed Him, they would be happy on the day when God would keep His promise to rescue His people. Christ Connection: Malachi was a messenger a prophet who told God s people to repent. Malachi also told about another messenger God would send. This messenger, John the Baptist, would call people to repent and get them ready for a final Messenger, Jesus Christ. Jesus would bring good news of salvation. 10
Appendix III: Games for Extra Time On the weeks when your service runs long, or if you went through the curriculum quicker than expected, use the following game ideas as an add-on activity! Be sure to not replace the curriculum with only games, but the following activities might come in handy from time to time. All My Friends Who... Supplies: Chairs for all but one person Have kids stand in a circle. Someone (a leader) starts in the middle and says, Hey, all my friends who (something) stand up and recognize! The (something) is something about yourself that is true. Everyone else who has this in common must leave their spot and find a new one. The person in the middle must seek out a spot in the circle. The one who does not find a spot becomes IT. Huckle Buckle Beanstalk (a game from Canada) Supplies: A small object to hide Players begin by facing the wall with their eyes closed while one player is chosen to place a small object on the floor somewhere in the room. On the word go, the players begin to wander (no running) around the room until they spot the object on the floor. Once a player sees the object, they yell "Huckle Buckle Beanstalk" and sit down on the floor.the game continues until one player remains who hasn't yet spotted the object. He or she gets to hide the object for the next round. The Zoo-keeper (a game from Estonia) Supplies: Write out different animals on enough paper slips for each child to have one. Each player is given the name of an animal on a slip of paper. They sit in a circle facing outward. The zoo-keeper walks in the outside of the circle and tells a story about the zoo. When the animal name of a player is mentioned in the story, that player must get up and follow the zookeeper. Soon a great line of players forms in this way. When all the players are in line, the zookeeper tells them to become their animals, and they all imitate which animal they are supposed to be (e.g. a bird, elephant, etc). After a while the zookeeper sits down. When the players notice the zookeeper sitting, they also sit. The player who is the last one to sit becomes the zookeeper, and the game starts all over again. Players will have different identities. Wax Museum One person is the museum guard, and everyone else pretends to be dinosaurs in a museum exhibit. The museum guard closes their eyes, faces away from the crowd, and the dinosaurs come to life. As soon as the guard turns around, the dinos freeze. If the guard spots any movement, the dinosaur is out and must sit down. The last dino standing becomes the museum guard and you can play again. Simon Says One person is chosen to be "Simon" the others stand in a straight line. Simon then calls out an action for the children to follow. It can be anything like touch your toes or jump 10 times on 1 foot, but they must say Simon Says before they call out the action. If they don t say Simon Says before the action and someone does what they say, they must sit down. Play until there is one kid left and they can become the new Simon. Knot Game Have the kids stand in a circle then all move to the center. Have each kid grab the hand of someone across from him or her. You must grab two hands from different people. Once everyone is connected, have each group untangle themselves into a circle without letting go of hands. 11