Session 5 God Gives the Ten Commandments (Part 2) Exodus 19:16 20:21 Worship Theme: Respecting others honors God. Weaving Faith Into Life: Children will bring honor and glory to God by respecting others. Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies Let s Praise God! (up to 25 minutes) Sing Praise Him (track 19) Wherever You Go (Joshua 1:9) (track 3) Faith (Hebrews 11:1) (track 1) My God Is (track 7) Take My Life and Let It Be (track 12) Trust and Obey (track 8) KidsOwn Worship Kit: Songs From FaithWeaver CD player, 2 hand mirrors, picture of Jesus, tape Preschool Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies Let s Learn the Point! (up to 25 minutes) Treasure Chest Find a treasure chest, and see that the treasure is God s Word. Discover that the Bible tells us how to respect others. Because God s So Use a candy bar to explore the Ten Commandments. Imitators of God Imitate God and honor God by respecting others. Treasure-chest box, Bible Large candy bar 58 KidsOwn Worship Fall Quarter
Elementary Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies Let s Learn the Point! (up to 25 minutes) * Respectful Commandments Devise skits to illustrate five of the Ten Commandments. * In Honor Watch a DVD about how one person made a choice to honor someone else with her life. * Reflections Consider specific ways they can respect others. 5 Bibles KidsOwn Worship Kit: Lesson Videos DVD: In Honor TV, DVD player 2 mirrors from Let s Praise God, pencils, 1 copy of Person Shapes (at the end of this session) for every 4 children, scissors Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies Let s Pray! (up to 10 minutes) The Offering Give their gifts and their person-shaped promises. Circle Prayer Promise to honor God by respecting others, and pray. Closing Prayer Pray about honoring God by honoring others. Offering bowls * Starred activities can be used successfully with preschool and elementary children together. Customize your session to fit your needs. You can separate preschoolers and elementary children for Section 2. Or, if you keep the children all together for the entire worship session, we suggest you choose from the starred activities. Session 5 KidsOwn Worship 59
Bible Background for Leaders God Gives the Ten Commandments (Part 2) Exodus 19:16 20:21 Last week s Bible Background concentrated on the events surrounding the giving of the Ten Commandments, while this week s concentrates on the commandments themselves. If you haven t already done so, you may want to read both Bible Backgrounds before beginning this session. As we begin looking at the Ten Commandments, remember that God spoke these words directly to the people of Israel. These commandments contained the essence of the entire law that God would be giving to Moses. Over the centuries, scholars have divided the commandments into categories in various ways. For the purpose of these studies, we re dividing them into two sections. The first four commandments have to do with our relationship with God; the last six have to do with our relationships with others. These commandments were not given to force the Israelites to follow an arbitrary set of rules. These commands were intended to help the people lead holy lives that honored God and resulted in appropriate, compassionate relationships with each other. Should Christians obey all of these laws? With the death and resurrection of Jesus, we live no longer under the law but under grace. Jesus said that he came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17-18). Certainly we are not bound to follow these laws to try to win God s favor, but the principles behind the Ten Commandments are valid principles for all time. The commandments regarding our relationship with God clearly spell out the priority and honor that he is to hold in our lives. How often even in the Christian community do we let other things come before our relationship with God? God will be honored when we show through the way we live that he is first in our hearts. One commandment that is often taken too lightly, especially in today s culture, is the instruction not to misuse God s name. To use it in swearing or frivolously in joking is not appropriate. How we use God s name directly reflects how we feel about God. He and his name are worthy of all the honor we can muster! The commandments regarding our relationships with others (Exodus 20:12-17) give us lots of guidance on how to respect others. Though our culture often fails to take many of these commands seriously, living by them gives people the honor and respect due them as unique creations of God. No matter how much we see our culture denigrate these commandments the honoring of parents, the sanctity of marriage, and the importance of honesty we must hold true to these principles if we are to honor God and respect others the way God intends. Devotion for Leaders As our relationship with Jesus grows, we can begin to see this world and other people through his eyes of unconditional love. We will enjoy fellowship more and others will see Jesus presence in our lives. Weaving Faith Into Your Life: God loves his creation so much that he gave us commandments to help preserve it and glorify him. God s greatest creation is humanity and we are surrounded by it. Every person you have contact with today gives you an opportunity to glorify God by lifting up his greatest creation people. Who are you going to allow God to bless today through your actions? Everybody? A person who is down in the dumps? How do you expect to be blessed during this intentional service? At the end of the day, take note of who God blessed through you and how you were blessed in his service. 60 KidsOwn Worship Fall Quarter
Why We Worship for Leaders Today we learn that one way we honor God is by respecting others. Honoring God involves more than following a code of conduct. It involves taking on the nature of God. When we respect others, we reflect God s nature. When we imitate God or honor his wishes by respecting others, we bring honor and glory to his name. For additional worship songs each week, check out the Sing & Praise DVD included with your KidsOwn Worship kit! The correlation between honoring God and respecting others is evident in the Ten Commandments. The first four are about honoring God. The last six center on respecting others. Together, they present a picture of what it means to honor God. This week lead children in worshipping God, and help them learn to honor God with their actions toward others. Easy Prep for Leaders Let s Praise God! Tape a small picture of Jesus to the center of a hand mirror. In Honor Set up a TV and DVD player. Cue the Lesson Videos DVD to In Honor. You ll want to watch it at least once before the worship session begins so you ll know what it s about. Reflections Make one copy of Person Shapes at the end of this session for every four children. Preschool Activities Refer to the preschool pages for preparations. Let s Praise God! Play Songs From FaithWeaver, Fall 2015 as children arrive. Have all but one chair stacked against the wall, and sit in that chair. Greet the first child by name, and give him or her your chair. As the second child enters, encourage the first child to give the chair to the second child and stand or get another chair. Repeat this procedure as all the children enter. Hello, everyone. Let s start off our worship session with a praise song. Sing Praise Him. Lyrics are in the back of this book. This song talks about praising God all day long. Today we re going to talk about how the things we do each day help us praise God. For example, when you came in today, you did an act of praise by giving your chair to someone else. You treated each other with respect. How did you feel when you were offered the chair? (Good; it was nice to have someone show kindness.) How do we make others feel when we show them respect? (Important; they feel good.) Track 19 Session 5 KidsOwn Worship 61
Respecting others brings honor to God. We worship God because he is worthy of honor. One way to honor God is to respect others. It isn t always easy to do what God asks us to do. God asks us to treat others well. That can be hard when others are mean or disrespectful to us. But God calls us to be strong and courageous. He reminds us that he s always with us and will help us do the right thing. Sing Wherever You Go (Joshua 1:9). Lyrics are in the back of the book. God calls us to have faith to live according to his rules and to trust him to make things work out. Let s sing about faith. Sing Faith (Hebrews 11:1). Lyrics are in the back of the book. When we live by faith, we want to honor God because God is faithful and true! One way to honor God is to be like him. When we are like him, we treat others with respect. As we do that, we reflect what God is like to other people. God is love. When we treat people with love, we reflect God s love to other people. I have an activity that will illustrate what I mean. Hold up two mirrors, one with the small picture of Jesus taped to the center. This mirror has a picture of Jesus on it. for two volunteers to hold the mirrors. Show the volunteers how to place the mirrors facing each other. The mirror with the picture of Jesus should be angled slightly away from the other mirror. (See the illustration in the margin, and practice this at home.) When the mirrors are in the correct position, you see the image of Jesus reflected an infinite number of times. the volunteers not to disclose what they see in the mirrors until everyone has a chance to see it. the rest of the children to form a line, pass by the mirrors so they can look into them, and return to their seats. Track 3 Track 1 What did you see in the mirror? (Jesus; Jesus was reflected a lot.) When we are like God, we honor him. We can say that when we are like God, we are his reflection to other people. As we reflect God, we help others reflect God, too. This brings honor to God all over the world. Respecting others as God respects them brings honor to God. Now let s sing a song about who God is and what he s like. This will help us remember the one we re honoring and serving. Sing My God Is. Lyrics are in the back of the book. Track 7 62 KidsOwn Worship Fall Quarter
That song said, My God is a friend to the lonely. My God sets the prisoner free. My God is a loving companion. That s who God is. We honor God by having his characteristics. If you have his characteristics, you show them to others. You become a friend, someone who helps to set people free, a loving companion. Raise your hand if anyone has ever told you that you are like one of your parents. (Pause.) Raise your hand if someone said you look like your mom or dad. (Pause.) Raise your hand if someone said you act like your mom or dad. In what ways are you like your parents? (I sometimes act like my parents; I laugh like my mom; I m good at sports like my dad.) If someone said you are like your mom because you are both kind, how would your mom react? Would she be happy? Why? (She d be happy, because she wants me to be kind; she d like it if someone said that, because it shows that we re both kind.) It brings honor to your mom when people see that you are kind. It means that she has taught you to be kind by her example. In the same way, we honor God by being like him. When we give our lives to God, we become like him. Let s sing Take My Life and Let It Be. It says: Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. That means that we want our lives to be holy before God. The next part says, Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of thy love. That means that we want to be loving toward others just as God is loving. Worship Leader Tip It can be difficult for preschoolers to compare themselves to their parents. Instead of asking them how they re like their parents, ask them what they like about their parents. Then talk about why we d want to be like someone we admire. Sing Take My Life and Let It Be. Lyrics are in the back of the book. Now let s tell God that we want to obey him in all we do. Track 12 Pray Sing Trust and Obey. Lyrics are in the back of the book. God, you are loving and kind. We honor you today by being loving and kind to others. You are faithful and true. We honor you by being faithful and true to others. You are a friend to the lonely. We honor you by being a friend to the lonely. Help us to honor you by respecting others. In Jesus name, amen. Let s Learn the Point! Preschool Activities, pages 65-66 Track 8 At this time, have the preschool leader invite the preschoolers to go to their own room for this section of activities. Tear out the Preschool Activities page, and give it to the preschool leader. Have the preschool leader bring the preschoolers Session 5 KidsOwn Worship 63
back to participate in Let s Pray! with the older children. If you prefer to keep all the children together, do the starred (*) activities. They will work well with both elementary and preschool children. Elementary Activities * Respectful Commandments Let s explore the commandments that teach us how to honor God by respecting others. In a moment, we ll form five groups. Each group will have one of the Ten Commandments. It ll be the group s job to come up with a short situation skit to show how to honor God by following this commandment. You ll have five minutes to come up with your skit. Then each group will have one minute to perform the skit. Ready? Here we go. Have the children form five groups. Give each group a Bible. (The New Century Version is very easy for kids to understand.) Give each group one of these references: Exodus 20:12 Exodus 20:13 Exodus 20:15 Exodus 20:16 Exodus 20:17 Have the groups look up the verse and devise a short skit. Circulate among the groups and offer help as needed. Then have each group present its skit. Between the second and third group, explain that the seventh commandment is about being faithful in marriage. Tell kids that, when people get married, they make a promise to respect and love their husbands and wives for the rest of their lives. Committing adultery is breaking that promise by loving someone else. For younger children, you might need to explain that it s OK to love family and friends but it s not OK for someone to feel romantic love toward someone other than his or her husband or wife. When groups have presented the skits, ask these questions: How does keeping these commandments show respect to others? (It shows that we see others as important, too; it shows kindness toward them.) How does keeping the commandments honor God? (When we respect God s creation, we re respecting God; we honor God by showing love to others.) God loves all people after all, he created us all. When we treat others with respect, we re treating God s creation with respect. (continued on page 67) 64 KidsOwn Worship Fall Quarter
Preschool Activities God Gives the Ten Commandments (Part 2) Exodus 19:16 20:21 Worship Theme: Using Theo Session 5 Respecting others honors God. Easy Prep for Leaders Treasure Chest Put a Bible in a treasure-chest box (such as a decorated shoe box), and hide it somewhere in the room. Treasure Chest When we love someone, we want to honor that person s wishes. That means we want to do what that person wants us to do. If you love your mom, you want to honor her wishes. Your mom wants you to share when you play. You want to honor her wishes because you love her. When we honor God, we want to honor his wishes. How do we find out what God s wishes are? Let s go on a treasure hunt today. We ll look for a treasure box that shows us God s wishes. Let s look for the treasure. Have the children hunt for the treasure box. Because God s So Let s play a game called Because God s So and We Love God. Help the children form two groups and be seated on the floor in their groups. This game helps us learn our Bible story today. Raise your hand if you remember who Moses is. Moses went up the mountain to worship God. God told him ten rules we should follow to honor him. These rules are called the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments tell us how to honor God by loving him and treating others with respect. In this game, I m going to ask you questions and you ll answer them. Sometimes the answer will be, Because God says so and we love God. When that s the right answer, Group 1 will stand up quickly and say loudly, Consider using Theophilus the FaithRetriever puppet today in these ways: Have Theo lead the preschoolers from the main worship area to the preschool room. Have Theo imitate his mom being nice to the neighborhood puppies during the Imitators of God section. See the KidsOwn Worship Kit for a puppet skit written for today s worship session. This box has a treasure inside it. That treasure is God s wishes. Let s open it. Open it to reveal the Bible. Look! It s a Bible! The Bible is a wonderful treasure because it is the Word of God. The Bible tells us that we honor God by honoring his wishes. Let s open it and see what it tells us today. Open to Matthew 19:19b. This says, Love your neighbor as yourself. Wow! These are God s wishes. This is what God wants us to do. This means you should love others as much as you love yourself. You should show others respect and honor God. Let s play a game to see what that means. Because God says so. Then Group 2 will stand up quickly and say loudly, And we love God. Then everybody will sit down quickly and wait for the next question. I ll help you know when it s time to say your lines. Put a big candy bar in front of the children. If I put this on the table and walked away, would you steal it? How do you know you are not supposed to steal? Have the children stand and shout, Because God says so! and then And we love God! That s right. In the Ten Commandments, God tells us not to steal. We want to honor God by following his rules. Put the candy bar in your pocket or purse. Session 5 KidsOwn Worship 65
Preschool Activities Who took the candy bar? Would it be right if I said that [name of a child] took the candy bar? How do I know that I m not supposed to lie about [name of child]? Have each group stand and call out its line. That s right, the Ten Commandments say not to tell lies about what someone else did. When we tell the truth, we honor God because we re following his rules. Give the candy bar to a child to hold. Instruct the child not to eat it. If [name of child] has a candy bar and I don t, would it be right to want it so much that it s all I think about? Get up and pace around the room muttering aloud about how much you want that candy bar. Wanting something like that is called coveting it. It means that you want what someone else has for your very own. You don t want someone else to have it. You just want it for yourself. How do I know I m not supposed to covet that candy bar for myself? Have groups stand and shout their lines. That s right, the Ten Commandments tell us not to wish for or covet what other people have. an adult helper to hold the candy bar. Whisper to the helper that he or she shouldn t give you the candy bar when you ask for it. Can I have the candy bar? The helper will say no. Exaggerate anger at the helper for not giving you the candy bar, but do so in such a way that it is funny, rather than frightening, to the children. Should I hurt our helper so I can have the candy bar? How do I know I m not supposed to hurt [name of helper]? Have groups stand and shout, Because God says so, and then, And we love God. That s right, the Ten Commandments tell me it s wrong to murder someone. God loves people, and he wants us to love people, not hurt them. Place the candy bar out of sight. You know, my [husband or wife] doesn t like candy bars. He doesn t have any candy bars at all. But my friend s [husband or wife] just loves candy bars. [He or she] has lots of candy bars. Should I run away with my friend s [husband or wife] because I think [he or she] is better than my [husband or wife]? How do I know I shouldn t run away with someone else s husband or wife? Have kids shout lines. That s right, the Ten Commandments tell us that we re not to run away with a different husband or wife. God wants people to love their husbands or wives and to stay with them. Place the candy bar on the table again. If my mom told me not to eat this candy bar before lunch, should I eat it? How do I know I should do what my mom says? Have the groups stand and shout their lines. That s right, one of the Ten Commandments says that you should honor your mother and father. That means you should obey them and respect them. When we treat others the way God wants us to treat them, we are showing honor to God. Imitators of God Think of someone you respect. I respect our pastor [or other person with whom the children are familiar]. Our pastor really honors God by treating people with love. Let me show you what I mean. Act out a way in which the pastor or other person shows love to people, such as greeting them kindly or offering to pray for them. others. You might suggest they do such things as put bandages on cuts or share toys. When we are like someone, we do what they do. When we are like God, we do what God does. God treats us with respect. He treats us kindly. We honor God by being like him and respecting others. Think of someone you respect. Let s play a game and act like people we respect. We ll each respect one another by taking turns. We ll try to guess who you are acting like. Help the children act out how the people they respect treat 66 KidsOwn Worship Fall Quarter
(continued from page 64) And, when we treat others with respect, we re treating them as God would treat them. Keeping God s commandments honors him. Let s learn more about how our actions honor God. * In Honor Show In Honor on the Lesson Videos DVD. In this segment, a woman explains how she made choices in her life to honor someone important to her. After the segment, ask the following questions: What did this woman do to honor her teacher? (Chose to learn something new every day; decided to become a teacher.) What do you think the teacher thought about this woman s decisions? (She was happy; she was proud of her.) Knowing what you know about God s wishes, what decisions will you make about how you live your life? (I ll make choices that please God; I can follow God in everything I do.) When we choose to live our lives a certain way because of another person s wishes, we bring honor to that person. We honor God by living by the Ten Commandments. * Reflections You ll need photocopies of the handout at the end of this session so that you have one person shape for each child, including the preschool children. Redirect the children s attention to the mirrors used during Let s Praise God! When we respect others, we reflect God s love to them. Right now, let s consider specific ways we can respect other people. I ll pass out a piece of paper and a pencil to each of you. Think of who you ll respect this week, and decorate the person shape to look like that person. Then think of at least one way you can honor God by respecting that person this week, and write it on your person shape. Hand out the copies and pencils. Give the children a moment or two to work. Then have the children tell three other people what they plan to do. We can honor God every day by keeping his commandments and respecting others. Now let s offer our gifts to God. Session 5 KidsOwn Worship 67
Let s Pray! The Offering As the preschoolers join the group, give each one a person shape. Tell the preschoolers to pretend the person shape is a person they re going to be nice to this week. As we give our gifts today, let s give God the honor he deserves. As you come to the front to put your offering in the offering bowl, also bring the person shape that you made and put it in the offering bowl. Take a moment to tell God how you plan to honor him this week. Take the offering, and have the children put their person shapes in the offering bowl. Circle Prayer If you have more than 20 children, divide them into two groups for this activity. If your children s church uses small groups, have each small group do this activity by itself. Have the children stand in a circle. Have them take turns around the circle patting the back of the child to their left and saying, I ll honor God by respecting people this week. Then give individual children an opportunity to pray. Pray Closing Prayer God, you are always kind and loving. We want to be just like you. God, help us to honor you by the way we treat the people we see each day. Help us to be kind, loving, and respectful at all times. In Jesus name, amen. 68 KidsOwn Worship Fall Quarter
Person Shapes OK to copy Permission to photocopy this handout from KidsOwn Worship Leader Guide, Fall, granted for local church use. Copyright Group Publishing, Inc. group.com Session 5 KidsOwn Worship 69