Session 10 Moses Meets God at the Burning Bush Exodus 2:11 3:20 Worship Theme: God is an awesome God. Weaving Faith Into Life: Children will worship an all-powerful, all-wise, and all-loving God. Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies Let s Praise God! (about 25 minutes) Sing The Power! (track 15) Always Be Full of Joy (Philippians 4:4) (track 17) Praise Him (track 6) Living by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25) (track 9) The Spirit Gives Me Life (Romans 8:10b) (track 11) Let Your Light Shine (Matthew 5:16) (track 10) KidsOwn Worship Kit: Songs From FaithWeaver, Giggle Tube Classroom Supplies: Paper, poster board, marker, scissors, candle, matches, CD player Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies Let s Learn the Point! (about 25 minutes) God s Power Help tell the story of the burning bush. Let My People Go! Play a game of being set free. Starry, Starry Sky Help to make a starry-sky craft. Classroom Supplies: 2 sheets black construction paper, note pad, pencil, flashlight, clear tape, scissors 132 KidsOwn Worship Summer Quarter
Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies Let s Learn the Point! (about 25 minutes) * Awesome God Watch a video that shows examples of how God is awesome on the earth. * The Burning Bush Experience the Bible story in a hands-on way. * Yesterday, Today, and Forever Look up Scripture, and talk about God s awesomeness. KidsOwn Worship Kit: Lesson Videos DVD: God Is Awesome Classroom Supplies: TV, DVD player, Bible Classroom Supplies: Bible, 2 clear jars, water, rubbing alcohol, tongs, 5x7-inch green felt, scissors, lighter, cookie sheet, bucket of water Classroom Supplies: Bibles, paper, pen, scissors, basket or bowl Session Sequence What Children Will Do Supplies Let s Pray! (about 10 minutes) The Offering Offer their gifts to God, and thank him for being awesome. Totally Awesome! Shout thanks to God for being totally awesome. Amazing Praising Praise God with amazing words and incredible actions. KidsOwn Worship Kit: Songs From FaithWeaver: Sing to Him (1 Chronicles 16:9) (track 7) Classroom Supplies: CD player, 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 10 KidsOwn Worship 133
Bible Background for Leaders Moses Meets God at the Burning Bush Exodus 2:11 3:20 Being trained in Pharaoh s court didn t extinguish Moses Hebrew upbringing. It s clear from Exodus 2:11 that Moses considered himself a Hebrew rather than the Egyptian most people thought he was. This fact is emphasized in Hebrews 11:24-26. As he went out among the Hebrews, he must have been thinking about how he could help his people escape the oppression they were enduring. Though he was wrong to kill the Egyptian who had been beating the Hebrew, this act could have caused the Israelites to hope that he would rescue them, but it did not (see Acts 7:25). It may seem strange that in the desert of Midian, Moses came across a priest who followed God, but Reuel (later called Jethro) was probably a descendant of Abraham and one of Abraham s concubines. We don t know how threatening the shepherds were to the daughters of Reuel, but the women reported that Moses had rescued them. Moses, having been trained in combat in Egypt and likely having armed himself before leaving Egypt, was able to drive off a band of shepherds easily. From the Bible text, it seems that events happened quickly, but it s likely that Moses received Reuel s daughter Zipporah as his wife after a lengthy stay with the family. However, Moses didn t feel at home in Midian. When his first son was born, the name he gave the child meant banishment. Moses knew that his place was in Egypt with the Hebrew people. God got Moses attention with a burning bush that didn t burn up. Sometimes it takes drastic measures to get our attention! Moses investigated and listened when God spoke. God had heard his people s cries from Egypt and was ready to send the leader he had prepared to rescue them. Though he still identified with the Hebrew people, Moses no longer saw himself as their savior. Perhaps he felt that killing the Egyptian had disqualified him from leading the people. But God knew that Moses was the one he wanted to use to free his people. Moses objection was met with a simple statement from God: I will be with you. The path God described to Moses was a difficult one. Moses would face opposition from his own people as well as from Pharaoh. To his many objections God responded with a reminder of who God is I am the God of Moses forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When Moses realized that his God had chosen him, he was willing to obey. And when he obeyed in faith, God used him mightily. Devotion for Leaders Many people struggle with feelings of uselessness. Thankfully, Jesus will use anyone who is willing to follow and serve him. Weaving Faith Into Your Life: Moses set aside his doubts and accepted that God had chosen him for a special task. Do you have a failure or experience that you fear has disqualified you from fully serving God? Confess your concern to God, and allow him to encourage you with the truth: God will use anyone who is willing to serve. Thank you for serving God s children! 134 KidsOwn Worship Summer Quarter
Why We Worship for Leaders God had a plan for Moses and his people. And God revealed his plan to Moses in an amazing way. Moses was filled with awe as he encountered God. He saw the burning bush and heard God s voice, experiencing firsthand the power of God. As Moses responded to God s awesomeness with obedience, he felt God s sustaining love and was guided by God s limitless wisdom. Even though Moses questioned his own ability, he never questioned God s. Use this session to help children discover that God is an awesome God. Then lead them in worshipping God, who is all-wise, all-powerful, and all-loving. He is the reason we worship! Easy Prep for Leaders Let s Praise God! Practice cutting paper for the paper trick (see the illustration in the margin) until you can cut the slits without looking at the diagram. Awesome God Set up a TV and a DVD player. Set the Lesson Videos DVD to play God Is Awesome. Watch it at least once before the children arrive. The Burning Bush Cut a 5x7-inch piece of green felt into the shape of a bush. (A large circle or oval will do.) Fill one clear jar with water and another with rubbing alcohol. Put the felt shape in the jar of water, and leave it there until you re ready to do the activity. Collect a cake pan or cookie sheet, tongs, and a lighter. Keep the lighter in your pocket or in a safe place, out of reach of the children. Put the other items together on a table in the activity area. Put a bucket of water nearby. Yesterday, Today, and Forever Print the following Scripture references on small slips of paper and fold them in half: Psalm 66:1-7; Psalm 89:1-4; Psalm 89:5-8; Psalm 111:3-6; Psalm 111:7-10; Psalm 135:3-7; Psalm 136:1-9. You ll need one slip of paper for every three or four children. It s OK to have more than one of each verse. Put the papers in a container such as a basket or bowl. Preschool Activities Refer to the preschool pages for preparations. Let s Praise God! Play The Power! on the Songs From FaithWeaver, Summer Track 15 2015 CD as children arrive. Use the repeat feature on your CD player, or ask a helper to repeat the song each time it finishes until you re ready to begin. Greet each child by name, and say to each one, God is an awesome God. Shake the Giggle Tube to get everyone s attention. Hello, everyone! Our God is an awesome God! Shake the Giggle Tube one more time. He s full of power and wisdom and love. I used the Giggle Tube today because I thought it would be an awesome way to get your attention! I ll pass this Giggle Tube around. When you hear Session 10 KidsOwn Worship 135
me say, God is awesome! shake it to make noise. Then pass it on to someone else. Let s talk about awesome a little bit. Tell me about some things you think are awesome. Give kids time to respond. Then give the first child the Giggle Tube. Have kids shake the tube and then pass it along. God is awesome because he is full of wisdom, power, and love. Let s worship him for that by singing The Power! Sing The Power! Track 15 Use a marker to write God is awesome! in the center of the poster board, and circle the words. Let s brainstorm about ways God is awesome. As you tell me things, I ll write them here, and we ll make a web of ways that God is awesome. Encourage children to say anything that comes to mind concerning God s awesomeness. As an attribute is mentioned, draw a spoke radiating out from the circle, and write the attribute at the end of the spoke. Draw more spokes radiating from each word you ve written and continue brainstorming, letting each new attribute lead children to more discoveries. See margin illustration. Wow! What an awesome God we have! Our next song says to always be full of joy in the Lord. I d say by looking at our web that we know lots of reasons for joy! Let s stand and sing that song. Sing Always Be Full of Joy (Philippians 4:4). Track 17 Hold up a plain piece of notebook paper. If I asked you to cut a hole in this paper and make the hole big enough to pass your body through it without tearing it, could you do it? (No; that s impossible; probably if you gave me time to figure it out.) If I could do it, would you say I was awesome? (Yes, because I think it s impossible; no, you d just know an awesome trick.) Well, I have something awesome to show you. Fold and cut the piece of paper as you practiced it according to the illustration by the Easy Prep directions. After you cut out the first hole and before you cut the slits, unfold the paper showing kids the hole. Do you think I could squeeze through this? No, it s not big enough yet. Fold the paper in half again and cut the rest of the slits. Hold it up, unfold it, and slip the paper easily over your head. Pretty amazing, isn t it! Whoever figured this one out is awesome! But that s just a little science trick. What s really awesome is that God figured out how to do stuff like make 136 KidsOwn Worship Summer Quarter
mountains and oceans, animals, plants, and people! The whole earth shows us that God is an awesome God. God s power is awesome, too. Evidence of God s power is everywhere on the earth. What things can you think of that show God s power? (Raging oceans; tall mountains; beautiful sunsets; thunderstorms.) Ocean waves, thunder and lightning, tornadoes, Niagara Falls, and the Grand Canyon all these are a few examples of God s power. Sometimes even though we see God s power on the earth every day, we forget that he created that power. Another thing that is awesome about God is his majesty. When we say God has majesty, we mean that he is great or grand or glorious. For additional worship songs each week, check out the Sing & Praise DVD included with your KidsOwn Worship kit! What are some things that show us God s majesty? (Stars in the sky; waterfalls; sunsets and sunrises.) We see his majesty all around us. We see it in mountains and seas, sunsets and forests. Let s worship him for his awesome power and his majesty as we sing Praise Him. Sing Praise Him. Track 6 When God talked to Moses from the burning bush, Moses could hardly believe it! He knew without a doubt that God was real and that he was awesome. From then on, he wanted to follow God s plan and do everything God told him to do. We can be like Moses when we see God s awesomeness, we can follow and obey him. Let s praise him for his awesomeness. Sing Living by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). Track 9 When we follow God, we do it by walking in faith. That means we believe God to be and do everything he says. We re saying we trust him. Let s continue to worship God for being an awesome God. Let s sing The Spirit Gives Me Life. Sing The Spirit Gives Me Life (Romans 8:10b). Track 11 Turn off the lights, hold up a candle, and light it. Jesus also said we re supposed to be the light of the world. Have you ever used candles or flashlights at night or when the electricity has gone off? We need light to see when it s dark. Jesus said the world needs us to be his lights. After Moses met God at the burning bush, he went out and told others about God. We can be lights to the world by telling others about God. Let s sing Let Your Light Shine and thank God for being an awesome God. Session 10 KidsOwn Worship 137
Sing Let Your Light Shine (Matthew 5:16). Track 10 138 KidsOwn Worship Summer Quarter God, you are an awesome God. We thank you for your wisdom, your power, and your love. Help us show others how awesome you are. Help us be salt and light as we share your love with others. Amen. Let s Learn the Point! Preschool Activities, pages 139-140 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 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 * Awesome God Show God Is Awesome on the Lesson Videos DVD. It shows that God is more awesome than anything. What does this video show us about God? (He is awesome in everything he does; the world and universe show us how awesome God is; God is greater than any awesome thing.) Before you watched the video, what did you think about things like volcanoes, snowboarding, and basketball players? Did you think they were awesome? Why or why not? (They were pretty cool; I thought basketball players were the greatest.) Do you still think they re awesome? Why or why not? (They re cool, but God is more amazing; yes, but not as awesome as God.) What makes God better than all the things you saw on the video? (He made all those things; he can do all that stuff and more.) Listen while I read a verse to you. Be ready to tell me how it relates to the video. Read aloud Philippians 4:13. How does this verse relate to the video? (God is stronger than anything we face; God can take care of anything.) How does this verse relate to God being awesome? (God is so awesome that he helps us do anything; no matter what we face, our awesome God can help us.) (continued on page 141)
Preschool Activities Moses Meets God at the Burning Bush Worship Theme: God is an awesome God. Easy Prep for Leaders None is necessary. Exodus 2:11 3:20 Using Theo 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 act like a sheep during the God s Power activity. Session See the KidsOwn Worship Kit for a puppet skit written for today s worship session. 10 God s Power I need your help to tell the Bible story today. I need some sheep, a bush, God s voice, and Moses. Choose volunteers to play the part of the burning bush, God s voice, and Moses. Assign the remainder of the children to be the sheep. Gather the sheep in a circle around you. Place the bush and God s voice across from you in the circle, and place Moses to your right. When Moses grew up, he became a shepherd. One day Moses was taking care of the sheep. Ask the sheep to say baa. Then, he saw a burning bush. The bush was on fire but did not burn up. Ask the bush to make flame gestures. Moses went over to see why the bush did not burn up. Ask Moses to go to the bush. Then God called to him from inside the bush. Ask God to say Moses, Moses! Then, God said, I am God. Take off your shoes because this is holy ground. Ask Moses to take off his shoes. Then, God said, I want to help my people who are slaves of Pharaoh. God told Moses to go tell Pharaoh to let God s people go. Moses didn t think Pharaoh would listen. God said, You go and tell him. I will be with you. I will make Pharaoh let my people go. So Moses said he would go. Ask Moses to say I will go! while sheep say Yea! Thanks for helping me tell that story. We can do what God wants us to do when we trust him to help us. Moses didn t have to get God s people out of Egypt alone. God helped him every step of the way. God is an awesome God! What does awesome mean? Suggest meanings such as wonderful, great, strong, or amazing. When we say that God has power, we mean he is strong and mighty, able to do anything. God cares for us and provides for us. He is awesome! Session 10 KidsOwn Worship 139
Preschool Activities Let My People Go! Let s play a game called Let My People Go! God s power was so awesome that Pharaoh just had to let God s people go. The Hebrews were slaves. That means they weren t free to come and go. They weren t free to live where they wanted to live. They weren t free to worship God. Have several children join hands and form a circle. They will be the captors. Have the other children stand inside the circle. They will be the slaves. The people in the circle are like the Hebrew slaves. They have to stay in the circle until Pharaoh lets them go. Starry, Starry Sky Everything around us reminds us to worship God because of his awesome goodness. We can see how awesome God is just by looking around us. The things God made are awesome! I m going to mention things that God has made. After I say each one, you say awesome. The whole earth is filled with things that show us how awesome God is. God made GIANT mountains and tiny little ladybugs. (Awesome!) He made the sun to light the day and the stars to light the night. (Awesome!) God made people in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. (Awesome!) How many stars are in the sky? There are so many stars in the sky, you can t count them all. Your mom can t even count them all. NOBODY can count them all! Wow, that is awesome! Let s make some awesome stars in this room. Place one piece of black construction paper on a pad of notebook paper. Allow each child to make holes in the paper with a pen or pencil. The holes can be as close as one-quarter of an inch apart. The entire paper needs to be covered with holes. Fashion the paper into a cylinder like this: Have the children act out the following skit. Captors: (Circle to the right.) Slaves: Let us go! Let us go! Captors: (Circle to the left.) No, no! You can t go! Slaves: (Shouting) GOD SAYS, LET MY PEOPLE GO! Captors: (Drop hands immediately, and fall to the floor.) Slaves: God is awesome! Here we go! (Slaves run out of the circle.) Play the game several times. God is so awesome that he had the power to set the slaves free. God is so awesome he makes us free, too! Because God is so awesome, we are free to worship him! Because God is so awesome, we want to worship him. Curl the two short edges so they connect. Tape the edges together. Cut a circle the size of the cylinder opening from the other piece of construction paper. Tape the circle to the end of the cylinder. Does our paper look like a starry sky yet? Not yet. That s because we re missing something. We re missing light. God is so awesome that he created stars to give us light at night. Turn on a flashlight, turn off the room lights, and close the window shades. Position the flashlight inside the cylinder. The light will Preschool project stars Leader Tip around the room. If you have time, have each Rotating the cone child make his or her own will make the starry sky craft. stars appear to twinkle. Everything about God is awesome! Everything about what he made is awesome! We worship God because he is an awesome God. 140 KidsOwn Worship Summer Quarter
(continued from page 138) God is awesome. He helps people do awesome things. He gives us the strength to face anything. But God is better than all these. He s the most awesome one of all. He s an awesome God! * The Burning Bush Bring out the jar containing the water and felt bush, the jar containing the rubbing alcohol, the tongs, the cookie sheet, and the lighter. During the following demonstration, you will dip the felt briefly into the rubbing alcohol and then light it with the lighter. The alcohol will burn, but the cloth will not. This is a simulation of the bush that burned, but was not consumed. Our Bible story from Exodus 2:11 3:20 shows us one way God demonstrated how awesome he is. One day Moses saw an Egyptian soldier beating up one of God s people. He became angry and killed the man. Moses ran away because Pharaoh found out about it and wanted to kill him in return. Moses went to a faraway place and stayed there a long time. Meanwhile God s people were still in slavery back in Egypt, crying out to God to save them. One day Moses was tending his sheep, and an awesome thing happened. Read Exodus 3:2-4. Then remove the felt from the container of water with the tongs. Be sure to hold the bush with the tongs not your fingers. God wanted to speak to Moses, but God needed his attention first. So God bathed a bush in his awesome power. Using the tongs, dip the felt briefly into the rubbing alcohol. Hold it over the cookie sheet, and have an adult helper remove the container of alcohol. Have a child turn off the room lights. God allowed Moses to see his awesome power in the burning bush. Hold the felt bush over the container of water and light the bush with the lighter. The alcohol will burn but the felt will not. Wait until the alcohol burns off and the flame goes out. Set the tongs and the felt on the cookie sheet. The bush was on fire, but it didn t burn up! God got Moses attention! And I think I got your attention! God spoke to Moses from the bush and told him to go back and tell Pharaoh to let his people go, and Moses obeyed. God got Moses attention with his awesome power in the burning bush. Then his awesome love won Moses heart. And his awesome wisdom made Moses want to obey him. Moses responded by doing everything God told him. Let s be like Moses and obey God because he is awesome! Session 10 KidsOwn Worship 141
* Yesterday, Today, and Forever Have kids form small groups of three or four. Bring out the bowl with slips of paper on which you wrote the Scripture references. Have each group take a piece of paper with a Scripture reference on it. Make sure each group has a Bible. Have one person in your group look up the Scripture that s on your piece of paper and read it aloud. Then talk about what the verses say about God s awesomeness. Give children time to read their verses. After a few minutes, have a few kids share how God is awesome. Now pray with your group, and thank God for those events. Allow a few moments for prayer. Think about how God has proven himself to be awesome in your life. Share that with the kids in your group. If you can t think of anything right away, listen to the others. As they talk, what they say will help you realize that God has been awesome toward you many times, even if you didn t know it then. Give children time to share with each other. Now pray with your group and thank God for those events. Allow time to pray. God was awesome in the day of Moses. He was awesome throughout all of Scripture. God is still awesome today, and he will be awesome forever. The awesome truth is that he cares about you. So let God be awesome in your life this week! Let s Pray! The Offering As we give our gifts to God, let s sing Sing to Him. As the offering bowl is passed, thank God in your heart for one new thing you learned about his awesomeness today. Use your own words God loves to hear what you have to say. Sing Sing to Him (1 Chronicles 16:9). Track 7 Take the offering. 142 KidsOwn Worship Summer Quarter Totally Awesome! When we re excited, it s natural to want to shout. If your parents give you the most awesome gift in the world, you might shout, Thank you! This is awesome! After thanking them, you d want to tell your friends right away. Tell us about a time you saw something really awesome or had something awesome happen to you. Describe it, and then tell us how you felt and how you reacted. Give kids time to respond.
There are many things we feel awe about on earth. But God s awesomeness is beyond anything in this world. A slam-dunk by an NBA star is awesome, but God is better. The Grand Canyon is something to see, but God is better. The power of water in a place like Niagara Falls or the ocean is incredible, but God is better. God has given us himself the most awesome gift of all! On the count of three, let s shout, Thank you, God! You re awesome! (Pause.) Now stand up, and say even louder, You re totally awesome! (Pause.) Wave your hands in the air, jump up and down, and say, You re totally amazing and totally awesome! (Pause.) Now turn to your neighbor, and shout God is truly, amazingly, incredibly, powerfully awesome! (Pause.) Whew! That was an amazing mouthful! Amazing Praising Let s take a few minutes now to praise God for being amazing and awesome. Quickly find a partner. Wait until children have formed pairs. With your partner, decide on a praise statement to say to God, and put an action to it. For example, you might say, God, you are powerful, while you show your muscles or raise your hands in the air. Or you might say, God is amazing! and then do a cartwheel or spin in circles. Be as creative as you can. Talk with your partner now, and then we ll perform our praises for God. Give children enough time to plan their praise actions. Circulate among the children, and encourage them to be creative. Be ready with some extra ideas if they need help. After several minutes call time. I ve been hearing some amazing praising! As we share our praises, remember to focus on God and do it for him. If you see someone do something amazing and you think, Wow, that s cool! use that as an opportunity to tell God he s awesome. Let s begin. Have partners perform their praises, one pair at a time. When everyone has had a chance, have all the children perform their praises at the same time. God, you are truly an awesome God! Thank you for being so loving, wise, and powerful. We worship you, God, because you are awesome. Help us to love you more than anything or anyone. Help us tell others about how awesome you are. We love you, Jesus. Amen. Session 10 KidsOwn Worship 143