date: Bible Passage: Genesis 11 12 (The Tower of Babel and Abraham Worshipping) REMEMBER VERSE Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32 God Created Us to Worship Him Schedule Anticipate 5 10 minutes Celebrate & Respond Large Group 35 55 minutes Respond & Bless Small Group 20 25 minutes Environment: FAITH COMMUNITY God designed us to live in community and to experience Him in ways that can only happen in proximity to one another. The faith community serves to create an environment to equip and disciple parents, to celebrate God s faithfulness, and to bring a richness of worship through tradition and rituals, which offer children an identity. Our love for each other reflects the love we have received from God.. TruResources are developed in partnership with ROCKHARBOR Church and a national network of family and children s ministry leaders. All rights reserved.
Equip People are wired with a natural desire to worship, but what or who we worship is what defines us. In Genesis 11, we read about the people of Babel, who worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, and tried to build a tower that reach[ed] to the heavens, so that [they could] make a name for [them]selves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth (v. 4). Interestingly, verse 5 says, The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. Ironically, this is just what these ancient builders were hoping that a deity would come down to them. However, they were probably not expecting the one true God to show up. God was angry with their efforts and confused their languages so that they were scattered over all the earth (v. 8). In another city, named Ur, the people were devoted to Nanar, the moon god. It is in this city that a man named Abraham lived. His family and his nation were, no doubt, also devoted to various gods and goddesses just as in Babel. In Genesis 12, God calls Abraham to leave [his] country, [his] people and [his] father s household and go to the land [He] will show [him] (v. 1). In God s salvation plan, it makes sense that He would want Abraham to sever ties to his familial and national gods and fill the void with the gift of Himself. Abraham did nothing to deserve this special call or blessing. God singled out Abraham and his family so that He could have a people for Himself. God called him to make a great nation of people who would worship only Him, and from whose family line the promised Christ would come and redeem mankind forever. 3
N O T E S : Lesson Overview Experience Time Summary Supplies/Prepare (Master Supply List under Resource Tab) Anticipate// Small Group Check-In 5 10 min. Encourages interaction among kids, leaders, and parents; engages the kids in curiosity and anticipation of the lesson; and creates an inviting atmosphere. Build It! cardboard squares or thick card stock paper and plastic disposable cups wooden or plastic blocks, cardboard boxes, or other stackable items Celebrate// Large Group 20 35 min. Establishes community and tells stories both personal and biblical in a fun and engaging way. Traditions mementos for your church Traditions (rocks, marbles, ping-pong balls, etc.) Remember Verse cards, slides, and animation (see Resource Folder) Connect Connect Activity slide (see Resource Folder) The Big God Story Bible Timeline slide and animation, images of ziggurat, stars, altar (see Resource Folder) poster board, tape, marker Respond// Large Group 15 20 min. Creates space for children to respond to the Holy Spirit in worship and community as a large group. Postures of Worship TruWorship CD Respond// Small Group 15 20 min. Discusses Truth, reflects on the lesson, engages in relationships, and creates a project or a piece of art individually or together. Reflect: God Created Us to Worship Him questions Create: Worshipping God small pieces of canvas (about the size of a small flag) permanent markers CD cases, books, or other sturdy, uniform-sized items a ball image of Rube Goldberg machines (see Resource Folder) optional: rubber bands, disposable cups, baskets, empty bottles, watering cans, fabric, string (that could be used to make a Rube Goldberg machine) Bless// Small Group 5 min. Sends the kids out with a sense of peace and blessing so they can be a blessing to their families and others. Bible (for the blessing) HomeFront Weekly (1 per child, see Resource Folder) 6
SMALL Group S E C T I O N Anticipate// 5 10 min. Small Group Leaders An energizing time for parents and kids to start engaging with the material that will be presented in the lesson. It is intentionally designed to spark curiosity and cultivate a sense of awe and wonder about God. Encourage parents to participate in this time with their kids. Build It! Lead the kids through an anticipate in which they find out how high they can stack cups, blocks, or other stackable items. Be creative. SUPPLIES cardboard squares or thick card stock paper or plastic disposable cups wooden or plastic blocks, cardboard boxes, or other stackable items SET UP Set out the items for the kids to use. ENGAGE Using the cardboard squares or thick card stock, see if kids can create a platform. Have them put one cardboard square on the ground, then a bunch of cups, rim-down, on the cardboard square. Then put another cardboard square on top of the cups. Ask: Do you think you could stand on this platform, or do you think it will topple or crumble under your weight? Note: For safety, brace any child attempting to stand on the platform. Using the boxes, encourage the kids to build houses or bridges. They can try to make the boxes look like a car or a chair. Get creative! Many years after God created the world and the first people, man began to worship false gods. In Babel, they tried to build a tower as high as they could to make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:4), and act as a staircase for their false gods to walk down to earth on. Because God was displeased with this, He scattered the people of Babel and confused their languages. Partner Church Comments We used the Connect activity in place of the Anticipate activity, and greeted the kids in another language. The Gathering Play Minute-to-Win-It Find a volunteer (or two!) and give him a stack of cups. If you have more than one child playing the game, give each the same number of cups (20 for older kids, 10 for younger kids). Starting with the cups neatly stacked, see if the kids can quickly create a standing pyramid with all of the cups, then neatly restack the cups in under a minute. (Consider showing youtube.com videos of professional cup stacking to get the kids motivated.) 7
LARGE Group S E C T I O N Celebrate//20 35 min. Host/Storyteller Kids get to be a part of the faith community of God s family. Welcome and Traditions After everyone is gathered together as a large group, open with Traditions. During Traditions, you are helping the kids work toward a common goal and giving them mementos to celebrate things like memorizing the Remember Verse, inviting a friend, or bringing their Bibles. They participate in traditions and share them with newcomers, connect through fun and interaction, and experience The Big God Story through storytelling. Partner Church Comments The kids loved stacking the cups! Cheap and easy to facilitate. Loved the Connect Activity! It was hilarious to hear them making up their own languages. First Baptist Church Loganville REMEMBER VERSE This is a good time to introduce or remind kids of the Remember Verse. As they arrive, open a Bible and read it together if time allows. Remember Verse cards, slides, and animation can be found in the Resource Folder. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32 Mementos can be anything, such as rocks, marbles, ping-pong balls, or connecting blocks. Once the kids have been awarded their mementos, direct them to put the mementos into a container or add them to a building effort. When the common-goal tradition is complete, have a celebration! (See the RockWall example in the How It Works document under the Resource Tab.) Connect Connect is a time to laugh, play, and enjoy each other s company. Engaging questions, energizing games, and creative activities encourage the community to get to know each other. Invite kids to participate in the following activity. Encourage them to approach someone they might not know yet. After a minute or two, ask several kids to share with the group what languages their friends spoke. See the Connect Activity slide in the Resource Folder. Activity Introduce yourself to someone in a different language. If you don t know a different language, make one up! Prayer of Release At the end of Connect, pray a Prayer of Release. This is a time for kids and leaders to pause, be still, and ask God to quiet their hearts and minds. Encourage the kids to hold their hands out in front of them in a spirit of releasing their worries and distractions. Encourage kids to quiet their voices, take their seats, and pray with you. 8
N O T E S : The Big God Story Storyteller During The Big God Story, the kids will learn about Babel and God s call to Abraham. Though this part of The Big God Story can be delivered verbatim, read it before the lesson, so you can personally interact with the material. Share stories from your life, and speak with your own style by varying your intonation and gestures. Tip Before sharing about Babel and how God called Abraham, point out that what they are about to hear is true and is recorded in the Bible. Open your Bible to the passage and leave it open and visible throughout The Big God Story. Establish a consistent place to keep this Bible every week. Invite kids to open their Bibles and follow along in Genesis 11 12 as you storytell. Encourage adult volunteers to keep an eye out for kids who need help finding the Scripture passage, and allow enough time for each child to locate the passage. You may want to project the reference on a screen or write it in large print on a poster board or whiteboard. God Created Us to Worship Him SUPPLIES Bible Timeline slide and animation, images of ziggurat, stars, altar (see Resource Folder) poster board, tape, marker Visual Aids You will find JPEGs of various visual aids in the Resource Folder for every lesson of TruStory. Please use these files in whichever format works best for your church, whether you use computer media, an overhead projector, or poster board. SET UP Cue images. Display poster board in the storytelling area, and set marker nearby. Last week we heard about God creating everything. We also heard how God lived in perfect relationship with Adam and Eve, but they disobeyed Him and broke the relationship they had with Him. Because of this, they had to leave the perfect garden. But, God promised to restore the broken relationship with His people by sending a redeemer. This is the beginning of The Big God Story. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, people started to turn away from God and worship other things. You see, God created people to worship Him. But when His perfect relationship with man was broken, people became confused and started to worship false gods. They even started to worship themselves. This was what happened to the people who lived in a place named Babel. 9
The Big God Story N O T E S : The people who lived in Babel could have chosen to worship the one true God, but they didn t. They chose to worship false gods and themselves. We know this because they said to each other, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves (Genesis 11:4). They were worshipping themselves by trying to make a name for themselves. This was not what God had planned for the people He had made. Though the Bible doesn t say exactly what it was they built, many people think they built something called a ziggurat (show image of ziggurat). A ziggurat looked a lot like a pyramid. It was a big dirt and brick pile built to support a stairway that went up to heaven. The people of Babel thought their false gods lived in heaven. Because they wanted the gods to be able to come down and talk with or bless them, they built very tall stairs for them to walk down. It s silly to build something to reach God, right? Because where is God? He s everywhere! Because they chose to worship false gods, God became angry. To stop them from building this structure, the Bible says He confuse[d] their language so they [would] not understand each other (v. 7). Imagine that! How weird would it be if you were standing at the top of a ziggurat telling your friend: Hey! Hand me a brick! but when you said it, your words came out in German like this: Übergeben Sie mir einen Ziegelstein! or in French like this: Hé! Remettez-moi une brique! Do you think you would be able to finish building if you couldn t speak your friend s language? Probably not! So, by confusing their languages, God scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city (v. 8). So God scattered people all over the world, but He had a plan to reunite everyone to bring everyone into The Big God Story by inviting a man named Abraham to be part of His big plan. Abraham lived in a place called Haran with his father, his nephew, and his wife. So one night God spoke to Abraham and said, Leave your country, your people and your father s household and go to the land I will show you (Genesis 12:1). God then asked Abraham to cut ties with his family and everyone he knew because God had an amazing promise for him. God said, I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing (v. 2). God wanted Abraham to leave the country and family he knew so God could start a new nation of people who would worship only Him. So, Abraham obeyed God and followed Him out into a land called Canaan. Once he was there, God told Abraham He would give him more descendants (which is a fancy word for family ) than there were stars in the sky (show image of stars) and a Promised Land to live in! Wow! 10
The Big God Story N O T E S : Abraham believed God and worshipped Him right there by building something called an altar (show image of an altar). He worshipped Him because God is wonderful, powerful, mighty, and gives His people good promises! God created us to be worshippers. The people at Babel worshipped false gods or worshipped themselves. Abraham worshipped God by building an altar and choosing to obey Him. In Babel, people had walked away from God, had begun to worship idols, and thought too highly of themselves. So God started a family line from which the Redeemer would eventually be born. God knew that this Redeemer, Jesus Christ, would have the power to turn all people s hearts back to God so they could worship only Him. So through Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac, we see that God used one man, one woman, and a baby to start a new nation that would be set apart from all the others to worship God alone. Because God created us to worship Him, let s think together about some of the ways God deserves all of our worship and praise. What is something we can worship God for? (Encourage the kids to answer, and write their answers on the poster board.) We can worship God because He is good. Because He makes good promises to us and keeps them. Because He made a way for us to be in relationship with Him through sending His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. Because He loves us. Because He gave us the gift of each other. How many of you want to worship this wonderful God of ours right now? 11
LARGE Group S E C T I O N Respond// 15 20 min. Host/Worship Leader This is a time for kids to worship through silence, prayer, singing, giving, sharing, thanksgiving, and many other ways. Make plans for your worship time but prepare yourself and your team to hold them loosely if the Holy Spirit leads the group in a different direction. N O T E S : Postures of Worship After The Big God Story, lead right into worship through singing. SUPPLIES TruWorship CD ( Dance, Radio the World) SET UP Cue music. ENGAGE After the kids have had an opportunity to worship God, pause before you continue, saying: We are going to continue worshipping God. But before we do, we are going to talk a little bit about what it might look like to worship God mind, soul, and body. Have you ever wondered why your parents or other adults raise their hands in worship or get down on their knees? Sometimes when people feel overwhelmed with their desire to worship God, they kneel, bow down, raise their hands or their face, stand up, bow their head, etc. In other words, they use their whole body to worship God. Today, we are going to stand up and continue worshipping. Let s be united in worship because that s pleasing to God. If you feel like worshipping God with your whole body, feel free to raise your hands, kneel down, or bow your head in worship. Feel free to let yourself be fully wrapped up in worship. Encourage leaders to model these postures of worship for the children as you continue worshipping God. IT S OKAY IF Help kids understand that God speaks to us in many ways mostly through His Word, prayer, and others. Encourage them to ask God for the ability to hear His voice, but also give them the freedom to know that it s okay if they do not always experience Him in the ways that other people do. 12
SMALL Group S E C T I O N Respond// 15 20 min. Small Group Leaders A time to engage in relationship, reflect on the lesson with spiritual conversation, and/or create a meaningful project or piece of art. N O T E S : Reflect: God Created Us to Worship Him God created us to be in perfect relationship with Him. Some of what this perfect relationship involves is worship. God deserves our worship. And He has done so much to bring us into a relationship where we can worship Him. (Open a Bible, and encourage older kids to find the passages related to the questions below.) Questions for Younger Kids What was it like for Adam and Eve to live with God in the garden? (Genesis 2:8 11) What was the first people s relationship with God like? How did the first people break their perfect relationship with God? (Genesis 3:6) Why did God call Abraham to leave his family? (Genesis 12:1 3) Who is the Redeemer? (John 3:16) How can we worship God together? How can we worship God by ourselves? Questions for Older Kids What kind of relationship does God want to have with us? (Ephesians 1:17 19) How was the relationship broken? (Genesis 3:6) How did God restore this relationship? (John 3:16) Why did God call Abraham to leave his family? (Genesis 12:1 3) Who is the Redeemer? (John 3:16) Why does God give us the desire to worship Him? How can we worship God together? How can we worship God by ourselves? Create: Worshipping God SUPPLIES small pieces of canvas (about the size of a small flag) permanent markers CD cases, books, or other sturdy, uniform-sized items a ball image of Rube Goldberg machines (see Resource Folder) optional: rubber bands, disposable cups, baskets, empty bottles, watering cans, fabric, string (that could be used to make a Rube Goldberg machine) SET UP Set out the supplies for the kids to use. 13
N O T E S : ENGAGE Today we heard all about how people tried to build a structure to worship false gods. We also heard about God telling Abraham to go to a place where he could be free to worship only God. Abraham built a memorial of praise to the one true God. (A memorial means something that you can touch that reminds you of what God has done.) Today, let s create our own memorial to God. For fun, we will use everyday things to make something to worship God. Help the kids write words of praise on the strip of canvas such as: We Love God, or God, We Praise You, or God, You re Good. Roll up the canvas like a scroll and tape one end to the edge of a table. Tape it so that when you push on the rolled up canvas it will unroll instead of roll up tighter. Set up the CD cases, books, or other sturdy, uniform-size items like dominoes and put the ball between the rolled up scroll and the dominoes. When the make-shift dominoes are knocked over, they should hit the ball, which should roll into the scroll, and unroll the praises to God! This is just one idea of how you could make a machine to praise God. Get creative with other items in your room! For older kids, break them up into groups and have each group invent their own machine for praising God. For younger kids, draw a praise to God on the canvas. Set up the dominoes, and show them how it works. For more ideas about the kinds of machines you can make, visit: http://www.rubegoldberg.com/. Resource Tip Remember Verse Games are available for this lesson. Premium, Unlimited, and Combo users may access this resource on the My Lessons page > Extras > Small Group Enhancements. 14
SMALL Group S E C T I O N Bless// 5 min. Small Group Leaders A blessing can be a prayer of commission, a portion of Scripture, or words of encouragement or guidance. A blessing can be offered in order to ask God s Spirit to overflow from the child s life to bless others or prayed over a child for the purpose of declaring God s protection, joy, or wisdom. Leader Tip Every lesson ends with a blessing. This is a time for parents and leaders to speak Truth over children s lives. The idea of the blessing is to transition the child from being blessed to being a blessing. The blessing can be done in many ways, but the more intentional you are about it, the more powerful it will be. Depending on whether parents are able to join in at this time, you may want them to put their hands on their child s head or kneel and look him in the eye as they bless him. Leaders, be sure to model how you envision the blessing working in your church so your volunteers and parents become comfortable with it. As kids are blessed, tell them they have the opportunity to also be a blessing to others. Encourage them to freely share with others the joy and love they have received from God. Encourage the kids to hold their hands in front of them, palms up. This posture is meant to symbolize a willingness of heart to respond to God s Holy Spirit and receive what God has for them. Invite them to remain in this posture as you bless them. Encourage parents to come early in order to read the blessing over their child. Open a Bible and read Ephesians 2:4 5: Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in [sin] it is by grace you have been saved. I pray you will be blessed by the knowledge that God has given you the gift of life forever with Him. God deserves all of your worship. Partner Church Comments In a rather comedic way, the kids asked to be blessed using their other-language names from Connect. The Beacon HomeFront Weekly: Be sure to send home the HomeFront Weekly for next week s lesson! This preteaching tool for parents encourages families to spend time in God s Word together before children arrive at church. HomeFront Monthly: Every four weeks we highlight one of the 10 environments. For each new environment, parents should receive HomeFront Monthly. This resource gives families ideas for how to create fun, spiritually forming times in their homes setting aside a sacred space for family in the midst of their active, everyday lives! 15