These Guys Aren t on Fire - PDF Free Download

These Guys Aren t on Fire Bible: These Guys Aren t on Fire (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) Daniel 3 Bottom Line: Trust that God is always with you. Memory Verse: Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6, NIV Life App: Confidence Living like you believe what God says is true Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what. Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction (Small Groups, 15 minutes) Before kids arrive, take a few moments to pray for them. Ask for God s mercy over the kids who are in difficult situations or are struggling with specific circumstances. Ask God to help kids grapple with their fears and insecurities. Pray that kids would be able to feel God s presence and that He would help them trust that He is always with them. 9:00 & 11:30 Early Arriver Idea Made to Connect: an activity that invites kids to share with others and build on their understanding What You Need: No supplies needed What You Do: Welcome kids to small group. Talk about places they have been and places they d like to go. Ask: o Who took you there? o How did you get home? o How would you get to your fantasy destination? o Who would be with you there? Play a game of Where Am I? o The first player thinks of a particular location or place and says, Where am I right now? o The other players can ask up to 20 yes-or-no questions to guess. o The correct guesser becomes the next player to think of a place. o You may need to prompt some of the kids with places: at school, in the kitchen, at a local amusement park, on the moon, in a swimming pool, on a submarine, etc. o You might also need to get the questions going, such as: Can you see the sky? Are you making something to eat? Are you waiting in line? Could you yell really loud? Could you touch your toes? Are you near water? Are you going somewhere? Lead your group to the Large Group area. 2

10:15 Going Places Made to Play: an activity that encourages learning through following guidelines and working as a group What You Need: No supplies needed What You Do: Gather your group into a circle, with one kid standing in the middle as the Caller. Quietly assign each kid, including the Caller, one of the following 4 places: classroom, roller coaster, Canada, outside. Try not to have two kids next to each other with the same place. When the Caller says any one of these places, those kids have to switch seats with each other. The Caller in the middle tries to steal an empty seat, leaving another kid stranded in the middle. That kid becomes the next Caller. The Caller can also say, Everywhere, and the whole group must try to switch seats. Play as long as interest holds. For very young kids, you act as the Caller and there is no stealing of seats, just kids switching as their place is called. You can let older kids choose the places/categories. Be aware of older kids physically jockeying for spaces in the circle, and make sure everyone knows the boundaries of the circle to prevent disruptions to the game. What You Say: That was a fun trip to so many places! You all had some other kids with you in your place. [Place] team was especially enthusiastic! There s a famous saying that says, No matter where you go, there you are. [Transition] Let s go hear about who can be with you no matter where you go. Lead your group to the Large Group area. 3

These Guys Aren t on Fire Bible: These Guys Aren t on Fire (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) Daniel 3 Bottom Line: Trust that God is always with you. Memory Verse: Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6, NIV Life App: Confidence living like you believe what God says is true. Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what. Bible: Communicating God s Truth in Engaging Ways (Large Group, 25 minutes) Engage kids hearts through a dynamic and interactive Bible Truth, worship, and prayer experience in a Large Group setting. CG: 10-Second Count Down CG: Theme Slide Host is on stage, welcoming the kids as they enter. Opener HOST: Hey, everyone! Are you AMPED to be here? I know I am! All summer long we re talking about living fully alive. That means extreme games, extreme Bible stories, and lots of extreme confidence! CG: Confidence Slide Confidence is living like you believe what God says is true. And that doesn t come easy! It s tough to be confident when you re facing a difficult situation and you feel all alone. It takes practice to really live like you believe what God says is true. So we re taking another month to look at this Life App, and I m AMPED about it! I m so AMPED that I feel like dancing. Attempt a breakdance move and clearly fail at it. Yes! I m getting better every day. I bet all of you have some sweet moves, too. Everyone up on your feet. When the music starts, you have 15 seconds to bust out your favorite dance moves. DJ, play that beat! SFX: Instrumental version of Can t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake (starting when the drums kick in, around 0:25) Encourage the kids and Leaders to dance as you dance too. Wow! Your dance moves were impressive! And that gives me an idea. There are a lot of different 5

dance styles out there, and some dances that we might not call extreme are actually the hardest to do. I need an adult volunteer to come on stage and show us some different dance styles. Choose one outgoing adult volunteer to come on stage. Give him the headphones and pick up the music player. [Volunteer s name] will listen to a song, and he ll dance in the style of that song. But since the music is coming through his headphones, we won t be able to hear it. We have to guess what style of music he s listening to based on how he dances. For example, if [volunteer s name] hears a song like this in his headphones... SFX: Instrumental version of Stayin Alive by the Bee Gees (starting at the beginning)... maybe he would dance like this. Nod at the volunteer to cue him to do some disco moves. (To audience) Do you know what style this song is? If you do, shout it out. (Pause for response.) Right disco! (To volunteer) All right, are you ready, [volunteer s name]? Make sure you get really into it and do some big dance moves to help us guess, okay? The more confident you are, the faster we ll get it. Go ahead and put the headphones on and I ll play your first song. Using the music player, play Achy Breaky Heart for the volunteer. He ll start to dance. See if the audience can guess the style of music. (To audience) That s right! It was country. Let s all stand and have a quick country hoedown. SFX: Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus (starting at 0:40) Great job! Let s see if you can guess the next one. You got it. It s rock n roll! Everyone bust out your air guitars! SFX: Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry (starting at the beginning) Encourage the kids and adults to stand and show their best country dance moves while the music plays. Using the music player, play Johnny B. Goode for the volunteer. He ll start to dance. See if the audience can guess the style of music. Encourage the kids and adults to stand and rock out while the music plays. 6

Let s see if you can guess one more. Ready, [volunteer s name]? Oh, ballet! Everyone stand up and give it a try! Using the music player, play Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy for the volunteer. He ll start to dance. (This time, have a little fun by making him keep dancing as long as possible.) See if the audience can guess the style of music. Encourage the kids and adults to stand and show off their ballet moves. SFX: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker (starting at 0:08) Great dancing, everyone. Let s give [volunteer s name] a big hand! Collect the headphones from the volunteer and dismiss him to his seat. Host exits as Historyteller enters. HISTORYTELLER: Hey, everyone! It s time to dig into another great Bible Truth. (Hold up Bible.) This one is so epic that it could be a summer blockbuster movie, and I ll need a few of you to help me tell it. Choose four boys and bring them up on stage. Give them the Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego nametags. A long time ago long before Jesus was born there was a mighty king named King Nebuchadnezzar. HOST: I am King Nebuchadnezzar! Host enters, wearing the crown, robe, and King Neb nametag. HISTORYTELLER: We ll call him King Neb for short. King Neb was a ruthless leader giving orders, taking what he wanted, and never, ever taking no for an answer. He was really terrible! (To Host) Hey, King, can you share some of your gold with me? I m poor. (Host shakes his head.) See what I mean? Well, King Neb attacked the lands around him and captured their cities, and soon he set his sights on Israel. He attacked, captured a bunch of people, and then made them his slaves. But out of those captured people, he chose the best and the brightest to be his personal advisors. (Point to the four boys.) Like Daniel and his three friends who the king called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These guys were smart and strong. (To the four boys) Let s see those muscles. (Boys flex.) God was with these young men, and soon King Neb was so impressed with them that he put them in charge of Babylon and the surrounding villages. 7

Give each of them a clipboard with a paper that says: YOU RE IN CHARGE. They promised to do everything the king asked... as long as it lined up with what God said. HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? HISTORYTELLER: That was all well and good, until one day when King Neb got an idea. Host mimes getting an idea. He wanted to build a statue. Not just any statue a 90-foot-tall statue. And he wanted it made out of gold! Who wants to be our statue today? Choose a tall kid or an adult volunteer to be the statue. Have her stand on a chair to be taller. (To the statue volunteer) Can you strike an awesome, kingly pose? (The statue volunteer does this.) Great. King Neb set up the statue in a flat area near Babylon. HOST: Behold my magnificent statue! Host stands next to the statue, striking the same pose as the statue volunteer. HISTORYTELLER: He gathered all of his advisors, rulers, and officials to honor the statue. Daniel wasn t there; he might been on a trip somewhere. (To the Daniel volunteer) Thanks for your help, Daniel. You can head back to your seat. (The volunteer sits down.) An announcer shouted out to the crowd to tell them the rules and regulations about the statue. Clear your throat dramatically, open the Bible to Daniel 3:4-5, and read. Listen, you people who come from every nation! Pay attention, you who speak other languages! Here is what the king commands you to do. You will soon hear the sound of horns and flutes. You will hear zithers, lyres, harps and pipes. In fact, you will hear all kinds of music. When you do, you must fall down and worship the gold statue. That is the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up (NIrV). Uh... hang on a minute. They were supposed to WORSHIP the statue? That wasn t going to work for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They only worshipped the one true God. So if they didn t obey the king s ridiculous law if they didn t worship the statue then what would happen? Well, let s see. Clear your throat dramatically, open the Bible to Daniel 3:6, and read. 8

If you don t, you will be thrown into a blazing furnace right away (NIrV). (Point to a group of kids in the audience, sitting together) Here s our blazing furnace, right here. (To the group) Can you wave your fingers and whoosh and sizzle? STAND AND DELIVER HISTORYTELLER: Not too much later, the music started. SFX: All the instruments The group in the crowd waves their fingers and makes furnace noises. Everyone bowed really low to the ground to worship the statue. (Move over to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.) Everyone, that is, except Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They didn t bow down. They stood up tall! (The three volunteers do this.) Some officials noticed that our friends here weren t bowing down, and they ran to tattle to the king about them. They were saying NO? To the KING?! King Neb got super mad! HOST: I am super mad! HISTORYTELLER: The king sent for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were in trouble now! What happens to people who say no to the king? That s right! The blazing furnace! (Point to the group in the crowd.) The group in the crowd wave their fingers and make furnace noises. King Neb decided to give them one more chance. Maybe they didn t hear his decrees and laws clearly. He told them once again: When you hear the sound of the music, you must bow down to my statue. If not, it s off to the furnace with you! Point to the group in the crowd, who wave their fingers and make furnace noises. Yikes! Did they really think their God would be able to save them from THAT? Listen to what they said. Open the Bible to Daniel 3:16-18 and read. King Nebuchadnezzar, we don t need to talk about this anymore. We might be thrown into the blazing furnace. But the God we serve is able to bring us out of it alive. He will save us from your power. But we want you to know this, Your Majesty. Even if we knew that our God wouldn t save us, we still wouldn t serve your gods. We wouldn t worship the gold statue you set up (NIrV). THE BLAZING FURNACE HISTORYTELLER: The King was so out-of-his-mind mad that he was about to explode. 9

He made the furnace seven times hotter than normal. Host runs around in circles. Host directs the kids sitting around the furnace group to join in with acting out the furnace. The king had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego tied up and thrown into the furnace! Host directs the three boys into the middle of the furnace group in the crowd. Get the group in the crowd to continue acting out the furnace. The king looked in, and he couldn t believe his eyes. Was he seeing things? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were no longer tied up, and they were totally fine. Not only that, but there was also another person in the flames with them! The king said... Hand the Bible to the Host so he can read Daniel 3:25. HOST: Look! I see four men walking around in the fire. They aren t tied up. And the fire hasn t even harmed them. The fourth man looks like a son of the gods (NIrV). HISTORYTELLER King Neb told them to come out of the fire, and they did. Host beckons the boys to come over to him. He inspects them and sniffs them. They came out of the fire, and not a hair on them was burned! Their clothes weren t scorched, and they didn t even smell like smoke. WRAPPING UP THE BIBLE TRUTH HISTORYTELLER: King Neb was so impressed by these three guys and their one true God! He praised God for sending an angel to rescue them from the blazing furnace. He even made a new decree that no one could say anything against their God. Not only that, he promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to higher positions of power in the kingdom of Babylon. Let s give our volunteers a huge hand including Daniel, our statue, and our blazing furnace! Dismiss the volunteers to their seats. Host exits. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew that God was with them. They knew that He was the only one they should worship. They trusted Him even with their very lives! CG: Bottom Line Slide [Bottom Line] Trust that God is always with you. Everywhere you go, every day of the week, you can trust Him! He was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the blazing furnace, and He s right there with you, too. Let s pray. 10

Pray HISTORYTELLER: God, the things we read about in Your Word are absolutely amazing. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were willing to face the blazing furnace instead of worshipping that statue and You protected them! Please show us how to have confidence in You like that. Help us to trust You and to know that You re with us always. Thank You for being there for us. We love You, and we pray these things in Jesus name, amen. Now, up on your feet and be extra generous with your praise and worship to Go! Worship SFX: At the Top Of My Lungs Optional CG: Live Loud video from Get Reel 2.0 DVD Power Praise team enters as Historyteller exits. SFX: Lift You Higher Power Praise exits as Host enters. Closer HOST: Wow. Wouldn t it be amazing if we all lived our lives like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did? Totally trusting in God totally trusting that He s always with us? Imagine the things we could face! We wouldn t have any fear! Let s be honest. All of us have things we re afraid of like being alone, or being in the dark... or even worse, being alone in the dark! You might find yourself in a situation where you need to [Basic Truth] make the wise choice when others are making the wrong one. In those moments, you need confidence. That comes from trusting God. Remember, in our obstacle course, our Leaders had to TOTALLY trust their guides to keep them away from the things blocking their path. We can trust God to help us through our hard times, too. I m not saying that you ll have to step into a blazing furnace... but honestly, it might feel like that if you begin to stand up for God in a tough situation. Your palms might sweat, your cheeks might feel hot, and your legs might start to shake a little bit. But you can be strong and confident knowing that God is right there with you the whole time. [Basic Truth] You can trust Him no matter what. When you trust Him, you don t have to be afraid. He s with you, and you can lean on Him for confidence. Here s the one thing to remember today. CG: Bottom Line Slide [Bottom Line] Trust that God is always with you. No matter where, no matter when, no matter what He s right there by your side. CG: Memory Verse Slide 11

"He s with you as you head to your small groups, too. Let s do that now! Dismiss kids to their small groups. SFX: Play high-energy music as the kids exit. CG: Small Group Slide 12

Groups: Creating a Safe Place to Connect (10 minutes) 9:00 & 11:30 Flip the Cup What You Need: Plastic cups What You Do: Divide your few into two teams. Name one Team Nebuchadnezzar and the other Team God. Spread out the plastic cups all over the area you are playing in. Team Nebuchadnezzar s goal is to flip all of the cups down like they are bowing down to the statue in our Bible Truth. Team God s goal is to flip all of the cups up, like they are standing up for what they believe in. Explain that you will be counting to 10 each time and then making both teams freeze. The team of your choice must answer a review question from below. After asking five questions, play another round and have teams switch roles so they both get turns being the good guys. The team with the most cups in their direction at the end wins! Review Questions: o Who were the three main characters from our Bible Truth who ended up in a fiery furnace? (Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego) o Who was the King of Babylon? (King Nebuchadnezzar) o What did King Nebuchadnezzar want built for him? (a golden statue) o When music was played, what was everyone supposed to do? (bow down to the statue) o If people chose not to bow, what was their punishment? (be thrown into the fiery furnace) o When the music was played, what did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego choose to do? (not bow down) o What happened because of the choice they made? (they were thrown into the furnace) o What happened when they were thrown into the fiery furnace? (God protected them and they were unharmed) o How many men did the king see in the furnace? (Four) o What did the king tell everyone after seeing what God had done? (To never talk bad about God) What You Say: You were really getting competitive with our flip cup game! What a fun way to review our Bible Truth. Could you imagine being in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego s shoes? Have you ever needed to show confidence and stand up for what you believed in? (Allow time for kids to respond.) [Make It Personal] (Share a personal Bible Truth from a time you were confident and stood up for what you believed in.) Remember, no matter who you are facing or what you are facing, you can [Bottom Line] trust that God is always with you. 10:15 Fiery Furnace What You Need: Fiery Furnace Activity Pages, markers, scissors What You Do: 13

Provide each kid with an Activity Page. Instruct them to cut out the trifold on the dotted lines and then color the fiery furnace and the three men inside it. Then ask kids to think about a time when they faced something difficult, such as learning something really hard at school, trying out for a sports team, performing in an instrumental recital or concert, standing up for someone who was being made fun of, etc. When they finish drawing, encourage them to fold the paper toward the middle on the solid lines, so their drawing is now on the inside of the folds. Point out that no matter which drawing is showing on their page, the extra person can still be seen. Tell kids that the figure represents how God is with them just like He was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. What You Say: Do you see in our picture that God is with you just like He is with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? There is nothing you will ever walk through where God will not be right by your side! Have you ever been in a situation and trusted that God was with you? (Allow time for kids to share stories.) Those are all awesome stories! Just like you trusted God in those times, you can [Bottom Line] trust that God is always with you. 14

All Service Times Pray and Dismiss (10 minutes) [Pray to God Prayer Activity] Made to Reflect: an activity that creates space for personal understanding and application What You Need: No supplies needed What You Do: Ask your few if they have any awesome plans for this week. Ask them where they hope God will help them this week. Invite them to share ideas for having confidence that God is with them. What You Say: Dear God, I thank You for the promise You have given us that we can [Bottom Line] trust that God is always with you. I pray that whatever we are walking through this week, that we never forget this truth. Help us to be confident not in our own selves but in the mighty God You are. Thank You for how I know You will be a present help to us this week, all for Your glory! In Jesus name, amen. As adults arrive to pick up, prompt them to share that they can [Bottom Line] trust that God is always with you. 15