Keep Calm and Respect God - PDF Free Download

Keep Calm and Respect God Bible Truth: Keep Calm and Respect God (Faith of the Roman Commander) Matthew 8:5-13 Bottom Line: Show respect to God because He s in charge of everything. Memory Verse: Show proper respect to everyone. 1 Peter 2:17a, NIV Life App: Respect showing others they are important by what you say and do. Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what. Social: Setting the Tone for the Experience (9:00, 10:15, 11:30) At the Helm Supplies for each kid to make a helmet, such as aluminum foil, chenille stems. Tape Scissors Bible: Communicating God s Truth in Engaging Ways (9:15, 10:30, 11:45) Bible Presentation in Large Group Prayer (9:50, 11:05, 12:20) Paper Map pencils Dismiss (10:00, 11:15, 12:30) 1

Keep Calm and Respect God Bible: Keep Calm and Respect God (Faith of the Roman Commander) Matthew 8:5-13 Bottom Line: Show respect to God because He s in charge of everything. Memory Verse: Show proper respect to everyone. 1 Peter 2:17a, NIV Life App: Respect showing others they are important by what you say and do. Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what. Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction (Small Groups, 15 minutes) Welcome kids and spend time engaging in conversation and catching up. Get ready to experience today s Bible Truth. Before kids arrive, spend some time praying in preparation for their arrival. Ask God to give you wisdom as you start this new series on respect, a topic that all kids struggle with at times (some more than others!). Pray that they would leave your group with a deeper understanding of why it s important to respect God. At the Helm Made to Create: an activity that explores spiritual ideas through the process of drawing, building, and designing What You Need: Supplies to create a helmet What You Do: Guide kids to make helmets using the materials supplied. Be sure to make a helmet for you too. While kids are working, engage them in conversation. Use the optional questions below to facilitate conversation: o What are some situations where you would need to wear a helmet? (riding a bike, playing football/baseball/lacrosse/softball, in a construction zone) o Can you think of jobs people do that require a helmet? (football player, motorcycle rider, bicyclist, welder, race car driver, soldier, skier, construction worker/builder) o What do you think a helmet has to do with our Bible Truth today? (Let them speculate and then give them a hint: A helmet has to do with the occupation of one of the people in our Bible Truth today.) What You Say: You made some great helmets! We are going to use our helmets after Large Group. Leave your helmets here and [Transition] let s head to Large Group to hear a Bible Truth about a Roman commander and why his story is important to us. Lead your group to the Large Group area. 2

Keep Calm and Respect God Bible: Keep Calm and Respect God (Faith of the Roman Commander) Matthew 8:5-13 Bottom Line: Show respect to God because He s in charge of everything. Memory Verse: Show proper respect to everyone. 1 Peter 2:17a, NIV Life App: Respect showing others they are important by what you say and do. Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what. Bible: Communicating God s Truth in Engaging Ways (Large Group, 35 minutes) Engage kids hearts through a dynamic and interactive Bible Truth, worship, and prayer experience in a Large Group setting. SFX: Play high-energy music as kids enter. CG: Drumline Theme Slide Host is on stage, welcoming the kids as they enter. The stage is filled with various kinds of drums and percussion instruments. Opener HOST: Hey guys! How are you feeling? Good? I respect that. I do. You know why? CG: Respect Slide Well, this month is all about RESPECT showing others they are important by what you say and do. Respecting someone means that you speak and act like they matter to you. You choose to value them in the way you feel and think about them. You decide that you re going to listen to their opinion, whether you agree with them or not. After all, God made us to respect each other. And our respect for others starts with our respect for HIM. We ll talk more about that in a minute. But first I want to find out something. I need to see just how much respect is already here in this room. I want to see if you guys can Respect the Rhythm! SFX: Intro to Every Reason to Dance Point to the theme slide and start clapping along to the beat excitedly. Yes! Respect the Rhythm. I believe you can! Here s what we re going to do. We re going to do some body percussion, which basically means we re going to play the drums... without any drums! Now, there are three parts to play, so we re going to divide up into three teams. Quickly divide the room into three sections. (Note: If possible, group the kids so that Team 1 are the youngest, Team 2 are the middle, and Team 3 are the oldest.) 4

All right! So each team has a different rhythm to play. Team 1, here is your rhythm! CG: Rhythm 1 Think you can do it? Let s try it. Great job! Okay, Team 2, here is your rhythm! CG: Rhythm 2 All right, give it a try! All right, last but not least, Team 3. Here is your rhythm! CG: Rhythm 3 See if you can do it. Worship Leader 1 demonstrates the first rhythm. Play the video again if they need help remembering it. Let them do it a few times to make sure they have it before moving on. Play the video again if they need help remembering it. Let them do it a few times to make sure they have it before moving on. Play the video again if they need help remembering it. Let them do it a few times to make sure they have it before moving on. Okay, awesome! Now we re going to put all our beats TOGETHER so we can really Respect the Rhythm. You guys up for it? We ll build our beat starting with Team 1, and then we ll add Team 2. Team 1, your job is to keep doing your beat the whole time, even after we add Team 2. Make sure you keep watching your small group leader for the rhythm, okay? Then, after we have Teams 1 and 2 going, we ll add Team 3, but Teams 1 and 2, you keep doing YOUR beat the whole time. Keep watching your leader. Make sense? Good! Here we go! Host cues each group when it s their turn. He starts with group 1, then 2, then 3. Everyone should keep doing their beat so that you re adding three different layers. Host lets the full, combined beat go a few times, cheering and encouraging the teams along the way. Then he cues everyone to stop and gives them a round of applause. 5

That was so awesome! Give yourselves a hand! You guys did a great job respecting the rhythm. Now give a respectful welcome to [Historyteller s Name]! Host exits. Historyteller enters in the middle of the room (not up on stage). SETTING UP THE BIBLE TRUTH HISTORYTELLER: Hey, guys! Hope you re all doing great this morning! Believe it or not, the Bible has a lot to say about respect. And there was this one time when the most unexpected person understood who deserves the most respect. We find it in the book of Matthew, chapter 8. (Hold up Bible.) Matthew is one of the books of the Bible that tells about what Jesus did and said while He was here on earth. Let s pick it up at the point of Jesus life when He was teaching, healing people, and performing miracles. When Jesus taught people, He didn t drone on and on like some teachers of the law. Instead, Jesus spoke with conviction and authority. Soon, it wasn t just Jewish people paying attention to Jesus. Even some of the ruling Romans were amazed by what He had to say. One such man was a Roman military commander who was stationed in Capernaum. THE ROMAN COMMANDER LIGHTS: House lights down, turn giant flashlight on Scrim 1 (on the left) Note: When the house lights go down, Historyteller starts to read from the script in a binder (with a book light) from the back of the room, so the audience is focused on the actors and the scrim scenes. Roman commander is in Scrim 1, wearing the Roman helmet. He strikes an imposing pose. HISTORYTELLER: We don t know a lot about this Roman commander, but we DO know that he was in charge of a large group of soldiers. SFX: Army marching The moment he spoke, they all jumped to attention. COMMANDER: ATTEN-HUT! SFX: Soldiers stand at attention Commander marches in place. Commander salutes. SICK SERVANT HISTORYTELLER: This commander also had a servant that he really cared about almost like he was his own son. 6

Servant appears in Scrim 1 along with Commander. Unfortunately, this servant was very, very sick. He felt so awful that he couldn t even move! SFX: Coughing Servant groans as he falls to his knees and then to the floor. The commander had to do something! Luckily, he heard that Jesus was coming to town. He had heard stories about Jesus how people flocked to Him everywhere He went, and how He had been healing people who were sick. He knew Jesus could help. So the commander went to see Him. SFX: Horse galloping LIGHTS: Keep Scrim 1 light on, Turn Scrim 2 (center) and 3 (right) lights on Servant stays in Scrim 1, doubled over. Commander travels across Scrim 2 to get to Scrim 3. In Scrim 3, he faces the actor playing Jesus (wearing a robe). JESUS EXAMPLE HISTORYTELLER: The commander found himself face to face with Jesus. He told Jesus about his servant lying at home who was sick and unable to move. Jesus said, Shall I come and heal him? (Matthew 8:7 NIrV). Commander talks with his hands to Jesus in Scrim 3. The commander was probably imagining Jesus stepping through the doors of his house. He knew that Jewish law would forbid Jesus from entering the home of a Roman. But Jesus wasn t just any man. The commander said: Lord, I am not good enough to have you come into my house. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed (Matthew 8:8 NIrV). He thought of the way his soldiers obeyed every command instantly and without question. Listen to what he said: I myself am a man under authority, and I have soldiers who obey my orders. I tell this one, Go, and he goes. I tell that one, Come, and he comes. I say to my slave, Do this, and he does it (Matthew 8:9 NIrV). Instead of answering the commander, Jesus turned to the others around Him. Here s what He said. Jesus actor turns toward the audience and stretches out his arms. What I m about to tell you is true. In Israel I have not found anyone whose faith is so strong (Matthew 8:10 NIrV). Jesus told the commander: Go! It will be done just as you believed it would (Matthew 8:13 NIrV). And 7

sure enough, the servant was healed at that exact same moment! Servant (in Scrim 1) stands up, jumps, and shouts WOOOOHOOOOOO! LIGHTS: All scrim lights out. After a few seconds, turn house lights up. Wow. Thank you to our actors. Great job, guys! Actors exit. Historyteller can head to the stage. WRAPPING UP THE BIBLE TRUTH HISTORYTELLER: So check this out: the commander was an important man himself. But he realized that Jesus, God s Son, was MORE powerful. The commander had authority over a lot of soldiers. Yet the commander knew that Jesus had authority over everything even sickness! He knew that Jesus had come from God. And therefore Jesus was worthy of his complete respect. The Roman commander realized that he needed to show respect to God because He s in charge of everything. CG: Bottom Line Slide In fact, that s the one thing we should remember today: [Bottom Line] Show respect to God because He's in charge of everything. God is the all-powerful Creator of the universe. Everything we have comes from Him. It s only right that we show Him respect above and beyond anyone or anything else. But if we re honest, we know that showing respect to God can be difficult. How about we pray and ask God to help us? Let s pray. Pray HISTORYTELLER: God, thank You for this great reminder that You ARE in charge of everything. The commander could see that. Help us to see it too. Help us to remember to show respect to You and to know that You re in control of every part of our lives. Thank You that we can trust You and know that You re in charge. Help us give You the respect You deserve. We love You and we ask these things in Jesus name, amen. If you have an offering, go ahead and bring that on up to the offering bucket. Now, everyone up on your feet because it is Praise and worship time! Power Praise Team enters as Historyteller exits. Worship POWER PRAISE: Hello, everybody! Today is a great day to sing God s praises. Stand to your feet and get ready. We have a new song for you guys called Rock this Planet. Sing this loud with us. SFX: Rock this Planet POWER PRAISE: Yeah, without faith it s impossible to please God. That was awesome. I always love it when we have a new song to share with all of you. This next song talks about how we should live our 8

lives not for ourselves but for God. We should live out what He is doing in us, on the inside. Sing with us. SFX: Living Inside Out POWER PRAISE: Yeah, give it up for our God. He is our everything! (Pause for response.) Let s continue this time of worship. This songs is filled with truth. Let s sing these words and declare together that we believe in God and His authority over all creation. SFX: No One Higher Thank you so much for joining us today. We will see you all next Sunday. Have a great week! Power Praise team exits as Host enters. Closer HOST: Hey, everyone! What a great Bible Truth, huh? It s true. There are a lot of people in the world who you re supposed to respect. At school, you respect your teachers and the principal. On your team, you respect the coach. At home, you respect your parents or maybe even an older brother or sister. You may even find yourself in a position where YOU RE the one who gets the respect. But as the Roman commander had already figured out, there s someone who deserves more respect than anybody: God. Sure, people may be in charge of classrooms, teams, or other people, but God is in charge of making sure the earth keeps turning. He s in charge of the biggest stars and planets to the smallest germs and molecules. God has the power over sickness and disease. He has power over life and death. God is in charge of everything. So if respect is showing others they are important by what you say and do, then you should be looking for things to say and do that show God how important HE is things like reading what He said in the Bible and following His commands, or thanking Him for all He s done for you. When you do that, you re showing Him that you respect Him and that you [Basic Truth] trust Him no matter what. CG: Bottom Line Slide Here s the one thing to remember today: [Bottom Line] Show respect to God because He s in charge of everything. That s how we should live each day showing respect to God and showing respect to the people He s put around us. Now it s time to head back to your small groups. You guys are going to talk more about what it means to show respect to God. I know you ll have some great ideas! Have a great time together, and we ll see you next week! CG: Prayer Group Slide Dismiss children to their Prayer Groups. 9

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: Paper, thin markers What You Do: Tell kids to write RESPECT vertically on a piece of paper. For each letter, kids write something God is in charge of that starts with each letter. For example: Rainbows Elephants Sunsets Playgrounds Eggs Cats Toes For a greater challenge, kids can write a prayer as an acrostic poem using each of the letters in RESPECT to start each line. o For example: Respecting God is an Excellent thing to do Since He is in charge of Positively Everything! Creator God, I thank You because I can Trust You no matter what Give kids time to share what they wrote. What You Say: We should [Bottom Line] show respect to God because He s in charge of everything. One way to show respect is to thank God. You can thank Him for the earth and everything on it. You can thank Him for people in our lives, or you can thank Him for gifts He gives you. The list of what you can thank God for is unlimited! Another way to respect God is to talk to Him, to share with Him not only what you are thankful for but also to talk to Him when you are lonely, happy, scared, or nervous. God loves you and He wants to hear from you. Let s pray. God, You are awesome! You created everything and You are in charge of everything. You have given us so much. We are thankful for (list some of the ideas kids mentioned during the activity). God, You are so important to us. Guide our actions and our words so we show everyone how much we respect You. Amen. As adults arrive to pick up, tell parents we are learning about respect this month. Explain that today we heard a Bible Truth about a Roman commander. Encourage parents to ask their kids about why the Roman commander went to find Jesus. 10