School Christmas thought

[This was written as a short thought for parents and children after a number of school nativity plays.]

What is your favourite fairy tale?

What if that fairy tale were true, how would life change?

            Eg be scared of going to Grannies in case she’s a talking wolf

            Go round kissing frogs and give up on internet dating

            Have a fairy Godmother who gave you three wishes

            Get dressed much quicker for parties

Often we treat the Christmas story as a fairy tale, it’s magical and beautiful but ultimately not true!

Luke, who tells us most about the Christmas story, begins by saying that he’s checked out all the details, spoken to the people who were there and everything he’s writing actually happened!

So what does that change? Means life has meaning and purpose, life after death, friendship with God now instead of being His enemies.

Why not find out more?

All Age Carols Christmas talk

 [This is for our All Age Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve. We are using two sets of props: first, a string tied from the back of church to the front on which to send a balloon (angel) with names. Secondly, a box wrapped up which folds out to a cross shape.]

All Age Carols 2012

Song – Silent night

Intro

Will and Kate are expecting a baby, God willing. When a baby is born it’s a real gift from God (hold up wrapped up box). And when a baby is born we need to name him or her. Great excitement over what baby Cambridge might be called. Of course the Christmas story involves the birth of a baby. And because he is so special he has lots of names.

Watch the first video of Luke 1:26-38. Listen for what the angel says the baby should be called.

Talk 1

Did you spot the name? Jesus. [angel (balloon rocket) sends name ‘Jesus’ from back to the front of church.]

I wonder if you could choose your own name, would you change it. This is (formerly) George Garratt, who changed his name to, wait for it, Captain fantastic faster than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine The Hulk and the Flash combined. He changed his name by deed poll online for £10. There’s an idea for a late Christmas present for Dad!

Perhaps you just don’t like the name your parents gave you. In some countries you can’t cal yourself whatever you want. In New Zealand, a girl became a ward of court after her parents named her Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii.

A couple were banned from calling their child 4real so they chose Superman instead.

But normally it’s the parents who choose the name for their child. Here the parents are told to call their baby Jesus, by an angel. Why?

Because this is a child from God, a special gift given in an impossible way. This is no ordinary child. God Himself is stepping into history, to act. And the name evokes some of the great heroes of the OT. This is the same name as Joshua, the great army captain of earlier in the bible, and Elisha, the great prophet who came to give people God’s great message. But what is it that Jesus has come to do? What is his job going to be?

We’ll need to wait for the next name to find out. But lets put the name Jesus in our present.

Song – Away in a Manger

Talk 2

Watch video 2 of Luke 2:8-20. What do the angels tell the shepherd the name of the baby is? Saviour

[angel (balloon) sends ‘Saves’ from back of church to front.]

So the shepherds are told that the Saviour has been born. A Saviour is someone who saves. That’s the meaning of the name Jesus.

Did you know your name means something? You may or you may not. And you might or might not like the meaning.

Read out a few. Georgia means farmer! Connor means dog lover!

Well Jesus means ‘He saves’.

Why did God step into the world to save? What do we need saving from?

Well, the world is in a mess. There have been some horrible things happening in the last week which tell us that! Shootings, people in Syria being bombed, people saying nasty things or doing nasty things, sickness and illness.

And the bible tells us that’s like a symptom of an illness. When we get measles it shows itself when we get lots of spots. So the bible says sin is an illness that everyone of us has, and it shows itself when we do or say horrible things. And that sin, that illness in each one of us, is when we ignore God, forget about Him, don’t live His way, don’t live with Him as our rightful ruler. That’s what’s gone wrong with the world, us! But Jesus has come into the world to be the Saviour, to save us from our rebellion against God. That’s the good news of Christmas.

Let’s put that in our Christmas present.

Song – Jesus Saves (to Jingle Bells)

Talk 3

Watch video 3 of Matthew 2:1-12. What did the wise men call Jesus? King of the Jews (also prophet said a ruler/shepherd)

[Angel sends crown from the back of church to the front.]

God has given us a forever King [place crown in box]

This baby in the manger is God’s forever King, then. Doesn’t look much like the birth of a king! I imagine when our future heir to the throne is born there will be thousands of people lining the streets to celebrate. Not just some smelly shepherds and some foreigners from miles away with some strange presents. This king forever was laid in an animal feeding trough, not a golden crib.

And Jesus grew up to show that He was the forever King; the words he spoke had kingly authority and power, they healed people, stilled storms, cast out demons.

But actually he never wore a crown. Oh, no he once did. But that was a crown of thorns, which was placed on him as he died on the cross.

Have you seen the Save the Children advert (on screen)? No child is born to die. Absolutely right. Except in this case. Jesus was born to die. (open up box into cross shape with crown at top, Jesus underneath and ‘Saves’ at the bottom.)

This is what it means for Him to be King forever, the one who came to die for sins, to save us from all we deserve for disobeying God, to bring peace for us.

What a wonderful Christmas present! Have you accepted it? Have you come to Jesus and said sorry for all you’ve done wrong and asked Him to be your king? Why not speak to me afterward about that?

That’s the message of Christmas, Jesus was born to die, born to save!

Puppets – Born to Save

Prayers

Carol – Once in Royal David’s City

Teaching Malachi

[This is our final week of teaching the minor prophets, I say with some relief! If we did it all again I would definately do it differently]

Malachi for 5-11s

Theme: Live wholeheartedly for your faithful God

Intro:

Put minor prophets in the right order (bible order) and hide round the room for them to find. Who is the last one?

Bible story:

Do you remember that Judah had been carried off to Babylon for 70 years because they’d disobeyed God? Last week we saw that they had returned and Haggai told them to rebuild the temple.

Everything looks ok. They’re offering sacrifices as they should in the temple. They’ve gone back to work and they’re living with they’re families.

Well, this week our prophet is Malachi.

And God tells Malachi that things aren’t quite as good as they look.

You see the first commandment that the people had to keep was to, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.’ [Have on large card] God had loved them and chosen them and had restored them, so they were to love Him with all they had.

Now, although things looked good, if you dig beneath the surface they weren’t loving God with all their hearts.

Here’s the first thing:

The priests. [dress up one as priest]. They were going to get their sacrifices for the temple. But instead of going and getting a perfect lamb, as they should, they just went and picked any old lamb. ‘Oh, this one will do,’ even if it was missing one leg or had a dodgy eye. That wasn’t good enough for God, that wasn’t loving God with all your heart.

Even though we don’t offer animal sacrifices anymore we must still give God the best of our lives, we must live for Him.

Here’s the second thing:

When they went to get married, God had said they were only to marry other people who loved Him. But the men had gone and married women who loved other gods. They hadn’t loved God with all their hearts.

The same is true of us, when we get married when we’re older we must show how much we love God by marrying someone else who loves God.

Here’s the third thing:

When they went to work and earnt money, they were not giving God the first amount that they earnt. They would leave it until the end and give Him the bits of money left over. God said that they were robbing Him!

So the same must be true of us. It’s good to give, and we should give from the first bit of our pocket money, not the change left over after we’ve bought our sweets. We must love Him with all our hearts.

Finally, they said, ‘Well maybe its not worth serving the Lord God.’ Do you know what God says? I’m going to keep my promises (covenant) [have on 2 sides of card, 1^st side: ‘Our word: promises’; 2^nd side ‘Bible word: covenant’] and deal with the wicked. So live wholeheartedly for me now!

Will you live as God’s covenant people, boys and girls who live trusting God’s promise, just as Jesus did? Will you love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, mind and strength now? Will you love Him with all your heart in your families, with your brothers and sisters? Will you love Him with all you heart at school? Will you give Him your best?

Table time:

Have 3 pictures – church, family, school. Ask them open questions such as:

·        When is it hard to love God with all your heart at… (may need some help answering such as ‘Part of loving God is obeying your parents, how easy is that?’)

·        Why is it hard to love God with all our hearts at these times?

·        What should we do about this? (ask Jesus to forgive us and ask the Holy Spirit to help us to change)

Have concrete examples for 5-7s

Spares:

Quiz on all term

Memory verses
 

Malachi for 3-5s

Theme: Live wholeheartedly for your faithful God

Intro:

Sketch between two leaders both trying to draw a picture of Malachi. One does it really well, the other just draws a quick stick man. First leader accuses the second of not doing their best.

Story:

Do you remember last week? We saw God’s people return to the land God had given them, and they rebuilt the temple.

Well, now that they were back home the most important thing was that they loved God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

Here is Josh the Jew [bring out a small puppet]. Josh was a shepherd, and he had to take a lamb to the temple as an offering to God. Here’s one, he thought. [have a picture of a lamb with a missing leg]. ‘That’ll do’ he said to himself. But God said only bring me the best, that’s how they were to love God with all their heart. So was Josh loving God with all his heart? No.

The next thing Josh the Jew was doing wrong was at home. His mum asked him to tidy his room. His clothes were everywhere and his bed was a mess. So, do you know what he did? He took all his clothes and scrunched them up and threw them into his drawer! Is that what his mum meant? No. He wasn’t loving God with all his heart by doing his best.

God asks us to love Him with all our heart, soul and strength, just as Jesus did. When we’re at home with our mummies and daddies we need to do our best for God. When we’re at pre-school we need to love God with our everything! Shall we ask God to help us do that?

Pray

Crafts:

·        Sheet of paper with heart on – stick on red paper and ‘Love the Lord your God’ in the middle. Then stick pictures around it of all the times they need to love God, eg playing, writing, eating etc.

·        Colouring sheet of Malachi saying the memory verse

·        Heart card holders with ‘Love the Lord your God’ on

Songs:

Two little eyes

Follow, follow (both from Very, Very Big God CD)

Teaching Haggai

[This is the 9th and penultimate session on the Minor Prophets]

Haggai for 3-5s

Theme: Put God first as you wait for Jesus

Intro: What are your homes like? Have a picture of a house and get them to stick on doors and windows.

Do you remember last week we saw that God’s people were attacked by the Babylonian soldiers and they had to leave their homes? [show soldiers picture from last week]

Well this week we’re going to hear a story about how they come home again, back to the land God had give them. That must have been lovely.

This week we’re going to meet the prophet Haggai. He had a very important message for God’s people.

The people came home again and everything was in ruins! Oh, how sad for them. The houses they used to live in were just a pile of rubble with no roof, no windows and no doors. [show picture of ruined houses]

And the temple, God’s special house, had been destroyed, too! [show picture of ruined temple]. The Babylonian army had completely destroyed it. It would have to be rebuilt.

Well, they began to rebuild God’s temple. But then they stopped. And instead they got on with rebuilding their own houses. Their houses started looking lovely and being really comfy and nice. But God’s house was still in ruins. [put out some nice houses, made from cardboard or lego]

So Haggai came with a message. He said, ‘Hang on. Isn’t God the most important one? You should have put Him first. Instead you’ve made building your houses more important than God. Finish off God’s temple first then you can go back to your comfy houses.’

And do you know what? They did do that. They rebuilt God’s temple until it was properly finished this time. It was never as great as it was before. But one day Jesus would come as the great King and then it wouldn’t matter any more.

Well, we’re waiting for Jesus to come back as the great King. And as we do, we should make God the most important person in our lives. More important than our mummies and daddies. More important than our toys. More important than anything! The most important commandment is to ‘Love the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your strength.’

Craft:

Build a temple (out of lego?)

Stick on pictures of important things but stick God at the top

Songs:

My God is a very, very big God

My God is so big
 

Haggai for 5-11s

Theme: Put God first as you wait for Jesus

·        Give them a list of important things in their lives (eg Mum, Dad, sweets) on separate pieces of card. They have to organise those things into order of importance. As they do it ask why. Then at the end bring out a card with ‘Jesus’ on. Ask them where this should come. Tell them that today they are going to hear about a time when God’s people weren’t putting Him first.

·     Give them a simple model of a house to stick together out of card (we used pictures cut up into jigsaws). Have a larger model of a temple (or similair simple large building) lying unfinished in the middle of the room. Do not mention this larger building or why it is there. They find a space and start making their building, but whenever you call ‘Jesus is coming!” they have to drop everything and run to you. Any of them who bring their house with them are out. Then point out the temple in the middle and say that this was God’s building in Israel and all of God’s people were busy with their own houses even though this building was unfinished and they knew Jesus was coming.

Bible Story:

[Have someone dressed as Haggai again.]

Have a large piece of green card. Get them to bring their little houses  and place them on the card and have the unfinished temple lying in the middle. Remind them that we saw last week that God’s people had been thrown out of God’s land. And they spent 50 years in exile, not allowed back into the land.

But finally they had been allowed back into the land (Label the green card ‘Israel’). But not everybody had returned and those that had returned had spent more time and money making sure their houses were lovely and comfy and they had forgotten about God.

Let’s listen to Haggai, (Haggai reads 1:4, 9-11). So you see God was not giving them all the good things he could have done because they were too busy looking after themselves, they hadn’t put God first.

So God raises up a King to do this work and this King was called Zerubbabel (have a small model of a king by the temple).

Now lets look at what they were to build. It was a temple. Originally God’s people had a temple built by Solomon and that temple was to show the people that God lived among them. But that temple had been destroyed when they had been kicked out of the land.

But Haggai had to warn the people as they built the temple, (Haggai reads 2:2-5). The temple won’t be as good however things will get better, (Haggai reads 2:6-9). God is promising his people a time when He will come and live among them in an amazing way, a way which is far better than the building that they are making now. God promises that He will come Himself. Let’s listen to what John wrote, ‘The Word (Jesus) became a human being. He made his home with us. We have seen his glory. It is the glory of the one and only Son.’ So the promise that God is making is that Jesus will come and live with us. The people at this time were waiting for Jesus to come. We are waiting for Jesus to come again. And when he comes he will ‘shake the heavens and the earth’ as Haggai told us.

[The following paragraph could be missed out]

But God makes one more promise, (Haggai reads 2:21-23). And this is to Zerubbabel the King who God raised up to do this work. He will be King forever, God promises.  And yet Zerubbabel died, so what did God mean? Well Zerubbabel’s great-great etc. grandson was a man called … Jesus! Jesus is this king who is going to come and rule forever.

So Haggai is speaking to us too. He is telling us that while we wait for Jesus to return we should put God first in all we do.

Table time:

Can do missions

Funsheets

Application / Response:

·        Bring out the list that they made at the beginning (or do that activity if you didn’t at the beginning) and give them some situations which might affect them talking to them about how they’d decide who to put first in their lives. Eg Friends don’t want you to read your bible. Are you going to put them first or God first?

·        Get them to draw themselves putting God first after talking about the list.

·        Get them to attach a label to the houses that they made at the beginning saying ‘God wants me to put Him first.’

Teaching Obadiah

[This is number 8 in our minor prophets series. For simplicities sake we've referred to Judah as Israel throughout.]

Obadiah for 3-5s

 

Theme: God cares for His people, so should we!

Watch video of Jacob and Esau story

Intro – Who is your brother or sister? Pictures and decorate of family and church family

            Explain – you care for your brothers and sisters and look after them. They look after you. Imagine if that wasn’t the case!

Well, it wasn’t the case many years ago. Long before Jesus there were 2 brothers, Jacob and Esau (show pictures). Jacob was the one God had chosen to be His and had blessed him. Esau hated him for this and chased him and attacked him. But if someone belongs to God then there is nothing you can do to them!

Two great countries came from these brothers; God’s people came from Jacob and Edom came from Esau [show two pictures of groups of people underneath pictures of Jacob and Esau].

Now Edom should have cared for Israel as they were both from the same family. But, do you know what? Edom didn’t care for God’s people at all. In fact, when Israel was attacked by another army Edom laughed! They didn’t help, they just stood by watching! How terrible. [Have picture of army]

And then when the army had destroyed God’s people Edom came in and stole from them. What a terrible thing to do to your brothers!

But God protects those who are His people. And God warned Edom that He was going to do terrible things to them for what they had done.

And God is the same today, if we belong to Him, like Jacob and God’s people, then Jesus is protecting and caring for you in the same way.

But we should also care for other Christians and look after them. So if we see another Christian who is poorly, what should we do?

If we see another Christian who is sad, what should we do?

If we see another Christian who has been hurt, what should we do?

Craft:

Folding paper-chain dollies with Romans 12:10 (NCV) to stick on

Songs:

Jesus loves me this I know

Jesus’ love is very wonderful

Obadiah for 5-11s

Theme: God protects His people, so should you

Watch video of Jacob and Esau

Intro:

Triangle tag – in threes they have to protect one selected member

Split group into two teams – one has to build a protective wall of Jenga blocks for a doll, the other team has to throw balls of paper to hit it

Introduce Obadiah; show where the book is in the bible and explain where it comes in history.

To understand this story we need to go further back in history to the time of Jacob and Esau. Jacob and Esau were brothers, twins and so they should have cared for each other and looked after each other. But they didn’t they hated each other. [dress one up as hairy Esau and the other as Jacob]

Jacob had been chosen to carry on God’s promises and Esau ended up hating him for this. But what it meant was that God’s blessing was on Jacob [put a hat with ‘God’s blessing’ on Jacob’s head]. And anything that Esau wanted to do to him he would be unable to. God was looking after Jacob in all he did.

From Jacob and Esau came 2 great nations or countries. From Jacob came God’s great nation, Israel. From Esau came God’s great nation Edom. Now, like Jacob and Easu, Israel and Edom should have loved each other and cared for each other. But they didn’t. They hated each other.

And when Israel was attacked by the Babylonians (remember because they had forgotten about God), [have a child attack with a foam sword]. Edom did nothing to help. Edom just sat there and laughed. They were happy that Israel had been attacked. Isn’t that terrible? In fact, after Israel had been attacked they went in and nicked anything that was left.

But remember, God’s people, even though they had disobeyed God, were still under God’s blessing. And so Obadiah promised that God would bring justice to Edom and that He would deal with them.

So, if you’re a Christian, then you too are under God’s blessing. And anyone who causes you trouble for being a Christian will have to deal with God when Jesus returns. Its like, ‘Mess with me, mess with my Dad!’

But we mustn’t be like Edom. Because Jesus has saved us, He’s brought us into the same family as lots of other people who love Him too. So we should care for them when they’re in trouble. We shouldn’t stand by and watch them being badly treated. [Could read Matthew 25:32ff]

Table Time:

·        Funsheet

·        Application pairs – examples of not being ashamed of Christians eg in school

·        Revise memory verses

·        Pray for Christians around the world

Teaching Habakkuk

[This is part 7 of the 10 minor prophets we're covering this term.]

Habakkuk for 5-11s

Theme: Trust that God is good even when times are bad

Intro:

·        Cut up the memory verse (3:17-19) and hide around the room. Split into teams, they need to find in their colour and put together.

Story:

[Need 2 actors, one to be ‘God’ and one to be Habakkuk]

Our next minor prophet is Habakkuk. He came a bit later than our other prophets. The northern Kingdom of Israel had been wiped out by the Assyrians, but the southern kingdom of Judah still hadn’t learnt their lesson [show map]. They are still doing terrible things and so Habakkuk complains to God:

Habakkuk:    ‘Lord, how long must I ask for help and you ignore me? I cry out to you about violence, but you do not save us! Why do you make me see wrong things and make me look at trouble? People are destroying things and hurting others in front of me; they are arguing and fighting.

God:               Look at the nations! Watch them and be amazed and shocked. I will do something in your lifetime that you won't believe even when you are told about it. I will use the Babylonians, those cruel and wild people who march across the earth and take lands that don't belong to them.

In reply to Habakkuk’s complaint about all the bad things going on around him, God says He will send the Babylonians to deal with it.

Habakkuk:    The Babylonians! The Babylonians! Are you kidding me? Are you not holy and good? And yet you’re going to use this horrible enemy to sort out your people? When? I will watch and wait.

God makes two replies. Here’s His first reply.

God:               It may seem like a long time, but be patient and wait for it,  because it will surely come;  it will not be delayed. The evil nation is very proud of itself; it is not living as it should. But those who are right with God will live by faith.

In other words, Be patient and trust me even though you might not understand what I am doing. Those who trust me will live and not die in this disaster. Then God give His second answer giving 5 judgements on Babylon after they have dealt with Judah.

God:               How terrible it will be for the greedy Babylonians!

                        How terrible it will be for the lazy Babylonians!

                        How terrible it will be for the boasting Babylonians!

                        How terrible it will be for the heartless Babylonians!

                        How terrible it will be for the idol worshipping Babylonians!

So even though God will use Babylon to punish His people He will also in turn punish Babylon for their sins. So Habakkuk turns and praises God that, even though he doesn’t understand His ways, He will trust Him.

Habakkuk:    Fig trees may not grow figs, and there may be no grapes on the vines. There may be no olives growing and no food growing in the fields. There may be no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the barns. But I will still be glad in the Lord; I will rejoice in God my Saviour. The Lord God is my strength.

Will you trust God even when you can’t see what He’s doing in your life? Will you still trust that He is good, even when life isn’t very nice for you? That’s what He longs for you to do!

Table Time:

·        Funsheets

·        Learn Memory verse (3:17-19)

[Sorry, but this week we’re wimping out of teaching the preschoolers Habakkuk. My feeling is it’s just too hard for the 3-5s conceptually. So we’ll do a week on God speaking and revealing Himself.]

3-5s

Theme: God speaks to His people

Intro: Chinese whispers? Some sort of speaking game

            Tell me about yourself. All about me sheet.

Do you remember some of the people we’ve been looking at this term?

There was Hosea, and Micah, and Zephaniah, and Jonah, and Joel. [Show pictures]

Can anybody remember their job? They were prophets. They came to bring God’s message to His people.

God loves to speak; He loves to tell us what He’s like and what He wants us to do. [Have speech bubble]

He tells us that He’s big and mighty and strong! [Get them to show their muscles and put on speech bubble]

He tells us that He’s loving and kind! [Get them to fold their arms across their chests and put on speech bubble]

He tells us that He’s forgiving when we say sorry! [Get them to put their hands together in prayer and put on speech bubble]

We wouldn’t know any of these things if God didn’t tell us. Which is why the prophets are so good.

But there’s an even more wonderful way that God has told us who He is; in the Lord Jesus. When we hear about what Jesus did, we hear about what God is like!

When we hear that Jesus died for us, we hear that God loves us in an amazing way. Isn’t it great that God tells us what He’s like?

Songs:

·        My God is so Big

·        Our God is a great big God

Activities:

·        Craft mouth – folded paper plate with tongue and bobbly eyes

·        Sticking pictures of all the prophets we’ve looked at onto large A3 sheet

Teaching Joel

Teaching Joel

3-5s

Theme: God has come to live with us by His Spirit and will take us to make a perfect world.

Intro: [Hold up a locust] Do you know what this is?

It’s called a locust. And it’s a very hungry beast. Can you imagine lots of them, so many you can’t see. [Get them to nibble and buzz like a locust.]

A long time ago God’s people had just had lots of locusts come and buzz through all the land. And when locusts come they eat all the food. [nibble and buzz again]. Can you imagine how horrible that must have been? All these locusts and no food left!

A prophet, God’s messenger called Joel came to speak to the people. Can you say Joel? [have a Joel puppet, or leader dressed up]

And here’s what he said,

‘Things are going to get worse than lots of locusts…’

Worse, oh no!

‘So turn to God and say sorry.’

But Joel says 2 amazing things will happen if we turn to God.

‘God will give us His Spirit and we will be able to know Him and talk to Him.’

If we turn to God He will come and live with us by His Spirit. Isn’t that amazing? God is with us now, looking after us.

Secondly Joel says that God will take us to a beautiful and perfect world where there aren’t any locusts to take away the food:

Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
       live on my holy Mount Zion.
    Jerusalem will be a holy place,
       and strangers will never even go through it again.

On that day wine will drip from the mountains,
       milk will flow from the hills,
       and water will run through all the ravines of Judah.
    A fountain will flow from the Temple of the Lord
       and give water to the valley of acacia trees.

[Have a little model with earth and cardboard trees, etc. Pour some milk over it.]

It’s a strange sounding picture but what it means is that one day God will take us to His perfect world and it will be so wonderful because the Lord Jesus will be there and we won’t ever be sad.

Pray:

Dear God

Thank you that you are with me

Thank you for the perfect world

That you will take me to.

Amen

Activities:

·        Make locust craft (at the beginning of lesson)

·        Playdough trees and food

·        Colouring sheet of Joel saying the theme sentence

Songs:

·        No more pain, no more sadness

·        There’s a way back to God

5-11s

Theme: Disasters are a warning to turn to God, if we do He will come and live with us and take us to His perfect world.

Intros:

Locusts – Captain’s coming. When leader shouts ‘Disaster’ they need to act like locusts, nibbling and buzzing.

Story:

Today we’re looking at another prophet, another messenger of God, called Joel. We don’t know for sure when he lived, but it was before Jesus, probably about 800years before. And he gave a warning of these:

[If possible show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YNy2R3hg2Q ]

Get a Joel to read 1:4

Joel was saying that when disasters like these locusts come, it’s a warning of an even more terrible day when God will bring disaster on those who have ignored Him.

Get Joel to read 2:1-2

But there is a way to avoid that disaster: call on the name of the Lord Jesus. If we do Joel tells us what will happen:

Read Joel 2:28-32

Firstly, God will send His Spirit to come and live with us. That means we can know Him and He is with us wherever we are and whatever we do!

Many years later, after Jesus died and rose again, this happened:

[Show Pentecost video, possibly from 2:50-6.00 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIJrk9-dtRE ]

Do you see? The promise of Joel is for us. God comes and lives in us.

Secondly, Joel promises that if we turn to Jesus then God will make a perfect world for us.

Get Joel to read 3:17-18.

It’s a bit of strange picture. [Have a mound of earth with trees and pour milk over it.] But the point is, that there won’t be any shortage of food in the new world Jesus will make. He will look after us there.

So what do we do?

Turn to God as Peter told the first believers to do! When disasters strike, turn and trust Jesus’ forgiveness. Trust that He is with you by His Spirit, and look forward to the wonderful world He will make.

Table time:

·        Funsheet

·        Decorate perfect world with more trees, etc

·        Make locusts of warning

Teaching Nahum

[This is part 5 of our series on the minor prophets]

Teaching Nahum

3-5s

Theme: God will deal with those who are against Him

Intro:

·        Build a model of Nineveh to use in the story either out of boxes, lego or jenga blocks. As they do so talk about the story of Jonah from last week.

Story:

Do you remember this place? [Put up picture of Nineveh from last week] Last week we saw that they were the enemies of God’s people and yet when they said ‘sorry’ to God, He forgave them. [put another little model of Nineveh on the table]

The sad thing is that it did not change them completely, and they went back and started doing some really horrible things; things that I couldn’t possibly tell you about they are so bad.

God was patient with them, but they kept shaking their fists at Him and telling Him to shove off. And they did some terrible things to God’s people. God’s people were crying out to God, asking Him to deal with Nineveh.

About 100 years later God had had enough! He was very patient, giving them lots of time to say sorry again, and come back to him. But, although He is slow to anger, there comes a time when wrong things have to be dealt with, they have to be punished.

So God sent His messenger, Nahum. And Nahum brought this message to God’s people, that their great enemy, who had treated them so badly, will be punished. Here’s what Nahum said:

[Dress a leader up as Nahum]

God says ‘I’m very angry with Nineveh!’

God was angry with Nineveh in Jonah’s day, too. Maybe he will forgive them?

God says, ‘It is too late. I’ve given them enough chances to say sorry!’

Oh dear, this isn’t good. God’s not going to put up with people shaking their fists at Him and telling Him to shove off. That’s a really serious thing to do.

Nineveh thought they were really strong. Look at us, they said, with our great armies. No-one can defeat us. But they were wrong, and they should have known it. God has already done the same thing to Egypt! (see 3:9-11).

God says, ‘I’m going to smash Nineveh!’

Soldiers are coming to wipe out Nineveh! [Get them to smash up the model on the table!]

What do you think that would have been like for the Ninevites? Terrible. Let’s see what Nahum has to say about it:

God says, ‘It will be terrible for people in Nineveh when I do.’

Do you know that God will deal with people who deliberately don’t do what He wants and shake their fist at God saying, ‘Go away. We don’t want you.’ God is angry with them. He says to them, ‘You can be forgiven. But not forever. One day I will stop you!’

Crafts:

·        Colouring sheet of prophet saying the theme verse

·        Make model Nahums

·        Make Loudhalers with theme sentence on out of rolled up card

Songs:

·        There’s a way back to God

5-11s

Theme: God will deal with those who are against Him

Intro:

·        Build a model of Nineveh to use in the story. As they do so talk about the story of Jonah from last week.

·        Have a game of ‘Good news, bad news’ eg Bad news, I have to go to the dentist. Good news, I get the day off school.

·        Quiz on Jonah from last week

·        Thumb wars/arm wrestles – idea: opposing each other

Story:

Do you remember this place? [Put up picture of Nineveh from last week] Last week we saw that they were the enemies of God’s people and yet when they said ‘sorry’ to God, He forgave them. [put another little model of Nineveh on the table]

The sad thing is that it did not change them completely, and they went back and started doing some really horrible things; things that I couldn’t possibly tell you about they are so bad.

God was patient with them, but they kept shaking their fists at Him and telling Him to shove off. And they did some terrible things to God’s people. God’s people were crying out to God, asking Him to deal with Nineveh.

About 100 years later God had had enough! He was very patient, giving them lots of time to say sorry again, and come back to him. But, although He is slow to anger, there comes a time when wrong things have to be dealt with, they have to be punished.

So God sent His messenger, Nahum. And Nahum brought this message to God’s people, that their great enemy, who had treated them so badly, will be punished. Here’s what he said:

[Get one up dressed as Nahum and get him to read 1:2-5. Needs to be a strong reader]

God is angry with Nineveh!

Listen to how he’s going to deal with His enemies:

[Nahum reads 1:6-10]

He’s not going to put up with people shaking their fists at Him and telling Him to shove off. That’s a really serious thing to do.

Nineveh thought they were really strong. Look at us, they said, with our great armies. No-one can defeat us. But they were wrong, and they should have known it. God has already done the same thing to Egypt! (see 3:9-11).

Listen to what God is going to do to Nineveh:

[Nahum reads 2:1-6 with feeling!]

Soldiers are coming to wipe out Nineveh! [Get them to smash up the model on the table!]

What do you think that would have been like for the Ninevites? Terrible. Let’s see what Nahum has to say about it:

[Nahum reads 2:10-13]

This will be a terrible day for Nineveh. But, do you know what? It points us forward to another day. There will be a day when God’s patience wears out with those who shake their fist at Him. God will punish those who say ‘no’ to Him. He will deal with those who treat His people, Christians, badly. And that will be a terrible day for them and we need to warn them. Because in the meantime they can turn to God and say sorry.

But also, we deserve this too. We only escape this terrible day because of Jesus’ forgiveness. He has been patient with us, waiting for us to turn to Him and say sorry. Isn’t that a wonderful thing?

Table time:

Funsheet

Craft – Loudhailers with theme sentence or memory verse on (Nahum 1:7)

Memory verse shields – Nahum 1:7 is written on shields. They need to get in order, then read out. Remove one shield at a time to learn it.