Do I Love speaking with God? – Psalm 61

3-5s

Aim: That they would love talking to God always, about everything

Intro:

Have some emoticons – hold up should you pray when you feel…?

[Can then stick on a sheet with ‘Pray always’ in the centre]

Teaching:

Today we’re thinking about prayer. What is prayer? [take answers]

Prayer is talking to God.

It doesn’t have to have fancy words. You don’t need to be in a special building. You could be feeling happy or sad. But God loves it when you talk to Him.

We’re going to look at a song in the Bible written by King David as a prayer to God.

Read Psalm 61:1-4.

David is in trouble. He’s feeling really sad so he prays to God. Even though he’s a long way away he knows that God still hears him. You could be a long way away and God will still hear you.

What can you say to God? David is saying ‘Help’. He’s crying to out to God asking for help. You can do that too. When you need God’s help He loves to hear you asking Him. When might you need God’s help? Shall we ask Him together?

You can also say ‘Thank you’. Can you think of something to say ‘Thank you for’? Let’s say ‘Thank you God’ together.

[Sing – We give thanks to you, O God. Psalm 75:1]

You can also say sorry. Can you think of something to say sorry for? Let’s say sorry to God together.

And we can say ‘Please’. We can pray for other people. Let’s listen to David saying ‘Please’ to God. [Read Psalm 61:5-8]. He’s praying for the King, that God would look after Him. So we can pray that God would look after the important people in our lives.

[Could do sticking activity here about the important people they want to pray for.]

Finally David praises God. That means he tells God how brilliant he thinks he is. Shall we praise God? What’s brilliant about God? [write down and place in balloons. Then blow up and let go as praise balloons.]

Its an amazing thing that we get to talk to the God who made us, and made all the universe. He has so much power to help and loves to listen. We really want you to love talking to God, to tell Him everything, always, wherever you are.

Pray

Activities:

• I can pray for…[stick various people on]
• I can pray when…[stick times and meals and events on]

Songs:

• My God is so Big
• I can talk to Jesus from J is for Jesus
• Read your Bible, Pray every day

5-11s

Aim: That they love to talk to Jesus every where at all times

Intro:
Who would I love to talk to? – series of pictures on screen [Prime Minister, footballer, one direction, queen, Spiderman, Simon Cowell] They have to rank in order of who they’d love to talk to most.

Say: Do you realise that we have someone far bigger and more important than all these people, the God who made us and the whole universe. And we can talk to Him, and He always listens!

Teaching:

Remember we’re looking at Psalms, songs in the Bible. This week we are looking at one that David wrote. Now David loved talking to God, wherever he is he wants to talk to God.

Read v1-4.

So where is David? Far away.

We can talk to God wherever we are – in the playground, in bed at night, in our class. We don’t need to be in church.

And what does he cry to God? ‘Help!’

We can cry to God for help, too. When do you need God’s help? – write up on a big piece of paper using post-its. Let’s pray for those things now [Get them to pray]

What else can we say to God?

Thank you – let’s say thank you for lots of things now. [Could do a big collage of things we’re thankful for or draw it]

Sorry – what do we need to say sorry for? Why don’t we say sorry now?

Others – we can pray for other people too. Let’s listen to David: read Psalm 61:5-8. He’s praying for the King. We should pray for important people in our lives, that they would trust Jesus and love Him, too.

And did you notice that David says that God hears him. He really does, God loves to listen to you talk to Him, wherever you are, however you’re feeling. It can be long, short, whatever.

And then David finishes off by praising God, telling Him how wonderful He is. Let’s do that together. [put praise prayers in balloons].

Pray

Game – Prayer Musical Statues: when music stops they throw up an arrow-prayer

Table time

Practise prayer – they pray for each other: school, home, friends who don’t know Jesus, etc.

Print out prayers for the persecuted church

Teaching ‘Do I love the Word of God?’ Psalm 119:97-112

3-5s

Aim: That they would love listening to the Bible

Intro:

What do I love to hear most – have a series of story books and a Bible. Which do we love to have read to us most? [Could do sticking exercise at this point]

Teaching:

We love lots of things, but what do we love most? Do we love God and listening to Him most of all?

There is a song in the Bible written by someone who loved to listen to God and what He had to say. Let’s hear what he said,

Read 119:97-98, 103

The person who wrote this says that listening to God is so lovely and wonderful its like eating something really sweet like honey.

[Taste some honey] – does that taste lovely and sweet? Just as that tastes lovely, so hearing the true stories from the Bible should be lovely to us.

Why is the Bible so lovely?

Because God speaks to us through it

Its lovely when our Mummies and Daddies read us stories and speak to us. If Mummy stopped speaking to you, would that be lovely? Well, in these true stories in the Bible God speaks to us. And God is even more lovely than our Mummies and Daddies.

Because these true stories help us

Read 119:105 – Sometimes we get scared in the dark because we don’t know where to go and what to do. Well, the Bible is like torch – it shows us what we should do and how we should love God. [shine a torch around and make the room dark]

Because these true stories make us happy

Read 119:111 – When we love the Bible and hearing God speak to us then we see how great it is to do what God says. Do you love to do what God says?

So, there are lots of great stories which we love, and its lovely when Mummy and Daddy read stories to us. But do we love having Mummy and Daddy read us the true stories about Jesus? Do we love that most of all? They are the most important stories, the best stories, because that’s how we hear God speak to us; that’s how we get to know Him.

[Perhaps have some time reading their favourite stories from a children’s Bible.

Tell them about Beginning with God]

Activities:

• Sticking stories we love – but sticking stories from the Bible in the middle
• Make a mouth with a paper plate folded in two – put a red tongue in the middle. Stick ‘I love God’s Word’ on the top.

Songs:

• The Best Book to Read is the Bible (from Colin Buchanan’s Follow the Saviour)

• The Bible Alphabet (from J is for Jesus)
• 2 Timothy 3:16 (from J is for Jesus)

5-11s

Aim: That they would love listening to and reading the Bible for themselves

Intro:

Bible Who Am I?

Books of the Bible relay race

Draw your sword

Teaching:

What are your favourite books? [Have some suggestions]

I used to love reading …

But the best book to read is the Bible. We’re going to look at the book of Psalms which is a book of songs in the Bible [get them to find it in the Bible]. And in today’s song, the person who wrote it says that they love the Bible more than anything else.

Read 119:97-104

This person loves the Bible, loves God’s Word. He says its like honey on his lips, sweet and lovely. [try some honey and talk about how sweet it is]

It’s a book that makes him wise, it’s a book that helps him to avoid doing wrong things, it’s a book that helps him to know God, the most wonderful person in the universe. So it is a wonderful book, the most wonderful book.

Do you love it like that?

Then the Psalmist says that God’s Word helps him to know what God wants him to do.

Read 119:105-112

When it gets dark it can be quite scary [make the room as dark as possible]. We can’t see which way to go and what to do. At those times we need a torch to help us see which way to go [produce torch].

This song is telling us that the Bible is like that, it tells us what God wants us to do when we aren’t sure and so it keeps us away from evil and sin and protects us. How wonderful it is.

[possibly play a quick game of ‘lighthouse’ at this point]

So, do you love the Bible? Do you love it more than all the other books and stories which you read and people read to you? Do you love to hear about the true stories of Jesus, about the wonderful things God has done for you and who He is?

This year why not spend time reading the Bible, listening to the stories of the Bible, loving what is in there?

Here are some ways you can do that: [introduce XTB, Table Talk, Long story short, some of the books in the library]

Table time:

Younger ones could spend time choosing their favourite stories from a children’s Bible

Older ones – do a page from an XTB