Teaching Psalm 3

5-11s

Theme: When David is in trouble, looking to God means he can sleep.

Aim: That they look to God when in trouble.

Intro:

Sleeping game - what stops you sleeping? What wakes you up in the night?

Teaching:

Timeline - take them to King David and explain the book of Psalms as prayers/song written to God.

One leader is dressed as Absalom - tells the story of 2 Sam 15:1-12 - Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel (v6), led a revolt against David (v10); David flees (v14).

All the children flee like David to the other end of the hall.

Talk about how David must have felt.

David writes a song about how he felt [listen to a recording of it first]

Read v1-2 - How was David feeling? [set up cardboard soldiers around the group]

Read v3-4 - When David is scared and worried, what does He say about God? [set up shields around the group] [could have Absalom still prowling around the group during this time]

Read v5-8 - What can David do now? What else encourages him?

Repeat psalm with actions:

v1 - kneel with hands over head

v2 - lift hands as if in self defence

v3  - clench fists

v4 - raise hands high in prayer

v5 - stand slowly and repeat clench fists

v6 - walk on the spot with chin up

v7 - raise hands in prayer again

v8 - clench fists

[Hold up signpost with 'Jesus' on] How is this song/prayer about Jesus?

            Many were against Jesus as he died and said 'save yourself' (v2)

Many things may scare us but in Jesus we have God as our shield, the wonderful God who gives us courage. He hears us when we cry to Him because of Jesus. And in Jesus he will bring justice and right all the wrongs.

Pray

At tables - using the shape of Psalm 3 they write a song/prayer for the times when they are scared and/or can't sleep.

Memory verse - v3 'But, Lord you are my shield. You are my wonderful God who gives me courage' (NCV) - write on shields and learn.

Sing lots of songs of praise

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3-5s - Psalm 3

Theme: God protects us when we're scared

Aim: that they trust in God's protection when they are afraid or can't sleep

Intro:

Sleeping lions - talk about things that make them afraid

Teaching:

A long time ago King David was king of God's people, ruling over them and looking after them. But King David was very afraid [put on a crown and scared face]. His own son Absalom wanted to be King instead of him. Absalom was working hard to get all the people to make him King instead of his Dad, David. So David had to run away and hide. [at this point you could move to another part of the room, or use cut outs of David and Absalom at the table]

As David was hiding because he was so afraid of Absalom. And when he was in hiding he wrote a song about it. Here is what he wrote:

Read v1-2 - David felt surrounded by people who didn't like him and were attacking him. They were saying that God doesn't care about him anymore. [Again surround with cut-outs of people]

But David knows something amazing: read v3-4. David says that God protects him and so he doesn't need to be afraid. God hears him as he prays. [surround with shield cut-outs]

So David is at peace, even though lots of people are against him. Read v5-8.

And do you know, because of Jesus, we don't need to be afraid. When we get scared of .... we should talk to Jesus and ask Him to be with us and protect us, and then we can go to sleep.

Pray.

Craft:

·        Shields with v3 written on

Game:

Psalm statues - play a version of Psalm 3 and when the music stops they have to fall asleep.

Songs:

·        I can talk to Jesus (from J is for Jesus)

·        Don't be afraid of the night (from J is for Jesus)

Teaching Daniel 3

3-5s

Theme: God rescues His people

Aim: That they trust that God is powerful, rescuing God

Intro:

Cover last week's statue in gold/yellow paper [you'll also need some musical instruments and 4 cut-out people, and a 'fiery furnace', a box with red and orange crepe paper stuffed inside, hide one cut-out person inside before]

Teaching: [note - they will have heard the story in church, this could be more interactive to see how much they can remember and have understood]

[Have some pictures of people needing rescued eg in the sea, stuck up a tree, etc.]

What do all these people need? Rescuing. We're going to meet some people in our story today who needed God to rescue them.

Recap - do you remember our statue from last week? King Neb dreamt of the statue and learnt that God knows everything. But he hasn't quite learnt it properly!

Do you know what he does this week? He sets up a big gold statue and demands that everyone bow down and worship it. [hand out some instruments] So when the instruments make a noise everybody was to worship the statue. If anyone didn't then they'd be thrown into a big fiery furnace.

Do you think God would be happy with that?

Well Daniel's friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, knew that God wouldn't be happy with it and so they refused to bow. They said, 'God can rescue us from this fire. And even if He doesn't, there's no way we're going to bow down to a made up statue!'

When the king heard about this, he was FURIOUS! He ordered that the fiery furnace be made even hotter and hotter. [add more red and orange crepe paper] And then the 3 friends were thrown into the fire. [put the three men inside the box]

But as soon as the king had sat back down and calmed down a bit, he sat bolt upright on his throne. 'Didn't we throw three men into the fire? Why then is there a fourth man in there?' [Show fourth man in the box]

'Bring out Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego!'

So the three men were brought out and not even a hair on their heads had singed! They didn't even smell of smoke.

Nebuchadnezzar was amazed and he called out, 'Your God is amazing, He rescues people! No-one must say anything bad about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's God.'

Do you know our God is a rescuing God! This big gold statue can't rescue people [push it over] But God can and God does! He is so big and so strong and so amazing. And He came and was with Shadrach and his friends in the fire. He was with them when it was scary and they were afraid.

And do you know, He rescues us through Jesus [show a picture of a cross]. And Jesus is with us when we're scared and afraid too.

Pray

Craft:

• Fiery furnace - Get them to stick on red and orange crepe paper and cut-out men onto a paper place, or open box. Stick on tag - 'God rescues His people'
• Colouring page

Songs:

• My God is so big
• Super Saviour
• He Died Upon the Cross

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5-11s

Theme: God is a rescuing God who stands with His people when they trust Him

Aim: That the children recognise this and are prepared to put God first no matter what

Intro:

Who will bow - have up a statue of gold. Ask them if they'd bow before the statue: for a sweet? Two sweets? - reward all those who don't bow with a sweet.

Teaching:

[note - they will have heard the story read in church. So we'll assume they were listening!]

Recap - use the timeline to remind where Daniel comes in the Bible story. See how much they can remember about the last two weeks, particularly the statue from last week.

[Have an area set up as the fiery furnace - ie fill with red and orange paper/cloth/etc

Have a large gold statue on the powerpoint from the first game]

Re-read/re-enact v1-7.

Ask them - would you bow? Not even if your life depended on it?

Apply - People in our lives are unlikely to set up big gold statues, but they will ask us to make other things more important that God (eg ?), and when we don't will think we're really strange. [think up some personal examples that are safe to share]

Re-read/re-enact v8-18.

Would you be prepared to say what S,M&A said? Why, what would give you confidence?

Re-read/re-enact v19-25 using the 'fiery furnace' area.

What is going on here? Who do you think the fourth person might be?

Why did the fire not hurt them?

Re-read/re-enact v26-30.

What had King Neb realised about God?

What had he not yet realised?

How does this story point us to Jesus?

Table time:

[for pieces of the memory verse: Daniel 6:26]

• Why were Daniel's friends in danger?
• What would you have done? Why?
• What did God do? Why?
• Where do we see Jesus in this story?
• How can we trust God and put Him first always?

Teaching Daniel 2

3-5s

Theme: God is in charge of everything and knows everything

Aim: That they trust God with all their lives

Intro:

Make a statue out of boxes and begin to cover with tinfoil and yellow paper.

Teaching:

Have you ever had a scary dream?

Put your head on the table and shut your eyes and pretend its really dark. Sometimes we all have scary dreams. We dream of something not very nice and it makes us really unhappy. We wake up with a start. [Get them all to wake up suddenly].

Do you remember our king from last week? His name was Nebuchadnezzar [show picture from last week - could use flannelgraph or powerpoint] He was asleep one night and had a horrible dream. But when he woke up he couldn't remember it. This made him even more worried.

He called all his clever men together. And said to them, 'What was my dream? [sternly]

'What?' they all said. 'How do we know what your dream was?'

'Tell me my dream or I'm going to do horrible things to you!' [more sternly!]

'But we don't know!'

'TELL ME MY DREAM!'

But only God knows everything and King Neb didn't know God, he thought he was in charge of everything.

The clever men were in trouble!

Do you remember Daniel and his friends? Well, they found out about this. And they got together and prayed. Do you know why they prayed? Because God knows everything! So they asked God what the dream was and what it meant. And God told them. [You may want to add in a little about Daniel's prayer here]

So what was the dream? Daniel told King Neb what God had told him; that he'd dreamed of a huge statue, like this one. The head was made of gold, the chest of silver, the underpants of bronze, the legs of iron and the feet of iron and clay. What a strange thing to dream about. God was telling Neb that He, God, was in charge of everything and that only God knew what was going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and forever. God knows a lot and has a lot of power. King Neb didn't realise this.

And do you know what? In this dream God was also promising to send King Jesus who would be King forever. Isn't that amazing?

God is in charge of everything and He knows everything. He knows how many hairs on your head, He knows your name and He knows what you do and what you say and even what you think. And He's in charge of everything; everywhere you go and what happens.

Pray [they repeat after you]

Thank you God

That you know everything

That you're in charge of everything

Amen

Craft:

Dream statue

Self portraits - stick on hair and lips, etc. Stick on caption 'God knows everything'

Songs:

God Knows (from J is for Jesus)

God never says Oops

He's got the whole world in His hands

Jesus loves/knows the little children

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5-11s

Theme: The true God is in charge of all countries and knows all things

Aim: That they would look to Jesus' Kingdom as the only thing which lasts forever

Intro:

What am I thinking of? - 20 questions: link to King Neb having his wise men guess his dreams

Or - Dress one leader up as The Great Stupido who can read their minds (make it silly)

Recap - Timeline and reminder of last week

Teaching:

Have you ever had a bad dream? [share a few]

Scene 1:

King Nebuchadnezzar (Neb) of Babylon had a very bad dream. [Dress one leader or older child as King Neb and have them asleep in a chair].

When he awoke he was very scared. But he couldn't remember anything about the dream. [Neb scratches his head]

So he called his wise men and said to them, [Neb to the children] 'Tell me my dream!'

But the wise men didn't know. How could they? So they asked the king to tell him the dream and they would tell him what it meant. But this made the king very cross:

'Tell me my dream!'

But still they couldn't answer him, so they asked him again to tell them the dream and they would tell him what it meant. This made the king very, very cross!

'TELL ME MY DREAM!'

This made the wise men really, really scared so they told the king that only their gods know the dream, and their gods don't speak to them! But King Neb in his anger arranged to have all the wise men put to death!

This included Daniel and his friends.

Stop: What do you think? What had King Neb got wrong?

Scene 2:

Daniel found out about this. So, very politely, he said to the captain of the King's guard,

[have a child dressed as Daniel] 'My God can tell him the dream. Give me some time, please.'

Daniel and his friends then went and prayed, asking God to show them the dream and its meaning. God did show Daniel what the dream meant. And Daniel sung a song to God,

'Praise God forever and ever,

He has wisdom and power.

He gives power to kings and takes it away.

He makes known secrets that are deep and hidden.'

How different was Daniel's God to the gods of the wise men?

Scene 3: Daniel before the King

So Daniel went to see the King and tell him the dream. Daniel told King Neb that only God could know the dream and that this God is showing what will happen in the days to come.

Here is the dream:

There was a statue [draw round a child on wall paper]

The head was of gold [quickly stick on yellow paper]

The body was of silver [stick on tinfoil]

The underpants were of bronze [stick on light brown paper]

The legs were iron [grey paper]

And the feet were iron and clay [mix brown and grey paper]

Then a rock would come and smash the whole statue and fill the earth.

What does this dream mean? Well, Daniel told them.

The gold head was King Neb and his Kingdom [label the head]

Then after King Neb would come 4 other great kingdoms.

But then God would set up a kingdom which would take over the world and last forever?

Who do you think is the King of that Kingdom? [Jesus]

At this King Neb bowed before Daniel and said,

'Your God knows everything!'

Notice what he didn't say. Neb didn't say Daniel's God was in charge of everything, just that He knows everything.

Apply:

[Hold up pictures of David Cameron and other world leaders]

Does God know what's going to happen to these leaders?

Does God know what's going to happen to the refugees who are fleeing Syria?

Does God know what's going to happen to our country?

Does God know what's going to happen to you?

He doesn't just know, He is in charge of it all!

Is Britain going to last forever? Is the USA going to last forever? Is the mess in this world going to last forever?

What's the only thing which will last forever? Jesus' Kingdom

Table time:

[Every good answer they get to put on a piece of the statue]

Understanding

• How did King Neb find out that he wasn't in control?
• How did God show King Neb that He was in control?
• Who is the only one who knows what's going to happen in the future?
• What's the difference between the kingdoms of the world and Jesus' Kingdom?
• How did Daniel live in a Kingdom which said 'Shove off God'?

Application

• Are you in Jesus' Kingdom that lasts forever? How do other people see that?
• How does the fact that God knows the future make you feel?
• Why do you think God hasn't shown you your future? What future has He shown you?

Memory verse:

‘For he is the living God
    and he endures for ever; (Daniel 6:26)

[Write on statue and cut in bits]

Pray for persecuted church

Teaching Daniel 1

Teaching Daniel 1

3-5s

Theme: God loves and cares for His people

Aim: That they know God's love and care

Intro:

Vegetable prints - big picture

Teaching:

Today we're going to listen to a true story from a long time ago about 4 friends called Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

[Picture 1 - a sad face] - God's people were living at home in the land God had given them happily enough. Then a big army came from Babylon, with a nasty King called Nebuchadnezzar. He attacked God's people and beat them. It was a very sad day because it looked like God didn't care for them anymore.

[Picture/object 2 - a backpack] They then had to leave their home and travel far, far away and live in a place which they didn't know with lots of people they didn't know. It must have been very scary. [get them trudging and doing scared faces]. I wonder if they thought God had forgotten about them and didn't care about them anymore? Do you know, Daniel and His friends knew that God still loved and cared for them, even though life was sad and they were far from home?

[Picture/object 3 - a plate of food] Daniel and his friends had to live like the people in this foreign land. They were given new and strange names: Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They had to serve King Nebuchadnezzar. It was as if he was trying to make them forget their home and where they had come from and to forget the God who loves and cares for them. But Daniel and his friends didn't forget. And they refused to eat the food that the King would give them. They would only eat the vegetables, not the wine or meat. Some were worried that they'd become really skinny only eating the vegetables. But, do you know what? They became fatter! God was looking after them and caring for them because they trusted Him.

[Picture 4 - a cross] And God loves and cares for us just as He did for Daniel. We know that because He sent Jesus to die for us. So wherever we are, no matter how scared we are, we can still know that God loves and cares for us very much.

Craft:

Stick vegetables onto a paper plate

Backpacks - make out of card and fill with things they might want to take

Stick the four pictures from the story in order

Songs:

• Jesus loves me this I know
• Don't be afraid of the night (from J is for Jesus)

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5-11s

Theme: God rules even when it looks like He doesn't

Aim: That they are unafraid to make a stand for following Jesus

Church intro: Boxing match [have two dressed up]. Looks like God has been dealt a KO and has been defeated. Yet we're told that God gave King Jehoiakim of Judah into Nebuchadnezzar's hands. God isn't defeated at all, but it looks like He is!

Teaching:

Timeline - set up the timeline and orient them to where Daniel is in the Bible.

Then set up Jerusalem at one end and Babylon at the other. Explain the situation: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has attacked and defeated Jerusalem. It looks as though God Himself has been defeated. God's people must have been incredibly sad.

Then Nebuchadnezzar chose the most able, the smartest and best looking and carried them away to Babylon, the enemy city.

Challenge time - who's the smartest/most able? Eg target practice or quick quiz. Set 4 up as Daniel and his friends.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to leave home and live in a foreign land?

They were there to be taught to be the King's wise men, learning how to tell the future. They were also given new Babylonian names [give them the new names] and were to eat the King's food [have out a pork pie, a glass of Ribena and a turnip]. The King was trying to make these men forget their Israelite past, forget that they were God's people, and to become Babylonians.

Now for Daniel and his friends this was too much. They refused to eat the meat and wine. Why the food? We don't know. It was as if they wanted chose one thing to make an issue of and said, 'We're not going to become Babylonians, we still trust in the great God of Israel so we're not going to do this one thing.' So it was as if they went to McDonald's and took the burger out of their bun and just ate the gherkins and salad!

Now the King's henchman was worried: [dress one as a henchman] and read v10.

Daniel's answer was: get a child to read v13-14.

What would happen if you just ate vegetables and water for 10 days? Do you think you might get thinner?

Well Daniel and his friends got fatter! Why? Because God was looking after them there. Read v17. Had God been KO'd? No! In fact God blessed them greatly because they trusted in Him. Read v18-20.

What do you think this story has to do with Jesus? [take suggestions]

Jesus is the great wise man, wiser than Daniel, who knew how to obey God perfectly. If we trust Him we are part of Jesus' kingdom. And there will be times when we have to say 'No' to people who are asking us to do things that Jesus wouldn't like. We will live differently from people around us who don't love and trust Him. Maybe its the words we use, maybe its the way we speak to people, maybe its saying 'No' when our friends want us to be naughty.

Table time: [younger ones - print out pictures and read passage. As they listen they point to the right picture]. Throw a dried pea in a bowl for every good answer.

Knowledge

• What did the King want Daniel and his friends to become?
• What did Daniel and His friends refuse to do?

Understanding

• Why did Daniel and his friends refuse to eat the meat and wine?
• Why didn't Daniel and his friends get thinner?
• Why didn't Daniel and his friends give in?
• How does this all point us to Jesus?

Application

• Do you friends know that you love Jesus?
• How has loving Jesus meant that you're different from your friends?
• Has anyone asked you to do something that Jesus wouldn't like? What did you say?

Pray for persecuted Christians

Memory verse:

‘For he is the living God
    and he endures for ever; (Daniel 6:26)

Write on vegetables and hide