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God In The Mess

Unit 10 / Lesson 2

God In The Mess

Slides for the Lesson

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Teacher's Prep

  • Games

    • Balloons Up

      • Provide one balloon per child. Have several balloons inflated before the lesson so they are ready for the game

    • Pantyhose Bowling

      • Watch this video to see the game concept

      • Materials needed:

        • 1 pantyhose (women's nylon) per group of five

        • 1 tennis ball per group of five

        • 3 plastic water bottles per group of five

      • Before the lesson, put a tennis ball into the bottom of each pantyhose, as you see in the video.

  • Activities: 

    • Crackers with Toppings

      • This snack is inspired by the Lunchables kid’s snack.The snack in this activity has the same idea, except we have more toppings. If you don’t want to provide so many toppings, you may simply duplicate the Lunchables snack and provide crackers, ham, and cheese, and that would work. 

      • Assemble the following materials

        • One table per group of five

        • Hand sanitizer

        • Crackers (around 6 per child)

        • Several toppings, such as:

          • Cheese

          • Salami or ham

          • Pickles

          • Cucumbers

          • Cherry tomatoes cut in half

          • Cream cheese and a knife to spread it

      • Please keep allergies in mind

      • Before class, pre-slice all ingredients for easy stacking, and put the ingredients into bowls or plates for easy access.

  • Main Activity: Games Day


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

  • Series Intro

    • At Kids' Club we are learning about a list of things that almost all Christians believe. There's a special list called the Apostle's Creed, and we're learning that list a bit at a time.

    SLIDE 2

    • Last week, we covered the first bit, which says:

      • I believe in God, the Father almighty,

        creator of heaven and earth.

  • Last week's lesson was about the way God is our creator, and how He made everything. We also learned how we can be more confident and happy because we know everything God makes is good.

    SLIDE 3

  • This week, we're focusing on the next bit of the Apostles' Creed. It says:

    • I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

      who was conceived by the Holy Spirit

      and born of the virgin Mary.

  • Our lesson today is about the birth of Jesus. As it turns out, the way Jesus was born teaches us something really important about life.

    SLIDE 4

  • Intro Game: Balloons Up

    • Instructions

      • Let’s start with a game called "Balloons Up." It's a pretty simple game. We'll start in a circle, and I'll toss a balloon in the circle. Our goal is to try to keep the balloon from touching the ground by hitting it. You're free to move around, so you don't have to stay in the circle. The only catch is, you can't hit the balloon twice in a row before someone else hits it. You all need to work together to keep the balloon up.

      • When there's only one balloon, you'll probably find it pretty easy. So, I'll keep adding balloons and we'll see what happens. Remember, you want to keep all the balloons up, and you can't hit the same balloon twice in a row.

      • If a balloon touches the ground, we'll stop and start again with one balloon. We'll see how many balloons we can manage at the same time.

      • Teacher: It is probably best to call out the number of balloons as you introduce new balloons, as a way of keeping score. You may want to discuss strategies between rounds. For example, you may want to break them into sub-groups, and each sub-group can handle their own balloons. Or, you may want to spread them out across the floor for a kind of zone coverage. Play as long as time and interest allows.

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it can get really complicated and really messy! The balloons just don't go where you want them to go. When one balloon is in the wrong place, you’re pulled to a different place on the floor, and that makes a problem somewhere else.

  • Relevance

    • It's a bit like that in our Bible story today. Our story today is complicated and messy, but it's a good thing that we have a story like that in the Bible, because things can get complicated and messy in our own lives.

    SLIDE 5

    • Our Bible story can help us understand why it's so messy, and what God is doing in the middle of the mess.

    SLIDE 6

  • Big Question

    • Our big question today is: Why is life so messy?

  • Big Idea

    • Our big idea for this lesson is:

    • God's plan can feel messy and painful, but it's exactly what we need.

  • Bible Reference

    • Let's watch our Bible story first, and then we'll read it.

    SLIDE 7

    SLIDE 8

    • Matthew 1:18-21 (CEV)

      • 18  This is how Jesus Christ was born. A young woman named Mary was engaged to Joseph from King David's family. But before they were married, she learned that she was going to have a baby by God's Holy Spirit.

    SLIDE 9

    • 19 Joseph was a good man and did not want to embarrass Mary in front of everyone. So he decided to quietly call off the wedding.

    SLIDE 10

    • 20 While Joseph was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, the baby that Mary will have is from the Holy Spirit. Go ahead and marry her. 21  Then after her baby is born, name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”


    Point 1

  • Our first point is, God's way can feel messy and painful

  • Game: Pantyhose Bowling

    • Instructions

    SLIDE 11

    SLIDE 12

    • Now to make this game easier and cleaner, we won’t need to put the pantyhose on our head. Instead, we can hold it with our hand as long as our hand is touching our head.

      • Teacher: demonstrate how to knock over a water bottle with a pantyhose, using your hand to hold the top end of the pantyhose to your head.

    • Also this will be a relay race with teams of five people each.

    • So when I'm done talking, we will split into teams of about five people each.

    • Each member on your team will have three water bottles to knock down.

    • After you knock down your three bottles, set up the bottles again for the next person, and then pass the pantyhose on to the next person for them to try.

    • When you've all knocked down three bottles, you win!

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it's kind of challenging, and it might even be a bit frustrating when things don't go our way. In the game, we just want to knock over some water bottles, but things don't always work as we planned.

      • That's like what happened in our Bible story.

  • Bible Reference

    • Let's read the first half of our Bible story again.

    SLIDE 13

    • Matthew 1:18-19 (CEV)

      • 18  This is how Jesus Christ was born. A young woman named Mary was engaged to Joseph from King David's family. But before they were married, she learned that she was going to have a baby by God's Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph was a good man and did not want to embarrass Mary in front of everyone. So he decided to quietly call off the wedding.

  • Explanation

    SLIDE 14

    • I'll explain. Mary and Joseph really loved each other, and they were going to get married and start a family together. Everything was going great.

    SLIDE 15

    • But then Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant. Joseph didn't know that the baby had come from the Holy Spirit and  thought some other guy was the father. It seemed like Mary didn't really love Joseph. He must have felt very sad and hurt.

    SLIDE 16

    •  But he decided to do the right thing and not embarrass her and decided to cancel the wedding with as little fuss as he could. All of this was part of God's plan. Joseph hadn't done anything wrong, and Mary hadn't done anything wrong. But sometimes God's plan is sad and messy anyway.

  • Application

    • That's how it works for us. Sometimes we haven't done anything wrong, but things happen to us anyway. Part of God's plan for us is sad and messy, and it actually helps to remember this.

    SLIDE 17

    • Some people think that once we know Jesus, everything is going to be happy all the time, or they think God would never let anything bad happen to them. Those people get really confused when bad things happen, and they wonder if God has forgotten about them.

    • It helps to remember that sad and messy times are part of God's plan for us. But just like Mary and Joseph's story, everything will be okay at the end of our story.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 18

    • Let's pause for a discussion question.

    • What in your life feels messy or painful?

    • Teacher: you may have an opportunity at this point to set up the snack table for upcoming activity.


    Point 2

  • Our second point is, God's plan is exactly what we need.

    SLIDE 19

  • Activity: Crackers With Toppings

    • Instructions

      • Let's start this point with a snack. In a moment, we'll head to a table, and make little cracker sandwiches and eat them. First, let’s clean our hands.

      • Teacher: have hand sanitizer available to clean hands. Then, lead the class to the ingredients. If you have lots of students, you may want to set up multiple stations with different ingredients at each station.

      • Once everyone has had the chance to make multiple cracker sandwiches, have them all sit back down for the remainder of the lesson.

    • Debrief

      • The reason we made those sandwiches was because they remind us that sometimes different things are better together. We had lots of different things to eat, and maybe some of them were not your favorite. But, when we put them all together, they all became better together.

      • God's plan is like that too;

    SLIDE 20

    • It has many parts. Some parts feel terrible by themselves, but He makes all the different parts work together, and He even uses the hard and painful parts of His plan to make something great.

  • Bible Reference

    • That's what God did in our Bible story. Let's read the second half of our story.

    SLIDE 21

    • Matthew 1:20-21 (CEV)

      • 20 While Joseph was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, the baby that Mary will have is from the Holy Spirit. Go ahead and marry her. 21  Then after her baby is born, name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

  • Explanation

    • The Bible tells us Joseph had a dream. Who here has had a dream before? Dreams can be kind of weird right?

    • In the Bible, there are actually TWO different kinds of dreams. There are the dreams that everyone has at night.

    SLIDE 22

    • Normally our imagination just makes things up, and we wake up and we know it was all made up.

    SLIDE 23

    • But there is a second kind of dream in the Bible: a message from God, and people know it's a message from God.

    • Joseph had one of those special dreams. An angel came to him and explained to him that everything was alright. Mary wasn't just having a baby with some other guy, this baby was from the Holy Spirit. As we read on, we find out that God was keeping a promise that a girl like Mary would have a baby just like this.

    SLIDE 24

    • God wanted to send His son Jesus into the world just like this, because this was the greatest way to save the world.

    • Jesus needed to be born just like us, and go through trouble just like us, because that was the best way to help us. He had to be born like this so that someday He could save us from all of our sins by dying for us.

  • Application

    • This story reminds us that God has a great plan, it's exactly what we need, and He is even using the things we don't like in order to do the greatest things for us.

    • The Bible tells us not to worry. Worrying doesn't help anyone.

    SLIDE 25

    • Instead, we do our best to trust God, thank Him, notice all the great things He is doing, and believe that everything will be fine in the end.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 26

    • Let's pause for a discussion question:

    • What is something great that God has done for you?

    • Suggested comment:

      •  God is always up to something good, and sometimes great things can only happen after there is trouble.


    Conclusion

    SLIDE 27

  • Let's wrap up this lesson by going over the big ideas again.

  • Our big question today was: Why is life so messy?

  • Our Bible story reminded us that God's plan can feel messy and painful, but it's exactly what we need.


    Main Activity: Games Day

    SLIDE 28

  • Today is Games Day! We'll spend the rest of our time together playing games.

  • These games can remind us of our lesson because sometimes in games things don't go the way we want. But, if we do our best and try to keep a good attitude, everything will turn out fine in the end. Even if we lose, we can still have fun and make friends.

  • Teacher: provide the games for the children. For game ideas, please see the Teacher's Preparations section at the top of the lesson plan.


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