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The Last King and Exile

Unit 11 / Lesson 7

The Last King and Exile

Slides for the Lesson

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Teacher's Prep

  • Games

    • Pictionary

      • Whiteboard and erasable markers OR an easel with paper and markers.

      • If you are not familiar with pictionary, it is a game of speed sketching.

      • Prepare lists of words of various difficulty:

        • Easy words: 

          • Cheese; Balloon; Grass; Chicken; Snowflake; Elephant; Snowman

        • Medium words: 

          • Pillow; Rabbit; Duck; Bee; Crack; Spaceship; Jacket

        • Hard words: 

          • Dragon; Coconut; Air; Sunburn; Vacation; Police; Jungle

      • Have a way of showing someone only one of the words above (you could either cover up all of the other words, or whisper it into their ear at the beginning of their turn).

    • Sticky Note Challenge

      • Materials: 

        • two pads of sticky notes for every group of four. You can buy the cheap no-name type from the Dollar store, as quality is not important. 

    • Oven Mitt Challenge

      • Materials:

        • Two tables

        • Two sets of oven mitts

        • Hershey Kisses (at least one per child)

      • Please watch this video for a minute starting at the 2:00 mark to see what the game is like:

  • Main Activity: Puppet Making

    • Please watch this video:

    • Materials (for EACH child):

      • One hairband

      • Two ping pong balls

      • Glue (glue gun is best, though white glue might work)

      • Two Black circle stickers, OR access to a black permanent marker

    • You will want to make a sample craft before the lesson to show the finished product


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 2

  • Intro Game: Pictionary

    • Instructions

      • We will start our lesson with a game of pictionary!

      • We'll take turns drawing a word that I'll give you. We'll see how fast you can draw, and how fast we can guess. Today we'll all be on the same team, and you’ll all have a turn drawing.

      • Teacher: Use the lists of words below. Show one word to each child when it is their turn. If the class is stuck, you can tell them the answer after a minute of trying.

      • Reference the list above for word suggestions

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it helps us to think about what to do when we have the wrong answer.

    SLIDE 3

    • When we have the wrong answer, we're supposed to keep guessing, and try different answers. If we keep guessing the same wrong answer, that would be crazy!

  • Relevance

    • In real life, it's normal to keep doing the wrong thing, even when we know it's wrong. When we keep doing the wrong thing even though we know it's wrong, that's called being stubborn.

    • It happens all the time, and everyone is stubborn sometimes.

    SLIDE 4

  • Big Question

    • Our big question today is: What happens when we are stubborn about doing the wrong thing?

  • Big Idea

    • Our big idea today is: Stubborn sins lead to huge trouble. But, after trouble there is always hope.

  • Bible Reference

    SLIDE 5


    Point 1

  • Our first point is, stubborn sins lead to huge trouble.

    SLIDE 5

  • Game: Sticky Note Challenge

    • Instructions

      • Let’s start this point with a game, called the Sticky Note Challenge!

      • It's really simple: we'll have teams of four people each. Each team will have two pads of sticky notes. Someone will need to volunteer to have sticky notes all over them, and your goal as a team is to stick all the sticky notes to one person. When all your sticky notes are on the person, you win.

      • A very important rule for this game: stay away from private parts!!! You can stick the sticky notes on a person’s arms and legs and their back, but none of the swimsuit areas.

      • Teacher: divide the group into teams. Each team will have two pads of sticky notes to share, and to stick on a single person. Afterwards have the teams collect all the sticky notes that have been used, and stick them in a single stack. This will allow for easy cleanup.

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it helps us to think about the warnings that God gave to His people.

    SLIDE 7

    • God told them over and over again to do the right thing. They needed to get rid of their fake gods and worship the real God, take care of people who were poor, be fair with each other and treat each other well. But God's people didn't listen. You can imagine each of God's warnings like a sticky note. God gave them so many warnings that He would punish them if they kept doing the wrong thing.

  • Bible Reference

    • Let's read what the Bible says about how God's people kept on ignoring Him.

    SLIDE 8

    • 2 Chronicles 36:14-17 (CEV)

      • 14 The people of Judah and even the priests who were their leaders became more unfaithful. They followed the disgusting example of the nations around them and made the Lord's holy temple unfit for worship.

    SLIDE 9

    • 15 But the Lord God felt sorry for his people, and instead of destroying the temple, he sent prophets who warned the people over and over about their sins.

    SLIDE 10

    • 16 But the people only laughed and insulted these prophets. They ignored what the Lord God was trying to tell them, until he finally became so angry that nothing could stop him from punishing Judah and Jerusalem.

    SLIDE 11

    • 17  The Lord sent King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to attack Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar killed the young men who were in the temple, and he showed no mercy to anyone, whether man or woman, young or old. God let him kill everyone in the city.

    SLIDE 12

    • 18 Nebuchadnezzar carried off everything that was left in the temple; he robbed the treasury and the personal storerooms of the king and his officials. He took everything back to Babylon.

  • Explanation

    • These verses tell us that God's people kept doing terrible things, but God didn't want to judge them.

    SLIDE 13

    • God kept warning them, but they kept on ignoring Him. Finally, God had to do something to stop all the evil. God sent the most powerful army in the world to fight against His own people. There was a terrible war, and God’s people lost everything.

  • Application

    • That's how it works for us too.

    SLIDE 14

    • The Bible tells us in Proverbs 29:1 (ICB),

      • Some people are still stubborn after they have been corrected many times. But they will suddenly be hurt beyond cure.

    • This verse tells us what happens when people keep trying to correct us but we don’t listen to them and continue doing the wrong thing. After a while, we’ll learn things the hard way, and it will really hurt.

    • That's why our first point is: stubborn sins lead to huge trouble.

    SLIDE 15

  • Discussion Question

    • Let's pause for a discussion question.

      • What is a piece of advice that people keep telling you?


    Point 2

  • Our second point is, after trouble there is always hope.

    SLIDE 16

  • Game: Oven Mitt Race

    • Instructions

      • Teacher's setup:

        • Set up two tables

        • Provide a pair of oven mitts for each table

        • Provide one or two Hershey Kisses per child

      • Let's start this point with a game! It's called the Oven Mitt Race!

      • Let's see how it works

      • Teacher: play this YouTube video from 2:00 to about 3:00 in the video.

      • In this game we'll have two teams, and each team will have one table and two oven mitts. The goal of this game is to have everyone on your team unwrap a Hershey Kiss using the oven mitts.

      • You will unwrap one, and then you’ll pass the oven mitts to someone else. 

      • If you get really stuck, you can pass your mitts to someone else, and they can try for you.

      • When you have unwrapped all the Hershey kisses, you win! Your team can share the candy as a snack.

    • Debrief

    SLIDE 17

    • We played this game because it helps us to think about hope. We know that there's chocolate behind the wrapper, so we keep trying to get it. Even if the oven mitts make it hard to unwrap the chocolate, we don't just give up.

    • In our Bible story, God's people had to not give up after things got really difficult

  • Bible Reference

    • Let's read what happened after King Nebuchadnezzar came to fight God's people with his army.

    SLIDE 18

    • 2 Chronicles 36:19-23 (CEV)

      • 19  Nebuchadnezzar's troops burned down the temple and destroyed every important building in the city. Then they broke down the city wall.

    SLIDE 19

    • 20 The survivors were taken to Babylonia as prisoners, where they were slaves of the king and his sons, until Persia became a powerful nation.

    SLIDE 20

    • 21  Judah was an empty desert, and it stayed that way for 70 years, to make up for all the years it was not allowed to rest. These things happened just as Jeremiah the Lord's prophet had said.

    SLIDE 21

    • 22 In the first year that Cyrus was king of Persia, the Lord had Cyrus send a message to all parts of his kingdom. This happened just as Jeremiah the Lord's prophet had promised. 23  The message said: I am King Cyrus of Persia. The Lord God of heaven has made me the ruler of every nation on earth. He has also chosen me to build a temple for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. The Lord God will watch over any of his people who want to go back to Judah.

  • Explanation

    SLIDE 22

    • These verses tell us God's people were so bad that they lost their home. King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed their city and burned down the temple, and he took them all to a land far away. They lived in that faraway land for 70 years!

    SLIDE 23

    • After those years, a new king allowed God's people to go back to their land, and he built a new temple for them so  they could worship God again. It was just as God had said.

    • Even in the worst times, God was completely in control. Even after God's people had sinned and been punished, God was preparing good things for His people.

  • Application

    • That's what it's like for us. If we keep doing things the wrong way, we'll get into huge trouble. When that happens, some people give up, and they think that God could never love them after all the terrible things they did. But, God always has a good plan.

    • The best way to live is to stay out of trouble in the first place.

    SLIDE 24

    • But if we get into trouble, there is always a way back to God, no matter how much we have sinned.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 25

    • Let's pause for a discussion question.

      • Can you tell a story about forgiveness? Maybe you forgave someone, or someone forgave you.

    • Suggested comment:

      • God's forgiveness is like that, but it's even more powerful. God forgives even the worst sinners who do the worst things. However we have messed up, there is always a way back to God.


    Conclusion

    SLIDE 26

  • Let’s wrap up our lesson by going over the big ideas again.

  • Our big question today was:

    • What happens when we are stubborn about doing the wrong thing?

  • Our big idea was:

    • Stubborn sins lead to huge trouble. But after trouble there is always hope.


    SLIDE 27

    Main Activity: Puppet Making

  • Now it's time for a craft! Today, we will be making puppets!

  • Let's watch a short video about how these puppets are made:

  • Teacher: Play this YouTube video:

  • Teacher: show the puppet that you made.

  • This craft helps us understand our lesson a bit, because it's about following instructions.

  • The best way to make a puppet is to follow the instructions and do it right the first time. The worst way to make a puppet is to do things wrong, and to keep doing things wrong, even when someone shows us the right way.

  • Maybe you'll make mistakes when you are making the puppet. But, the mistake doesn't have to be the end of the story. Just about any mistake can be fixed. That's just like the way God fixes the mistakes of all of His children.


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