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What Is God Doing In Hard Times?

Unit 15 / Lesson 5

What Is God Doing In Hard Times?

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Teacher's Prep

  • Games

    • Blow the Ping Pong Ball

      • Materials (per group of five):

        • One ping pong ball 

        • One chair 

    • Limbo

    • 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: 

        • Bridge, Pizza, Fork, Computer, Alligator, Sunglasses

        • Light bulb, Waterfall, Seesaw, Tent, French fries

        • Jump, Garbage, Pancake, Cardboard, Farm

        • Medium words: 

        • Light bulb, Waterfall, Seesaw, Tent, French fries

        • Jump, Garbage, Pancake, Cardboard, Farm

        • Hard words: 

        • Jump, Garbage, Pancake, Cardboard, Farm

      • 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 to their ear at the beginning of their turn).

      • If you play this game on different occasions, you will need to find new words to draw.

  • Main Activity (Making Pizza):

    • A convenient way to prepare for this activity is to buy a pizza kit which includes pizza dough and all the toppings. They leave the assembly and baking to you. You might be able to find pizza kits at Walmart or Superstore.

    • Alternatively, you can DIY your own pizzas with sliced bread as a base. You would need to provide cheese, tomato sauce, and toppings and have them ready for assembly. You may be able to save time by buying shredded cheese and sliced pepperoni at your local supermarket.

    • You will need an oven and baking sheets if you are using raw dough. On the other hand, it may be possible to make a cold pizza, or a microwaved pizza entirely out of ready-to-eat ingredients.

    • For the general concept of how to make a pizza, you can watch this short YouTube video from 1:25 to the end (about 1 minute total):


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

  • SLIDE 2

  • Intro Game: Blow the Ping Pong Ball

    • Instructions

      • We'll start off our lesson with a game!

      • It's a relay race with ping pong balls! Here's how it works. We will have teams of five people each. If you have six people, one of you needs to join another team. And if you have less than five, some of you might need to go twice.

      • Each team will have a ping pong ball. You will take turns blowing the ping pong ball across the room and back. To make this more challenging, there is a chair on the other side of the room, and you will need to blow the ping pong ball around the far side of the chair before you get back.

      • Teacher: demonstrate the path of the ball – from the starting line, around the back of the chair, and then back to the starting line.

      • Let's form our teams, and line up one one side of the room. We'll see how fast we can do this relay race.

      • Teacher: pick the side of the room that the children will line up on, and mark a starting line, either with tape or with some physical markers like pylons. On the far side of the room, set chairs for each team, leaving space all around the chairs so that children can blow a ping pong ball around the chairs. You may want to play more than one round if time and interest allows.

    • Debrief

    SLIDE 3

    • We played this game because it's sort of hard. You don't get everything you want in the game. Sometimes the ball goes places where you don't want it to go. Sometimes you're not as fast you want to be. And, it can be noisy and confusing.

    • But, if you just keep going, you'll get to the finish line and you'll win.

  • Relevance

    SLIDE 4

    • And real life is like that too. Sometimes real life is hard. Sometimes we have to go places we don't feel like going. Sometimes we're not as fast as we want to be. And, sometimes life is confusing. And you might wonder why you keep getting into trouble, and you might wonder why God isn’t helping you.

  • Big Question

    SLIDE 5

    • So, our big question today is: what is God doing in hard times?

  • Big Idea

    SLIDE 6

    • Our big idea today is that God uses hard times for greater good.

      • 1. First, God makes the evil side lose

      • 2. Second, God makes the good side win

  • Bible Reference

    • We're getting these ideas from our Bible story. We've been going through the book of Esther for the past few weeks. Earlier in our story, something terrible had happened.

    SLIDE 7

    • An evil man named Haman had made a law to kill all of God's people, who were the Jews. So, God's people were super worried and they were praying and they were hoping that God would do something. But most of them didn’t understand what God was doing.

    SLIDE 8

    • Now there was one Jew whom Haman hated more than all the others, and that Jew was named Mordecai. Mordecai was actually a very good man. And, Mordecai had saved the king’s life before. But, Mordecai never bowed down to Haman.

    SLIDE 9

    • So, Haman wanted Mordecai dead. So, Haman went to the king one evening to ask if he could kill Mordecai.

    SLIDE 10

    • Now we'll play a clip from a VeggieTales movie. It will help us get the feel of the passage, and then later on we'll read the story from the Bible.

  • Movie clip


    Point 1

  • Our first point today is:

    • God uses hard times to make the evil side lose

    SLIDE 11

  • Game: Limbo

    • Instructions

      • We'll start our point with a game of Limbo! It's a really simple game. We'll have two people holding a stick, and we'll all take turns walking under the stick.

      • The tricky part is, the stick will keep getting lower. So, you'll need to walk lower.

      • The way to walk lower is to bend your knees and lean back.

      • You can't touch the floor with your hands. If you touch the floor with your hands, or if you fall, you're out, and you can stand to the side and watch your friends to see how low they can go.

      • Teacher: try to do a demonstration with two volunteers to the side holding the stick.

      • Let's all form a line and give it a try!

      • Teacher: Volunteers should hold the stick in cupped hands so that it will fall easily if touched. Also, you may want to play music during the game

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it helps us to understand evil.

      • In this game, the bar gets lower and lower until we fall.

    SLIDE 12

    • We don't know when the game will end, but we know eventually the bar will be so low that nobody can get past it.

    • And that's how it's like with evil too. We don't know when God will put an end to all the bad things that we see around us. But we know it’s going to happen, if we just wait long enough.

    • And that's what we see in our Bible story.

  • Bible Reference

    SLIDE 13

    • Esther 6:1-4a

      • 1 That night the king could not sleep, and he had a servant read him the records of what had happened since he had been king. 2 When the servant read how Mordecai had kept Bigthana and Teresh from killing the king,

    SLIDE 14

    • 3 the king asked, “What has been done to reward Mordecai for this?”

    • “Nothing, Your Majesty!” the king’s servants replied.

    SLIDE 15

    • 4 About this time, Haman came in to ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on the tower he had built.

  • Explanation

    SLIDE 16

    • At first when we read this it seems that our hero Mordecai was really really “lucky.” Just when Haman was going to get permission from the king to get him killed, the king couldn't sleep.

    SLIDE 17

    • So, the king decided to have his servant read him some history. The servant happened to read the part where Mordecai saved his life, and the king had just decided to do something nice for Mordecai. It was perfect timing! It looks like pure luck that Mordecai got saved by the king. But, Mordecai had known all along that something like this had to happen, because God was looking out for his people. Mordecai knew that God would save his people one way or another.

    SLIDE 18

    • In our story, God let the evil side get really scary. But, just when it looked like evil was going to win, God protected His people, and from this point on, evil would be losing for the rest of the story.

  • Application

    • That's how it works for us too. Sometimes bad things happen to God's people. Christians get picked on and bullied and tricked. Christians can get sick or injured, or even die. When those bad things happen, we might wonder what God is doing.

    SLIDE 19

    • We might wonder why God doesn't stop all those terrible things from happening. But, God is more patient than we are. He promises He will make things right. In the end, good will win, and evil will lose. All we need to do is keep trusting God and doing what is right, just like Mordecai did.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 20

    • Let’s pause for a couple of discussion questions:

      • What is something bad that has happened to you in the past?

      • What do you think God wants you to do when bad things happen?


    Point 2

  • Moving on, our second point is:

    • God uses hard times to make the good side win

    SLIDE 21

  • Game: Pictionary

    • Instructions

      • We will start this point 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 we’ll take turns drawing.

      • Teacher: Use the lists of words as seen in the teacher’s preparations section at the beginning of this lesson. 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.

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it helps us understand how God works. In the game, it’s hard to tell at first what the person is drawing. So, we just wait and we pay attention to the details, and then we understand more. 

      • And it’s like that in real life too. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what God is doing. But, sometimes it will all make sense if we just wait and pay attention to the details.

  • Bible Reference

    • Let's go back to our Bible story.

    SLIDE 22

    • Esther 6:11

      • 11 Haman got the king’s robe and put it on Mordecai. He led him through the city on the horse and shouted as he went, “This is how the king honors a man!”

  • Explanation

    • So, the king threw a parade for Mordecai. He ordered Haman to lead the parade and say great things about Mordecai. It was the greatest honor that the king could give to another human being. But the story tells us Mordecai went back to his work like nothing had happened. Mordecai didn't actually need the parade, and he didn't need people to say great things about him. It's because he had something better. Mordecai was on God's side, and God Himself was going to honor Mordecai, and God Himself was going to say great things about him. Mordecai didn't need Haman to do these things.

  • Application

    SLIDE 23

    • That's how it works for us too. The Bible tells us, God honors those who honor Him, and God will praise each of His children (1 Cor 4:5). That means God will say great things about us in the future. The only problem is that God normally does these things in the future, in heaven.  Most of us will not be going to heaven for a very long time. So, for a very long time it will feel like you haven't been rewarded for doing what was right. But there's a way to make heaven feel a bit closer.

    SLIDE 24

    • We can use our imaginations.

    • The Bible says heaven is a place with really nice food. When you eat delicious food, you can remember that heaven is a bit like that, but better. The Bible also says heaven is a place where we can rest. When you go somewhere really restful, you can remember heaven is a bit like that, but better. The Bible also says heaven is a place where you have really great friends. So, when you are with friends and you’re really happy you can remember heaven is a bit like that, but better. If we can think like that, we will feel like heaven is not too far away. And, we’ll have more courage to do the right thing, because we know how our story ends.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 25

    • Let's pause for a discussion question

      • What is something you like that can remind you of heaven?


    Conclusion

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

  • Our big question today is:

    • What is God doing in hard times?

    SLIDE 26

  • Our Bible story reminded us that God is always working in our hard times. He always makes the side of evil lose, sooner or later. And, he always makes the good side win, if we wait long enough.

    SLIDE 27

  • Sometimes we will only see the good side win when we get to heaven. Heaven might feel really far away, but you can make it feel closer by thinking about the best thing in your life, and then remembering that heaven will be better. That will help us to keep doing the right thing.


    SLIDE 28

    Main Activity: Pizza Making

  • And now, it’s time for our main activity. Today we are making pizza! For those of us who like pizza, pizza reminds us of heaven. You make it with people you like, and then you eat it and it's delicious. And, heaven like that, but better. So, when we make pizza like this, we can make heaven feel a little bit closer.

  • Now let’s see how pizza is made:

  • Teacher: play this YouTube video from 1:25 to the end (about 1 minute of video to show):

  • Teacher: lead the class in pizza making.

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