Unit 19 / Lesson 3
Sharing God's Work
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Lesson 107: Sharing God's Work
Teacher's Prep
Games
Penne Noodle Pickup
Watch this YouTube video for the concept of the game:
Get these materials:
Spaghetti
Penne pasta
Trays for the penne pasta
Bowls -- one bowl per group of four.
Note: children with a gluten allergy normally cannot have noodles in their mouths.
Simon Says
There are no materials needed for Simon Says, but it will really help if you are familiar with the script and if you practice. Delivery makes a big difference in this game.
Face the Cookie
Get one package of Oreo cookies – so that each child can have a cookie.
For the concept of the game, you may refer to this video:
Minute to Win It: Face the Cookie (Head-to-Head), by Outscord
Main activity: Card Making
Assemble supplies to make fancy greeting cards. For example:
Cardstock/construction paper
Stencils
Crayons, pens, pencil crayons
Scissors
Tape, glue sticks
Stamps, stickers
Paper trimmer, envelopes
You may want to prepare some fun music to play in the background while the children make cards.
Alternative main activity: Shrink Plastic Keychains
For an alternative option to greeting cards, please see this video:
You can find written, step-by-step instructions at this link:
Intro
Gathering
How was your week?
Intro Game: Penne Noodle Pickup
Instructions
Teacher: set up trays of penne noodles, and some bowls. You may want to provide one tray for every four people, and one bowl for every two people.
We'll start our time with a game! It's called the Penne Noodle Pickup. Let's watch how it works.
Teacher: Watch this YouTube video together:
Here are the rules: you'll all have a noodle to put in your mouth, and your goal is to pick up the other pasta and put it into a bowl. You'll do this as a team, so everyone around your bowl is one team. We'll do this for three minutes.
Debrief
We played this game because it was tricky, but if you tried your best, you could do it.
But can you imagine if we changed something about the game? Imagine that every time you finished moving one piece, someone dropped two or three more pieces onto your plate! If you kept getting more pieces of penne pasta, the game wouldn't just be tricky. It would be impossible!
Relevance
But, sometimes real life feels like that.
Sometimes we try to get something done, and then we finish, and then we notice we need to do two or three more things.
And sometimes we try to help someone, and then once we're done we notice there are two or three more people to help.
Big Question
So, our big question today is:
What should we do when there are too many people to help?
Big Idea
Today our big idea is:
1. Sometimes God gives us a job that is too big for one person. So,
2. We need to share God's work with other people.
Bible Reference
Video clip
That's what we'll learn in our Bible story today. But, first let's watch a short video which will help us understand what we're about to read.
Teacher: please play this video from 0:00 to 2:35
Holy Spirit Help Me / Acts 6:1-7 : Coastline Kids Online 21st June, by Coastline Kids
And now, let's read our story from the Bible!
Acts 6:1-7 (ICB)
1 More and more people were becoming followers of Jesus. But during this same time, the Greek-speaking followers had an argument with the other Jewish followers. The Greek-speaking Jews said that their widows were not getting their share of the food that was given out every day. 2 The 12 apostles called the whole group of followers together. They said, “It is not right for us to stop our work of teaching God’s word in order to serve tables. 3 So, brothers, choose seven of your own men. They must be men who are good. They must be full of wisdom and full of the Spirit. We will put them in charge of this work. 4 Then we can use all our time to pray and to teach the word of God.”
5 The whole group liked the idea. So they chose these seven men: Stephen (a man with great faith and full of the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas (a man from Antioch who had become a Jew). 6 Then they put these men before the apostles. The apostles prayed and laid their hands on the men.
7 The word of God was reaching more and more people. The group of followers in Jerusalem became larger and larger. A great number of the Jewish priests believed and obeyed.
Point 1
Point
The first thing we learn in our story is:
Sometimes God gives us a job that is too big for one person
Game: Simon Says
Instructions
Let's start our point with a game of Simon Says!
The rules are pretty simple-you just have to do whatever Simon says. If I don't say “Simon Says” before telling you to do an action, don’t do what I say. If you end up doing the action, you need to go to the side and sit out until the next round.
Teacher: you'll want to do all the actions along with them even if they are the wrong actions, to help fool them. If most of the children get eliminated, you can start again. Play as long as time and interest allow; you don't need to finish all the items, but you can skip to the end to save time.
Suggested script for Simon Says (you don't have to use all of these):
We'll do a practice round first.
Simon says pick apples from a tree
Teacher: do the action and wait for the children to follow
**Now, wave your hands in the air
So if you waved your hands in the air, you would be out, because I didn't say Simon says! I'll be doing all the actions even if they're wrong, so this game is really tricky.
NOW FOR REAL:
Simon says put your hat on
Simon says be a wriggly worm
**Let's all take a bow
Simon says vacuum the floor
Simon says wash your hands
Simon says open your umbrella
**Now blow up a balloon
Simon says blow up a balloon
Simon says sweep the floors
Simon says pull your ears
Simon says play the flute
Simon says play the guitar
**Play the flute again!
Simon says tap your head
Simon says wiggle your nose
Simon says do three jumping jacks
Simon says turn around 3 times
Simon says look left and look right
**Now give yourself a big hug
Simon says touch your left shoulder
Simon says point to your ears
Simon says plant a flower
Simon says look angry
**Let's all brush our hair
Simon says everyone stand in a line
Simon says everyone make a big circle
Simon says draw a star in the air
Simon says sit down and cross your legs
**Alright you can all stand up
Simon says stand up
Simon says jump as high as you can
Simon says make yourself really big.
Simon says make yourself really small
**Now hop on one foot
Simon says stand on one foot
Simon says you can use two feet again
Simon says clap your hands twice
Simon says swim in the ocean
Simon says brush your teeth
Simon says put your hands behind your back
Simon says nod your head
Simon says peel the potatoes
Simon says jump twice
**Now run on the spot
Simon says put your hands in the air
Simon says touch your nose
Simon says stand on one foot
Simon says wink with your left eye
Simon says pretend to climb a ladder
Simon says make a funny face
**Next lift up your feet as high you can
Simon says blink five times
Simon says spin around
Simon says scratch your head
Simon says show us the back of your hands.
**Now show us the front of your hands
Simon says do ten jumping jacks.
Simon says give everyone a thumbs up
Simon says yawn.
**Let's all be like a pair of scissors.
Simon says pretend to climb a ladder
Simon says try wiggling your ears
Simon says let's all sit down for the next part of our lesson.
Debrief
Now, let's take a moment to watch some people who are super awesome at playing Simon Says:
Teacher: please play this video:
Most Extreme Game of Simon Says, by RedBull
We started our point with this game because it reminds us, eventually we all mess up. Even if you're super awesome at it, you can't get everything right.
And that's what happened in our Bible story. Jesus' disciples were really awesome at what they did. But, they couldn't get everything right. They were supposed to take care of a church, but there were too many people to take care of. So, they missed some people.
Bible Reference
Let's read the first half of our Bible story again.
Acts 6:1-3 (ICB)
1 More and more people were becoming followers of Jesus. But during this same time, the Greek-speaking followers had an argument with the other Jewish followers. The Greek-speaking Jews said that their widows were not getting their share of the food that was given out every day. 2 The 12 apostles called the whole group of followers together. They said, “It is not right for us to stop our work of teaching God’s word in order to serve tables. 3 So, brothers, choose seven of your own men. They must be men who are good. They must be full of wisdom and full of the Spirit. We will put them in charge of this work.
Explanation
Our story talks about widows. Widows are women who used to be married, but their husband passed away. Back in those days, the husband was the one who earned money, and sometimes a wife had no way to earn money. So, there were some ladies who had no husband and no money. They didn't even have enough money to buy food to eat. And they didn't have anyone else to take care of them.
So, the church needed to give them food. It was very important for God's people to take care of each other like this. God wanted his people to take care of those widows.
So, people would give money to the twelve disciples who were also called apostles. The apostles were men who had been taught by Jesus, and everyone trusted them. So everyone gave the apostles their money, so the apostles could help the widows.
But, the apostles were super busy! The apostles knew that God wanted them to pray and teach people God's word.
But, God also wanted them to take care of the widows. And, there wasn't enough time for the apostles to do everything!
But, the apostles didn't give up. They looked for a way to do everything that God wanted them to do. And, when they looked for a way, God gave them a way.
Application
And, we can learn from that. Sometimes God gives us a job that is so big, we know we can't do it by ourselves. But, we shouldn’t just give up and say we can't do it. Instead, we need to look for a way to do everything that God wants us to do.
A lot of times, we just need to change the way we do things. And, if we change the way we do things, we'll see that we can do everything God wants us to do.
Discussion Question
Now, let's pause for a discussion question
What are some things God wants us to do?
Teacher: help the class to brainstorm several things that God wants us to do
God wants us to do a lot of things! And, sometimes it might feel like he tells us to do too much, and there's no way we can do them all. But when it seems like there's no way, it's time to look for a way. And, sometimes the way is to ask other people to help us.
Point 2
Point
And that brings us to our second point.
2. We need to share God's work with other people.
Game: Face the Cookie
Instructions
We’ll start this point with a game! The game is, Face the Cookie!
You will all get an Oreo cookie. You play the game by tilting your head up and putting the Oreo cookie on your eye. Then you need to move the cookie into your mouth using just the muscles on your head and your face. If your cookie drops off your face, you need to put the cookie on your eye and try again.
Teacher: demonstrate how the game works. Alternatively, there is a video tutorial on YouTube which you can show to the children. Also, you may want them to play around a table so the cookies will drop onto the table instead of the ground.
Debrief
We played this game because it reminds us, sometimes it's better to share the work.
Imagine if you had to play this game all by yourself -- but you had to move all the cookies one by one from your eyes to your mouth.
If you had to finish all the cookies by yourself, it would take you forever!
And, probably your neck would get super tired. And, your stomach would hurt. And after a while it would be no fun at all.
But, if you could share the work, then you'd be done super fast, and you'd all have a good time. And, everyone would have a nice snack.
And it was a bit like that in our Bible story.
Bible Reference
The apostles said to all the Christians:
Acts 6:3-4 (ICB)
3 So, brothers, choose seven of your own men. They must be men who are good. They must be full of wisdom and full of the Spirit. We will put them in charge of this work. 4 Then we can use all our time to pray and to teach the word of God.”
And let's read the ending of the story:
Acts 6:7 (ICB)
7 The word of God was reaching more and more people. The group of followers in Jerusalem became larger and larger. A great number of the Jewish priests believed and obeyed.
Explanation
Our story tells us what the church decided to do. The church chose seven men who were excellent Christians. They needed to be good men, because they had to handle a lot of money and take care of a lot of people. So, people needed to really trust them.
The apostles gave these men the job of taking care of the widows.
And then, the apostles focused on doing what they did best. They focused on praying and teaching the word of God.
And, their plan worked! They were able to help more people than ever.
Application
And, it's like that for us too. The Bible tells us to share God's work.
The Bible tells us that God has given every Christian a special power to do God's work. And, every Christian needs to use that power. Sometimes, there are very special jobs like the guys in our story had, and only a few people could do those jobs. But, every Christian needs to do God's work in some way.
And, if we all share God's work together, then we will help a lot of people. And, along the way, we'll make friends, and we'll become more like Jesus, and we'll see that helping other people can be really good for us.
Discussion Question
Now, let's pause for a discussion question. Let's form groups of 3 and 4. And let's try to guess:
What might be the special power that God has given to each person in your group?
Conclusion
Let's wrap up this lesson by going over the big ideas again.
Our big question today was:
What should we do when there are too many people to help?
We learned that:
1. Sometimes God gives us a job that is too big for one person. So,
2. We need to share God's work with other people.
Main Activity
Our main activity today will help us remember these things!
Today we are making cards! We can make a card for Mother's Day and for Father's day. Or, you can make a card for whoever takes care of you.
Our moms and dads have a job that God gave them -- to take care of us. So, if they take care of you, they are doing God's work. It can be a lot of work taking care of kids. But, we can help them! We can help them every day around the house. And, we can also help them by making cards, because cards can help them feel better when they're tired.
Teacher: provide materials and tables, and supervise card-making. You may want to play some fun music in the background.