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How Can We Be Happy With God?

Unit 3 / Lesson 4

How Can We Be Happy With God?

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Teacher's Prep

  • Teacher’s Study

  • Games

    • Intro Activity: “Red Solo Cup Behind Back”

      • Get four disposable plastic cups. Red Solo cups work great.

    • What's the Time, Mr. Wolf? (Game at beginning of Point 1)

      • If you are not familiar with the game, here are the basic rules:

      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3pvnYz9VNE&ab_channel=wikiHow

      • Before class, you will want to set up a line to mark a safe zone for the class. Ideally, this line will be about ten feet from a wall, so that children can cross the line running at full speed without crashing into anything.

      • Masking tape or painters tape on the ground would make a great line, though it takes a bit of effort to get tape off the ground afterwards. Alternatively, you can set up two pylons at the sides and say there's an imaginary line between them.

    • Breakfast Scramble (Game at beginning of Point 2)

      • See this YouTube video to see how the game works

      • Find one cereal box per 8-10 children. Note: one cereal box normally has two usable sides, which are the largest faces of the box with pictures on them.

        • If you don't have a cereal box, any colorful picture will do, e.g. from a magazine. You can also print something out. A cereal box has the benefit of heavier paper, vivid colors, and a familiar picture.

      • Make a reasonable number of puzzle pieces, e.g. a 6x6 grid. You can cut pieces freely without worrying about their exact size and shape. Between 35-40 pieces per puzzle should be good.

      • Set up tables so that each one can have 4-5 children working on a single puzzle. In the absence of tables, this game can also be played on the floor.

  • Main Activity (Baking):

    • Prepare a quick baking project, e.g. chocolate chip cookies, or sheet pan nachos. You will need ingredients, equipment, and perhaps copies of a recipe.


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    SLIDE 2

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 3

  • Intro Game: Red Solo Cup game

    • Instructions

      • We'll start this lesson with a game! It's a really simple game. 

      • We'll have two teams. Each team will have two plastic cups. 

      • Everyone on your team will take turns dropping the cup behind your back. If it lands right side up or upside down, you’re done, and you can pass the cup to someone else on your team. If the cup lands on its side, pick it up and try again.

      • You have two cups so that your team can have two people at a time doing the challenge. The game ends when everyone on your team has finished the challenge.

      • The first team to have everyone finish wins. Help each other out by cheering each other on and picking up the cup for each other.

      • Teacher: you may want to do a demonstration for how to drop the cup behind your back. Also, you may want to play two or three rounds of this game depending on time and the level of interest.

    SLIDE 4

    • Debrief and Relevance

      • We played this game because it helps us to think about our lesson.

      • In this game, we always hope that the cup will land the right way. Normally it doesn't land the way we want. If we try enough times though, it will land the right way.

    SLIDE 5

    • Sometimes if a person knows God, it feels a bit like this game. We might pray, and sometimes God will give us what we want, but most of the time He doesn't. You might wonder: why does God sometimes give us what we ask for, but most of the time He doesn't? Does He not care? Does He help at all?

    • A lot of people are upset at God because He doesn’t do what they ask Him to do.

    SLIDE 6

  • Big Question

    • Our big question today is: How can we be happy with God?

  • Big Idea

    • Our big idea is: we can be happy with God if we don't chase an easy life, but instead chase eternal life.

  • Bible Reference

    • We will see this in our Bible story, which is the story of Jesus feeding a crowd of thousands of people.

    • Let’s watch the cartoon version of the story first. 

    SLIDE 7

    SLIDE 8

    • John 6:12-15 (CEV)

      • 12 The people ate all they wanted, and Jesus told his disciples to gather up the leftovers, so that nothing would be wasted. 13 The disciples gathered them up and filled twelve large baskets with what was left over from the five barley loaves.

    SLIDE 9

    • 14 After the people had seen Jesus work this miracle, they began saying, “This must be the Prophet who is to come into the world!” 15 Jesus realized that they would try to force him to be their king. So he went up on a mountain, where he could be alone.


    Point 1

    SLIDE 10

  • Our first point is, we can be happy with God if we don't chase an easy life.

    SLIDE 11

  • Game: What’s The Time, Mr. Wolf?

    • Instructions

      • We will start with a game! It's called, What's the Time, Mr. Wolf? Let’s watch the instructions together.

      • Teacher: play this YouTube for a one-minute summary of the game.

      • Here are the rules again: Everyone will start behind a line. This is your home, and this is where you're safe. Someone will be Mr. Wolf, and they'll start on the opposite wall. We’ll ask, “what’s the time Mr. Wolf?” Mr. Wolf will say something like, “it’s 5 o’clock.” Everyone will take 5 steps, or whatever number Mr. Wolf said. You can take big steps or little steps, but you can’t hop or jump in your steps. They have to be walking steps.

      • If someone manages to tag Mr. Wolf, everyone wins. BUT, there’s a catch. When you ask “What's the time Mr. Wolf,” Mr. Wolf can also say, “Dinner time!”, and will turn around and try to tag someone. Everyone else will run home. If Mr. Wolf tags someone before they're home, everyone loses, and we'll pick another Mr. Wolf.

      • We'll need as much space as we can to run, and we'll have one of the adults be Mr. Wolf for the first round. Adults: go easy on them at least on the first time around.

      • Teacher: play a few rounds depending on time and interest. Important: as this game involves running and chasing, there is some risk of injury. You will want the running space to be as clear as possible, ideally with some padding (or adults in front of objects) to prevent collisions with corners and other hazards. To adjust the difficulty, you can either say that the wolf can peek between rounds to see who is getting close to them, or they can’t peek to see who is getting close to them.

    SLIDE 12

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it helps us to think about what is important. In the game, if all you want is to be safe and comfortable, the best way is to take the tiniest steps so you will never get caught. However, if you only play the game this way, you will never win.

    SLIDE 13

    • In real life, a lot of people just want to be safe and comfortable. But we see in our story that those kinds of people will be disappointed in the end.

    SLIDE 14

  • Bible Reference

    • Let's read the beginning of our Bible story.

    • John 6:1-2 (CEV)

      • 1 Jesus crossed Lake Galilee, which was also known as Lake Tiberias. 2 A large crowd had seen him work miracles to heal the sick, and those people went with him.

  • Explanation

    SLIDE 15

    • I’ll explain what we just read. Once upon a time there was a lake called Lake Galilee. It was part of the promised land, which was the homeland of God’s people.

    • But then came powerful kings who fought against God's people, and there were terrible wars, and God's people lost those wars. Their land was taken away, and God’s people had to serve kings and emperors who didn't care about them. The emperors just took their money and made life difficult.

    • One of those emperors was named Tiberias. The emperor’s servants decided to call the lake, Lake Tiberias, as if to say the lake belonged to Tiberias.

    • The Jewish people hated Tiberias, and they hated all these new kings.

    SLIDE 16

    • Then, Jesus came along. He was healing the sick and God was with Him. For the first time in a long time, the Jewish people felt hope. They thought maybe Jesus could fix all their problems.

    • So, thousands of people followed Jesus. Our Bible story talks about a day when Jesus was out in the middle of nowhere, and this crowd of thousands of people showed up to see Him.

    • Jesus told everyone to sit down, and He did a miracle for them all to see. He took a few pieces of bread and two fish, and He passed them around and suddenly everyone had food. Somehow the food just multiplied. Maybe it grew back in people’s hands! Can you imagine breaking a fish in two, so you have a fish head in one hand and a fish tail in the other hand, but then the tail grows a new head, and the head grows a new tail! So now you have two fish!

    • When the crowd saw this amazing miracle, they decided, “this is the king we want! Jesus is so powerful that He can defeat the emperor! Jesus will give us health and safety and money and food!” 

    • Jesus knew they were thinking these things, so He got up and He left them all behind. They were chasing the wrong thing, so Jesus couldn’t help them.

    SLIDE 17

  • Application

    • We need to learn from this story, because a lot of people want the wrong thing from God. A lot of people only go to God because they want Him to give them things like health, safety, money, food, friends, and good grades. If that's all they want, Jesus will leave them behind.

    • If we only chase after the things that will make our life easier, we will never be happy with God.

    SLIDE 18

  • Discussion Question

    • Let's pause for a discussion question.

    • If you could ask God for just one thing, what would you ask for?


    SLIDE 19

    Main Activity Part 1: Preparing Baking for the Oven

  • Normally, we do our activity at the end of our lesson, but today, we are BAKING! To make it work, we will get the food ready for the oven, and then we’ll come back for our second point, and then we’ll eat!

  • Baking helps us understand our lesson a bit better. When we bake, we all have a choice. We could eat the ingredients now, or we could use the ingredients for something better. 

  • If we're making chocolate chip cookies, we could just eat the chocolate chips. But if we do that, we won't have any for the cookies. So, we wait patiently and we mix them into the cookie dough and put them in the oven. In the end, a chocolate chip cookie is better than just chocolate chips.

  • That's what it's like to be a Christian. If we just want to enjoy life now, we will be in trouble later. If we work with God and follow His plan, we will see that God really has the best plan for us.

  • Teacher: lead the baking activity. Put the food in the oven. Arrange to take the food out of the oven at the right time, and give it time to cool. You may want to set an alarm on your phone, or appoint a volunteer to make sure the food comes out of the oven at the right time.


    Point 2

    SLIDE 20

  • Our second point is, we can be happy with God if we chase eternal life.

    • (Does anyone know what eternal life is?)

    SLIDE 21

  • Game: Breakfast Scramble

    • Instructions

      • Teacher: you may want to set up tables so that each group of 4-5 can access their puzzle.

      • We'll start this point with a game! It's called Breakfast Scramble. We'll form teams of about 4 people, and your team will put a puzzle together. We'll see how quickly you can do the puzzle.

      • Teacher: you may want to play multiple rounds, with the children switching stations each round so that they have a fresh picture to work with.

    SLIDE 22

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it's a bit like life. The world around us can be very broken, and we can be broken inside of ourselves too – just like those pictures you were working with.

    SLIDE 23

    • But God is making the world right again, and He's making us right inside. When He's done, it will be more amazing than anyone can imagine.

    • The best thing we can do is join God in His work.

    • In our Bible story, there was one little boy who wanted to join God in His work. Let's read what the Bible says about him.

    SLIDE 24

  • Bible Reference

    • John 6:5-9 (CEV)

      • 8 Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the disciples. He spoke up and said, 9 “There is a boy here who has five small loaves of barley bread and two fish. But what good is that with all these people?”

    SLIDE 25

  • Explanation

    • This boy was different from the other people in the crowd. Everyone else wanted Jesus to feed them, but this boy had something to give instead. The boy gave Jesus his lunch. It was a lunch made out of two very small fish, and five little loaves of bread. The Bible says the loaves were made of barley. Barley bread was the cheapest bread, the worst tasting bread that only the poorest people ate. The boy had barley bread because he couldn’t buy anything else, so we know the boy was very poor, and this bread was very precious to him.

    • The boy gave it up for Jesus, because he thought Jesus could do something special with it.

    SLIDE 26

    • And the boy was right. 

    • Jesus used that bread to feed thousands of people. By the end of the story, the boy ate all the food he wanted. More importantly, he also learned about Jesus, and he could trust Jesus more than ever before.

    • It was so important to trust Jesus. Right after this story, Jesus explained to the crowd that everyone who trusts Him will live forever.

    SLIDE 27

  • Application

    • We need to learn from that boy. If we want to be happy with God, we need to have that kind of attitude, that God can give us something really special, something bigger than comfort and safety. We need to chase after the things that last forever. If you don't know Jesus yet, you need to trust Him, just like Jesus taught that crowd afterwards. Trust Him to be your leader, and the one who rescues you from sin and death. If you trust Jesus and follow Him, He will give you eternal life. Everyone needs this eternal life, so we need to help other people to trust Jesus too.

    SLIDE 28

  • Discussion Question (optional)

    • For this question, let's break into groups of two or three. The question is:

      • What is the name of someone you know who doesn't know Jesus? Maybe you can pray for that person as a group.


    Conclusion

    SLIDE 29

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

  • Our big question today was, "How can we be happy with God?"

  • Our story taught us we can be happy with God if we don't chase an easy life, but we do chase eternal life.

  • This means we don't just ask God to make our life easier and more fun and more comfortable. But we need to trust Him to give us a life that lasts forever, and we need to work with Him to help other people too. If we do that, we will see God do amazing things, and God will also give us everything we need.


    Main Activity Part 2: Eating

  • That ends our lesson. Now we will wait for our food to be ready, and then we’ll eat!


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