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Humility and Hope

Unit 6 / Lesson 3

Humility and Hope

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Teacher's Prep

  • Songs

  • Games

    • Team Pen

    • Stacking Cereal

      • Materials:

        • One table per group of four

        • Hand sanitizer to use before handling food

        • A bowl per group of four

        • A box of Cheerios, Froot Loops, Shreddies, or other cereal that is easily stacked (if you play this game often, you may want to switch up the cereal type to keep the game fresh)

    • Button Golf

      • Materials:

        • One colorful button per child, or a token that looks like a button

        • Four baskets

      • This  game is a bit like golf, but instead of using golf balls, players will use buttons. They will attempt to throw buttons into a series of baskets. If they miss, they can pick up the button where they left off.

      • If some buttons look similar, mark them with a permanent marker in a way that will make each button unique. For example, you may want to put a number on each button.

  • Movie Night Part 2 (Main Activity)

    • Have movie choices ready

    • Have movie snacks ready (e.g. drinks, popcorn)


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 2

  • Intro Game: Team Pen

    SLIDE 3

    • Butterfly

    SLIDE 4

    • Guitar

    SLIDE 5

    • See-saw

    SLIDE 6

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it reminds us we're not alone, and if we want to get anything done, we need help.

      • The Christian life is like that. We each have our own part to play, and we definitely need to try our best. God takes care of everything else. God is a bit like all the other strings in the game.

      • A lot of times though, people don't have time to think about God. It’s not that we hate God, but we’re busy. We have things to do, we have places to go and games to play. So, we need a really good reason to get to know God better, or else we just won’t have the time.

    SLIDE 7

  • Big Question

    • Our big question today is: Why should we get to know God better?

    SLIDE 8

  • Big Idea

    • Our Bible story today will teach us that it really helps to know God, because He changes us and makes us better. We'll see that God makes us humble, and He makes us hopeful.

    SLIDE 9

  • Bible Reference


    Point 1

    SLIDE 10

  • Our first point is, knowing God makes us humble

    SLIDE 11

  • Game: Stacking cereal

    • Instructions

      • We'll start our point with a game! It's the cereal stacking game!

      • We'll make teams of four people each, and each team will have their own table.

      • Your team will be making a tower of cereal. We'll see which team can make the tallest tower in five minutes!

    SLIDE 12

    • Debrief

      • In this game we played, the higher you build, the easier it is for the tower to fall. When the tower falls, it can be a big mess.

      • That's what happened in our Bible story. 

      • King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a huge tree which was cut down, and it looked terrible. Nebuchadnezzar asked Daniel what the dream meant. Let’s read what Daniel said:

    SLIDE 13

  • Bible Reference

    • Daniel 4:24-31 (CEV)

      • 24 Your Majesty, God Most High has sent you this message, and it means 25 that you will be forced to live with the wild animals, far away from humans. You will eat grass like a wild animal and live outdoors for seven years, until you learn that God Most High controls all earthly kingdoms and chooses their rulers. 26 But he gave orders not to disturb the stump and roots. This is to show that you will be king once again, after you learn that the God who rules from heaven is in control.

    SLIDE 14

    • 27  Your Majesty, please be willing to do what I say. Turn from your sins and start living right; have mercy on those who are mistreated. Then all will go well with you for a long time. 28-30 About twelve months later, I was walking on the flat roof of my royal palace and admiring the beautiful city of Babylon, when these things started happening to me. I was saying to myself, “Just look at this wonderful capital city that I have built by my own power and for my own glory!” 31 But before I could finish speaking, a voice from heaven interrupted: King Nebuchadnezzar, this kingdom is no longer yours. 

    SLIDE 15

  • Explanation

    • In our Bible story Daniel explained that King Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest king in the world. Nebuchadnezzar was powerful and rich, and he had everything a person wanted. But his heart was very proud, and he thought he had done it all by himself.

    • Nebuchadnezzar needed to learn that it is God who is in control, and that God had given everything. He needed to listen to God and be kind to others, because God is the real king of the world.

    • Nebuchadnezzar didn't believe Daniel's message, so he had to learn the hard way.

    SLIDE 16

  • Application

    • Did you know that all of us are a bit like Nebuchadnezzar? We've all done things that are pretty cool, and maybe we’ve said to ourselves that we’re great and that we’ve done all these things by ourselves, and we deserve everything we have because we're so great. The story of Nebuchadnzzar was put into the Bible so we could learn from it, and not repeat his mistake.

    SLIDE 17

    • The Bible tells us:

      • Pride leads to destruction. A proud attitude brings ruin. (Proverbs 16:18, ICB)

    SLIDE 18

    • This means if we love to take all the credit, we can expect to run into trouble, so it's better to acknowledge that God gave us everything. 

    • We need to remember that God gave us our brain and our body, He gave us people to help us, and He put us on earth at just the right time so that we could be great.

    • We need to thank God because everything comes from Him. We also need to keep treating other people well even when everyone says we are so great. It’s important because that's what God likes, and that's how we follow God as our king, and if God is our king, He will take care of us.

    SLIDE 19

  • Discussion Question

    • Let's pause for a discussion question.

    • What's something you are thankful for?

    • What is something that God has made you good at?


    Point 2

    SLIDE 20

  • Our second point is, knowing God makes us hopeful

    SLIDE 21

  • Game: Button Golf

    • Instructions

      • Teacher: place baskets at four locations in the room (perhaps four corners). Ideally, the locations of the baskets should have minimal clutter around them, and there should be a minimal chance of buttons rolling under things and getting lost. For variety and challenge, you may even want to place baskets outside of the room, so that there will be more angles to work with.

      • Let's start this point with a game! It's called button golf. You will all have a button, and your goal is to throw it into all four baskets, one at a time. If you miss, you can just pick up the button where you left off.

      • We'll play two rounds of this game. In the first round, we will try to get the buttons into the baskets as fast as possible. In the second round, we can try to get the buttons into the baskets with as few throws as possible.

      • Teacher: demonstrate a round. Then lead two rounds. 

    SLIDE 22

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it helps us understand what hope is like.

      • In the Bible, hope means looking forward to the future, because God has told us what to expect.

      • When we play Button Golf, we know that sooner or later, the button will reach all four baskets if we just keep going and don't give up.

      • As Christians, we will have the greatest gift from God if we just keep following Him and don't give up.

      • Our Bible story was put in the Bible to help God's people to have hope.

    SLIDE 23

  • Bible Reference

    • Let's go back to the first half of the passage we read earlier.

    • Remember, this is our hero Daniel talking to king Nebuchadnezzar.

    SLIDE 24

    • Daniel 4:24-25 (CEV)

      • 24 Your Majesty, God Most High has sent you this message, and it means 25 that you will be forced to live with the wild animals, far away from humans. You will eat grass like a wild animal and live outdoors for seven years, until you learn that God Most High controls all earthly kingdoms and chooses their rulers. 26 But he gave orders not to disturb the stump and roots. This is to show that you will be king once again, after you learn that the God who rules from heaven is in control.

    SLIDE 25

  • Explanation

    • This was a message of hope for God's people, because at that time they were feeling very defeated, and a lot of them were having a really hard time. This story taught them that God chose who would become a king. What's more, as we read further on in the book of Daniel, we find that God has chosen all of His people to rule His kingdom with Him.

    • A few chapters later, we read of a great promise, that God is giving us His kingdom.

    • Daniel 7:18 (CEV) says:

      • 18  But God Most High will give his kingdom to his chosen ones, and it will be theirs forever and ever.”

    • Toward the end of the Bible, in the New Testament, we see a promise:

      • 2 Timothy 2:12a (CEV)

        • If we don't give up, we will rule with him.

    SLIDE 26

  • Application

    • The lesson here for us is that no matter how bad life gets, we can remember that one day God is giving us a kingdom. Our kingdom will be greater than anything that King Nebuchadnezzar had. We know that our story will end well, and because of that, we can keep looking forward to God working everything out for our good in the end.

    SLIDE 27

  • Discussion Question

    • One way to understand God’s kingdom better is to imagine a place where you could have anything you want. 

    • If you could ask God for anything, what would you ask Him for?


    Conclusion

    SLIDE 28

  • To wrap up, our big question today was: Why should we get to know God better?

  • Our big idea was: It really helps to know God, because He makes us humble and hopeful.

  • Being humble saves us from all kinds of trouble, and being hopeful means we are confident in God even when things aren’t going well.


    Main Activity: Movie Night Part 2

  • SLIDE 29

  • We'll end off our lesson with part 2 of movie night! 

  • Let's all get some snacks, and then we'll sit down and pick up where we left off last time.

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