God's Commandments: Worship God

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God's Commandments: Worship God God's Commandments: Worship God Date: 06/21/2020 Main Point ● We put God first. ​This lesson will challenge kids to think about things in their lives that take priority over God, such as friends, video games, or sports. Help kids see that while these things are not bad in and of themselves, God comes first. Verses of the Week ● Summary verse: “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind’ ” (Matthew 22:37). ● Story verse: Exodus 20:2-3; Acts 17:16-34 2 Date: 06/21/2020 Review Questions ● What are God's commands? ● Who do we put first? ● Tell me about some of your favorite things? Prayer ● God, we admit that we’ve worshipped things besides you. We haven’t always put you first. That’s wrong. We ask that from now on, you’ll help us give you first place in our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen. 3 Date: 06/21/2020 Craft and Activities My Day Sticker Chart Let’s make something to remind us that we put God first in all the things we do ​ ​ each day. ● Give each child a handout and some crayons. Have kids color the pictures on the page. ● Encourage kids to draw something they do every day in each of the blank circles. As they’re coloring, ask kids what they’re drawing, and label each thing. If kids have trouble thinking of ideas, you could suggest the following: ○ riding in the car ○ getting dressed ○ reading a book ○ feeding the dog ○ singing songs ○ washing their hands 4 Date: 06/21/2020 Learn the 10 Commandments ● Make 14 “idols” by rolling sheets of yellow and gray construction paper into tubes and taping the tubes shut. Label the idols as follows: Athena, Dionysus, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, Pan, Adonis. ● Make 12 “shrines” by folding sheets of yellow construction paper in half like a tent and standing them up. Label the shrines as follows: fire, air, water, earth, reason, nature, peace, friendship, dreams, sleep, justice, order. ● Make 4 “altars” by folding sheets of gray construction paper in half like a tent and standing them up. Label the altars as follows: To an unknown god, Altar of the 12 Gods, the Great Altar of Zeus, Great Altar of Athena. ● Set the idols, shrines, and altars all around the room. 5 Date: 06/21/2020 Learn the 10 Commandments Continued…. Learn the Ten Commandments Say: We’re going to spend the next several weeks learning God’s Commandments. Let’s read the very first one, which talks about ​putting God first​. Read Exodus 20:2-3. Say: So what does it mean to worship other gods besides the one true God? Let’s find out what that looked like in the city of Athens, back in Bible times. Observe Athens Say: In today’s Bible story, a missionary named Paul went around telling people about Jesus. When he got to Athens, he saw a lot of things about their culture. Read Acts 17:16-18. Say: Let’s imagine we’ve journeyed with Paul and we’re in ancient Athens. Let’s walk around the city and see what we can learn about their religion. You’ll be looking for idols. Hold up one of the rolled-up tubes. The idols in Athens were statues that represented fake gods. Sometimes people even thought the idols ​were​ gods! People also built shrines (hold up a yellow tented paper) and altars (hold up a gray tented paper) as places to worship gods. Let’s walk around Athens and take notes on what we can find out about what they worshipped. Ask: • What did you observe about Athenian culture? • Based on what you observed, what would you tell someone from Athens about Jesus? Say: Paul noticed that they worshipped a ​lot ​of different gods. He even noticed this altar. Point out the altar that says “To an unknown god.” Paul could tell that the people of Athens believed there was something bigger than themselves and ​wanted ​to worship the right God…but they didn’t know who he was. In fact, what we saw was just a tiny example. Some historians think the people of Athens worshipped 30,000 different gods! So here’s what Paul said. Read Acts 17:22-25. Ask: • Why was Paul’s approach a good one? Say: Paul used the fact that they wanted to worship as a way to help them know the one true God. He pointed out that God had created everything, including some of the things they worshipped as gods. Paul had to help them learn that ​we put God first​ rather than worship other gods. Paul was able to show them that none of these gods were real. So let’s smash all the idols and altars and get rid of them! Have kids help you stomp on the idols, shrines, and altars, then throw them away. 6 .
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