Week of September 9, 2012 Lessons for the Leader How often do you read the words Jeremiah and the other Bible writers wrote? Do you hear the message God conveys repeatedly: repent and follow Me? This was the message for the people of Judah. • Read Jeremiah 36:1. Throughout the Book of Jeremiah, the writer makes it known these are not his words but God's. Who gives you the words to say? Do you always say things God wants you to say? • Read Jeremiah 36:2-3. What did God tell Jeremiah Wrote Jeremiah to do? What did God want the people of Judah to hear and do? God's Words • Read Jeremiah 36:4-7. Whom did Jeremiah seek to write the words for him? Scribes were Focus Passage: Jeremiah 36:1-4,22-24, people who could write and were important to 27-28,32 leaders. Many times close relationships developed Key Bible Verse: Jeremiah 36:2 between scribes and leaders. Not only did Life Application Jeremiah have Baruch (BAY rook) write for him, I can learn people wrote God's words in Jeremiah requested Baruch to read aloud the the Bible. scroll at the temple. Level of Biblical Learning (Bible) • Read Jeremiah 36:22-24. The scroll was taken People wrote God's words in the Bible. and read to the king. The king used a scribe's knife to cut apart the scroll and burn the pieces. The probable irony here is that the scroll was destroyed by the same type of knife used to make scrolls. The king did not want to hear or Session at a Glance obey God's words. How often do we pick and Introduction to Worship (6 to 8 minutes) choose the parts of the Bible we want to follow? Greet Children • Read Jeremiah 36:27-32. This chapter begins Make a Giant Scroll and ends with writing God's words on a scroll. Worship (30 minutes/45 minutes) This is the main passage in the Old Testament Welcome Children that shows one way a prophet's oral messages Spell Words reached written form. God's Word stands forever. Sing "Oh, I'd Like to Be…" God chose people to write His words for all of Sing "Come and Sing Praise" mankind to read and obey. Help preschoolers Present Offering and Pray learn God chose people to write His words. Sing "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" Practice Bible Skills What do these symbols mean? Introduce the Word Scribe Tell the Bible Story 1a Application Activities Format: Follow the Review the Bible Story numbers with arrows for a 30-minute, large group plus Use Worship Guides 20-minute Application Activities format. Learn the Bible Verse 1 Follow all the numbers for a 45- to 60-minute large Enjoy a Puppet Skit group only format. Transition Application Activities (20 minutes) Wrap-Up (10 minutes) OK to copy. Page 1 of 24 Introduction to Worship 6aSing "Come and Sing Praise" (DVD, 2 minutes) 1aGreet Children Pull It Together 7aPresent Offering and Pray (2 minutes) Offering container 8 Sing "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" • Show preschoolers where to put their offerings. (DVD, 2 minutes) 2aMake a Giant Scroll 9 Practice Bible Skills (3 minutes) Pull It Together Pull It Together 2 swim noodles, brown wrapping paper (5 to 6 feet), Print "Jeremiah" (CD). tape, markers or crayons • Place paper on the floor. • Display Jeremiah. • Tape a swim noodle to each end of the paper. • Ask: "What are the two main parts of the Bible? (Old and New Testaments) [Display title.] This • Invite children to "write" or draw pictures of says Jeremiah. Jeremiah wrote the Book of their favorite Bible stories on the scroll. Jeremiah. Is the Book of Jeremiah in the Old or • Say: "You wrote about or drew pictures of your New Testament? (Old) Jeremiah was a prophet; favorite Bible stories. We will learn that people he told people what God wanted them to know. wrote God's words in the Bible." Let's open our Bibles to the Book of Jeremiah. Our Bible story is in chapter 36." Worship • Encourage adults to assist the children. 10aIntroduce the Word Scribe (2 minutes) • Inform: "God chose people to write His words. 3aWelcome Children (2 minutes) Some of the men chosen wrote the words on • Ask: "What are some of your favorite stories the scrolls themselves. Some men used scribes. in the Bible? (Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah, Scribes were 'people who could write.' Not as Abraham, Moses, Joshua, etc.) The Bible has many people learned to read and write in Bible many great stories. Stories are made up of times as people do today. Not all the boys and words. Let's learn two special words." girls went to school. Scribes wrote down what 4aSpell Words (3 minutes) people told them to write. God gave the words to Jeremiah. Jeremiah told them to a scribe Pull It Together who wrote the words down." Scissors, swim noodles, masking tape • Use tape strips to spell the words God and Bible in 11aTell the Bible Story (7 minutes) large letters on the floor. Pull It Together • Ask: "Does anyone know the words on the Bible times robe floor? [Allow responses.] The words are God • Enlist someone to tell the story as a monologue. [point] and Bible [point]. God's words are written in the Bible. We'll learn about a man • Introduce Jeremiah: "This is [say person's who wrote some of God's words in the Bible." name]. He is pretending to be Jeremiah, a man • Guide kids to take turns tracing the letters of who wrote God's words. We'll call him Jeremiah the words using swim noodles as writing tools. while he tells our story. Even though [say • Continue as time allows. person's name] is pretending to be Jeremiah, • Connect: "You traced words on the floor that the story really did happen. In what book can you will hear in our Bible story. Jeremiah wrote we read about Jeremiah? What book is your God's words. We can read the words in our Bible opened to? (Jeremiah) Let's listen as Bibles." Jeremiah tells us what happened a long time ago." 5 Sing "Oh, I'd Like to Be…" (DVD, 2 minutes) • Open your Bible to Jeremiah. • Sit with the children as the story is told. Jeremiah Wrote God's Words Page 2 of 24 Jeremiah Wrote God's Words • Connect: "Jeremiah wrote God's words a Based on Jeremiah 36:1-4,22-24,27-28,32 second time. People like Jeremiah wrote God's words." My name is Jeremiah. I am a prophet, which 13 means I tell people what God wants them to aUse Worship Guides (7 minutes) know. God has been speaking to me for a long Pull It Together time. When Josiah was king, I heard God speak. Worship Guides, pencils And when Josiah's son, Jehoiakim (jih HOY uh • Distribute materials. kim), had been king of Judah for four years, I • Guide children to complete the activities on the heard something special from God. God told me Worship Guides. to take a scroll and write His words for the people to hear. God told me His plans for the people 14 Learn the Bible Verse (5 minutes) of Judah. We had not been doing what God Pull It Together wanted. God wanted the people to stop making Bible, construction paper, scissors, marker wrong choices. • Cut the paper into strips (bookmark size). • Print 1 or more words of Jeremiah 36:2 on each I called Baruch (BAY rook), the scribe, to write strip and place randomly in the Bible. what I said. I remembered the words God spoke • Print the words and reference on 1 paper (guide). to me, and I told them to Baruch. Teacher Tip Later, the scroll was taken to King Jehoiakim. Print and use "Jeremiah 36:2 Paraphrase" (CD). The king's servant, Jehudi (jih HYOO digh), read • Invite a child to pull a strip from your Bible. the scroll to him. King Jehoiakim listened to the • Read aloud the word and point to the matching words. After Jehudi read a little, Jehoiakim took word on the guide paper. a knife and cut off the part Jehudi had read. • Continue to invite children to pull strips until The king threw the scroll piece into the fire. The each strip is pulled. piece burned. Then Jehudi read some more. King • Help children place the words in the correct Jehoiakim took his knife and cut this off, too. order using the guide. Again, he burned the words. Jehoiakim continued • Say the Bible verse together with the children. to listen, cut, and burn until the entire scroll was gone. He did not care about what he heard. He 15 Enjoy a Puppet Skit (3 minutes) was not afraid of what God would do. Pull It Together 2 people puppets After the king burned the first scroll, God told me • Print "Jeremiah Puppet Skit" (CD). to write another scroll. I told Baruch the words to • Enlist 2 people to perform the puppet skit. write from the first scroll. Many other words were added to the second scroll. • Remark: "We have special guests with us. This is ______ and ______ [introduce puppets by • Thank the adult for telling the Bible story. name]. Listen to what our guests have to say." • Listen to puppet show. 12aReview the Bible Story (5 minutes) • Conclude: "Our guests knew the Bible is the Pull It Together most important book.