Age: 4-7 Years Series: Awesome God Lesson 2: God is unchanging Date: Sunday 24 January 2021

Age: 4-7 Years

Series: Awesome God

Lesson 2: God is unchanging

Date: Sunday 24 January 2021

Teaching Objectives for this Lesson:

With this lesson children will learn that the Bible makes it clear that God’s character and purposes are constant. God never changes.

Materials Needed:

• Bible

• Pictures to tell the story of Gideon

• Towel

• Flat plastic container with water

• Towel

• Flashlight/torch, paper bag and a horn or empty toilet roll Stickers/decorations

• Tissue paper or construction paper

• Glue

• Markers/decorative materials

• Styrofoam or paper cups

• Toilet paper or paper towel tube

• Pictures of parent as a baby, adult, grandfather/mother

• Video Clips

• Craft Activity

• Crayons, markers or colouring pencils

Intro Songs:

[5 min]

Play the songs as the kids arrive at class:

https://youtu.be/iVfE-ejdFwI (Giddy Up, Gideon) https://youtu.be/FUR1ufexry0 (Trust in the Lord)

Opening Prayer:

[5 min]

Opening Prayer:

• Opening Prayer sets the mood for the lesson while inviting the Holy Spirit to be in control.

• Be sure to touch on each child's requests – it is important to them to know that you care about them and that their prayers are important.

• If the class size is very large, you may also want to consider dividing the kids into smaller groups and have prayer led by more than one Kids Church leader.

• The Opening Prayer should always include the following:

▪ Thank God that everyone can be together as a spiritual family this morning.

▪ Ask God to help the children to be open to learning His Word.

▪ Invite the Holy Spirit to be present in both everyone's heart and in the classroom.

▪ Ask kids to put their hands on those kids who had a birthday and those who don’t feel well

and then pray for the celebrations and for those who are feeling sick or who had something sad to share.

Object Lesson: Changing with age

[5 min]

2. Picture of you as a child 3. Picture of you as an adult Presentation:

• When we say someone is UNCHANGEABLE, it means that person CANNOT BE MOVED, DOES NOT CHANGE

• This morning we speak about the truth that God is Unchangeable.

• A great way to think about the fact that God never changes is to look at the ways that we have changed.

• Show them the first picture.

• Show them the 2nd _picture.

• Show them the 3rd _picture.

• Unlike us, God will always be the same.

Word Time: Judges 7:1-25

[10 min]

You will need: 1. Bible 2. Video Clip 3. Towel

4. Flat container with water 5. One child as a volunteer

6. Flashlight/torch, paper bag and a horn or empty toilet roll 7. Pictures as you tell the story

Teaching:

• Today we are going to talk about a man called Gideon.

• Gideon was called by God to do a very important job. But before we talk about that I want to ask you a few questions.

• Do you think a big or a small army would be better to defeat an enemy with lots of soldiers?

• God gave Gideon a very specific way to pick soldiers for his army.

• I’m going to pick one of you and see if you could have been part of Gideon’s army.

• Put the container with water on the towel on the floor. Tell the child that he/she must drink from the container (tell them it’s a river/dam) without using a cup.

• Depending on how the child chooses to drink, you can talk about whether or not he/she would have been part of Gideon’s army.

• Point out that if someone drinks with their face in the water, they cannot see what is going on around them.

• Talk about how the men who drank by cupping their hands and licking the water to their mouths showed wisdom by watching their surroundings and being aware.

• Show the kids a flashlight/torch, a paper bag, and a horn or paper towel tube.

• Ask the children if it looks like these items would defeat an enemy?

• Point out that even though things might seem silly and small, God can use them to give us the victory.

The people forgot about God again.

They didn’t obey God, so it didn’t go well with

them. Every year an enemy the Midianites came into their land and stole their food and

animals. This made the people very sad. They prayed to God for help.

Gideon was a boy in Israel. He was a farmer who grew wheat. Once when the Midianites

came to plunder the country again, Gideon hid in a hole with the wheat from the field.

He was afraid of the enemy.

He didn’t want them to steal the

food.

God spoke to Gideon. God called Gideon a mighty warrior. He did

n’t feel like a mighty

warrior. He was very scared. He was the smallest person in his family.

God promised Gideon that He would be with Him. God gave Gideon signs to show that

He would keep His promises. Gideon trusted God. He told the people to love and obey

God again God told Gideon it was time to free the land.

Lots of people came to help Gideon. Almost 32 000 soldiers wanted to help. God said

there were too many people. God told Gideon that if anyone was afraid, they could go

home. More than

half of Gideon’s army

went home. That's a lot of people! The

Midianites were a very strong and big army. God said there were still too many people.

God told Gideon to take the men to have a drink. Some used their hand to drink the

water. Some drank the water like a dog. God said that only the ones who used their

hands could be in the army. There were only 300 left.

God wanted to show it was Him who would let them win.

Gideon gave them trumpets and empty jars with torches. The men surround the enemy

at night. They blew their trumpets and showed torches. Then they shouted the battle

cry,

“A

sword for the Lord and for

Gideon!”

The enemy was really scared. Some ran away. God saved Gideon and the people.

The battle was won by breaking jars, blowing trumpets and yelling! Only God can do

that!

End the story by getting the children to shout out: “A sword for the Lord and

for Gideon!”

Ask the children the following questions:

1. Who did God choose to conquer the Midianites? (Gideon) 2. How many soldiers did Gideon start off with? (32,000 or a lot!) 3. How many soldiers did God actually let Gideon use? (300)

4. What did they use to win the battle? (Torches, trumpets, empty jars and yelling)

Let the kids watch the following video clip:

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3CDZjpkDKU

Prayer Time:

[5 min]

The Closing Prayer is extremely important. Not only does it signal that the lesson has ended, but it also gives you the opportunity to reinforce the lesson and share what was taught one more time. The children will know the lesson has real life application and meaning when it becomes part of the closing prayer. The closing prayer should be brief. Remember, the children are probably anxious to go on to the next phase of their day, and will not likely keep still to hear a long closing prayer.

The Closing Prayer should always include the following:

1. Praise God for the opportunity to be able to hear His Word and learn from it today. 2. Application of the Lesson:

Dear God,

Help us to trust you and to remember you are with us.

Help us to remember that You are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Give us courage, and make us ready when you send new things our way.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen

Colouring Activity:

[10 min]

You will need: 1. Colouring pages 2. Pens/pencils/crayons 3. Extra activity pages 4. Stickers/decorations

5. Tissue paper or construction paper 6. Glue

7. Markers/decorative materials 8. Styrofoam or paper cups

9. Toilet paper or paper towel tubes Instructions:

• Let kids decorate toilet paper tube and/or cup, using stickers and colouring pencils.

• Glue paper or tissue paper inside the tube to look like fire.

• Place tube “torch” inside cup.

• Add a verse or caption on the outside of cup.

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