KEY SCRIPTURES Genesis Genesis 50:20 James 1:2-4

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1 Date: 1/26/14 Series: ESSENTIAL 100 Big Idea: When life isn t fair we can trust that God is in control. Big Do: Thank God for tough times. He ll use them to help you grow! Staff On-Call: 9:30- Shannon, :00- Kristian, In the face of difficulty and opposition, God remains in control and preserves his people and his promise. The story of Joseph is one of family breakdown, political intrigue and national disaster and recovery. One man stands at the heart of it, but God is the true initiator of the action, as Joseph recognizes in Genesis 50:19, 20. This was a time of international upheaval with people migrating in search of food. Through it all, God is working out his own purposes. The promise to Abraham, which again seems to be under threat, is maintained. In the process, Joseph is preserved from his brothers and from the seductions of Egypt financial and sexual. He obtains his freedom and a position of authority. Finally, we have a picture of transformation and reconciliation as Joseph and his brothers come together. KEY SCRIPTURES Genesis Genesis 50:20 James 1:2-4 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Genesis 50:20 Objective: to collect the offering to God Supplies: metal bucket Time: 2-3 minutes Bring out the bucket to collect the Noisy Offering. 9:30: David 11:00: Kim SAY: We collected $24.11 last week in noisy offerings and that means we have $55.14 for January! We have already exceeded our goal, and we have two more weeks left! Thank you for being so generous in helping to support Sahari and the orphanage in Mexico! Pray over the offering, thanking God for blessing us so we can help others, pray for Sahari, and for the session this morning. NOTE: During this time please do a head count of the students and compare it to the Room Roster Report. If there are kids who have not signed in, please make sure they do! Thanks. Objective: to recap the previous week s lesson ESSENTIAL 100 9:30: David 11:00: Amy 1

2 Supplies: none Preparation: none Time: 5 minutes SAY/ASK: This is week 3 of the ESSENTIAL 100 series. Hold up a copy of the E100 Reading Plan. What is the ESSENTIAL 100 plan; what s it about? (A Bible reading plan of 100 essential passages of Scripture, 50 from the Old Testament, and 50 from the New, that tells God s story of redemption.) How did the ESSENTIAL 100 Bible reading plan go for you this past week? Who was able to read all five of the weekly passages? SAY/ASK: Last week, we talked about a man named Abraham. We saw in the accounts of his life the key themes of Promises, Trust, and Obedience. How did PROMISES come into the story? (God made several promises to Abraham ) What did TRUST have to do with Abraham? (He had to trust in God s promises and walk in faith) And what about OBEDIENCE? (Because Abraham trusted God, he obeyed what he told him to do) SAY: We will see that promises, trust and obedience play a big part in most of the stories we read in Scripture. God promises good things to those who love him, who trust and obey him. PICTIONARY Objective: to introduce the topic for this week and to have fun! Supplies: Preparation: none Time: 10 minutes whiteboards, markers, slips with pictures to draw 9:30: Anissa 11:00: Roger SAY: Because I know how much you all love games and love to draw, we re going to play Pictionary this morning to reveal some of the things that are in the Bible lesson for today. Write these words from today s Bible story on slips of paper: goat, brother, coat, dream, jail, and well. Fold and place in a basket. Divide into two groups. Explain that the students will take turns being the artist for their team. The team artist takes a slip of paper and draws a picture of the word. The other people on the team try to guess the word; time how long each team takes to guess the answer. The play then shifts to the other team. Play with 3 pictures for each group. Team with the shortest time record wins. SAY: Today s Bible story is about Joseph and his brothers. We will see how each of the pictures you drew played a part in the story. From your reading this week, you learned that Joseph and his brothers did not always get along. In fact, Joseph s brothers thought about killing him. It is important to remember that even in the midst of jealousy and hatred, and during bad times God is with us. JOSEPH Objective: to hear the story of Joseph and his brothers 9:30: Chip 11:00: Bryan 2

3 Supplies: Joseph DVD, Bible, verse cards Preparation: Time: 15 minutes print Bible verse cards for students SAY: To get a quick summary of the where we are in the Bible reading, and to hear a recap of the first part of the story of Joseph, let s watch this video Play the Joseph video, app. 3 minutes, of kids telling the story of Joseph and his brothers. SAY: Joseph s life was a series of ups and downs, or highs and lows, with low-downs really playing the biggest part! We are going to read some of the low in Joseph s life. The account of Joseph is found in the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Call 6 students up to read passages of the lows one at a time, and then briefly discuss what had happened to him. Genesis 37:4 (Joseph's brothers hated him.) Genesis 37:24 (His brothers threw him in a cistern and stole his prized coat of many colors.) Genesis 37:28 (His brothers sold him into slavery.) Genesis 37:36 (Joseph's captors sold him to Potiphar as a slave.) Genesis 39:19-20a (He was falsely imprisoned as Potiphar s wife accused him of hurting her.) Genesis 40:23 (He was forgotten in prison; one of the other prisoner s was supposed to tell Pharaoh about him and get him out of prison.) ASK: How do you think Joseph made it through all this time? What kept him going? What do you think his attitude was like? Do you think he was always positive? SAY: Joseph had one thing going for him through all of this his relationship with God. He knew that God was with him during these low points. Call 2 students up to read these passages: Genesis 39:2 (The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered ) Genesis 39:20b-21 (But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him ) SAY: Although it is hard to tell when skipping through Joseph s story like we did, many years passed and Joseph endures trial after trial. Yet in the end, his attitude is good because he knows God is with him, and his life is a testimony to God s provision. As you read this past week, things work out really well for Joseph, and ultimately for his family. Joseph is released from prison to interpret a dream for the king or pharaoh of Egypt, who in turn makes Joseph his right-hand man. Because of this position, he is eventually reunited with his brothers, and is able to help his family survive a severe famine. He forgives his brothers because he is able to see that God used him, and THEM, for good. When Joseph addressed his brothers after they reconciled, this is what he said to them Call a student up to read Genesis 50:20: You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. As Joseph said himself, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good " God can turn bad situations into good. We need to trust him to work through the details. 9:30: Carrie 11:00: Kim 3

4 Objective: to hear God is with us during bad times COMMON GROUND Supplies: Live BIG DVD, Common Ground segment, April 20, 2008, 5:47 minutes Time: minutes ASK: What happened that started the whole ugly mess with Joseph and his brothers? (They were jealous of Joseph because his father favored him as revealed by the colorful rope he gave him ) ASK: I bet those of you who have brothers and sisters know about sibling rivalry. What is that about, what is sibling rivalry? Raise your hand if you would say that you get along with your siblings MOST of the time. SOME of the time? NONE of the time?! The students at the Common Ground Café are talking about this very thing. Bad times cause us the blues. Let s see what Will and the gang have to say. DVD Summary: At the Common Ground Cafe, Ty's got the blues. He is bummed out because he gets treated badly by his older brothers. They bully him whenever he brings home a good report card, and threaten him if he tells anyone about their actions. The tweens recall the Bible story of Joseph and his brothers, who sold him into slavery because they were jealous of him. Will reminds your tweens that the Bible is full of stories of people who held onto hope until things turned out better. SAY: Ty tells his good friends about being picked on by his brothers. He knew he could trust his friends to be supportive of him. It can be really hard even to admit that you are being bullied. ASK: Do you know of any situations where you or someone else was being bullied? What did the person do about it? Was there any help provided to change the situation? In our Bible story, what could Joseph have done differently to improve the relationship with his brothers? SAY: Although Joseph s behavior may not have helped the situation, his brothers went to extremes. Although they did not murder him, they were ready to leave him to a slow death. When they sold him to the traders, Joseph was taken away from everything he d ever known. The brothers dipped his colorful coat in goat s blood and told their father that Joseph was killed by animals; they broke their father s heart, too. Joseph lost the father and brothers he loved; Jacob lost the son he loved. Joseph was taken to a place where they spoke a different language, had a totally different culture, and where they did not know or worship God. ASK: Do you think Joseph s brothers thought about the consequences of their actions? Do you think they regretted what they d done? SAY: When we do something wrong there are consequences, from natural consequences, to the consequences of the law. Whatever sins we commit, we can confess them to God and to one another, ask for forgiveness, and know that God forgives us. Understanding why bad things happen is one of the challenges of life. Some things happen because of the laws of the natural world, some things happen because of human intervention that has damaged the natural world, some things happen because of evil in the world, and some things just seem to happen. One thing we know is that God loves us and cares when we are hurting. Jesus promised to send us the Holy Spirit to comfort, guide, and strengthen us. The Holy Spirit is God s presence within us. While bad things are sometimes a natural consequence of our actions (for example, drinking and driving can lead to tragedy), tragic events are not part of God s plan for us. The good news is that in good times and in bad, God is with us. That is what helped Joseph get through all of his low times. How we react in bad situations can show what our faith is like. 4

5 GO TO SMALL GROUPS NOW FOR DISCUSSION GOD WORKS FOR GOOD Objective: to see that God is with us in bad times, and uses them to help us grow and mature Supplies: Bibles, Preparation: none Time: 15 minutes Quickly review the story of Joseph, and as you do, draw and label a simple graph of Joseph s life on the top portion of the whiteboard, marking the high and low points. He started high (he was his father s favorite son Genesis 37:3); then low (he was sold into slavery 37:27); then high (he was put in charge of Potiphar s household 39:4); then low (he was put in prison 39:20); then very high (he was made governor of all Egypt 41:41). Remind your students that Joseph knew this was all part of God s plan. God allowed Joseph to go to Egypt so that he could save the rest of his family and ensure that God s promise to Abraham and his descendants would be fulfilled. Point out that God was able to bring good even out of bad circumstances and he still can! Go around and having everyone share a high from the past week, and a low from the past week. Share your high and low, too! Talk about how we typically react to good and bad situations in our lives. Talk about how our highs and lows can help us grow stronger in our faith and trust in God. Have students write these key points from the story of Joseph on the whiteboard under the graph and discuss: God works even when we can t see it. The brothers clearly had no idea that God was using them. Joseph must have been puzzled, wondering what was going on; but, through it all, God kept working out his plan. Notice the emphasis on God being with Joseph (Genesis 39:2,3,21,23). God works even when we don t understand it. Sold into slavery, forgotten in prison, Joseph could have been puzzled and depressed. But God knew exactly what he was doing. God works through the actions of sinful men. Genesis 45:5 8 is the key to the whole section. The selfishness, jealousy and weakness of the brothers, the lies of Potiphar s wife, and the forgetfulness of the wine steward all have their place. God never makes men sin; but, when they do, it can form part of his overall plan. God expects his people to trust and follow him. Jacob and Joseph, like Abraham and Isaac before them, have their faults. But even when things are tough, they do trust God and they believe that he will do what he has said. Not only do they believe in God, but they learn to act in ways that reflect the character of God (for example, through Joseph s remarkable forgiveness of his brothers). God looks for that sort of trust and action from us too. Have the students look up and read James 1:2-4: Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5

6 ASK: Throw the ball out to kids to answer these questions, and have them throw it back to you after they answer. What do you think this verse means? What is perseverance? How does it relate to Joseph s story? What do you think it would be like to be mature and complete and not lacking anything? Does that mean we would be perfect? SAY: God tries to help you mature, to help you grow in your faith and trust in him. He doesn t just swoop down out of heaven and wave a wand in front of your face to do it. He uses life real life which can be hard, tough, and sometimes downright gut-wrenchingly painful! Sometimes, He uses wrongs done to us. Sometimes, He uses our foolish choices. God can redeem anything! Therefore, while He may not cause the bad things to happen to us, He can certainly use them in spite of us! Pass out E100 reading plan brochures to any student who did not get one last week. Take prayer requests (use journals) and then close saying The Lord s Prayer. 6