God Is Bigger (Part I) REMEMBER VERSE. The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

Transcription

1 Small Group Leaders Guide Bible Passage: Genesis 37; (Joseph and His Family) God Is Bigger (Part I) REMEMBER VERSE The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. Psalm 33:11 Schedule CONNECT minutes GATHER minutes RESPOND minutes BLESS 10 minutes Tru Mission Statement Tru helps kids and their families connect to God, find their place in His big story, and respond to Him through the power of the Holy Spirit.

2 CONNECT:: min. Children develop relationships with their leaders and one another, building the faith community using simple supplies and conversation starters. Developmentally Speaking When supervising or participating in play: Children use play to explore and express their feelings. You might notice them engaged in constant chit-chat as they play or make things. If you notice a child is having a hard time verbally communicating feelings, have her draw a picture or make something out of play dough to show how she s feeling. Children start to feel a strong desire to please their friends. Pay attention to the conversations they re having with each other and help them to problem solve if a problem arises. I Spy Welcome children and invite them to join you in a circle on the floor or at a table. Today we re going to start our time together with a game called I Spy. To begin, we ll choose someone to spy something about another person in our class and then give us a clue about what he spied. For example, if it were my turn to spy something about one of our friends, I could say, I spy someone with a ponytail. Then, you ll get to take turns guessing who I m describing! Whoever guesses the person first will be the next person to spy something about someone else! Are you ready? Allow kids to take turns playing and guessing until everyone has had a chance. DISCOVER:: min. Children experience and learn about God through lively games, storytelling from The Big God Story, Wonder Questions, and prayer together as a faith community. REMEMBER VERSE The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. Psalm 33:11 The Big God Story Genesis 37; Storytelling Technique: Living Pictures The storytelling technique for this part of The Big God Story is called Living Pictures. For each portion of the story, you ll invite children to help you illustrate by posing like people in a picture. As each character is introduced at various points in the narrative, bring children up front and pose them in your picture. Remind them that they need to stay in the pose until you signal them to return to their seats. You can pose children however you think will best demonstrate

3 that part of the story. Take some time to read through the narrative and think through the various poses before service. This will make it easier to pose children in each living picture. Welcome children and lead them in a Prayer of Release. Friends, God is a promise keeper. The last time we were together we heard how God made a promise to a man named Abraham. He told Abraham that the people in his family were going to be God s people God s family. Abraham knew that God is bigger than everything. And, that He would give Abraham and his family everything they needed to follow the Lord God. Today, I will need your help telling this part of The Big God Story. If I call your name, you will get to come up and pose like you are in a picture from The Big God Story. Invite up 3 children to pose as a living picture. Designate one child as Abraham, one as Isaac, and the other as Jacob. Have children begin by sitting on the edge of the stage. Tech: Cue Abraham image. Invite Abraham to join you on stage. Abraham s family grew. Invite Isaac to stand next to Abraham. Abraham puts his arm around Isaac. Tech: Cue Isaac image. Abraham had a son named Isaac, just as God promised. Tech: Cue Jacob image. Then Isaac had a son named Jacob. Invite Jacob to stand next to Isaac. Isaac puts his arm around Jacob all three men pose as if for a family picture. Allow children to return to their seats. Tech: Cue Family Lineage image. Then Jacob had 12 sons. All of these people were a part of God s family. Choose a child from the audience and pose him as Jacob. Jacob s favorite son was Joseph. Choose a child to play Joseph and pose him with Jacob as you re talking. Jacob gave Joseph a fancy coat to wear, different from anything his brothers had. Place the costume coat on Joseph as you storytell. Tech: Cue the Wardrobe of Wonder sound effect. Friends, we just found the What sit from the wardrobe! Our What sit is just what Jacob gave to Joseph a special coat! How do you think it made Joseph s brothers feel when Jacob gave Joseph a special coat? Give children a chance to respond. Choose 11 children to stand and pose as the brothers. Encourage them to stand in a pose that seems angry or jealous, with facial expressions to match. Some of Joseph s brothers were jealous of their little brother. Joseph would tell his father when his brothers did anything wrong. Have Joseph face his father but point back at his brothers as if tattling. This made his brothers angry. All brothers put hands on hips and make an angry face and growl. Have children hold their poses. Joseph also had dreams from God. In his dreams, he saw his brothers and father bowing down to him. When Joseph told his brothers about these dreams, they became even angrier! Jacob can return to his seat. Brothers and Joseph remain. One day, Joseph s brothers had enough. They threw him into a pit or big hole in the ground. Have all of the brothers place one hand on Joseph (gently) to look as if they are going to put him in the pit. At first, they were going to leave him there to die! Have brothers let go of Joseph and turn as if walking away. Have Joseph lie down on the floor as if at the bottom of a pit. But God s plans for Joseph were bigger than the brothers evil plan. God saved Joseph from death. The brothers didn t kill Joseph, but sold him to be a slave. Joseph was taken from his home, far away from his family, to become a slave in Egypt. (Tech: Cue Map of Egypt image.) Ask children to return to their seats. How do you think Joseph felt being so far from his home and family? Encourage children to answer; interact with their responses. He probably missed his family and his home. But God is bigger than slavery. In Egypt, Joseph worked very hard for a man named Potiphar. God blessed Joseph, and soon he became Potiphar s favorite. Then one day, Potiphar s wife got angry with Joseph. She told a lie about Joseph to her husband. Choose a different child to play Joseph. Potiphar believed his wife and threw Joseph in prison. Encourage Joseph to stand with his hands in fists in front of his face as if looking through the bars in a jail cell. Tech: Cue Joseph in Prison image. Poor Joseph! Is God bigger than prison? Yes! Is God bigger than Potiphar s wife and her lie? Yes! God had special plans for Joseph, and nothing was going to stop God! Excuse Joseph to return to his seat.

4 One day, while Joseph was still in prison, the king of Egypt Pharaoh had some dreams he didn t understand. Pharaoh heard that Joseph was good at explaining dreams, so Pharaoh called for Joseph. Joseph listened to Pharaoh s dreams. Tech: Cue Joseph Listening to Pharaoh s Dreams image. Then God told Joseph what the dreams meant. Joseph told Pharaoh that for seven years they would grow lots and lots of food. Then for another seven years, there would be a famine. What is a famine? Allow children to answer; interact with their responses. Good thinking. It s when no one can grow food, and people go hungry. Is God bigger than a famine? Yes! Let s see how God works through Joseph. Choose a new child to be Joseph. God gave Joseph a plan. Joseph poses with one arm up and index finger pointing to the sky as if he has an idea. Hold pose. Joseph told Pharaoh to put someone in charge of saving food during the seven good years so there would be enough food for the seven bad years. Pharaoh liked Joseph s plan so much that he put Joseph in charge. Wow! Joseph went from being a slave to helping rule over all of Egypt! Who took care of Joseph and gave him favor with the Pharaoh? Children answer. God did. He took care of Joseph and made sure His plan for Joseph happened. God really is (children fill in the blank and say bigger ) than anything! Child can return to his seat. Everything happened just as God said. Tech: Cue Land with Crops image. There were seven good years when everyone had lots of food. Tech: Cue Land with No Crops image. Then the seven bad years started. But because God is (children fill in the blank by saying bigger ), He used Joseph to save enough food so the people in Egypt didn t go hungry. People of other countries started to go hungry during the seven bad years. Tech: Cue People Coming to Egypt image. When they heard Egypt had saved food, they came to buy some. Tech: Cue Brothers Before Joseph image. God brought some of Joseph s brothers to Egypt for food. Joseph gave them lots of food and told them to go back and bring the whole family to Egypt. Wait a minute! Didn t Joseph s brothers do some terrible things to Joseph? Yes, they did. But God s love and forgiveness is (children fill in the blank and say bigger ) than what Joseph s brothers did. God showed Joseph how He used the brothers terrible plan for good. Because God is bigger, He gave Joseph what he needed to forgive his brothers and take care of his family during the famine. No matter what happened to Joseph, God was there, taking care of both Joseph and his family. God worked all things for His good plans. Friends, who is God bigger than? Help kids to respond: Anyone! What is God bigger than? Anything! Is He bigger than the ocean? Kids answer. What about the biggest, and strongest person in the world? Kids answer. That s right! God is bigger than anyone or anything. We can trust God because God is bigger. I wonder how we will get to see that God is bigger in the next part of The Big God Story. Well, we will have to wait until next time we are together to find out just how big our God is. How big is He? Children respond. Bigger than anyone or anything! Transition children to a time of worship response. God s people used to gather together to remember everything He had done and celebrate Him together. Come back next week and we will remember and celebrate God just as His people did so many years ago. Worship Response Friends, just like God was bigger than anyone or anything in the life of Joseph, He is bigger than anyone or anything in our lives. He is bigger than our bad dreams, the things we re afraid of, the bad days we have, or the mean people in our lives. What else is God bigger than? What are some things in your life that are really big to you? Allow children to respond; share some personal things to model this response.

5 Because God is bigger than anything, we can trust Him. When things are hard or when we re having a bad day, we can turn to God for help and comfort. We can trust God to take care of us no matter what. God is bigger than anyone or anything! Now we re going to take some time to pray. Tell God where you need to see Him be bigger in your life. If you want to, ask a leader to pray with you. Allow children time to pray in silence. Then lead them in a worship song (suggestion: God, You re Big ). Wonder Questions SUPPLIES Wonder Question Strips (see Resources) Small bag with drawstring I wonder How did Joseph feel when his brothers didn t treat him well? I wonder What are some of the big things God did in this part of The Big God Story? I wonder What are some times when it helps me to remember God is bigger? RESPOND:: min. Children process what the Holy Spirit has been teaching and respond to God through collaborative and individual worship, and various forms of play including interactive games, activities, experiments, and more. Engage: Big, Bigger, Biggest SUPPLIES Big, Bigger, Biggest Activity sheet (see Resources) Crayons PREPARE AHEAD Print one copy of the Big, Bigger, Biggest Activity sheet per child. After you re finished with prayer, encourage your children to put away their Story Spots and join you at the tables. Give each child an activity sheet and place crayons in the center of the table. Today, we heard about how God is so much bigger than every hard situation in our lives! We also heard how He is bigger than anyone and everything in the whole world! Because He is bigger, we can trust Him. Each of you has a sheets of paper. What do you see on the paper? Interact with kids and their responses. What s the biggest item in the box? Talk with children as they pick out the largest item in the first box. Once your kids have chosen the largest item, encourage them to circle the item. Good job, friends. Even though the (insert the name of the biggest item in box #1) is big, who is bigger? Allow children to answer. God is. Let s celebrate by

6 jumping up and shouting God is bigger! together. Repeat this process with each box. Encourage kids to jump up and shout God is bigger! each time they finish categorizing the images in the remaining boxes. When kids have finished choosing the biggest items, allow them to color their Big, Bigger, Biggest sheets. Create: Hands On their fingerprints, handprints, and different colors. Afterward, give each child a wet wipe to clean up. KEEP IT SIMPLE To simplify this RESPOND activity you will need butcher paper (6 ), a pen (black), and crayons. Use the black pen to write God Is Bigger in a fun print across the top of the butcher paper. Place butcher paper and crayons on a table. After you re finished playing the game, gather your kids together for RESPOND. Friends, what did we learn about God today? Interact with kids answers. Right! We heard how God was bigger than every hard situation in Joseph s life! Ask kids what hard things Joseph went through; interact with their answers. Do you think God is bigger than the difficult things we go through today? Allow answers. Do you think God is always watching out for us like He watched out for Joseph? Kids respond. You bet! Explain that kids will have a chance to create a piece of artwork that will represent that they choose to trust that God is bigger than even the hardest things in their lives. Allow them to choose their favorite crayon color. One at a time, children will trace their hand on the butcher paper to symbolize that they want to choose to trust that God is bigger. Children can draw something inside their hand outline that they know God is bigger than (for example, the Boogie Man, monsters on TV, the dark, etc.). BLESS:: 10 min. Children receive a blessing from their leaders and sometimes each other at the close of the time together. A blessing can be a prayer of commission, a portion of Scripture, or words to encourage and guide. Take some time to bless each child individually. (Child s name), may you have faith to follow the Lord wherever He may lead. May you remember that God is bigger than anything or anyone. He is always with you. You can trust Him always. Take some time to bless each child individually and personally. After each of your children has been blessed, gather them together once again. Ask them to put their hands out in front of them as you read the verse from Psalm 23:3b 4a over the group. He guides me along the right paths for his name s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Psalm 23:3b 4a