4.5 date: God Speaks. 5th & 6th Grade Guide. Bible Passage: Acts 16:6 15 (Lydia and Philippi) Sunday School Edition REMEMBER VERSE

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1 Sunday School Edition LESSON 4.5 date: Bible Passage: Acts 16:6 15 (Lydia and Philippi) God Speaks REMEMBER VERSE So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10. TruResources are developed in partnership with ROCKHARBOR Church and a national network of family and children s ministry leaders. All rights reserved.

2 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. Lesson Path: Seeing the Mission Statement in a Tru Lesson Connecting leaders to God... Connects kids and their families to God His big story And invites them to respond to Him Through the power of the Holy Spirit. Inspire, Equip, and Support HomeFront Weekly Connect Gather Respond and Engage Bless Navigating Lesson 4.5 Below you will find additional information to enhance lesson sections as needed. Connect Gather Respond Engage Bless Modeling Listening to God Encourage your leaders to model listening to God during this response time. Suggest they work alongside the kids and also write down what God might be saying to them. Small Group Enhancement Finish the Sentence activities are available for this lesson. Premium, Unlimited, and Combo users may access these activities in the Resource Files. Invitation and Recipe Cards Next week your kids will remember and celebrate God s abundant blessings as they celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. Invite parents to attend, and to bring treats if they wish, by sending home the Invitation and Recipe cards in the Resource Files. HomeFront Magazine: A Spiritual Parenting Resource This magazine gives families ideas for creating fun, spiritually forming times in their homes setting aside a sacred space for family in the midst of their active, everyday lives! To provide printed copies of the new issue when it becomes available each month, order print subscriptions at or download it. Families may also visit the website to have each month s issue ed directly to their inboxes and they may access each issue through apps for iphone, ipad, or Android devices. 2

3 Connect// 5 10 min. Children develop relationships with their leaders and one another through the use of simple supplies and conversation starters. God spoke to Paul and his friends and led them to the places they needed to go and share the good news about Jesus. God still speaks to us today. CONNECT QUESTION: Welcome and greet children. Open your time by asking this question: If you could hear anyone speak, past or present, who would it be? Talking in Circles SUPPLIES whiteboard and dry erase marker stopwatch or timer PREPARE AHEAD Write the following questions on the board. What s something you would like to do this week? What was the best part of the past week? Do you consider yourself more of a leader or a follower? Why? Who is someone in your life you really look up to and why? RELATE There are so many people who would be fun to hear speak! We re going to spend some time talking in circles with each other. Divide kids into two groups and invite them to make two concentric circles. The inner circle will face outward and the outside circle will face inward. Have kids line up so that each child is facing another. Give children a minute to answer the questions on the board, then have the outer circle move over one spot. Allow kids to talk over the questions with their new partner for one minute. Continue several rounds so kids have a chance to interact with multiple children. If you have a smaller class, invite children to pair up with another child in the group. Set the timer for a minute and have kids answer questions. Then, have children find another partner and discuss the questions. Continue until your time runs out or children have interacted with everyone in the group. Developmentally Speaking Children in this age group are generally friendly and talkative. This CONNECT activity allows children to exercise their social skills by asking and answering questions. 3

4 Gather//20 35 min. Children experience and learn more about God through prayer, storytelling from The Big God Story, an investigation into God s Word, and creative ways to memorize Scripture. Prayer Gather your children into a circle. Encourage them to hold their hands in front of them, palms up, as a posture of receiving what God might speak to them today. Before you pray, designate a leader (or two) to open and close the time of prayer. Encourage the children to participate in this time of prayer if they d like. Remind them that praying is simply talking and listening to God and that He always hears us when we pray. As you pray, leave space between prayers for the children to take the opportunity to pray, in case some may be apprehensive and need a little more time. Pray that God would bless the day s lesson as you re in His Word. Pray that God would speak to the hearts of His children, revealing to them the truth of today s Ponder Point, that God Speaks. Storytelling Bible Passage: Acts 16:6 15 Storytelling Technique: Acting and Response SUPPLIES Bibles (1 per leader and 1 per child) bedsheet or tablecloth (blue) piece of cloth or felt (purple) SET UP Lay out the blue cloth on the floor in a zig-zag pattern; try to make it look like a river. Ask for a volunteer to play Paul, and another volunteer to play Lydia; give her the purple cloth. The rest of the kids will help at different points throughout today s storytelling. RELATE The good news about Jesus kept spreading (have children stretch out their arms a bit), and more (have children stretch arms wider) and more (children stretch arms wider) people believed that Jesus is God s Son who saves us from our sins! Children can put arms down. Even though they sometimes faced hard times, Jesus followers kept traveling to different places to talk about Him with people who hadn t yet heard Jesus message. Who heard about Jesus in our previous weeks of looking at The Big God Story? Allow answers. Good thoughts. Yes, we heard about the Ethiopian and Cornelius. As the disciples traveled, they continued to pray and listen to God s voice as He guided them and told them where to go. Before we start today s storytelling, let s stop to thank God that He speaks to us and ask Him to lead us. Lead the children in a Prayer of Release. Invite kids to turn to Acts 16 in their Bibles so they can follow along. Who remembers who Paul was? Invite responses. Great thoughts! Yes, Paul was a man who came to know Jesus! Invite child playing Paul to come stand up front and wave to everyone. He used to persecute the Christians and treat them badly. But then Jesus spoke to him while he was walking on a road. After that, Paul knew that Jesus is the one true God, and Paul devoted his life to telling others about Him! Paul traveled all over, and God 4

5 ZECHARIAH 5th & 6th Grade Guide spoke to him often. God told Paul where he should go to tell others about Jesus, and God spoke to him and helped him write many of the books of the New Testament! Paul and his friends were traveling and telling others about Jesus. God spoke to Paul often and told him where he should go. Paul had planned to go to a part of Asia, but the Holy Spirit spoke to him and told him no. Paul should attempt to walk through the kids, but they should put out their arms to block his path. He should shrug and turn around. Paul went to the border of a placed called Bithynia (pronounced bye-thin-ee-uh), but when they got there, God spoke to him and told him not to go in. Again, Paul should attempt to walk through the kids, and they should put out their arms to stop him. He should stop. What s one of the main ways God speaks to us today? Invite kids to respond. Yes! God speaks to us through His Word, the Bible! Through The Big God Story, we learn what God says, and He uses His Word and His Holy Spirit to speak to us and teach us about Himself. Because God speaks to us through His Word, we should honor it. So when we read from The Big God Story today, let s stand up together! Invite kids to stand. Ask a volunteer to read Acts 16:9 10 aloud and then invite kids to sit back down. God used a vision to speak to Paul about the people of Macedonia (pronounced mass-uh-doh-knee-uh). The Macedonians needed to hear about Jesus, so God spoke to Paul and told him to go! Invite Paul to walk through the kids. This time they should move out of his way so he can pass through. Paul and his friends sailed to a few different towns and ended up in Philippi (pronounced FILL-uh-pie), a big city in the center of Macedonia. They stayed there and waited for God to speak to them. Paul should look around the room and put his hand to his ear like he s listening. Paul and his friends were willing to do whatever God asked. Let s stand together as we hear God speak in The Big God Story! Invite kids to stand, and have a volunteer read Acts 16:13 aloud. Paul and his friends began talking to some women who had gathered by the river. During Bible times, men and women didn t usually sit and talk with one another. But God spoke to Paul and told him these women needed to hear the good news about Jesus! Invite Paul and another boy to sit near the down by the blue cloth river. Invite Lydia and another girl to sit there as well. As Paul talked about Jesus, God spoke to one of the women who was listening. Invite kids to stand, and ask a volunteer to read Acts 16:14 aloud. Then have them sit back down. Lydia was a woman who sold purple cloth. Lydia should pull out her purple cloth and show it to everyone. Purple fabric was very special during Bible times, so Lydia probably made a lot of money with her business. Paul told Lydia the good news about Jesus, and God was speaking to her through the Holy Spirit. She heard that Jesus had ADAM & EVE ABRAHAM MOSES JOSHUA SAMUEL KING DAVID ELIJAH KING JOSIAH JEREMIAH SHADRACH/MESHACH/ABEDNEGO DANIEL ESTHER NEHEMIAH 400 YEARS OF WAITING JESUS SIMEON/ANNA ZACCHAEUS MARY PHILIP PETER JAMES JOHN APOSTLES CORNELIUS LYDIA PAUL YOU & ME OUR FUTURE WITH JESUS 5

6 come to save her from her sins, and she accepted Jesus gift of salvation. Lydia should nod her head up and down. God spoke to Lydia that day, and He continued to speak to her and use her to spread the message of Jesus. She listened to God speak and helped others come to know Jesus! Paul listened to God, and when God spoke, Paul went and spoke about Jesus. And when Lydia heard God s good news about Jesus, she listened to His voice and became a follower of Jesus. God still speaks to us today! He speaks through His Word, the Holy Spirit, Christian family members and friends, and prayer. We can always listen for God s voice because He speaks and guides us. Share about a time when you felt God speaking to you. Investigate Discussion Questions Where did God tell Paul not to go? Acts 16:6 Where did God tell Paul to go in a vision? Acts 16:9 10 Who became a Christian down by the river? Acts 16:14 How does God speak to us? What are some ways we can listen to God? God Speaks In Creation God has spoken since the very beginning. Creation listens to Him and we do too. Ask a volunteer to read Psalm 50:1 aloud. What do you think it would be like to hear God s voice? What are some of your favorite things God created? We Can Listen for God God speaks to us and tells us how to follow Him. We just need to listen! Ask a volunteer to read Isaiah 30:21 aloud. How can we know God s way? How can we follow God s way, even when we don t want to? We Can Listen to God When we follow Jesus, we listen to His voice and follow His way. We can also tell others about Jesus! Invite a volunteer to read 1 John 4:6 aloud. Why is it important to tell others about Jesus? How can we pray for those who need to hear Jesus? 6

7 God Speaks through Jesus Jesus came to earth as a man, but He was also God. He spoke and told people about God s truth! Ask a volunteer to read Hebrews 1:1 2 aloud. Why could Jesus speak for God? How does it make you feel to know that Jesus came to show us what God is like? Remember Verse Each week children will spend time memorizing a portion of Scripture together. The Remember Verse focuses on a character trait of God that s highlighted in today s portion of The Big God Story. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 Why do we not have to be afraid? How does God strengthen us? Game: Creative Memorization SUPPLIES Bible optional: Remember Verse cards and printable image (see Resource Files) RELATE Review the Remember Verse with the group a few times so they re familiar with it. Then, divide your group into two. Have each group work together to come up with a creative way to say the Remember Verse, such as hopping on one foot or running around in circles. Then, each team will perform the verse for the other team. Space for the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit longs to speak to His children. Allow time and space for your children to respond to what God might be speaking to their hearts. To create space for children to hear from and respond to Him, ask the children a few simple questions: After all you ve seen, heard, and experienced today through God s Word, what do you know about Him? How does this make you feel? What does this mean for your life? How do you want to respond to God right now? As you lead the children through this time of reflection, pause and ask God to give you the strength and faith to be flexible as you give the children the space to respond in the way that God leads. 7

8 Respond// min. Children process what the Holy Spirit has been teaching them and respond to God through individual and collaborative worship. Listening to God s Voice SUPPLIES paper (1 sheet per child) pens RELATE After reviewing the Remember Verse, have children sit together on the floor. God uses the Holy Spirit to speak to us. What are some of the ways that God speaks? Allow answers. Those are good thoughts. There are many ways that God speaks to us through His Word, through His voice, and even through other people. Hearing God speak is a discipline, which means it takes time and practice. Begin by reading Psalm 46:10a: He says, Be still, and know that I am God. Then, invite children to spend a minute in silence and ask God to speak to them. It might be a challenge for the children, but encourage them to be patient and trust that God is with them. Next, pass out a sheet of paper and a pen to each child and invite them to write what they feel like God is saying to them today. Encourage children to take their pages home and use them to spend time in silence again this week. 8

9 Engage// min. Children participate in various forms of play, including interactive games, activities, experiments, and more. Guess What SUPPLIES paper (4 5 sheets) scissors pens bowl (medium-sized) stopwatch or timer PREPARE AHEAD Cut paper into small strips so each child can have five strips. RELATE Have children help put away supplies from RESPOND and sit together. Paul listened to God s voice, and it led him as he traveled around sharing about Jesus. We re going to play a game where we listen to our teammate as he describes the word on the paper and try to guess what he s describing. To begin, divide your group up into two teams. Pass out five strips of paper and a pen to each child and have her write down five different things. They can be a well-known person, place, or a thing. When the kids finish writing, have them fold the strips and place them inside the bowl. Then, choose one team to begin. The first team chooses a player to draw a strip from the bowl. He will have one minute to describe what s on the paper without saying the word. The rest of the team tries to guess the word. If the team guesses correctly, he can choose another strip of paper. After a minute is up, the second team has a minute to play. Then the first team will choose another teammate to draw, and so on. Continue until all of the strips of paper have been drawn from the bowl. The team with the most correct answers wins. After the game, discuss: What was hard about this game? Is it difficult or easy for you to listen to God s voice? Why? What helps you to hear God s voice? 9

10 Bless// 5 10 min. Children receive a blessing from their leaders and sometimes one another. A blessing can be a prayer of commission, a portion of Scripture, or words to encourage and guide. Invite your group to stand together as you read the blessing verse from John 10:27: My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. Teach your children hand motions and have them follow along as you say the blessing verse. My sheep: Point at yourself, then point at the children in the group. Listen: Point to your ears. To my voice: Reach your right hand to your mouth and bring your hand outward as if you are motioning to speak. I know them: Point to your head. And they follow: Wave your arms as if you are motioning someone to follow you. Me: Point to yourself. After children go through the hand motions, have them stand and open their hands as you bless the entire group. May you hear God when He speaks to you, and may you respond in obedience. May you walk in His ways this week. WEEKLY Be sure to send home the HomeFront Weekly for next week s lesson! This preteaching tool for parents encourages families to spend time in God s Word together before children arrive at church. 10