T H E B A S I C S PRIMARY TRUTH God created mankind especially for His glory.

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1 CORRESPONDING LEVEL WEB #s Defenders: Detectives: Developers: GOD S VIEW OF YOU MATERIALS NEEDED Bible; Teacher Preparation Guide (optional supplements: K4T songbook and PowerPoint files of lyrics) SUGGESTED ORIGINAL KIDS 4 TRUTH SONG And Yet God Loved Us SUGGESTED HYMNS Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy, God, Be Merciful to Me OTHER SONG SUGGESTIONS Older kids: Abba, Father, For God So Loved the World Younger kids: Standing in the Need of Prayer, Jesus Loves Me, Only a Sinner T H E B A S I C S PRIMARY TRUTH God created mankind especially for His glory. PRIMARY SCRIPTURE PASSAGE Isaiah 43:7 WHAT THIS DOCTRINE REVEALS ABOUT GOD God designed the human race to showcase what a great and good God He is. We were created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. This is what it means to glorify God: We glorify Him when our words and actions point to Him and say, This wonderful and wonder-working God is the one true God! Everything, especially humanity, is truly supposed to be all about God! KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES By God s grace... The child will gain a fuller understanding of the concept of God s glory. The child will recognize that the whole purpose for living is to bring glory to the one true Creator God. ATTITUDE OBJECTIVES By God s grace... The child will affirm that the Creator is greater than any of His creatures and that He is totally worthy of all glory. The child will grow in a genuine desire to glorify God with his or her thoughts, words, and actions. P R A Y E R 1

2 T E A C H I N G P H A S E I N T R O (about minutes) OPENER* / Q & A Q. Why did God create mankind? A. God s primary purpose in creating mankind was to get Himself glory and joy. Isaiah 43:7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. Human beings are the only creatures that God made in His own image. God created us especially to exhibit (to show off ) His goodness and greatness. BIG CHRISTIAN WORD Glory (GLOR-ee) To give glory to God means that we give Him the credit, praise, and honor that is really due to Him. The word glory in the New Testament is the Greek word doxa, which meant the high opinion of some great person, like the reputation and great honor deserved by a good and great king. To give someone glory is to give him the honor and high regard that his position and his character deserve. God is the only One truly worthy of the greatest and highest glory, because God is the greatest and highest Being! *NOTE: In the intro, we want to recap the primary truth and set the stage to use the primary truth to point the learners back to God. I N S T R U C T I O N & R E I N F O R C E M E N T (about minutes) ILLUSTRATION / COMMENTARY You can go examine a frog and learn a lot about what a great and good God made that frog. But the frog is not made in God s own image. We learn about God s great imagination and variety of ideas and how precise and intricate His creatures are. Some frogs can camouflage themselves. Their voices carry far. There are all kinds of neat facts about frogs, and they are wonderful because they were created by a wonderful all-knowing God. But frogs were not created to reflect other aspects of God s glory, like His intelligence and His kindness and His joy and His holiness. Frogs can show a little piece of the picture, but they could never reflect a perfectly whole image of God. Human beings are not perfect nor as great and good as God Himself is, so we cannot reflect a perfect or whole picture of God (except Jesus, Who could because He was 100% God and 100% human). But we can reflect more of His characteristics than a frog could. God s glory can be shown more clearly by us than by any other part of Creation. God did not need to create mankind in order to be glorious. God is glorious no matter what. But He did choose to create us so that we could magnify His glory. It is through human beings who glorify and enjoy God that God can be best glorified. ILLUSTRATION Have you ever gone to a fun house filled with mirrors? If the glass of the mirrors is not flat, the images reflected back at you will be distorted. A warped mirror might reflect back an image that you could recognize. It might resemble you a little bit, but it would not be nearly as accurate an image as the reflection that a totally flat mirror would give. If we really want to see what we look like, we look into a flat mirror that will give us a good reflection. If we want to laugh at funny faces and strange shapes...well, that s when we go to the warped fun house mirrors. 2

3 When Adam and Eve fell into sin, and the rest of the human race with them, the image of God in man became blurry and distorted warped like those fun house mirrors. But it was not completely lost. We are still able to feel and think. We still have a mind, will, and emotions. They are terribly damaged by sin, so we are not able to glorify God like He originally intended us to do. We need God s help even to be the creatures we were designed to be! AWESOME QUOTE We are spiritually wounded and sick. But through faith in Christ, God offers significant healing in this world and complete healing in the next! H. Vaughn DISCUSS THE ILLUSTRATION & QUOTE If God created us with the purpose in mind that we should bring glory to Him, do you think He is pleased at the kinds of exhibits we are being? What do you think the quotation above is talking about when it says we are spiritually wounded and sick? How can we fulfill the purpose for which God created us if His image in us has been warped and distorted by our sinfulness? COMMENTARY When we take credit ourselves for the way we look or the things we can do, we are glorifying ourselves rather than God. We try to steal God s glory from Him. God will always be glorious, whether or not we glorify Him. But we have no right to rob Him of the honor that belongs to Him. Another way that we rob God of His honor rather than giving Him honor is the way we cut down other people, whom God also created for His glory. In the New Testament, the book of James reminds us what the Old Testament teaches about the image of God in human beings. Even though we are all sinful, every human being reflects God s workmanship and care. Because we are all God s creatures, we all ought to treat one another as His workmanship. We may not all be believers in the Creator God, but we all bear His image at least in a small way. BIBLE DRILL (#1) According to this passage in James, why should we not curse other people? James 3:9-10 COMMENTARY Did you know that God might take a man s life away because he robbed God of glory? Acts 12:22-23 And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him [Herod the king], because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. DISCUSSION What s wrong with this quotation, taken directly from Mormon teachings? (See Malachi 3:6 for help.) As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become. BIBLE DRILL (#2) In this Scripture verse, what does the psalmist ask God to do? To whom does the psalmist NOT want the glory to go? Can you spot two reasons this verse gives for why God deserves glory? Psalm 115:1 3

4 DISCUSSION Why is it that the part of Creation that most resembles the image of God (the human race), is able to bring Him more glory than any other creature (even the angels!)? Even though the rest of God s Creation can and does bring Him glory, humankind has the most potential for actually exhibiting God s glory. Why is that? Think about it: Why can we bring God more glory than, say, a tree could? What are some things that God gave us the ability to do that a tree cannot? How can you glorify God with your words? actions? thoughts? attitudes? ( ) (Now might be a good time to draw from the curriculum a few Q&A on the topic of how human beings can glorify God.) The angels might be more powerful or holy or beautiful than we are, but we are uniquely able to testify about how good and great the God of the universe is, that He would stoop down to create and love and show mercy to human beings. ( ) (Here would be a great place to insert what you learned from your Teacher Truth Study.) GETTING BACK TO GOD* {Recap WHAT THIS DOCTRINE REVEALS ABOUT GOD: God designed the human race to showcase what a great and good God He is. We were created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. This is what it means to glorify God: We glorify Him when our words and actions point to Him and say, This wonderful and wonder-working God is the one true God! Everything, especially humanity, is truly supposed to be all about God!} God did not make mankind because He was lonely. God made us, and made us in His own image, so that we could be trophies of His grace and glory. When we think about the human race, we should not think about how great and good human beings are (because we are not naturally great nor good!), but about how great and good our Creator God must be! When God made human beings, He intended them to be totally holy and happy in Him and Him alone. In this day and age, when many people believe that God isn t real and that there is nothing higher or greater than humankind, it is all the more important for us to understand Who made us, and why He did it: Mankind was created for the glory of the one true God. *NOTE: Teachers, please remember that this section should include the fruit of your Teacher Truth Study and one or two personal illustrations or anecdotes from the Personalize It! activity in the Teacher Preparation Phase. A P P L I C A T I O N & A S S E S S M E N T INTERNALIZE IT! from Teacher Preparation Phase (about 5-10 minutes) You might begin this section with: Boys and girls, as I ve been preparing for this TruthTime Lesson, here s what God has been showing me... You might continue by saying: Because of what God is teaching me, here s what is going to be different in my life during this next week... You might conclude with something like this: Finally, here s what God has taught me about Himself through these truths... 4

5 DISCUSSION TIME QUESTIONS How can you showcase God s glory in your thoughts and words and actions this week? Why do unbelievers constantly fail to bring glory to God? A P P E N D I C E S O R I F T I M E (optional) NONE SUGGESTED AT THIS TIME 5