Getting to Know God: Who God Is Week 7: God Is Unchanging This includes: Leader Preparation Lesson Guide LEADER PREPARATION BIBLE BASIS What an amazing thought! While everything else around us is changing, God isn t. Rocks erode, the earth moves through space, seasons change, we get older. God s love, attitudes, timelessness, size, presence they re all the same as they ve always been. What a comfort! DISCOVERY POINT God is unchanging. BIBLE FOCUS Genesis 28:10-22 KEY VERSE Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). TEACHING PREP The short overview below is designed to help you prepare for your lesson. Supplies You ll Need: Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD, LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 2) DVD, CD player, TV/DVD player, Jacob Bible Bio handout, newspapers, tape, Bibles, God Is Unchanging handout, scissors, large grocery bags, markers, small paper lunch bags, olive oil, bowl, and paper towels Before This Lesson Print the Jacob Bible Bio handout. You ll need one copy per team of four kids. Set out a stack of newspapers and several rolls of tape. Print and cut apart the cards from the God Is Unchanging handout. You ll need one of each card for each Bible Crew. Mark Genesis 28 in each Bible using the cards. Assemble Bible Exploration Kits (one per four kids): two paper lunch bags and one sheet of newspaper per child, Jacob Bible Bio handout, tape, two large paper grocery bags, six additional sheets of newspaper, assorted washable markers, marked Bible. Pour a small amount of olive oil in a shallow bowl, and set it out of sight. Review Genesis 28:10-22. Cue "Into the Bible" (Track 1) on Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD or (Quarter 5/Track 1) on the LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 2) DVD. Huddle briefly with your volunteers beforehand. Answer any questions they have. Encourage them and pray.
PARENT EMAIL We ve provided you with a Family Devotion handout to send the Bible learning and faith discovery home. When kids and parents have faith discussions regularly, kids faith multiplies. So we ve given you two options: Print the Family Devotion handout and make enough copies for each child to take one home. Email the Family Devotion to families before or after the actual lesson. Or why not do both? That way you ll double the opportunities for parents to actually get the handout.
Getting to Know God: Who God Is Week 7: God Is Unchanging LESSON GUIDE WELCOME! Supplies: Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD, LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 2) DVD, CD player, TV/DVD player, newspapers, tape 1. Play Into the Bible (Track 1) from the Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD or (Quarter 5/Track 1) from the LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 2) DVD as kids arrive. Into the Bible Makes me wanna jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Makes me wanna sing! Hallelujah! It s the greatest book. Come and take a look. Makes me wanna shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! So that everyone will see I m getting into the Bible And the Bible...is getting into me! We re discovering a brand-new world As we dig a little deeper (deeper), Finding out about who God is. Open it up and see it (see it)! There s nothin like God s Word, and I get So excited. It makes me wanna, Makes me, Makes me wanna jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! Makes me wanna sing! Hallelujah! It s the greatest book. Come and take a look. Makes me wanna shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! Shout! So that everyone will see I m getting into the Bible And the Bible...is getting into me! Into the Bible by Jay Stocker. 2006 Group Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to use lyrics granted for local church use only. No unauthorized duplication permitted.
2. Have kids form Bible Crews of four. Have each crew take a small stack of newspapers and tape and use them to create statues of the oldest thing they can think of that hasn t changed. 3. When they ve finished, give each group one minute to explain its statue. 4. SAY: These are great statues of some very old unchanged things. Today we re going to talk about God, who is older than all of these things. And God is unchanging. Let s get ready for our lesson today by doing our countdown as slowly as possible, as if we re really old. Play the Rocket Countdown (Quarter 5/Countdown Track 1) on the LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 2) DVD, pausing after each number appears while kids prolong their pronunciation. LET S EXPLORE! Supplies: assembled Bible Exploration Kits, Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD, CD player 1. Have a volunteer from each Bible Crew find the Scripture marked with the cards in their Bible. Ask kids to lie down on the floor, and have the volunteers read Genesis 28:10-12 to the rest of their crew. Give crews two minutes to answer the questions on the card. 2. SAY: While you continue resting, let s see what else happened during Jacob s dream. Read verse 13 (through and he said, ), and then play And God Said (Track 17) from the Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD. ASK: What was surprising about what you listened to? Why was it like or unlike the way you think God talks? SAY: The way God talks may change. God may talk with a deep voice, in a burning bush, in a dream, or with a voice like on our CD. The way God speaks to us may change, but God is unchanging. 3. SAY: You can get up now. We ll find out what Jacob did in a little bit. Right now, each Bible Crew needs to find its own space in the room where you can work. You ll need the two large grocery bags, the newspapers, the tape, and the markers from your Bible Exploration Kit. Work together to draw symbols or words that describe what you know about God that doesn t change on one wide side of both of your large grocery bags. Give crews several minutes to complete their work. 4. SAY: Now take the Jacob Bible Bio handout from your Bible Exploration Kit and read it as a group. Look for ways that Jacob changed, and then draw symbols or words on the other large side of your grocery bags to show what you found out. Then fill in your cards. 5. When kids have finished, SAY: Now take six sheets of newspaper, open your grocery bags, and stuff three of the sheets into each bag. Put one grocery bag over the other, overlapping the open edges, and tape the two bags together. Give crews time to put their bags together. SAY: If we return to our Genesis Scripture, we can read more about Jacob. We ll also find out what these structures are that you ve just created. In your crews, read Genesis 28:16-22. See how quickly you can find the answer and share it with your crew. When you know what your structure represents and why Jacob built it, stand up as a crew.
6. When all of the crews are standing, ASK: How did Jacob change when he woke up? What did Jacob build and why? Why do you think Jacob made such a strong commitment to God? SAY: If I were Jacob, one thing I would remember every time I saw the pillar is that God is unchanging. God is still the same as he was when he talked with Jacob. Listen to this verse from Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This Scripture also reminds us that God is unchanging. Put your pillar in the center of your Bible Crew. Add symbols to the two narrow sides that also show that God is unchanging. What God promises today will be the same billions of years from now. ASK: What are some other examples of ways that God doesn t change? If God doesn t change, how does that impact your life? Let each Bible Crew show and explain its pillar to one other Bible Crew. LET S PRAISE! Supplies: Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD or LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 2) DVD, CD player or TV/DVD player, pillars from Let s Explore! 1. SAY: Let s worship God because God is unchanging. Let s see if we can stack our pillars here in front to make a reminder that God is unchanging. 2. When the pillars are stacked, SAY: We re going to praise God for being unchanging by being unchanging ourselves. Think of a pose that shows one thing about God that doesn t change. Now, make that pose and do not change it until we re through with this song. Let kids pick a new pose for each of the songs. 3. Set up the Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD or the LIVE Children s Curriculum (Year 2) DVD. PLAY: The One and Only Lord (Mark 12:29) (CD Track 2) (DVD Quarter 5/Track 2) (Verse) Listen (echo), O, Israel! (echo) Listen (echo), O, Israel! (echo) (Chorus) The Lord our God is the one and only Lord (clap) (clap). The Lord our God is the one and only Lord (clap) (clap). The one and only (clap) (clap) Lord. (Repeat from beginning.) The One and Only Lord (Mark 12:29) by Jay Stocker. 2005 Group Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to use lyrics granted for local church use only. No unauthorized duplication permitted. You Know Everything About Me (Psalm 139:1-3) (CD Track 4) (DVD Quarter 5/Track 4)
O Lord, you have examined my heart; You know when I sit down or stand up; O Lord, you know my thoughts and my ways; You chart the path that I take; You know everything; O Lord, you have examined my heart; You know when I sit down or stand up; You Know Everything About Me (Psalm 139:1-3) by Ben Glover and Jay Stocker. 2004 Group Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Permission to use lyrics granted for local church use only. No unauthorized duplication permitted. How Great Thou Art (CD Track 6) (DVD Quarter 5/Track 6) O Lord, my God, When I in awesome wonder Consider all the works your hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Your power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to thee. How great thou art, How great thou art! Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to thee. How great thou art, How great thou art! (Repeat from the beginning.) How Great Thou Art by Carl G. Boberg. LET S PRAY! Supplies: assembled Bible Exploration Kits, olive oil, bowl, Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD, CD player, paper towels 1. SAY: Let s take some time to thank God because God is unchanging. During this time, you may each make your own remembrance pillar out of two of the small bags and one sheet of newspaper from your Bible Exploration Kit. Tape it shut, and use the markers to add words or symbols to your pillar. Then pray. Tell God what you think about the fact that God is unchanging. When you ve finished praying, you can bring your pillar here to the front and do as Jacob did. Jacob put olive oil on his pillar to make it special. You can come and get one drop of olive oil on your finger, wipe the olive oil on your pillar, and then clean off your finger with a paper towel. I ll know everyone has finished praying when everyone has put olive oil on his or her pillar. Remember, this is a time when you talk only with God. Be sure to supervise the olive oil so it doesn t end up on clothing or the floor. 2. Play the instrumental version of You Know Everything About Me (Psalm 139:1-3) (Track 12) from the Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD while kids work and pray. HIGH FIVES Supplies: none Have kids stand as unchanging high five statues for a full minute before giving their high fives to one another as they leave. FOR-EXTRA-TIME ACTIVITIES Quick Change Supplies: none Have kids see how quickly they can change how they look (for example, changing how they are wearing their clothes, changing their facial expressions or voice, changing how they walk, combing their hair another way), then compare how God hasn t changed from Jacob s time until now.
Hiding It in Your Heart Supplies: paper cut into 2x3-inch pieces, stapler, colored pencils Have kids draw an unchanging symbol for God and one word of Hebrews 13:8 on each of the papers. Have kids staple the pages together to form flip books. Challenge kids to make the books so the symbol doesn t change but the words do. Let kids trade books and flip through them. Ask kids to talk about what changes and doesn t change in these books, and remind them that God doesn t change. Create a Bible Dictionary Supplies: paper, markers, dictionary, CD player, Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD Ask kids to create one or more pages, each with a new word, for a Bible dictionary. Have kids suggest words from today s lesson forever and unchanging are two suggestions. Have them write each word on a sheet of paper in fun letters, add a definition, list Scripture references, and make illustrations. Play The Books of the Bible Song (Track 8), from the Getting to Know God: Who God Is (Year 2/Quarter 5) CD while kids work. Add each page to a three-ring binder, and watch the dictionary grow!