CORRESPONDING LEVEL WEB #s Defenders: 040504 Detectives: 040504 Developers: 040504 GOD S CREATION 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 All Creatures of Our God and King, All Things Bright and Beautiful OTHER SONG SUGGESTIONS Older kids: How Majestic Is Thy Name, This Is My Father s World Younger kids: This Is the Day, I Was Made To Praise the Lord T H E B A S I C S PRIMARY TRUTH God created all things to please and glorify Himself. PRIMARY SCRIPTURE PASSAGE Revelation 4:11 WHAT THIS DOCTRINE REVEALS ABOUT GOD God s Creation declares Him to be the kind of God that He is. There are things about Creation that reflect both God s greatness and His goodness. Even studying Creation can teach us Who is most worthy of our love, trust, obedience, and honor. KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES By God s grace... The child will understand that God s main purpose in creating the world was to bring Himself glory. The child will realize that God s Creation is designed to bring Him fame for Who He is and what He has done. ATTITUDE OBJECTIVES By God s grace... The child will recognize that Creation does not revolve around humanity, but that all of life is all about God. The child will be assured that, as our Creator, God is worthy of our praise and trust. The child will desire to join in spreading the fame of the wonderful Creator. P R A Y E R 1
T E A C H I N G P H A S E I N T R O (about 10-20 minutes) OPENER* Creation does not revolve around humanity. We are not the main reason that God created the world He is! All of life is all about God. As God s creatures, we have enjoyed great gifts in Creation, but His main reason for creating us was to bring Himself more of the glory and honor He deserves for being the kind of God He is. If we forget that all of life is all about God, we miss the whole point of God s creative workmanship. As the old catechism says, The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Our chief purpose, and the chief purpose of all of Creation, is to glorify (make famous, magnify) our Creator and enjoy Him for Who He is. AWESOME QUOTE God made [me] for His pleasure, not for my pleasure. Paul Carter DISCUSSION What are some things that bring you great joy? Why? COMMENTARY In God s Word, we learn that He created all things to bring Himself glory and pleasure. God did not create all things because He needed to! Rather, He created all things because He wanted to. The Bible tells us that our great God does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3). We can be confident that the things which please God are good and right and pure. For us as human observers, God s most obvious workmanship is displayed in His Creation. It s all around us! You can t help but notice the sky, the birds, the trees, lakes, animals, weather systems, oceans, stars, and the different people all over the globe. God s Creation is a public message always communicating, always declaring, always showing off the truth: A GLORIOUS GOD CREATED ALL OF LIFE, AND ALL OF LIFE IS ABOUT THIS GLORIOUS GOD. Having this truth is on public display, all of the time, for all to see and hear that honors God and brings Him joy. *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 10-20 minutes) DISCUSSION / ILLUSTRATION Can you name some famous people? Why are those people famous? Is it because of who they are? Is it because of what they have done? Were they born famous? Did they have to work earn their fame? Do they even wan to be famous? The dictionary describes being famous as being widely known. One big reason that God is widely known is His great Creation. In fact, the Bible teaches that the invisible God can be seen through the visible Creation. BIBLE DRILL (#1) What makes God so famous? Psalm 19:1 Romans 1:20 2
ILLUSTRATION Kinds of magnifying By its very existence, Creation brings glory to God! It calls us to pay attention and to acknowledge that Someone bigger has been involved. It s as though Creation is shouting out to us, Look! We were all made by an awesome Creator Who cares about practical things and beautiful things. He s a God Who must be greater than His Creation to have been able to dream it all up. But He must also care deeply about His Creation to have been so careful in all the details of it! Creation magnifies God, something like the way that a telescope magnifies a star. A telescope, pointed at something far away, will bring that object closer and give back to it a little bit of its original size and splendor. That s how Creation magnifies God not like a microscope magnifies (a microscope takes something very small and makes it big enough for us to see at all) but like a telescope magnifies. Creation takes something huge and difficult for us to see (the reality of God) and zooms it in close enough for us to get a glimpse and a better understanding of the whole grand reality. COMMENTARY Why is God more widely known than anyone else? Because His Creation can be observed by anyone! Even someone stuck inside a tiny, closed-up room can still observe a part of God s Creation. How? Because that person inside the room is himself a fearfully- and wonderfully-made creature of God. Some people are famous for all the wrong reasons (usually because they are bad or have done something bad). Someone like that is said to be infamous. Infamous is a bad kind of famous to be! The Bible says that God is full of grace and glory. God is famous for all the right reasons. Nobody is greater or higher than God! Everyone who can think is able to consider Creation and think about God. All of life is all about God. You may wonder how Someone Who is invisible could ever become famous, but God is both invisible and famous. The Bible teaches that there are people who try to suppress (push back, keep down) the knowledge of God in their hearts and minds. They study Creation and try to think up other possible explanations for it because they do not want to believe in an always-present, all-knowing, all-powerful Creator. Many people don t want to acknowledge that God exists, but even though He is invisible, and even though they might not know all the tiny details about why He deserves to be famous these people know that there is a real God. In the deepest parts of their souls, they are still aware of God. Everyone who can observe Creation could take what they learn there and continue searching to find out more about the Creator. Everyone suspects (at least deep down) that there is a God. Even staunch atheists (those who deny God exists at all) have cried out His name in a life crisis or when they find themselves on their deathbeds. Many don t want to admit that God created all, and they do their best to avoid Him in their minds. DISCUSSION Why do you think people try to suppress the truth about God? Why would they want to avoid Him or deny that He created all of life? ILLUSTRATION Knowing vs. Knowing about You might know about a famous person, but do you really know him? Let s take the President of the United States, for example. Do you know the President, or do you know abou the President? There is a big difference! A good friend of the President might feel free to schedule a golf game with him, or to call him up and make certain requests. Most people know abou the President he s very famous! But very few people truly know him. 3
This is how it can be with God. God is more famous than the President; He is more famous than anyone! Almost anyone you talk to has at least heard His name. Whether they want to admit it or not even people who have never read a copy of the Bible have at least wondered whether God exists, because of what they see all around them. But very, very few people really know God. Creation makes us aware that there is a God, but Creation can communicate knowledge about God only in a general way. We cannot come to know God personally by observing His Creation. We must have more specific revelation (more detailed and personal information). That is why God provided His Word the Bible. What if you were good friends with the daughter or the son of the President of the United States? It is very possible that your friend might one day introduce you to the President. If you spend a lot of time playing with your friend at the White House, chances are you would get to know the President a little better, too, through his son or daughter. One reason God calls missionaries to go out and teach the Bible is so that people who know about Him through Creation might come to know Him through His Word. Missionaries who know Who God is and what He had done can take the Bible and introduce people to the glorious God! As we spend more time with God s Word, and with Him, our personal relationship with Him grows. We come to know Him better and better. DISCUSSION How do missionaries help spread the fame of the Creator? How might you help spread the fame of the Creator? BIBLE DRILL (#2) Does God have competition from false gods that people have set up to worship? Revelation 4:11 Isaiah 43:7 God hates false gods because He is the only One worthy of worship. In Jeremiah 10:11-13, God compares Himself to other gods, saying that they are made gods who have not themselves made anything. Only the God Who made all life truly deserves the worship and service of man. There really is no contest between God and idols. COMMENTARY Again, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. (See Psalm 16:11.) When we seek joy by living for God s pleasure, it will actually result in more pleasure for us! God made everything and everyone to bring Him glory. When God s Creation aligns itself with (submits to, lines up with) God s purposes, it produces ultimate, lasting joy for everyone involved. That was God s design, that we would honor Him by trusting Him to be the greatest Source of our greatest possible joy. BIBLE DRILL (#3) Matthew 10:39 BONUS Q & A Q. What is the general purpose for which God created all things? A. The purpose of Creation is to bring pleasure to God by declining truth and by making His glory obvious. Romans 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. 4
Q. What do we mean when we say that God created the world to show His glory? A. We mean that God created the universe for His magnification, for His honor, and for showing His great worth and majesty. Q. Whenever people teach that the universe came about by powers or forces other than God, what do they do? A. They lie and worship themselves. Romans 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. ( ) (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 s Creation declares Him to be the kind of God that He is. There are things about Creation that reflect both God s greatness and His goodness. Even studying Creation can teach us Who is most worthy of our love, trust, obedience, and honor.} The fact that God is more concerned with His own glory than He is over us actually ought to be a great comfort to us! We know that we fail and fall short of the glory of God all the time, so we would not want to have to trust that God made the world and chooses to save people only because of people. God does love the world; He says so in His Word. But His greatest pleasure and glory comes from magnifying His own name and making the nations glad that such a God exists. Because He will never break His Word or do something that would make small His own glory, we have all the more reason to trust securely in His unchanging, glorious character. He will keep His Word to us and to take care of us NOT because of what we have done or who we are, but because of what He has done and because of Who He is. God reveals Himself specifically to those who read and hear His Word, but He reveals Himself in a general way to everybody through the display of His marvelous handiwork in Creation. The fact that God finds pleasure in making His glory famous shows us that He delights to be known and worshipped for Who He is. *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... 5
DISCUSSION TIME QUESTIONS What are some ways people try to take away from God s glory? How does man often worship himself (the creature) over the Creator? How does it make you feel when you think about the truth that God created you for His pleasure? What are some ways you might look for your joy in God by living for His pleasure? A P P E N D I C E S O R I F T I M E (optional) ACTIVITY Read Psalm 148 and describe ten ways God expects glory (or praise) from His creation: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. ACTIVITIES USING RESOURCES FROM THE KIDS 4 TRUTH WEBSITE Download and present the Creation dynamation or screen-saver file via large-screen TV or projector. http://www.kids4truth.com/creation.htm Download and present (or view online) the Creation s Voice dynamation via large-screen TV or projector. http://www.kids4truth.com/cv/voice.html Download and let the children color the coloring pages from the Creation dynamation. http://www.kids4truth.com/art.htm 6