FAITH CHALLENGE
Genesis 12-50: Abraham to
Joseph
“I will bless you” God
calls Abraham
Lesson A, Week 1
Scripture: Genesis 12-25 (CEV)
Memory Verse: Galatians 3:9: “Everyone who has faith will share in
the blessings that were given to Abraham because of his faith.”
·
God blesses us and
calls us to bless others.
·
God calls us to live
faithful lives.
·
We are faithful when we
trust and obey God.
·
The students will be
able to define covenant.
·
The students will be
able to identify 3 promises God made to Abraham and Sarah.
·
The students will be
able to tell one story of how God tested Abraham and/or Sarah to see if he/she
would keep his/her side of the covenant.
·
The students will be
able to relate the concepts to one situation in their own lives.
·
The children will begin
memorizing the memory verse.
The
Coach leads the opening routine: snack, fellowship, Prayer Wall activity, and
Prayer Chain. Name tags are available.
1. The Coach reviews the timeline and the previous
week’s workshop activity. Ask where the
story of Abraham is found in the Bible and provide information as needed to
help the class remember it is an early story and found in Genesis. If students are attending this workshop
after the Joseph lesson, remind them that the Abraham stories came first in
history and were followed by the Joseph stories.
2. Introduce the
Guide who leads the Workshop Lesson.
Ask the kids what they know about the story of Abraham. Build on any knowledge they have to quickly provide an overview of the story.
What is a covenant? (promise)
What are some covenants or promises that you can think of? Do you remember any covenants in the Bible?
How do people respond to covenants? (Sometimes they choose to trust the promise and sometimes they do not trust and go their own way.)
Do you always trust every promise that is made to you? Do you think God’s promises can always be trusted?
God made promises to Abraham and Sarah in the Bible and today we will study whether they trusted God in those promises or did not.
· How do you think they did?
· Do you think they were successful and were blessed with the rewards God promised?
Introduce the memory verse: Galatians 3:9: “Everyone who has faith will share in
the blessings that were given to Abraham because of his faith.”
Provide an overview of the story.
1. Divide the children into small groups and assign each group a scripture reading. Their task is to read the scripture and to act out the story. The assignments should be as follows. Give each group a copy of the attached excerpts from the CEV. These excerpts have been edited to focus less on the details of places and names and more on the interactions between the characters.
· 12:1-20 Characters needed: God, Abraham, Sarah, Lot, Pharaoh, Pharaoh’s officials (6+)
· 15: 1-6 Characters needed: God, Abraham (2)
· 16: 1-16 Characters needed: Abraham, Sarah, Hagar (3)
· 18: 1-15 Characters needed: Abraham, three men, Sarah, God (7)
· 21: 1-21 Characters needed: Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, Isaac, God (6)
2. Instruct each group of students to assign parts, work together to develop a skit based on the Bible story, and practice their skit once or twice (spend 5 minutes on this).
3. Get into costume. Invite each group to present their skits in the order given above. After each story is acted out, briefly review it to make sure the class understands what happened. On the “Promises and Reactions” flipchart list the following for each story. You will use this chart next week to make the “Go forward” and “Go backward” cards for the game.
· On the “Promises” side list the promises God made.
· On the “Responses” side list how the characters responded.
4. After all skits have been presented, briefly summarize the promises and responses they have listed. Explain to the children that we, too, receive blessings and are asked to be a blessing in worship each Sunday. Ask the students if they know when this takes place (Charge and Benediction).
1. Bring closure to the activity. Restate the lesson’s key concepts and plans for the following week. Use some of the questions below as prompts for discussion with the students about God’s promises to us, how we respond, how we are or are not faithful to God, and how God is or is not faithful to us.
· How will obeying God help us as we live our lives?
· Is it easy or difficult to obey God? How so?
· Sometimes we find ourselves in tough situations. These situations challenge our faithfulness and test whether we will obey God. Share your own story of a time when you were faced with a problem or challenging situation, and you put your faith in God and tried to be a blessing.
· Think of a very difficult situation you have found yourself in.
o Would it have helped you in this situation to be a blessing – to obey God – to show your trust in him – to show your faith?
o Would being a blessing have helped you not get into the situation to start with? OR Would being a blessing have helped to resolve the situation?
· In these situations, we can choose to act as a Christian (to bless) or to decide not to (to curse). God is asking us to keep the covenant and be a blessing at all times. Sometimes we have to be patient and wait for things to work out, and this is where we show our faithfulness.
Hand out the “I am blessed; I will be a blessing” sheets (attached) and pencils. Ask the children to use them to think about and record how God has blessed them and how they can be a blessing to others. Explain that the blessing printed on the page is often used in worship and comes from the Bible (Numbers 6:24-26). Read through it with them and make sure the children understand the language. For example, what does the word “keep” mean in this blessing (to take care of, protect); what does “gracious” mean (generous). Ask the children to write down one way God has blessed them for each part of the benediction.
Make a gigantic ice cream cone on the wall. Give each youth a piece of colored paper in the shape of a blob of ice cream. The kids are to write in the blob, one way they can be a blessing to others in the coming week. Place a brown cone on the wall and the floor. Ask the kids to come forward with their blessings and build the ice cream cone. Remind them to fulfill their blessing and report back next week.
Depending on how much time you have, you might consider doing any of the following:
· Invite the children to share what they’ve written. Affirm each child after he or she shares.
· Play some joyful music while the children attach their blessings to the wall and celebrate their blessings.
·
Review the memory verse: Galatians 3: 9: “Everyone who has faith will share in
the blessings that were given to Abraham because of his faith.”
· Ask students to tidy up. Give any specific instructions for clearing the workshop room.
1. The Coach conducts the closing prayer time.
2. Close/lock the door and turn off the lights.
1. Check out the room before your first Sunday workshop so that you know where everything is located.
2. Prepare a “visual” for the timeline. This should be about the size of 8 ½ x 11 piece of paper and have a few words or pictures to remind the class of the Abraham story.
3. Preparation instructions for this lesson plan –
· Prepare the memory verse on a flip chart to display in class.
· Prepare a flipchart sheet with two sides separated by a vertical line. At the top of the left side, write “Promises” At the top of the right side, write “Responses.”
· Props or wardrobe for the skits. We provide the kids with bathrobes, and 1 yard pieces of material to drape over the shoulder or as a head-dress. Cording held the material in place. These kids still enjoy costumes!
· Flip chart paper for the memory verse and Promises/Responses chart
· Markers
· Digital camera to make the storyboard. Put the story headings on a poster board. Take a couple of pictures from each class to illustrate each story.
· Pencils
· Copies of the Abraham stories for the skits
· Copies of “I am blessed; I will be a blessing”
· Colored paper cut in the shape of ice cream for each child and a cone.
· tape or putty for attaching cone and ice cream blessings to the wall
· The source of this lesson plan is the information provided to writers of this set of lessons by Susan Mazzara.
The LORD said to Abram: Leave your country, your family, and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you. I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others. I will bless anyone who blesses you, but I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. Everyone on earth will be blessed because of you.
Abram was seventy-five years old when the LORD told him to leave the city of Haran. He obeyed and left with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the possessions and slaves they had gotten while in Haran.
When they came to the land of Canaan, . . . the LORD appeared to Abram and promised, "I will give this land to your family forever." Abram then built an altar there for the LORD.
The crops failed, and there was no food anywhere in the land. So Abram and his wife Sarai went to live in Egypt for a while. But just before they got there, he said, "Sarai, you are really beautiful! When the Egyptians see how lovely you are, they will murder me because I am your husband. But they won't kill you. Please save my life by saying that you are my sister."
As soon as Abram and Sarai arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians noticed how beautiful she was. The king's officials told him about her, and she was taken to his house. The king was good to Abram because of Sarai, and Abram was given sheep, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.
Because of Sarai, the LORD struck the king and everyone in his palace with terrible diseases. Finally, the king sent for Abram and said to him, "What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me Sarai was your wife? Why did you make me believe she was your sister? Now I've married her. Take her and go! She's your wife."
So the king told his men to let Abram and Sarai take their possessions and leave.
The LORD spoke to Abram in a vision, "Abram, don't be afraid! I will protect you and reward you greatly." But Abram answered, "LORD All-Powerful, you have given me everything I could ask for, except children. And when I die, Eliezer of Damascus will get all I own. You have not given me any children, and this servant of mine will inherit everything."
The LORD replied, "No, he won't! You will have a son of your own, and everything you have will be his." Then the LORD took Abram outside and said, "Look at the sky and see if you can count the stars. That's how many descendants you will have." Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD was pleased with him.
Abram's wife Sarai had not been able to have any children. But she owned a young Egyptian slave woman named Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, "The LORD has not given me any children. Sleep with my slave, and if she has a child, it will be mine." Abram agreed, and Sarai gave him Hagar to be his wife.
Later, when Hagar knew she was going to have a baby, she became proud and was hateful to Sarai. Then Sarai said to Abram, "It's all your fault! I gave you my slave woman, but she has been hateful to me ever since she found out she was pregnant. You have done me wrong, and you will have to answer to the LORD for this."
Abram said, "All right! She's your slave, and you can do whatever you want with her." But Sarai began treating Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.
Hagar stopped to rest at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur. While she was there, the angel of the LORD came to her and asked, "Hagar, where have you come from, and where are you going?"
She answered, "I'm running away from Sarai, my owner."
The angel said, "Go back to Sarai and be her slave. I will give you a son, who will be called Ishmael, because I have heard your cry for help. And later I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them all. But your son will live far from his relatives; he will be like a wild donkey, fighting everyone, and everyone fighting him."
Hagar thought, "Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?" So from then on she called him, "The God Who Sees Me." Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to their son, and he named him Ishmael.
One hot summer afternoon Abraham was sitting by the entrance to his tent near the sacred trees of Mamre, when the LORD appeared to him. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. He quickly ran to meet them, bowed with his face to the ground, and said, "Please come to my home where I can serve you. I'll have some water brought, so you can wash your feet, then you can rest under the tree. Let me get you some food to give you strength before you leave. I would be honored to serve you."
"Thank you very much," they answered. "We accept your offer."
Abraham quickly went to his tent and said to Sarah, "Hurry! Get a large sack of flour and make some bread." After saying this, he rushed off to his herd of cattle and picked out one of the best calves, which his servant quickly prepared. He then served his guests some yogurt and milk together with the meat.
While they were eating, he stood near them under the trees, and they asked, "Where is your wife Sarah?"
"She is right there in the tent," Abraham answered.
One of the guests was the LORD, and he said, "I'll come back about this time next year, and when I do, Sarah will already have a son."
Sarah was behind Abraham, listening at the entrance to the tent. Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was well past the age for having children. So she laughed and said to herself, "Now that I am worn out and my husband is old, will I really know such happiness?"
The LORD asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh? Does she doubt that she can have a child in her old age? I am the LORD! There is nothing too difficult for me. I'll come back next year at the time I promised, and Sarah will already have a son."
Sarah was so frightened that she lied and said, "I didn't laugh."
"Yes, you did!" he answered.
The LORD was good to Sarah and kept his promise. Although Abraham was very old, Sarah had a son exactly at the time God had said. Abraham named his son Isaac, and when the boy was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, just as the LORD had commanded.
Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born, and Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Now everyone will laugh with me. Who would have dared to tell Abraham that someday I would have a child? But in his old age, I have given him a son."
The time came when Sarah no longer had to nurse Isaac, and on that day Abraham gave a big feast.
One day, Sarah noticed Hagar's son Ishmael playing, and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that Egyptian slave woman and her son! I don't want him to inherit anything. It should all go to my son."
Abraham was worried about Ishmael. But God said, "Abraham, don't worry about your slave woman and the boy. Just do what Sarah tells you. Isaac will inherit your family name, but the son of the slave woman is also your son, and I will make his descendants into a great nation."
Early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar an animal skin full of water and some bread. Then he put the boy on her shoulder and sent them away. They wandered around in the desert and after they had run out of water, Hagar put her son under a bush. Then she sat down a long way off, because she could not bear to watch him die. And she cried bitterly.
When God heard the boy crying, the angel of God called out to Hagar from heaven and said, "Hagar, why are you worried? Don't be afraid. I have heard your son crying. Help him up and hold his hand, because I will make him the father of a great nation."
Then God let her see a well. So she went to the well and filled the skin with water, then gave some to her son.
God blessed Ishmael, and as the boy grew older, he became an expert with his bow and arrows.
I am
blessed; I will be a blessing
The Lord bless you and keep you.
God
blessed me when . . .
The Lord be kind and gracious to
you.
God was
kind to me when . . .
The Lord look upon you with
favor
God
looked on me with favor when . . .
And give you peace.
God gave
me peace when . . .
I will
be a blessing to others when I . . .