Scripture: 1 Kings 18:16-46
Memory Verse: “You were shown these things so that you
might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. ” Deuteronomy 4:35 NIV
Concepts:
·
God has ultimate
power over the world.
·
God asks us to
choose only him and then helps us make that choice.
Objective: The first objective of this
workshop is to teach God’s sovereignty—that God is totally in control of
everything. The children will also hear
about God’s desire that we make a choice to belong to him. Because of God’s love, he helps us make the
choice.
Procedure:
Welcome and Introductions:
1.
Greet the
children and introduce yourself. Wear
your nametag. Make sure the children are wearing nametags. If not, ask the
shepherd to supply a temporary badge. Remember you are interacting with a
different group of students each week that may not know you.
2.
Explain the
purpose of this workshop: Today we are
going to use puppets to learn God’s power and God’s desire that we choose to be
his people. Before we do puppets, we’re
going to read the Bible story for today.
Scripture/Bible Story:
Ask the children
to get out their Bibles, if they have them.
Warm-Up Discussion
and Questions: Our story is from the book of 1 Kings. Can you find 1 Kings? It is in the Old Testament between 2 Samuel
and 2 Kings. It is the 11th
book of the Bible and is located about 1/3 of the way through the Bible. From the name, 1 Kings, what do you think the
book might be about? Kings Since this is a Bible story, what nation might these kings reign over? Israel, Judah, the Israelites, the Jews,
the Hebrews are good answers. Can
you think of any famous kings in the Bible?
Hopefully, someone will mention King David and King Solomon, and you
can say that these kings are in 1 Kings.
If they mention King Saul,say that this book starts after Saul’s reign. After King David and King Solomon, there were
many kings of
Read the
Scripture Passage 1 Kings 18:16-46 from the CEV (see note about who should read
the Bible during class at the end of this lesson):
1 Kings 18
16Obadiah left and told Ahab where to find Elijah.
Ahab went to meet Elijah, 17and when he saw him, Ahab shouted,
"There you are, the biggest troublemaker in
18Elijah answered:
You're the troublemaker--not me! You and your family have disobeyed the LORD's
commands by worshiping Baal.
19Call together everyone from
20Ahab got everyone together, then they went to meet Elijah on
The people did not say a word.
22Then Elijah continued:
I am the LORD's only prophet, but Baal has four hundred fifty prophets.
23Bring us two bulls. Baal's prophets can take one of them, kill it,
and cut it into pieces. Then they can put the meat on the wood without lighting
the fire. I will do the same thing with the other bull, and I won't light a
fire under it either.
24The prophets of Baal will pray to their god, and I will pray to
the LORD. The one who answers by starting the fire is God.
"That's a good idea," everyone agreed.
25Elijah said to Baal's prophets, "There are more of you, so
you go first. Pick out a bull and get it ready, but don't light the fire. Then
pray to your god."
26They chose their bull, then they got it ready and prayed to Baal
all morning, asking him to start the fire. They danced around the altar and
shouted, "Answer us, Baal!" But there was no answer.
27At noon, Elijah began making fun of them. "Pray louder!"
he said. "Baal must be a god. Maybe he's day-dreaming or using the toilet
or traveling somewhere. Or maybe he's asleep, and you have to wake him
up."
28The prophets kept shouting louder and louder, and they cut
themselves with swords and knives until they were bleeding. This was the way
they worshiped, 29and they kept it up all afternoon. But there was
no answer of any kind.
30Elijah told everyone to gather around him while he repaired the
LORD's altar. 31-32Then he used twelve stones to build an altar in
honor of the LORD. Each stone stood for one of the tribes of
He told the people, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it over the
meat and the wood." After they did this, 34he told them to do
it two more times. They did exactly as he said 35until finally, the
water ran down the altar and filled the ditch.
36When it was time for the evening sacrifice, Elijah prayed:
Our LORD, you are the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
40Just then, Elijah said, "Grab the prophets of Baal! Don't let
any of them get away."
So the people captured the prophets and took them to
It Starts To Rain
41Elijah told Ahab, "Get something to eat and drink. I hear a
heavy rain coming."
42Ahab left, but Elijah climbed back to the top of
The servant left. And when he came back, he said, "I looked, but I didn't
see anything." Elijah told him to look seven more times.
44After the seventh time the servant replied, "I see a small
cloud coming this way. But it's no bigger than a fist."
Elijah told him, "Tell Ahab to get his chariot ready and start home now.
Otherwise, the rain will stop him."
45-46A few minutes later, it got very cloudy and windy, and rain
started pouring down. So Elijah wrapped his coat around himself, and the LORD
gave him strength to run all the way to Jezreel. Ahab followed him.
Example of Discussion after the Passage:
Who is real, God
or Baal? God. Whom do we worship? God.
Why do you think God had Elijah do this show on the mountain? He wanted Israel to stop worshipping the
non-existent Baal and worship only God, so He had Elijah set this up so that
God could show how powerful he is and how non-existent the other gods
were. God wants us to choose to
worship only Him, and He will help us make that choice just like he helped
these Israelites many years ago. Has God
ever sent someone to help you worship only God?
Definitely—your minister, your Faith Quest teachers, even parents,
relatives and friends can be messengers from God to help us know him.
Puppet Application:
Note: Today, there
are two short skits that can be performed either by a few well behaved children
or by adults and teenagers for the children.
After these skits, there is a third skit (a set of lines) to be
performed by each child.
Discussion Questions:
Skit 1: Who is
the most powerful being? God. Who is in control of everything? God.
Skit
2: Did this sound like a strange
test? Yes Have you ever had a test like that? Probably will say no. You may think you’ve never had a test
like this, but from the time you are born, God has given you a test like
this. If you read the Bible and study what
God is telling us in the Bible, it really is exactly like this test. Who is the Teacher in God’s test? God, the Bible, Jesus, and representatives
of God and Jesus, like ministers and Sunday teachers, parents—lots of answers
are possible as long as they are teaching God’s instruction to choose only
Him. Who are the students? All humans
What are our choices? Worshiping
God, choosing Jesus as our Savior. God makes is easy for us—he tells us what to
choose—but for some reason, God wants us to make the choice ourselves.
Skit
3: There doesn’t need to be much
discussion after this. If there seems to
be extra time, ask the children whether anyone would like to say the lines
themselves without the puppet.
Reflection Time:
At 10:35 a.m., ask the shepherds
to pass out the journal sheets and pencils/markers. Ask the children to draw a
picture of Jesus helping children choose him.
The workshop leader(s) and shepherd(s) can help parents by writing a
caption on the picture.
At 10:45 ask the students to
close their journals and sit quietly for prayer.
Prayer: Write you own or use this
example. Thank you Father for being so
powerful that you are in control of everything.
Thank you for helping us know you and making a choice to worship only you. We ask this in the name of your son, Jesus
Christ.
Tidy and Dismissal: Ask children to help tidy up. Close/lock the door and turn off the
lights.
Teacher preparation in advance:
1.
Pray
that God will guide you to teach what He wants taught during this workshop and
scripture passage. Pray for a loving and
patient attitude toward the children.
Pray for time management during the workshop. Pray that the child will know the LORD as a
result of this lesson.
2.
Read the
scripture passages and attend the Faith Quest Leaders Bible Study.
3.
Please
practice reading the scripture passage out loud several times. See Who Should Read section of this
lesson for encouragement.
4.
Make at
least 3 copies of the skit 1. Make 20
copies of skit 2.
5.
Check
out the room before your first Sunday workshop so that you will know where
everything is located.
6.
Make a
poster of the memory verse to hang on the wall.
This poster needs to be taken down each week and re-hung on Sunday.
7.
Prepare
a closing prayer.
As the writer of this lesson
and also as a Faith Quest teacher, I strongly encourage you, the workshop
leader, to read the Bible passage yourself and only after practicing it before
your first Sunday.
Catherine Devins, who helped
Rev. Joan McCarthy bring the workshop rotation to the Kirk, suggests that “the
workshop leader be sure to prepare a reading with emphasis and energy and
excitement as appropriate.” Drawing from
personal experience, she says, “When I teach, I do the reading and ask the kids
to follow along. Often I set up the story in an animated way, then read with as
much drama as I can get away with.”
Suggested Supply List
Copies of the
script
Poster for memory
verse
References
Notes supplied by Lori Houck for curriculum writers'
Bible study
GOD IN CONTROL
Skit 1
Carrie: “Do you read action stories? I like the superheroes in the stories. I wish I had a friend who was that powerful.”
David: “I like superheroes, too, but they aren’t
real. But I do have a friend who is
powerful.”
Carrie: “Are you talking about your older brother who
is always protecting you?”
David: “He is strong, but I’m not talking about
him. I was talking about God. My mother says that God is the most powerful
being in the universe.”
Carrie: “How come we don’t see him doing powerful
things all the time?”
David: “I think we do. I think we just don’t always give God the
credit for all that God has done. God
created everything—earth, sun, stars, moon, trees, animals, food--everything. God made people come alive just with breath.”
Carrie: “You’re right. I can see all those things, and they do seem
very powerful—I guess I don’t always think about God’s part in these things
when I see them. And I had never really
thought about how powerful it was to create all of those things. God is very powerful. But do you think God can control
everything?”
David: “My mom says that the Bible tells you a lot
of things about the way God is, and the Bible says that God is totally in
control of everything, even when it doesn’t seem that way.”
CHOOSING GOD
Skit 2
Teacher: “Class, here is a writing test you must
take. There are two different questions
you can choose from. Your answer must be
at least one page. If you choose to
answer question one, you will pass automatically. If you choose to answer question two, your
answer is going to have to be very, very wonderful in order to pass the
test. It is your choice which one you
answer.”
Student1: “I don’t understand. It seems like if I choose question one, I
will pass. Do I get more points if I try
to answer question two?”
Teacher: “No, the best thing that can happen with
either question is that you pass the test—that is all that you want to do.”
Student2: “Why would anyone choose question two?”
Teacher: “I’m not sure, but maybe the question looks
more fun to answer.”
Student1: “I don’t care how much fun it looks, I’m
going with the sure pass.”
Student2:
“Oh look, it’s a question about playing on
the computer. Maybe I could do a good
job on it.”
Student1: “Don’t do it!
Answer question one, pass the test, and you can play on the computer
yourself later. ”
Student2: “I guess
you’re right. The Teacher made it very
clear what we had to do to pass. I’m
glad she told us.”
Narrator: “After the test…”
Teacher: “Congratulations, students. You all chose question one and passed the
test.”
Skit 3
Each
child will get a puppet and help the puppet choose God and Jesus. After the narrator reads their part, each
child will say the following line. The
Bible reference is from Romans 10:9-10.
Narrator: “Do you know what it means to be saved? It means that Jesus died so that God will
forget anything bad that you have done.
Then God will make a place for you in heaven after you die. Do you know what a Lord is? It is someone who you follow, listen to and
obey—almost like a master of you. The
Bible says “that you will be saved, if you can truthfully say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’
and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. God will
accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others.” Today we’re going to practice saying this
with our puppets so that one day, if you haven’t already, you can make this
choice and say this for yourself.”
Puppet: "Jesus is Lord. I believe with all my heart that God raised
him from death. I will tell this to
others.”