Main Idea: God uses people that others think are useless to accomplish His work in this world.
Suggested Schedule: (90 mins)
- Welcome (5 mins)
- Game 1 (5mins)
- Review Big Verse (5 mins)
- Set the Scene: Bible story/skit and review questions (10-15 mins)
- Object Lesson 1 talk (5mins)
- Game 2 (5 mins)
- Object Lesson 2 talk (5 mins)
- Game 3 (5 mins)
- Object Lesson 3 talk (10 mins)
- Hook a duck Game (5 mins)
- Sense How You Feel – activity (10 – 25 mins)
- Seek God – prayer (5 mins)
Setting the Stage: This series is all about strange stories in the Old Testament which illustrate how God does crazy and unexpected things! If you have the space, then you could create your own circus backdrop or have a talent slot in your program where the children and leaders can show any circus skills or crazy talents that they have.
Supplies:
- Empty jam jars
- Ping pong balls
- Obscure objects
- Paper
- Pens
- Finger print kit (White paper, clear tape, pencil, magnifying glass, clear glass , cocoa powder, paint brush) OPTIONAL
- Autistic boy YouTube clip
- Laminated sheet of plain paper
- Plain sheet of paper
- Pencil
- Hook a duck set (or use our printed ducks)
- Pintables: Hook a duck PDF, Ticket craft PDF
- Ticket Wallet (to be used throughout the different lessons)
- Coloring pens
- Playdough or clay
- Lego or construction toys
- Prayer tent materials – cushions, bibles, fairy lights, cross, candles etc
- Music
- Mirrors
- All PowerPoint games with some way of showing them (i.e. laptop and screen)
SONG and BIBLE STORY VIDEO IDEAS available via our dedicated Pinterest Board.
GAME IDEAS:
GAME 1: PING PONG TOSS – 5 MINS
Description: One on one Game.
Supplies: Empty jam jars, ping pong balls.
Details: Ping pong toss. (regular/widescreen) Set up several rows of cups or jars and hand out ping pong balls to each child. The child needs to try and throw each ball into the jars. The winner is the one who gets the most balls in the jars.
GAME 2: GROUP STAND UP – 5 MINS
Description: Group Game.
Supplies: No supplies needed
Details: Group stand up. (regular/widescreen) Divide the children into pairs. The pairs must sit with their backs to one another and arms linked. Then they need to try to stand up to-gether without untangling their arms. Once a pair accomplishes this, they can be placed in groups of four for a more difficult challenge, then groups of eight. You can keep going until you have one big group!
GAME 3: DRAW THE OBSCURE OBJECT – 10 MINS
Description: Group Game
Supplies: Ask the children to bring with them an obscure or weird object from home in a bag (if this isn’t possible then you could have a few to hand)
Details: Draw the obscure object. (regular/widescreen) Give each child a piece of paper, pen and the obscure object in a bag. Each person takes a turn describing their hidden item while everyone else tries to draw it. The person which is closest wins and gets to describe their hidden item next.
BIG VERSE: But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1 Corinthians 1:27.
(regular/widescreen/social media image) Download the Bible cards here.
SET THE SCENE: 10-15 MINS
Description: Bible story and questions
Supplies: Bible
Details: You may want to have some of the children act out the story at the same time as you read the passage.
Say: Is anyone left-handed? (You could ask them to stand up). Now this may not seem like a big deal to us today, but back in biblical times it was. Being a left-handed soldier was looked down on. It meant you couldn’t do things that other people could do so you were thought of as pretty useless! But, in our lesson today we’re going to hear about a left handed hero called Ehud and see God do the unexpected!
Read Judges 3:12-30 or use the recap below Israel had forgotten all about God so God gave the king of Moab power to at-tack the Israelites and defeat them. The Israelites served the king of Moab for 18 years. The Israelites were sad. They remembered how good they had it when they loved and obeyed God. They cried out to Him, “Save us!” So God raised up Ehud to save them. The Israelites sent Ehud to the king of Moab, who was a very fat man. Ehud had a double-edged sword under his clothes. Ehud said, “I have a secret message for you.” The king dismissed all his attendants so he was alone with Ehud. When the king stood up, Ehud pulled out his sword. He pushed it into the king’s belly. The sword was swallowed up by the king’s fat. Ehud couldn’t even pull it out! Ehud escaped down the porch, locking the doors of the room behind him. Ehud was gone when the king’s servants came in. The door was locked and they thought he was using the bathroom. They waited, but the king never opened the door. The servants got worried, so they unlocked the door and found their king dead on the floor! When Ehud escaped, he blew a ram’s horn and he became the Israelites’ leader. “God will help us defeat our enemies, the Moabites,” Ehud told them. So the Israelites battled the Moabites and took con-trol over them. There was peace in the land for 80 years.
Wow, what an adventurous story. It was BECAUSE he was left-handed, that he was able to kill King Eglon! God used Ehud AND his weakness!
REVIEW QUESTIONS:
1. Who was the left-handed man that God sent to save his people?
2. Why did Ehud go to see the King?
3. When they were alone, what did Ehud say that upset the king?
4. How did Ehud respond?
5. While the servants of the King waited for him to come out of the room, what did Ehud do?
6. Who told Ehud that they would have victory over their enemies?
7. What happened for the next 80 years?
8. How did God use Ehud’s weakness to defeat the king?
SPOT THE SIMPLE MEANING:
1) GOD MADE ME UNIQUE – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 1
Supplies: Finger print Slide, Optional – Finger print kit (White paper, clear tape, pencil, magnifying glass, clear glass , cocoa powder, paint brush),
Details:.
Say: Now have a look around the room. Is there anyone here that looks exactly like you? NO! There is no one like you alive today or anyone exactly like you in the past. In all of the world, there is not another ________ (insert child’s name). That means you are unique! One of the ways God made each person unique was to give us special stamps that are unlike anyone else’s. Those stamps are our fingerprints. (show finger print slide) Fingerprints are so unique to each person, the police use fingerprints left at the scene of a crime to find out who did the crime. Our fingerprints are like a signature that no one else can duplicate! (If you have time you could show your own fingerprint using one of these links:
Be a Fingerprint Detective | Scholastic | Parents)
2) CREATED FOR WHAT? – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 2
Supplies: Personal story about something you disliked about yourself that God has shown you is a strength. If not then use this YouTube clip Autistic Boy Can Draw Landscapes From Memory | Real Stories – YouTube
Details:
Say: God has a unuqie purpose for everyone and so it’s important that we see our uniqueness as something that God wants to use. Maybe you see your unqi-ueness as something that God can’t use.
(If you have someone who can share a personal story about something you used to dislike about yourself, but that God has helped you overcome and now you see as a strength).
Here is a clip of an extraordinary boy who although having severe autism, has been able to see, memorize and then accurately draw complex buildings since he was first at primary school! (show YouTube clip).
God has a unique purpose for each and every person. We need to see our uni-queness as something that God will use to bring about His purpose and will, be-cause God made us unique for a reason!
3) PERFECT IN WEAKNESS – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 3
Supplies: Laminated sheet of plain paper, plain sheet of paper, pencil
Details: Say: Do you want to be strong or weak? (Wait for a response.) The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. (Hold up laminated sheet). Now this paper is strong because it’s been laminated. It’s impossible to tear! (Hold up paper). Now this paper is weak – it would rip really easily wouldn’t it?
But God wants to use our weakness to show God’s love to others. He can only do that in our weakness. Let me show you by writing God’s word on these sheets of paper.
(ask a child or leader to take a pencil and write “God’s strength is made perfect in weakness” on both sheets). Look it’s impossible to write God’s word on the strong sheet. We can only write this for others to see on the weak paper.
How will you use your weakness to show other’s God’s truth?
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES:
HOOK A DUCK GAME – 10 MINS
Description: Team or individual game
Supplies: Hook-a-duck set (Keynote/PowerPoint), bibles.
Details: Write the following scriptures references on the bottom (or back) of the ducks. Make sure that you have enough ducks for either each group or individuals.
Invite the children to come to the hook a duck stall and hook a duck. In their groups ask them to find the scripture in a bible and read it to the group.
Hook a duck bible verses:
1 Corinthians 1: 27 God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and he chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
2 Corinthians 12: 9 My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weak-ness
1 Timothy 4:12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Psalm 139: 13-14 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are won-derful, I know that full well.
1 Samuel 16:7 For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appear-ance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
Then discuss the questions below.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1.Has anybody ever made you feel like you couldn’t do something, or that you weren’t good enough?
2.How does God see those “weaknesses”?
3. In what way could God use your weaknesses??
4.Have you ever felt inferior and looked down upon because you were dif-ferent? How did that make you feel?
SENSE HOW YOU FEEL – 10 MINS EACH OR IN TANDEM/ROTATION
Encourage the children to think about the questions above as they do one of the activities:
Description: Craft.
Supplies: Pens, Ehud pdf on circus ticket, wallet (each week a circus ticket craft can be placed in the wallet)
Details: Color and decorate the sheet and then place ticket in the wallet until next week.
Description: Moulding activity.
Supplies: Playdough or clay.
Details: Mould Ehud.
Description: Building activity.
Supplies: Lego or construction toys.
Details: Build a scene from the bible where God used someone’s weakness.
Description: Sensory activity.
Supplies: Create a prayer tent space using cushions, lights, a cross and tent if you have one. Have some quiet music playing.
Details: Encourage the children to spend some time listening to God. Have some scriptures around to help focus them. Allow time to draw or write anything that they have heard.
Description: Activity Booklets.
Supplies: 5-7s and 8-11s booklets (included in download), markers.
Details: Fill in or color the 5-7s (PDF) and 8-11s (PDF) booklets.
SEEK GOD: 5 MINS
Description: Prayer/Encounter activity
Supplies: soft worship music, mirrors, pens
Details: Ask the children to stand. Play some quiet music in the background
Say: Today we heard about a man whose weakness was used by God. As the music plays, let’s spend a few moments thinking about how God has made you to be unique. Maybe you see them as weak and something that God could never use. How does he want you to use your uniquenesss for him?
We need to see ourselves as God see’s us so let’s spend some time quietly talking to God and asking him to help us see ourselves as He does ( you could have some mirrors available).
Dear God, thank you that you made us all differently and that you want to use each one of us. Please help us to see ourselves as you see us. AMEN.
ZOOM FRIENDLY LESSON:
EXTRAORDINARY CREATURES GAME (Keynote/PowerPoint)
HUMAN TOP TRUMPS (regular/widescreen)
