BIG IDEA: NOBODY IS GREATER THAN GOD
SONG IDEAS:
1. ‘How Great is Our God’ by Gods Kids Worship
2. ‘Great Big God’ by Vineyard Kids Worship
3. ‘Super Strong God’ by Hillsong Kids
GAME IDEAS:
1. Cereal box challenge. (regular/widescreen) See who can pick up the cereal box with their teeth – with only their feet touching the floor. Then rip a layer off and start again. Keep playing until there is only one player left.
2. Arm wrestling. (regular/widescreen) Have an arm wrestling championship and see who can beat everyone!
3. House of Cards. (regular/widescreen) Who can make the biggest tower using a pack of cards? Prop two cards up against each other. Do this again close by, and a third time. Then try and stack the cards in the same way on top of that layer. For an easier way watch this video.
BIG VERSE: For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. Psalm 96:4. (regular/widescreen)
SET the Scene:
Read 1 Kings 18:36-39.
The prophets of Baal and the prophets (messengers) of Asherah are all together for the big showdown. Who will win the contest?! That’s what everyone watching would have wanted to know! Baal and Asherah were two false gods that people worshipped at the time; Baal was supposed to be the god of new life and thunder, and Asherah was the moon goddess (they were a couple!). Elijah was the only messenger of God left!
SPOT the Simple Meaning:
1) GOD IS GREAT!
Introduce the teaching with this video.
GOD IS GREAT! Did you see how God showed up and the Baal god didn’t? You know, Elijah wanted to prove to everyone that God was real – and that He was the ONLY GREAT GOD! And He did! The prophets of Baal and Asherah looked completely stupid because nothing showed up for them – their god was a fake! We can see some statues of this ‘god’ and ‘goddess’ in our images here [show the Baal (regular/widescreen) and Asherah (regular/widescreen) images here] Yet we have an awesome God who shows up for us! He is a GREAT God! There is nothing too difficult for Him to do!
This means that we can put all our hope, faith and trust in our God! He shows up for us when we call on His name. Don’t be afraid to trust that God is faithful and that when He asks you to do something He will provide everything you need. God provided the fire even when 12 waterpots of water had been poured on the altar, the wood and the bull to be sacrificed. Imagine! The wood would have been soaking wet! (1 Kings 18:33-35) Naturally speaking, the wood should not have burned at all… but our God is a Supernatural God! He can do anything! He can even break the natural laws – He can do miracles because He is so GREAT!
Not only did God show up for Elijah, but he showed up for everyone to see. The people fell on their faces when they saw that the water had been ‘licked up’ and they cried “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!” (1 Kings 18:39). When you stand strong for God expect that He will not only show up for you, but He will show up for other’s to see too! Then they will see how GREAT our God is too!
Asherah image used with permission: By Hanay (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Baal image used with permission: [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
SEARCH the Scriptures:
BALLOON POP GAME ACTIVITY:
Prep: hide a number of scriptures in balloons. Put the balloons in garbage bags. Get a chair for each team and place them at the opposite side of the room. Have teams line up before shouting go!
How to Play: Balloon pop game – teams relay to a chair where they sit on a balloon and pop it before running back and tagging the next player. Inside the balloons are scriptures that they must find before running. How many scriptures can they find in the balloons that talk of God’s greatness?? The team with the most scriptures at the end is the winning team. Read the verses and discuss how they relate to the story.
SENSE How You Feel:
Sit in a circle. Tell the players that they are going to take turns to show a feeling on their face and to pass the feeling along so that everyone must do it. Choose a person to begin and tell them that they must decide (without telling anyone) who in the story they are going to pretend to be. They can choose from:
a) King Ahab
b) One of the prophets of Baal/Asherah
c) One of the people of Israel – someone in the crowds onlooking the fire
Then the leader will ask them a question relating to the story and they will pass a feeling depending on the answer to the question. Example questions could be;
- What did you feel towards the gods Baal and Asherah?
- How did you feel as you made your way to Mount Carmel?
- What did you feel as you got your sacrifice ready?
- How did you feel as you waited for your god to show up?
- What did it feel like to see the fire come down from Heaven?
- What did it feel like when all the crowds knew whose god was the greatest?
- How did you feel towards the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel after seeing the fire?
They pass the feeling along the circle and once the last person has shown the feeling they must all try and guess who they were all pretending to be. They can then discuss if they think that was how the biblical person was feeling at that moment in time. Remind the children that we don’t actually know for sure, but we can look for clues in the Bible.
SEEK God:
Make this planet earth window by using tissue paper, clear contact paper and black paper. Then stick a short prayer on it… something like, “help me to realize how big you are God” on white slips of paper.
* Get the children to come up with their own prayer about how great God is!
Stick it onto the earth.
Finish by asking them;
What would you do differently if you REALLY understood how GREAT God was?
Click here for the ‘God is Great’ widescreen image
Click here for the ‘God is Great!’ PowerPoint image
