2. No Other god's

Commandment: "You shall have no others gods before me." (Exodus 20:3 NET)

Bible Story: The Burning Bush (Moses' Call) - Exodus 3-4

Goals-

Cognitive: The children will learn that God is the one true God; "I AM WHO I AM" (Ex 3:14).Affective: The children will purpose to make worship only God.

 

Books to know this week:

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans

Key passage(s) to know this week:

The 10 Commandments - Exodus 20

Praise and Worship Time (10 minutes)

1. Opening Prayer

2. Sing songs on Choice

Review Bible Books and Key Passage (5 minutes)

Have the children find the following books/passage in the Bible:

· Romans

· Luke

· Matthew

· The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20)

Tell the Bible Story (15 minutes)

1. Prepare to Teach

Review last week's Bible story notes.

Read Exodus 3 and 4.

2. Teach

Assign the following passages/verses to be read by the children:

· Exodus 3:3-4

· Exodus 3:11-12

· Exodus 3:13

· Exodus 3:14

In your own words, tell the story of Moses' encounter with God. Be sure to include the following:

After an incident in Egypt, Moses had to flee. He fled to the desert where he spent the next 40 years of his life.

While shepherding some sheep, Moses noticed a bush burning but not being consumed by the fire.

He neared the bush to investigate.

Have a child read Exodus 3:3-4

God call Moses from within the bush (3:4) and Moses responded "Here I am. God told Moses to remove his sandals for the ground he stood on was holy ground.

God told Moses He had heard the cries of His people and He was sending Moses to Pharaoh to bring His people out of Egypt.

Have a child read Exodus 3:11-12

Moses had some questions of God before he agreed. The first was `who am I that I should go?'

God assured Moses He would go with him.

Have a child read Exodus 3:13

Moses had a second question for God. "Suppose they ask `what is His name'? What shall I tell them?"

Have a child read Exodus 3:14

God responded by giving Himself a name: "I AM WHO I AM"

Explain to children the following

Names are extremely significant in Scripture

They are intended to reveal something about the person whose name it is.

Ask: What do we learn from the name God gave Himself: "I AM WHO I AM?"

After pausing for answers, teach the children:

We learn at least 3 things from this name of God:

God is a person and because God is a person, we can have fellowship with Him.

God is self-existent. He has no origins and therefore answers to no one.

God is self-sufficient. God has no needs. He did not need to create humans. He does not need us to do His work. When we begin to understand the self-sufficiency of God, we begin to realize our need for faith in Him alone. To trust in ourselves or in another is to say that we have found ourselves or other more trustworthy than God and that is foolishness.

Tell the children the following:

Moses had more questions for God and we'll cover those questions another time.

For now, as we focus on the first commandment, we need to understand why God should be the only god we worship.

He is all that ("I AM WHO I AM") and so much more!

What does Jesus say about this commandment?

When He is questioned about which is the greatest commandment, He responds "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37)

Jesus associates Himself; equates Himself with God when He calls Himself "I AM" (John 8:58). Because Jesus is God, He too is a person, is self-existent, is self-sufficient. More importantly, He is worthy to be worshiped.

Pray

Praise God for who He is

Thank Him for sending Jesus so that we might be saved and so that we could know Him.

Pray God would reveal Himself to each child assuring them that He alone is God.

3. Explain the Family Attributes of God Family Activity

We learned a little about God today as we discussed the name He gave Himself. There are so many more attributes of God we can praise Him for. This week, as a family, think of other attributes (characteristics) of God and list them in the family activity sheet provided. Try to think of at least one per letter of the alphabet. Three have been done for you.

Weekly Challenge (20 minutes)

In this weeks challenge, we want to emphasize the fact that there is only one God and we are to worship no other gods but Jehovah God.

1. Before the Challenge

Gather the necessary supplies:

Supplies:

500 plastic eggs

1 gold coin

Colored paper or stickers (3 colors)

Books of the Bible cards (Matthew through Romans)

Key Passages Cards

Prepare the eggs for the challenge:

Assign a point value to each of the 3 colored papers/stickers.

Color 1 - 1 point

Color 2 - 2 points

Color 3 - 3 points

In 499 plastic eggs, place a colored paper/sticker. In 1 egg, place the single gold coin.

Put the eggs out on the lawn.

2. The Challenge

On your mark, have the children collect as many eggs as their team can collect. When all the eggs have been collected, have the team leaders tally the points for each team based on the assigned values.

The team that finds the single gold coin is the automatic first place winner regardless of the number of points they collected.

Give each team their books of the Bible cards (Matthew through Romans) and the Key Passage cards. On your mark again, have the teams put the books of the Bible (Matthew through Romans) in the correct order and match the key passage title to the reference.

When the team has placed the books of the Bible in the correct order and has matched the key passage cards, they are to wave their flag.

3. Apply the Challenge

Explain to the children that we do not need to fill our lives with things (money, power, friends, video games, etc). We need God to fill our lives. If the team that found the gold coin had not collected any other points, they still would have won because they found the one thing of most value. God is the one True God and He alone is worthy of our worship.

Closing (10 minutes)

1. Award this week's medals based on the week's challenge.

2. Assign this week's memory work:

Books of the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus

Key Passages:

The 10 Commandments - Exodus 20

The Model Prayer - Matthew 6:9-13

3. Explain Key Passage

During Jesus' time on earth, the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. Jesus did as they asked and offered this prayer, found in Matthew 6:9-13 as a model prayer.

4. Closing prayer.

5. Closing song of choice (if time permits)