Kings: Abijah of Judah

1. HOOK:

• Prepare a plastic chair. Get a volunteer to come forward and put a hand on the chair. Get the volunteer to lift up the outside leg and lean towards the chair. The chair would move (control it a bit for younger kids), and the kid would lose balance.
• Then get another volunteer to come forward. Get this volunteer to put a hand on the wall and lean towards the wall. The wall doesn’t move, and the kid doesn’t lose balance. 
• Today we’re going to learn about somebody who put His trust in the Lord. He didn’t put his trust in other things (like numbers or his own strength and power), because those are like the plastic chair. If you lean on it, it may fail and you may fall. But if we trust the Lord, he is firm, like the wall.

 2. LESSON: King Abijah of Judah (1 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 13)

• REVIEW: KINGS OF ISRAEL

• So far, we have learnt: 
• Rehoboam: Solomon’s son. Did not want to serve the people. People rebelled, and the kingdom was split into 2 — Israel and Judah. Rehoboam ruled over Judah.

• After Rehoboam died, his son Abijah succeeded him as king of Judah. He ruled Judah for 3 years.  
• What else do we know about Abijah? 
• The Bible records for us 2 main things in 1 Kings 15:
• Abijah did not have a WHOLE HEART like King David. He only had HALF HEART. He committed the sins of his father and grandfather of worshipping other gods etc.
• There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam (King of Israel) throughout Abijah’s lifetime.

Kings: Jeroboam and the Golden Calves

1. Lesson:

• Review of Kings of Israel

• So far, we have learnt:

• David: God promised David that there will be a Forever King on his throne. 
• Solomon: Solomon disobeyed God, so God told him that his kingdom will be taken away from him.
• Rehoboam: Solomon’s son. Did not want to serve the people. People rebelled, and the kingdom was split into 2 — Israel and Judah. Rehoboam ruled over Judah (2 tribes) 
• Jeroboam: God chose Jeroboam to rule over 10 tribes (Israel)

• Today we will take a look at King Jeroboam, the King of Israel (Northern Kingdom) 

Kings: Rehoboam the Proud King

1. Lesson:

• Last week we learnt: God had prophesied to Solomon that because of his disobedience, his kingdom will be taken away from him. The prophet Ahijah had prophesied to Jeroboam that he would become king over 10 of Israel’s 12 tribes. 

•  The People’s Request

• Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, succeeded to the throne after his father, Solomon, died.
• Rehoboam went from Jerusalem to Shechem, a city about 40 miles north of Jerusalem, to establish himself as king in the north. (This is where Joshua spoke his last words and where Joseph’s bones were buried.)
• Jeroboam had been an administrator of Shechem during the reign of King Solomon. He was popular there.
• During the reign of King Solomon, Solomon had many big building projects, such as the Temple and his palace. And the people had to do a lot of the work and pay a lot of the taxes. So the people asked Jeroboam to talk to King Rehoboam on their behalf for some help.

Kings: The Divided Kingdom

1. Lesson: The Divided Kingdom (1 Kings 11)

• REVIEW: ORIGINS OF NATIONS OF ISRAEL

 

• Abraham: God promised, "I will make you a great nation"
• Jacob: Renamed "Israel" after wrestling with God
• 12 Sons:
• Went to Egypt when Joseph was leader 
• Descendants became slaves
• God delivered from Egypt
• Entered promised land as nation of Israel (12 tribes)

•  REVIEW: KINGS OF ISRAEL<suggest using flashcards or pictures for younger kids to stick up at correct places>
  

• God was the King of Israel. He spoke to His people through prophets and judges.
• But the people of Israel wanted their own king that they could see, like all the other nations around them. (1 Sam 8)
• God was not happy. But He gave them a king anyway.

• Saul had NO HEART for God: Disobeyed God
• David had WHOLE HEART for God: Man after God's heart
• Solomon had HALF HEART for God: Started well, but ended up worshipping false gods

• Solomon turned to worship his many wives’ false gods. He did not keep his promise to God to follow the One and Only True God with his WHOLE HEART, as his father David did.
• Because of that, God told him that his kingdom will be divided (1 Kings 11:9-13).

Seek first His Kingdom

1. Icebreakers

• Play a simple age-appropriate icebreaker. Some examples:
• Freeze!
  Play praise music and lead the children in movements (stepping side to side, clapping their hands, stomping their feet, tiptoeing, following the teacher in a circle, slapping their legs, doing jump and jacks, reaching up high and down low, etc). Have an assistant shut the worship music off and have the students freeze, standing completely still.  Play the music again and repeat multiple times.  For an added challenge, while students are freezing, recite a memory verse and begin again.

• Simon says 
  One teacher is Simon.  Simon yells out a command such as, “Simon says, march in place!”  The students would then follow the command because “Simon says” to do it.  If Simon does not use the phrase “Simon says” before stating the command and a child still follows, then that child will be seated and is out of the game until the end of the round.  Play continues with eliminations until one child remains who will become the next Simon.

• I spy with a little eye
  Get kids to take turns spying out objects or people in the room. You may want to put some props around (e.g. stuffed animals, pictures from Bible lessons from last year etc) or get kids to sit in a circle and spy out each other. E.g. “I spy with my little eye someone wearing a red dress.”

• Blanket game
  Get all the kids to introduce themselves. Divide class into 2 teams. Hold a large blanket in between. Each team sends a representative to sit in front of the blanket. When blanket is dropped, first side to shout out name of the other wins a point for their team.

2. Lesson

• At Christmas time, some of you had a list of presents that you wanted. Maybe it’s a new Transformers. Or a Barbie doll. Or a truck. Or a book.
• As we enter this new year, what is it that we want? Is it good results? Favour with your parents? Good health? Nice new clothes? A holiday? PSP?
• We all want and need good things in our lives. And God our Father wants to give us good things. He wants to bless us tremendously every day. We just need to look to Him. He is the source of everything.
• Jesus tells His disciples (Matt 6:25-33): DON’T WORRY! 
• Don’t worry about: 
• What you will eat 
• What you will drink
• Your body
• What you will wear

 

• Jesus gave us 2 examples: 
• Birds of the air: They don’t sow or reap or store, but the Heavenly Father feeds them.
• The flowers of the field: They don’t labour or spin. They are here today and gone tomorrow. Yet God dresses them in more splendour than King Solomon.

Christmas: Magi come to worship Jesus

1. Lesson

• We’ve been looking at various Biblical prophecies about Jesus’ birth: 
• A Messiah from the line of David will come 
• A virgin will be of child
• The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem

• Today we look at another essential part of the Christmas story — the Magi/ Wisemen / Kings that visited Jesus (Matt 2:1-16)
• Usually in Christmas cards and nativity plays, we see a picture of 3 Wisemen who visited baby Jesus in a stable, together with the shepherds.

 

• But in reality:
• We don’t know how many there were; at least 2 or more (Matthew uses the plural “we”). There were 3 gifts mentioned — gold, frankincense and myrrh — hence the idea of 3 kings. 
• The wisemen visited Jesus in a house (Matthew 2:11), not the stable. So it was not at the same time as the shepherds.
• Jesus was probably aged between 40 days to 2 years old at the time of the visit.

• The wisemen from the east travelled to visit Jesus because they saw a sign — a supernaturally bright star. They entered Jerusalem and asked around, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 
• The star led them ahead and stopped over the place where Jesus was staying. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Christmas: Shepherds heard the Good News!

1. Lesson

• Last week, we talked about a special visitor for Mary and Joseph and how a government ruling made them travel all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem. This was done so God’s prophecy would be fulfilled — the Saviour will be born in Bethlehem.
• Let’s find out what happened the night Jesus was born, according to Luke 2:8-20.

• The lowly shepherds heard the good news first
• The first people to find out about Jesus’ birth were not important dignitaries or VVIPs. They were lowly shepherds who had to spend the night in the fields to keep watch over their flocks and ensure their safety. 
• We don’t know why God decided to announce the birth to the shepherds first. Perhaps He wanted them to know that the Good Shepherd of the world has come! Do you remember Psalm 23? The Lord is my Shepherd …