16 Februari 2014

Kelas Balita

Coach Jevelyn

Asst 1 : Adeline

Asst 2 : Junita

Kelas 1 - 3

Coaches : Yungcien (Dedy)

Kelas 4 - 6

Coaches : Savitri (Miguel)

Kings: Review & Kings of Israel

1. LESSON: Review & Kings of Israel (1 Kings 15: 25-16:28)

 

• In the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the kings of Judah who ruled over theSouthern Kingdom (2 tribes): (use actions to reinforce and review)
• Rehoboam: Not a servant king
  (actions: an “X” sign with hands then open palms for “serving”)
  Proud and refused to serve the people. As a result, his father’s kingdom was split into 2 — Judah (2 tribes) and Israel (10 tribes).
  Jesus is our servant King who came to give us rest.

• Abijah: Relied on God for victory
  (actions: do V for victory sign with fingers)
  God gave him victory over Jeroboam (who tried to ambush Abijah with double the number of troops) because of His covenant with David. 
  Because of His New Covenant with Jesus, God fights our battles for us and gives us victory!

• Asa: Trust in God or trust in self?
  (actions: stand on 1 foot and lean to one side; ie who are you leaning on?)
  When Asa trusted in God, God gave him victory over the Egyptian king and his mighty army. But when threatened by King Baasha, Asa decided to rely on himself and formed his own alliances, instead of trusting God.
  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

• Today, we will look at 5 more kings of Israel (Northern Kingdom; 10 tribes) and see how they fared. 
• Generally, all the kings of Israel didn’t follow God. They did evil and led the people to worship idols. It was a vicious cycle with each new king. And there were always wars and unrest as a result.

• Jeroboam (22 years)
  (actions: 2 fingers on sides of head like cows’ horns)  
• We’ve learnt about King Jeroboam. Who remembers what he did? He made 2 golden calves for the people to worship, so they didn’t have to go to the Temple in Jerusalem.
• Jeroboam tried to let unholy people worship a holy God everywhere. 
  Jesus’ death made us holy and opened the way for us to worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. 

•  Nadab (2 years)
  (actions: show thumb; he is 1^st of 5 new kings we’re learning today)
• Son of Jeroboam; followed his father’s ways. 
• One day, when Nadab was busy attacking a town in Philistine (Gibbethon), one of his own people, Baasha, from the tribe of Issachar, plotted against him and killed him! 

• Baasha (24 years)
  (actions: show 2 fingers — thumb and forefinger)
• As soon as Baasha killed Nadab, he made himself king.
• He killed Jeroboam’s entire family, as was prophesied to Jeroboam before as a result of his idolatry. (1 Kings 14:14-16)
• Last week we learnt of how Baasha tried to attack King Asa of Judah, but Asa made a treaty with King Ben-Hadad to stop him.
• Baasha also did many evil things and worshipped idols. God sent His prophet to tell Baasha: “I lifted you up from the dust and appointed you ruler over my people Israel, but you followed the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin and to arouse my anger by their sins.” 
• As a result, God told Baasha that he and his family will suffer the same end as Jeroboam and his family. 

• Elah (2 years)
  (actions: show 3 fingers — thumb, forefinger and 3^rd finger)
• Son of Baasha.
• His official, Zimri, who commanded half his chariots, plotted against him. One day when Elah was drunk, Zimri came in and struck him down.

• Zimri (7 days)
  (actions: show 4 fingers — thumb, forefinger, 3^rd finger and ring finger)
• Zimri succeeded Elah as king of Israel and ruled in Tirzah.
• Just as Baasha killed the entire family of Jeroboam, Zimri killed all of Baasha’s family, as was prophesied.
• However Zimri was the shortest-reigning king in Israel. Guess how long he reigned? 7 days!
• When the Israelites in the army camp heard that Zimri had plotted against the king and murdered him, they proclaimed Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that very day there in the camp.
• Omri and the Israelites then attacked Tirzah (where Zimri was ruling).
• When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the royal palace and set the palace on fire around him. So he died. 

• Omri (12 years)
  (actions: show 5 fingers)
• Some Israelites supported another person to be king —Tibni, but Omri’s followers were stronger, so Omri became king.
• Omri bought a hill from a man called Shemer for 2 talents of silver. He built a city on the hill and called it Samaria, after Shemer (the former owner).
• Sadly, like the other kings before him, Omri also did evil in the eyes of the Lord. In fact, the Bible says he sinned more than all those before him.

 

• Conclusion: 
• What can we learn from the kings of Israel? (revise with actions)
• Jeroboam
• Nadab
• Baasha
• Elah 
•  Zimri
• Omri

• Because they didn’t follow God, because they did evil and led the people to worship idols, there were always wars and unrest 
• (note: If you recall, in the beginning, God was the King over the nation of Israel when He brought them into the Promised Land. He had judges to rule over Israel. But Israel grumbled and complained — all the other nations had kings, so they wanted a human king too! That was how Saul was appointed as Israel’s 1^st king.) 
• Through history, we see how human kings always fail. Because they are human. They are not perfect. They make bad decisions. They try to do things their own way, not God’s way. And as a result, the people will suffer.
• Today, we have a good King. He never fails. He is perfect. He makes wise decisions. He does things His way because He is God. And as a result, all of us are blessed in Him! His name is Jesus!
• Out of the 5 kings, 3 became king by killing the previous king — Baasha, Zimri and Omri. They were greedy for power and seized it for themselves by destroying others.
• Jesus was King of all who came to give His life for us. When the people wanted to make Him king by force, Jesus withdrew because He knew that was not God’s time (John 6:15). When He finally entered Jerusalem as a king on a donkey (John 12:15), his purpose was to die on the cross and give His life for us.
• Because Jesus died for us, you and I can be prince and princesses of the Most High God! Thank you Jesus!

9 Februari 2014

Kings: Asa of Judah

1. HOOK: Whom do you seek? Or related icebreaker 

• Create two cubes/lists:
• possible decisions that kids have to make (e.g. school work, recreation, choosing friends etc)
• possible people or things they seek help from (e.g. parents, friends, doctors, teachers etc)  

• Have kids roll the two dice together and discuss the way people might seek the help for the decision. 
• God puts wise people in our midst, and we should get help from these people, especially our parents. But our parents are also human. They don’t have all the answers or know what’s going to happen. The One person who knows everything and whom we can depend on is Jesus. So whenever we have issues or problems or have to make big decisions, talk to Jesus first, and He will show us the way. 

2. LESSON: King Asa of Judah (1 Kings 15, 2 Chronicles 14-16)

•  King Asa 
• Today we meet King Asa. He was the son of King Abijah and ruled over Judah for 41 years.
• Unlike his father Abijah and grandfather Rehoboam, the Bible records for us that “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God” (2 Chron 14:2) and that he had a whole heart like David (“Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life.” 2 Chron 15:17)
•  What did Asa do? He:
• Stopped worship to the false gods: Removed the foreign altars and high places; smashed the sacred stones; and cut down the Asherah poles (He even removed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother because she made an idol for the worship of the false goddess Asherah)
• Commanded Judah to seek God and obey Him
• Built up and prospered the cities of Judah in times of rest/peace

•  Asa & his 2 Battles: Where do you place your trust?

• During Asa’s reign, Judah had peace for many years. But there were 2 instances where he faced some external threats.

• #1: Zerah and the Cushites (1 Chron 14)
• There was a man called Zerah, who was a Cushite. He had a large and powerful army — 1 million men and 300 chariots — from Egypt.
• One day, Zerah decided to come and attack King Asa at the Valley of Zephathah. 
• King Asa had about 580,000 fighting men, but Zerah’s army was greater — 1 million men and 300 chariots. The odds were heavily stacked against King Asa. 
• What did Asa do? He called to God. “Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.” (1 Chron 14:11)
• Asa trusted and relied on God. And God struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushite armies fled, and Asa and his men chased them and destroyed them.
• King Asa and his men also carried away a large amount of plunder from the fallen Cushites. God gave them a great victory indeed!

•  #2: Baasha King of Israel (1 Chron 16) 
• In the 36^th year of Asa’s reign, there was another threat against Judah. 
• King Baasha of Israel went against King Asa. He fortified the town of Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering Judah.
• What did Asa do? Call to God?
• Unfortunately this time, he didn’t. 
• Asa decided to rely on his own cleverness this time. Asa decided to make a treaty with Ben-Hadad king of Aram, from Damascus. 
• Ben-Haded had a treaty with Baasha already. But King Asa gave Ben-Hadad gold and silver from the treasuries of the temple and palace and asked him to break his treaty with Baasha. 
• Ben-Hadad agreed. He broke off his treaty with Baasha of Israel and began conquering the towns of Israel — Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, Naphtali etc. 
• When Baasha heard about it, he abandoned his work at Ramah. So the men of Judah went to carry away all the stones and timber that Baasha had been using in Ramah, and they used it to build up the towns of Geba and Mizpah.
• That seemed like a smart move on King Asa’s part, right?
• But God didn’t think so. Asa had trusted in his own cleverness and in another man (King Ben-Hadad) instead of in God to deliver him … even though God had delivered him from Zerah and the Cushites before. 
• He sent Hanani the prophet to speak to Asa:“Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on theLord, he delivered them into your hand. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”
• Asa didn’t listen to the prophet. He was angry with him and put him in prison. 
• Even when Asa was old and sick, he only trusted the doctors and did not seek help from the Lord. (1 Chron 16:12)

• Asa was a good king who followed God and kept His commandments. He didn’t worship idols. But He forgot to trust God fully. He thought that he was smarter than God. He put his trust in other men. In the end, he missed out the big victory God had in store for him.
• We can be good and follow God’s commandments. We can choose not to worship idols. But when we rely on our own goodness and smartness and abilities, we lose out on something greater. Jesus is our goodness. Jesus is our wisdom. Jesus is our ability.
• So children, do we trust men or trust Jesus? Trust our own selves? Or trust Jesus?When we are faced with issues and decisions in life, call upon Jesus, and He will answer us and show us the best way!

• Memory Verse Activity: (play game or activity to get kids to memorise)
  Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

2 Februari 2014

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.

• THE WAR (2 Chron 13) 
• One day, Jeroboam wanted to attack Abijah. He had 800,000 soldiers on his side. 
• Abijah got his troops ready too. But he only had 400,000 soldiers. 
• Who had the bigger army? Jeroboam (by double the number of troops) 
• Who would most probably win? Jeroboam 
• God’s ways are not our ways.  He delights to show His power in our weakness. (1 Cor 1:25) 
• Although we read that Abijah only had HALF HEART for God, he knew and understood that the ONLY way to win against his enemy was to fully rely on God. Not on numbers or his own strength or power.  
• Abijah was facing a huge enemy and he knew enough about God that he knew the only way he could win this battle was if God fought it for him.

• THE SPEECH 
• Abijah stood on the mountain and gave a speech to Jeroboam and his soldiers. His speech included: 
• Reminding them of God’s promise to David that his kingdom would reign forever. 
• Jeroboam made golden calves to be their gods and drove out God’s priests from his kingdom and allowed anyone who wants to be a priest to be one.(our lesson last week)
• Abijah’s kingdom had God’s priests who were obedient to follow God’s ways to worship.
• God is with Judah and enemies will lose if they fight against Him. “People of Israel, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed.” (2 Chron 13:12)

•  THE AMBUSH 

• But Jeroboam decided to go ahead. 
• He sent some of his troops behind Abijah’s troops to “sandwich” them. 
• When Judah turned and saw that there were Jeroboam’s armies in front AND behind them, they did the only thing they could do — they cried out to the Lord. 
• The priests blew their trumpets. The men of Judah raised the battle cry. 
• And even though Israel’s armies were 2x the size of Judah’s, the Bible records for us that God defeated the armies of Israel before King Abijah and Judah. 
• Israel’s armies fled, and Abijah and his men managed to strike down 500,000 of them. Imagine … 400,000 soldiers from Judah striking down 500,000 soldiers from Israel. Physically and logically, that was impossible. But God made it possible. 
• In 2 Chronicles 13:18, it says, “The Israelites were subdued on that occasion, and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.”

• Conclusion:
• Even though Abijah did bad things, the one good thing he did was to remember God’s promise/covenant to his great grandfather, David.
• He knew that God promised to give King David a forever kingdom. 
• He knew God always kept His promises.
• So he knew God would not fail them.

• Even as a little boy, Abijah’s great grandfather, David, also remembered God’s promise/covenant to the people of Israel (e.g. the Abrahamic covenant of a great nation).
• When he saw Goliath mocking the armies of Israel, he said,“Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Sam 17:26) 
• When Goliath insulted him, David said, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (1 Sam 17:45) 
• David knew who was with Israel and who will fight the battle for them — God.

• God is a Covenant-keeping God.  
• God kept His covenant when Goliath was threatening His people
• God kept His covenant with David when Jeroboam’s armies tried to ambush Abijah’s
• God didn’t help Abijah and Judah because they were so good or that they deserved it — even though Abijah boasted, “We are observing the requirements of the Lord our God.” 
• God helped Abijah and Judah because of His covenant with David — “For David’s sake, the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him and by making Jerusalem strong.”
• And God keeps His covenant with Jesus, which was cut on the cross with Jesus’ blood.
• God will help us in our time of need — not because we deserve it; not because we are so good; but because He is good, and because we are His children under the New Covenant.
• For Jesus’ sake, God fights our battles for us. God protects us. God helps us and gives us the victory! 
• Praise the Lord!

•  Memory Verse:

o   2 Chron 13:18 The people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

Option: 

o   Ps 18:2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer ...