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We began our evening by talking about one of the challenges the kids had from last week's devotional. They had to ask a nonbeliever what they thought was humanity's biggest problem. Some answers were obesity, welfare, no respect for others, aging, laziness, garbage on TV, bad video games, parents not taking care of their kids. We discussed how the majority of these answers could all be tied right back into sin, but how no one asked was willing to call their answers sin...when that is in fact humanity's biggest problem. Interesting. Calling them sin would be acknowledging that sin exists, as well as a God who judges that sin.
Tonight we conquered learning about our Messiah as King. First we asked the youth, if they could be king or queen of the world for a day, what's one thing they'd do. The answers ranged from ban school, make doing math illegal, pay off all my parents' bills, make sure no one was homeless, ban all little brothers and sisters for a day.
Then we held a Royalty Triathlon between the boys and the girls. First competition was the Nobility Ability to Balance. Royalty needs good posture. Two youth each representing the boys and girls were given large hardback books to balance on their heads and walk with. They also had to stand on one leg and turn in a circle with the books on their heads. Whoever kept the book balanced the longest, won. Girls won!
Next was the Stately Silver Spoons. Royalty is often said to be born with a silver spoon in their mouths! We took it literally! The youth held the end of a spoon in their mouths and used the spoon to scoop as many cotton balls out of a bowl as they could. Boys won that one!
Then was Majestic Movement. Since all royalty is required to attend a ball, we asked the youth to show off their best dance moves. The one with the loudest applause won. Girls took first place here.
After the fun, we moved into our lesson. When we think of a symbol to represent our Christian faith, we think of a cross, but Old Testament believers pictured a throne. They knew their salvation would come through a promised king.
Looking at Psalm 2 and Psalm 89:1-18 written on giant poster boards, we asked the kids to read them over and make marks on them with pens or highlighters or markers. Some things we asked them to do include:
- Circle key words.
- Put a question mark by something you don't understand.
- Draw arrows connecting similar ideas.
- Underline repeated ideas.
- Put a word or phrase in modern language.
- Draw happy, mad, or sad faces next to emotions.
- Doodle pictures of what words made them think of.
We gave the kids about ten minutes to read and mark the Psalms and then discussed them. We asked them what stood out to them, similarities and differences, surprises, and what they enjoyed about them. We talked about how in these Psalms there was an obvious and special relationship between God and the King mentioned. The King's reign was described as eternal and characterized by righteousness and justice.
We read Samuel 7:8-17 and discussed what they thought the passage meant. We talked about David and God's promise to him and why they thought God blessed David with such a promise. We also looked at David's response to God in 2 Samuel 7:25-29 and how David believed God's promise even though he would never live to see it fulfilled through Jesus.
We asked the kids how the promise of a king personally encourages them in their lives and faith. We read Isaiah 9:6-7.
We talked about the difference between David, who sinned and fell short of God's plan for him , as did all the kings who followed him...and the true King of Kings Jesus, our Messiah.
We ended our evening watching this powerful Youtube called "That's My King" by Dr. S.M. Lockridge. We encouraged the kids that that's THEIR King too...the King who pursues them and desires nothing more than that His children would pursue Him too. It's the very reason He created them in the first place!
P.S. We play specific songs, as outlined in the curriculum, during each of the weekly lessons with Pursue. We gave the kids CD's tonight with all of the songs that are used during this Bible study. We encouraged them to listen to them during the week, maybe during their devotion times, and to reflect on how they can better Pursue God in their own lives.
