scc elementaryscript godhearsme€¦ · god hears me elementary week 1 series concept in this...

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ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM

A three- week series

BOTTOM LINE God hears our

prayers.

BIBLE VERSE “God has

listened. He has heard my

prayer,” Psalm 66:19.

In this three-week, video series, kids will learn how God heard the prayers of Hannah, Solomon and Jonah, and understand that God listens

and hears our prayers, too.

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SERIES OUTLINE

God Hears Hannah’s Prayer, 1 Samuel 1-2

God Hears Solomon’s Prayer, 1 Kings 3

God Hears Jonah’s Prayers, Jonah


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GOD HEARS ME Elementary

Week 1 SERIES CONCEPT In this three-week, video series, kids will learn how God heard the prayers of Hannah, Solomon and Jonah, and understand that God listens and hears our prayers, too. BIBLE TRUTH God Hears Hannah’s Prayer, 1 Samuel 1-2 BOTTOM LINE God hears our prayers. BIBLE VERSE “God has listened. He has heard my prayer,” Psalm 66:19. SUPPLIES • Bible • Optional stage props: kid-sized priest robe and sandals NOTES • All yellow highlighted text are cues for visual and audio slides. • The times in blue are to guide you. The program led from stage should be around 20-25

minutes. • The Bible story is sandwiched between an intro video that introduces a problem, and an

outro video that solves it. • Option 1: For video teaching, show full video, then resume at Bible Verse and eliminate the

outro video. • Option 2: For live teaching, show the intro video, then use the live-teaching script, then

show the outro video after the prayer. SMALL GROUP Kids will write a prayer and hang it up as a symbol of how God hears us.


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TEACHER DEVOTIONAL Read: 1 Samuel 1:1-20 Hannah is introduced as a woman who was greatly favored. However, she was unable to become pregnant and she became deeply burdened and deeply anguished. She prayed and prayed and vowed to God that if he gave her the ability to have a son, she would commit him to the Lord. Hannah never stopped asking and God was faithful. Hannah worshipped in times of deep sadness. In times of darkness and pain, Hannah prayed. She poured out her soul to a God who listened and would give her a son at just the right time. Then, when God finally gave her a son, Hannah continued to be faithful. She did just as she had promised and committed her son to God. Even though that meant that her long-awaited son wouldn’t even live with her, Hannah was so grateful to God for him that she kept her promise and sent him to live with the priest in Shiloh. Hannah was persistent. God hears our persistent prayers, too. Even when we have to pray over and over, and even when we don’t get the answer we thought we wanted, we can trust in God’s timing and his plan. Samuel turned out to be the great leader Israel needed. Only God knew the timing on that. Hannah wanted a son. God wanted a leader. Finally the time was right for both, and Hannah’s persistent prayer was answered. What persistent prayer are you bringing to God? Does Hannah’s story inspire you to continue to pray? Why? Why not?


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WELCOME 1-2 minutes Hey everyone! I’m so glad you’re all here today. (Welcome kids.) FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD (Share with kids how God asks us to love all his children through giving and praying. Talk about a global or local outreach program and encourage kids to give by collecting an offering.) WORSHIP 6-7 minutes Let’s stand up and worship God! (Encourage kids to worship God through song and dance. Play worship songs.) INTRO 1 minute + 1.5-minute video Show Series Graphic: God Hears Me This month we’re looking at prayer and whether or not prayer works. Like, does God hear us when we pray? Should we talk louder so he can hear us? Should we ask for the same thing over and over and over? Let’s tune in to see what we can learn about praying today. Option 1: For video teaching, show full video, then resume at Bible Verse and eliminate the outro video: Show Video: Wk. 1 Full Hannah God Hears Me 11-minute video Option 2: For live teaching, show the intro video, then use the live-teaching script, then show the outro video after the prayer: Show Video: Wk. 1 Intro Cavelady God Hears Me Show Series Graphic: God Hears Me Wow! Cavelady sure was having trouble getting that man to give her some food. I know he could hear her and understand that she really was hungry. I just don’t get why he didn’t give her some food. It’s kinda like the woman in our Bible story today. She was having some trouble, too. She had been praying for a long time for something and it was not happening. She was asking and asking and she really wanted it. I wonder if God ever heard her prayer. Let’s find out. (Open Bible.) BIBLE TRUTH 5-6 minutes Setup It all happened in a place called Shiloh. That was a special, holy place out in the wilderness where God’s people had built a big tent so they could worship God there. They chose some special men to be priests to work there, too. See, back then, priests were supposed to be the ones who helped people follow God. They would hear from God and tell people what he said. Or they would read the scriptures and explain it to people so they could follow God better. They would make sure the people knew how to be forgiven, and how to worship God, and how


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to give good gifts to God. Being a priest was a big job. It was not something just anyone could do. Priests had to be chosen specifically. So Shiloh was good for a while, but after a few years, some people stopped listening to what the priests said. They stopped doing what God wanted them to do. And the priests stopped hearing from God. In fact, hundreds of years went by and none of God’s people had heard God’s voice or could tell anyone what God wanted them to do. So some of the people stopped following God, and even worse, some people decided to worship fake gods! This was how things were at Shiloh when Old Eli was the priest there. Now as a priest, remember, Old Eli was supposed to help the people know God. (kind of unsure) And Eli was a man of God, but he was an old man now and he never did anything special, or told anyone what God was saying. The only thing Old Eli did was sit in his chair by the doorway to God’s big meeting tent. (Pause. Look lazy.) Day in and day out Eli just sat there. (Pause again.) He was supposed to do a lot more as a priest, but clearly wasn’t doing the best job at it. He just sat. Call to Action On top of that, his sons were horrible priests and God was not happy about them. They did really wicked things like steal and treat people badly. They definitely didn’t show people how to live a life like God wanted them to. Eli knew that they couldn’t take over for him as priest at Shiloh, but he also didn’t know who could. It probably felt like Shiloh was doomed as a good place to worship God. So Eli just sat at the door, sitting and watching. Journey Then one day Eli saw something weird. He saw a woman come and stand at the door to the tent at Shiloh and act very weird. Her face was wet from crying and her eyes were all red and she was urgently moving her lips like she was talking, but no sound was coming out. Eli had no idea what she was doing. He thought something was really wrong with her. He wanted her to go away from the tent in case she was a sinful, bad woman. So Eli told her, “Hey lady, you go on and go somewhere else. We have enough trouble already here. People have even quit coming here to worship God. I don’t want you to drive away anybody else. You go act weird somewhere else, okay?” But the woman was still moving her lips and talking with no sound coming out. She hadn’t even heard the priest. So Eli sat up in his chair and called louder to the woman. “Hey! What’s your name?” Finally, the woman snapped out of it and opened her eyes. She looked over at Eli and answered him quietly like she had just woken up or something. (quiet) “I’m Hannah.”


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(as Old Eli) “Well, Hannah, how long are you going to stay here acting all weird?” Eli asked. He was still kind of mad about her being there. “Go home,” Eli told her. Hannah just looked at him. Then she started crying again. She told Eli she wasn’t doing anything wrong. She told him she was really sad and she was praying and crying and praying some more to God. She was praying so hard because she had been asking God for something over and over and over for years and years. “So you’re not crazy?” Eli asked Hannah. She shook her head no. “You were praying to God?” Hannah nodded and wiped her tears from her cheeks. Hannah told Eli that she was desperate to have God help her with her problem. And it was a big problem, too. “Well what do you want?” Eli asked. “What are you praying so hard for that you look like a crazy person?” Low Point (Pause. Turn desperately sad.) She said that more than anything else in the world … she wanted … a son. Year after year after year Hannah prayed to God for a son, but it was no good. Hannah had no children. “Please, God, pleeeease can I have a son?” she would cry. And this year at Shiloh when she was praying, she said she was promising God that if he gave her a son, she would give him right back to God so that he would live and work in that holy place as a priest—as a man of God like Eli—all his life. Hannah said she would just be so happy to have a son that she wouldn’t even mind if he lived there and was a priest. Victory “Ooohhhhhh.” That made sense to Old Eli. He knew Shiloh needed a good priest after him and he knew that his sons would not be the ones to take over caring for the people. Old Eli changed his mind about this woman Hannah. He didn’t think she was weird anymore. Now, he liked her! He told her that he hoped God would answer her prayers. And guess what? He did. After praying so long, Hannah finally gave birth to a son. She was so happy! God had heard her prayer. She named the little baby boy Samuel because the name “Samuel” means “God has heard.”


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When Samuel was old enough to be away from her, she stayed true to her promise and brought him back to Shiloh to live as a priest for his whole life. That was an answered prayer for Old Eli, too! Now he would have someone to be the priest after him. Then, guess what? Even more prayers were answered! As Hannah and Eli were saying their goodbyes, Eli prayed another prayer, asking God for something else for Hannah. “I hope God gives you more children!” Eli said. And God did give Hannah many more children! Samuel’s mother Hannah came back to Shiloh to see him each year and each year she made little Samuel the smallest priest robe and brought him new sandals (Optional: hold up the tiny priest clothes.) to fit him as he grew and grew and learned all about how to worship God, and how to help other people understand the scriptures, and what God wanted them to do, and how to pray. Little Samuel was the smallest priest ever but he grew up to be the biggest leader God’s people had had in a long, long time. In fact, Samuel grew up to lead the people back to God and back to doing things the right way. APPLICATION 2-3 minutes + 1-minute video Sometimes when we pray for something we can pray over and over and over and nothing happens. Just like Hannah prayed to have a son for years and didn’t have one for a long time. Hannah probably didn’t know why God didn’t give her a son for so long. Sometimes we don’t know why God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we asked for, either. But we can know and trust that God has a perfect plan. I’m sure once Hannah had Samuel and saw him grow up to be a great godly leader everything made sense to her and she didn’t care that she had had to wait so long for a son. That’s a good story to remember when you ask God for something and nothing happens. Sometimes we have to wait on God’s timing for things, or just have faith that he knows what is best. But we know that God always hears our prayers. Do you think God hears our prayers? Bottom Line Show Bottom Line: God hears our prayers. He does! Let’s say that together: God hears our prayers.

The Bible tells us that God hears our prayers! Check out this verse.


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Bible Verse Show Verse: “God has listened. He has heard my prayer,” Psalm 66:19. I think we should memorize this verse so we can remember that every day. One of my favorite ways of memorizing God’s Word is to add some motions. Let’s all stand up and try it. Follow my lead and let’s say this a couple of times. “God (Point up to God with both arms.) has listened. (Give two thumbs up and nod your head “yes”.) He (Point up to God with both arms.) has heard (Cup both ears.) my prayer,” (Clasp your hands in front of you in a prayer posture.) Psalm 66:19. (Hold your hands out in front of you as if you have an open Bible in them and you’re reading.) Great job. Let’s pray to him right now, then check in with Cavelady to see how she’s doing. PRAYER Dear God, thank you for listening. Thank you that you answered Hannah’s prayer. We know you hear our prayers, too, and we are so glad. Please be with us to wait patiently for your answers and please give us what we need and what is best. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. Show Video: Wk. 1 Outro Cavelady God Hears Me SMALL GROUPS Okay, let’s go to our small groups now. (Have kids sit down in circles, in small groups, with volunteer leaders.)


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GOD HEARS ME

Elementary Small Group Week 1: Prayer Wall

SUPPLIES: magnets, markers, magnetic board (whiteboard or other metal) labeled with “God Hears Me” for hanging up prayers; print-out: age-specific prayer postcards PURPOSE: Kids will write a prayer and hang it up as a symbol of how God hears us. Sit down and say names. 1 minutes DISCUSSION 6 minutes 1. Why was Hannah acting so weird? (She was praying hard for a son.) 2. Samuel grew up learning all about God and he became a great leader. How do you think God can use you? (Discuss. Examples: to be kind to people no one likes, to be a leader in doing the right thing even when others are not, to help people, to be like Jesus and love people well) 3. Have you ever prayed for something over and over and over? Do you feel like God heard it? (Discuss.) Do you think he has answered it? (Discuss.) 4. What should we remember when we don’t think God is answering our prayers? (God hears our prayers, he knows what’s best, and he has the best timing.) PRAYER 2 minutes Dear God, thank you for always listening to our prayers. We know that you will always hear us when we talk to you. We love you and pray in Jesus’ name, amen. ACTIVITY 6 minutes Say Today we’re going to write down, or maybe even draw our own prayers on these cards. When we’re finished, we’re going to put them up on the prayer wall together as a reminder that we give our prayers to God, and he hears us. First, let’s read some sample prayers to help you think of your own prayer.

- Dear God, thank you for my family! Please be with __________. - Dear God, I need help in listening in school. - Dear God, help me to be a good leader like Samuel. - Dear God, please help me (to have courage/be a good friend/to be a good leader).

Do 1. Have kids write out or draw their prayers, helping them if need be. 2. When everyone is finished, walk as a group to the prayer wall, and hang up the cards.

scc elementaryscript godhearsme€¦ · god hears me elementary week 1 series concept in this...

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