B-13 Messages From Heaven - 3 (Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)

 Theme: Put God First (Haggai and Malachi)

Key idea: The people were busy building their own houses, but neglected God’s temple.

Materials

• Large, clear cup
• Rocks
• Sand
• Water

Instructions

1. Ask a volunteer to fill the cup with sand first, then try to fit the rocks.
2. It won’t work well.
3. Dump it out.
4. Now put rocks first, then sand, then water.

Discussion

• The rocks represent obeying God by paying our tithes and offerings.
• The sand represents all the other things we want to buy in life.
• If we put God first, God promises that everything else will fit.
• Haggai told the people to “consider your ways” and put God’s house first. Malachi told the people to "bring all the tithes into the storehouse." 
• Both prophets assured the people that if they put God first, God would supply everything they needed.

B-12 Messages From Heaven—2 (Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk)

----Option 1----

Theme: God gives time for repentance but will punish those who refuse to repent. 

Nahum 1:3: "The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet."

Resources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLCDJ0m_qrk; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUU8qY950wE; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhOyKdeRPXA

Materials Needed: 

• 10% povidone-iodine (available at Walmart or a local drug store)
• 500 mg vitamin C tablets
• cornstarch
• warm water
• boiling water
• 3% hydrogen peroxide
• 2 clear cups + 1 clear mixing cup

Instructions: 

Solution A (Clear solution)

1. Add 128 mL warm water to a cup
2. Crush and dissolve 1 vitamin C tablet (500 mg)
3. Add 12 mL povidone-iodine
4. → This should turn clear/light brown

Solution B (Cloudy solution)

1. In another cup, add 40 mL of boiling water
2. Stir in ~200 mg cornstarch
3. Let cool (important!)
4. Add 100 mL of hydrogen peroxide

The Reaction

1. Pour Solution A and Solution B together
2. Stir gently
3. Wait…
4. It should suddenly turn very dark blue/black

Discussion: 

• When the mixtures were combined, what did it look like was happening at first? (Nothing)
• Was the reaction actually stopped, or just delayed?
• Could you stop it once it started turning dark?
• What was actually happening?
• Vitamin C “holds back” the reaction at first
• Once it runs out, the reaction suddenly happens
• Starch + iodine = dark blue color

Main point:

• God is patient and slow to act in judgment, because He loves people and wants them to repent.
• But when people continually refuse Him, His judgment will finally come—and it cannot be stopped.
• Just like this reaction, the delay doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.

----Option 2----

Theme: God sees when unfair things happen. He wants us to be fair and just (Micah 6:8) but when humans fail, he promises to make it right someday.

Materials: ball, bucket

Instructions:

1. Tell the kids you have a challenge: the child who can throw the ball into the bucket three times in a row will win a prize.
2. Line the kids up. Place the bucket next to the first child.
3. Have the first child throw the ball into the bucket. Give them a small prize (a piece of gum or a nickel).
4. Have the first child move out of the way. Important: The next child cannot move closer to the bucket.
5. Continue down the line. Kids farther back cannot get closer to the bucket, and they do not receive a prize—even if they could have made the shot.

Debrief:

• Was this game fair? Why or why not?
• For those who weren't allowed to get closer to the bucket and thus weren't able to get a prize, how did this make you feel?
• How do you think people feel when others are treated unfairly in real life?
• In Micah’s day, the Israelites had become very unfair. The rich took advantage of the poor.
• How did God want the Israelites to treat each other? Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
• What was God going to have to do because the Israelites were not being fair? Micah 6:13: “Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, by making you desolate because of your sins.”

B-11 Messages From Heaven - 1 (Amos, Obadiah, Jonah)

Theme: When Obadiah was alive, the nation of Edom lived in rocky cliffs and believed no one could defeat them.

Show the following video: Edomite Dwellings 

Main point: Pride makes us think we are safe and better than others.

Supplies: Something elevated that volunteers can stand on (chair, stools, etc); Paper signs that say the following: tall cliffs, wise men, strong armies, riches

Activity: 

1. Ask for several volunteers to stand on the chair (or slightly elevated place).
2. Tell the group the student represents the nation of Edom living high in the mountains.
3. Ask the class: 
1. “If you lived way up high like this, would you feel safe?”
2. “Would you think anyone could defeat you?”
4. Give the volunteer the paper signs one at a time and have the class read them as you hand them to the volunteers. 
5. Ask: “Did all these things protect the Edomites?"
6. Have the volunteers step down.
7. Why did God have to destroy the Edomites? Obadiah 10
8. What did Edom do to his brother, Jacob? Obadiah 11-14

Discussion Questions:

1. Why do people sometimes feel proud or better than others?
2. What happens when someone laughs when others get hurt or fail?
3. Why does God want us to help people instead of watching them struggle?
4. What does true strength look like?

Take away point: “God is not impressed by how high we stand, but by how willing we are to help others.”

B-10 Patriots and Prophets

Theme: The Holy Spirit

Main point: The Holy Spirit changed ordinary men into the Patriots and Prophets we studied in our lesson this week. He can do the same for you.

Object lesson (view how to do the object lesson here)

Materials:

• Balloon
• Small-mouthed bottle (cleaned glass beverage bottle will work well)
• Small funnel
• Baking soda (2 tablespoons)
• Vinegar (4 ounces)

Directions:

• Using the funnel, add the baking soda to the balloon
• Pour the vinegar into the bottle.
• Carefully fit the balloon over the bottle opening (be careful not to drop the baking soda into the vinegar yet).
• Once the balloon is fitted snugly on the nozzle, hold up the balloon and allow the baking soda to fall into the vinegar.

While the balloon fills up, ask:

1. What made the balloon fill up?
2. Could the balloon fill itself?
3. Hosea mourned as he saw that Israel kept turning away from God. Could rules alone change their hearts?
4. In our object lesson, the reaction happened inside the bottle. Where does the Holy Spirit work first — outside behavior or inside the heart?
5. What happens when we try to obey God without asking Him to change our hearts first?
6. Joel talks about God pouring out His Spirit. Does God only want to give us a little bit of His Holy Spirit?
7. Joel also says God will restore what was lost. How does the Holy Spirit help restore broken things?

Appeal:

• Let's ask Jesus to send us the Holy Spirit today, to be in our class, to change our hearts, and to restore anything that is broken in our lives.