God Created The World- Sunday September 5, 2021

Sunday September 5, 2021 (Vol 1, Unit 1, Session 1)

Hi there, and thanks for joining us this week. FriendshipKids exists to help families bring their children to Christ and disciple them to be maturing, lifelong, reproducing followers of Jesus Christ. We hope this blog will be a useful tool for you to use to fulfill that call on your life. This blog will review the previous Sunday’s Children’s church lesson and help your kids grow in their faith. Please feel free to use as much of it as you choose. You know your kids and are the best possible teacher for them. God has given you the power of the Holy Spirit to enable you to do more than you think possible (Eph 3:20). So, let’s have some fun and teach our kids from the scriptures.

Parent Devotional

God Created the World

The Bible begins where we would expect it to, with the beginning of all of creation. But the beginning that Genesis 1:1 speaks of is not the beginning of everything. It was not the beginning of God. God is eternal—He has no beginning and no end. He has always existed. So, the beginning in this session’s Bible story is the beginning from our perspective. It is humanity’s beginning.

You might notice that the Bible story stops a little earlier than you might be used to: before God created Adam and Eve. That happened on Day 6, along with the animals of the earth, but that is not included here because that will be covered in the next session in much more detail.

Instead, for this session, take your time to emphasize three things:

First, that God created everything from nothing. God did not create like we do—by taking some raw materials like clay and making a beautiful sculpture. Instead, God made everything that exists—everything we see and even that we don’t see—simply by speaking it into existence from nothing. That’s important because it teaches us that everything belongs to God because He made it all and it also teaches us how powerful He is to be able to create the universe by speaking it into being.

Second, that God created everything with order. Not only do we see that God created the different kinds of plants and trees as well as animals according to their different kinds, but we also see an orderly pattern in the days of creation. God created by separating things on days 1-3 (light from darkness; sky from water; and then land from oceans) and then He filled what He had created on days 4-6 (the stars, sun, and moon in the heavens; birds and fish in the sky and waters; animals on the land).

Third, that God created everything for a reason—to bring Himself glory. We will talk a lot more about this during this unit, and all of our study through Scripture. But for now, help your kids see that everything exists to show how good God is—to show His glory for all to see.

Parent Guidance and Instructions

As we begin to explore this week’s devotional, take a moment to pray and meditate on the verse from Deuteronomy about teaching your children the scriptures. Deuteronomy 6:7 says: “You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Maybe you do not have time to sit and have an hour of Bible time all at once, or perhaps your children are too young to sit for that long. Consider the key points of the lesson and ask God to give you opportunities to speak them into the hearts of your children throughout the week. Let the Bible become a part of your day-to-day. Be blessed this week, my friends! 

Each week we include songs, activity pages, the bible lesson video, and memory verses. We pray this will help you find ways to engage your kids spiritually. It is written in script form from the K-2nd grade lesson, so you can read directly from it or change it to suit your children. Take some time to look at and print the activity pages to review the lesson so you can adjust as needed. Once you are ready, go ahead and start with these songs if you would like, or pick some of your favorite worship songs and then jump right in! Have fun! And remember, this does not need to be done in one sitting! Feel free to break it up over the week. Please contact us at the church if you have any questions or suggestions. We would love to hear from you!

Opening

“Blessings and Bummers”

Let’s get started. Tell me, what have you seen the Lord doing in your lives this week? What have your greatest blessings been? How about your biggest challenges?

Parents share your blessings and bummers, encourage the kids to do the same. The goal is for kids to see God at work in the everyday, seemingly small and mundane things. It doesn’t matter if it is something as small as getting to watch a favorite TV show or something big like a new baby sibling being born, God is active and in our midst.

Prayer

Let’s go to the Lord in prayer: Father God, Thank you. Thank you for providing for our needs. You are so good to us even though we do not deserve it! Thank you for continuing to bless us, Lord. Thank you for being patient with us. Thank you to our friends as well as our families. Most importantly, we thank you always for sending Jesus to live a perfect life and die to pay for our sins. Thank you for raising Him from the dead and promising us life with you forever if we believe in Him. Please help us be thankful for all you do for us and look to you in all that we do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

(Please add to or customize prayer time to fit your family)

Praise the Lord for hearing our prayers!

Let’s chat! 

When you draw, build, or paint something, does it always turn out exactly as you imagine it in your mind? How does it feel when your creation doesn’t match your imagination?

Say • It’s amazing to think about all of creation being made in less than one week, perfectly, exactly how God designed it. The Bible teaches us that God created everything that exists in just six days. Today we will learn more about creation. We will focus on what creation can help us understand about God 

Today we are starting a wonderful journey through the Bible. Do any of you have your Bible with you today? The Bible is God’s Word. He gave people exactly the right words to write so we could know everything we need to know about Him and everything we need to know about ourselves. As many of you can probably guess, the best place to start any journey is at the beginning. So today, that is exactly where we will be—at the very first verse of the very first chapter of the very first book in the Bible. Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Everything that exists was created by God. 

Big Picture Question

That raises a very important question that we will be studying for a few weeks. Why did God create everything? God existed before creation, and He is perfect in every way. He has always been perfect in every way. God doesn’t need creation, and creation cannot make God better; perfect means He’s as good as good can be. As we will learn, God created everything for His glory and our good. That means that God made all that He made for our benefit and to show us His own perfection.

Review

Although our story talks about the beginning, it’s really only the beginning of God’s creation. It is not the beginning of God, because God does not have a beginning. God is eternal, which means He has always existed and will always exist. When we talk about our timeline, it is a timeline of the story God is telling with His work in creation, not a timeline of Him. Our first story on this timeline of God’s one big story is called “God Created Everything.” As you hear the story, pay attention to what we learn about God through His creation.

Bible Lesson

The story of creation is told many times, and as a result we can sometimes take for granted how amazing it is. If we don’t take some time to think about it, we might miss some of the lessons God wants to teach us. There are three really big ideas I want us to understand from this story. God created everything from nothing. When people create art, we have to start with things that already exist. We cannot paint without using the colors that already exist around us. We cannot sculpt without using stone, clay, or metal to shape. We cannot play music without the sound of created things moving and vibrating. God’s power to create is much greater than our power to create. He simply spoke and creation existed. God created everything good. Each time God finished with a part of His creation He said that it was good. Again, we see the power of God’s words. God is perfect in all His attributes. Everything He created was good because He is good and declared His creation to be good. God created everything on purpose. God made every single part of creation for a reason. God did nothing by accident or mistake. Why did God create everything? God created everything for His glory and our good. When God filled the sky and the seas and the earth with animals, He gave them the ability to multiply and spread His glory further and further.

Christ Connection

Jesus is Lord over all of creation. The Son has always existed. The Bible says everything was created by Him and for Him, and He holds everything together. All of creation exists to bring God glory. Although everything was perfect in the beginning, we can look around and see that the world is broken by sin. That’s why God sent His Son to become human. Jesus lived a perfect life, died the death we deserve because of sin, and rose again. Anyone who trusts in Him will have her sins forgiven and live forever with God.

Bible Time!

Distribute Bibles. Guide boys and girls to open their Bibles to Genesis 1. Direct kids to use the table of contents at the front of their Bibles to help them if they are unsure of where to find a specific book. Explain the difference between the large chapter numbers and the small verse numbers.

You may guide the kids to understand that the reference numbers were added in by people to help us study the Bible, but they were not part of the original writings. You may also choose to explain the use of Bible divisions and explain that Genesis is the first book of the Old Testament and part of the division known as the Law—the first five books in the Bible. Moses, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote the books of the Law. Then ask the kids to summarize today’s Bible story in their own words.

SAY Today we started an incredible journey through the Bible. The very first story in the Bible teaches us that God created everything by speaking. Everything God created was good because God is good. Why did God create everything? God created everything for His glory and our good.

Ask the following questions. Lead the kids to discuss their answers.

SAY What are some ways creation can teach us about God?

Guide the kids to see that creation is filled with evidence of God’s goodness. Help them consider the order we see in nature, such as complex food webs and ecosystems that balance themselves, or the motions of the planets and stars. Guide them to consider some of the amazing ways our bodies work, like converting the plants and animals we eat into energy or receiving sensory input like light or sound to interpret as color and language. Remind them that the goodness and beauty in nature is a reflection of God’s goodness and beauty.

SAY Why does God deserve all our worship?

Help the kids think about the ways God is more excellent than anything in the world. Help them understand that all the wonderful things the world has to offer are the result of God’s goodness to create a good world. Help them understand that we owe God everything we have because God not only created everything we see, but He created us. Our ability to enjoy creation is a result of His grace and love toward us.

SAY Do you think God wants us to explore and understand His creation?

Help the kids to consider the effects of learning about creation. Encourage them to consider the ways understanding God’s creation has helped people invent new technology. Remind them that God created us and gave us the ability to think logically and examine the world He created. Help them see that studying and understanding the world can be a wonderful way to worship God when we remember that He is the Creator behind everything we can study.

Key Memory Verse

Read the verse together.

Show the key passage poster. Lead the boys and girls to read the passage together. Then use Sticky notes to cover a few key words. Challenge the kids to say the passage again, filling in the covered words. Continue covering words in this way until the kids are reciting the key passage from memory.

SAY The Book of Psalms contains written praises and prayers. A psalm is basically a song of praise. When we read a psalm, we are reading the lyrics of a worship song written thousands of years ago by God’s people. Psalm 19:1 helps us understand that God’s creation exists to show us God’s glory. King David wrote Psalm 19, and the first verse tells us that the heavens tell us about God’s glory and goodness.

That is all I have for this week. Let’s pray together: 

Father, You are good and Your creation helps us see how much You love us. We ask You to move in our lives so that every moment is spent loving You and worshiping You. Help us be a part of bringing glory to Your name. Amen.

Thanks for joining us! I hope to meet you here again next week!

Thank you to Lifeway for allowing us to publish this lesson using their Gospel Project materials.