Fourth and Fifth
Introduction
LessonTitle
1 God's Good Pleasure
2 More God's Good Pleasure
3 God's Plan
4 More God's Plan
5 God's Choosing
6 More God's Choosing
7 God Created Something Special
8 More God Created Something Special
9 God's Enemy
10 What God's Enemy Did
11 What Happened to The Two People
12 More What Happened to The Two People
13 How the Two People Acted Differently

THE BASIC REVELATION IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

(For Younger Children)

Lesson Five: God's Choosing (Part 1)

Objectives:

To impress children that the people God puts Himself into so they can be sons like Him have been each one specially picked out/chosen by God for this.

Materials:

  1. Lessons Three and Four in this series
  2. A piece of jewelry (ring, brooch, etc.) as old and expensive-looking as possible, preferably with a gem stone.
  3. Props for acting out story
  4. Large-format photo-journalism book with pictures of Britain's Prince Charles, preferably from boyhood up through adulthood.
  5. Cardboard or other heavy, flexible material
  6. Scissors
  7. Markers, crayolas, etc,
  8. Aluminum foil (optional)
  9. Bright-colored paper to make "gems" from
  10. Glue (optional)
  11. Stapler and staples

Review:

  1. Ask, what is the thing that God wants most of all? and what is His plan to get it?
  2. Sing the sung from Lessons Three and Four
  3. Ask children to re-tell the story from Lesson Four
  4. Inquire about the progress of their lima bean sprouts.
  5. Discuss why they will never grow peppers.

Implementation:

  1. Tell story of Ellen, a girl who is given the Queen's ring--yes, the Queen's! Long ago, a woman was a maid to a real queen who gave her a ring of the Queen's own when the maid was about to move away, as a gift to remember her by, It was a very beautiful and precious ring made just for the Queen. Well, through the years the Queen's ring was handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter, over and over, until at last it came to a time about 15 years ago. The grandmother who had the Queen's ring then knew she was old and soon would come to her turn to die. She wanted to be sure the ring would be kept in the family and not be given away to someone else or sold or something. So she called her youngest daughter to her and gave the Queen's ring to her to be her own--but only for a while, because the grandmother also said this: "I want you to give the Queen's ring to your own oldest daughter when she is 10 years old." Now the daughter didn't have any children yet so she was surprised at this, but agreed. And sure enough, she did one day bear a baby girl, whom she named Ellen. When Ellen turned 10 years old, her mother brought out a little box, not even wrapped as a gift, and worn and yellowed with age. She told Ellen that this was her most special birthday present of all, and that she had been chosen to receive this gift before she was even born! How honored Ellen felt, and how proud. When she heard the story of whose ring this was and where it had come from. "But I wasn't even born yet when she chose me to give it to!" "Nevertheless, it was you she chose," replied her mother.
  2. Act Out the story, using the children as other servants of the Queen and as other daughters of the old grandmother, as well as the main characters.
  3. Show photos of Britain's Prince Charles as you explain how he was chosen to be king of his land and people before he was born--destined to be king, as the oldest child of a king's oldest child, There never was any, other path for his life to take, other than to train to be a king--his career, what he would grow up to be' was chosen for him before he was even born,
  4. Apply story to lesson objective; Before they were born, God chose each one of the people who would become His sons like Him. The Bible says so. Not only that, He chose them before He created the world! Just think of that.
  5. Read Ephesians 1:4a & 5a, paraphrasing and explaining the wording to the children. [Older children might he able to grasp concept of predestination in addition.]
  6. Memorize via partial-erasure method* a portion of Eph. 1:4a & 5a, tailored to suit the age composition of your group of children.

Reinforcement Activities:

  1. Sing to tune of "Frere Jacques"; God chose me-e. God chose me-e. Yes He did! Yes He did! Before I was bo-orn, Before I was bo-orn, God chose me! God chose me!
  2. Make crowns of any flexible media, colored and/or decorated appropriately.
  3. Emphasize that if you are a king/queen, you were one even before yon were born!- you were chosen before you were born,
*partial erasure method is applicable only to children who can read readily - say, 3rd grade and above. Some 2nd grader's, with much coaching and help with unfamiliar words, are able to participate m the method.

Gospel Suggestion:

Lessons Five and Six: God's choosing of the persons He wants to become His sons is the subject of these lessons, which naturally leads to a declaration that He has chosen each one of the children present (else they wouldn't be present) maybe someone would like to have the Lord come into him/her right now, to be His son as He has already chosen him/her to be.