Acts 17:24

Monday:	Acts 17:24
Bible Lesson:	The Beginning of Creation: God created the world and deserves our worship.
Memory Verse:	The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands, Acts 17:24

Introduction: Creation

Today we learned about how God made the world, and most of the story is found in Genesis, in the Old Testament. But the New Testament talks about it some too. [show card with verse and read Acts 17:24]

Explanation: Acts 17:24

[Show the verse and read it aloud.]

There is only one God, but the Bible likes to tell different things about who God is, when it tells different things that he did. When it calls him the God who made the world, it's talking about something he did – the creation story that we learned about earlier. From God's creation, we know about his power.

When the Bible calls God, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, it means that he is the one who is in charge of everything that happens – both here on earth, and also in heaven. It means he's the master.

When it says that he does not live in temples made by hands, what's it talking about? Does it mean God isn't with us when we're in church, worshiping him? (No.) Does it mean he wasn't with the people of Israel, when they worshiped him in the temple? (No.) It means that God is not just in one place, and he's not only there, just because of us. God is, like the verse says, the one who created everything, and is the master in charge of everything. He's God whether we come to church and worship him or not.

So, if God is the same powerful creator whether we worship him or not, why does he want us to worship him? Is it because God gets more power if we worship him? (No, he has all the power anyway.) God wants us to worship him, because it's good for us.

Game: Clapping

Demonstrate for the children how to clap once for each syllable while talking. Do this while saying the verse through one time, with the reference. Now have the children do it with you. Repeat two or three times, until the children can clap and say the verse more-or-less together in what passes for unison. Encourage them that they're doing well, but let's see if we can do even better at staying together and all saying each word at the same time, and all clapping at the same times. Repeat until they get it right, or time runs out. Optionally, after a few times through, divide the children into two groups, and alternate the two groups in a competition to see which group can stay together better.

Announcement: Verse Points

Tomorrow, when you come to Bible School, if you can say your memory verse without looking, you can earn points for your team's score. Each person who can say the verse can earn 200 points. So, if you want to help your team win more points, go home and practice your verse a few times. Don't forget the reference! On your way out the door tonight, you will be given a slip of paper with your verse on it. Don't lose it, because if you learn your verse, your team gets 200 more points!

You can say your verse for points tomorrow when you check in at the registration table.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Bulletin Board Questions and Answers (Back to the Beginning)

Here are the questions and answers we used on the bulletin boards. (The answers were on the page underneath, where they were revealed if the question page was lifted up.)

Elementary Bulletin Board:

Q: How could dinosaurs fit on the ark?

A: First, the ark was very large. Second, dinosaurs, like crocodiles, grew their whole lives. When they were young, they were not so big.

Q: Are dinosaurs alive today?

A: No animals that we call dinosaurs today have been seen alive for a long time. But, many other animals like crocodiles and snakes are just like dinosaurs except they are not extinct.

Q: Can I ever be so bad that I can't go to heaven?

A: Nobody can be good enough to go to heaven. Anyone who wants to go to heaven has to let Jesus pay their way in. No sin is ever too great or too small that Jesus won't pay for it.

Q: Why do we have 7 days in a week?

A: God made the world in 6 days and rested on the 7^th.

Q: Did Abraham get his promise?

A: Yes. There are many Jewish people alive today. They are all part of God's promise to Abraham. God's kingdom in the ends times will also be part of God's promise to Abraham. That's still going to happen in the future.

Q: When was the Galion Grace Brethren Church started?

A: Our church started as a Bible Study in 1958, called its first pastor around 1959, and bought land and started the building around 1960. [Obviously, you would adjust this one for your local church.]

Q: How could the death of Jesus, one man, pay for the sins of everyone?

A: Jesus is God, but he also became a human when he was born at Christmas. Since he is both God and man, he can pay for our sins forever by his death on the cross. The Bible says that since one man (Adam) brought us sin and death, one man (Jesus) can bring us righteousness and life.

Teen Bulletin Board:

Q: Where did Cain get his wife?

A: Adam and Eve had daughters as well as sons. Cain married one of his sisters. (We don't marry close relatives today because of inbreeding, but since Adam and Eve had the genes for the whole human race, that wasn't a problem until many generations later.)

Q: Why weren't Adam and Eve supposed to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge?

A: God gave Adam and Eve a rule that they could break or not break. He wanted them to have the choice to obey or not to obey.

Q: When did it rain for the first time?

A: God told Noah to build the ark. It had never rained. When Noah finished the ark and all the animals and his family were on board, it rained for the first time ever.

Q: Did all the dinosaurs die before there were people?

A: No, Adam named the dinosaurs in the garden of Eden. We just don't know what he called them. Job called one Behemoth and another Laviathan. In the middle ages, they were called dragons, but as more and more years passed since they had become extinct, the stories of dragons became more and more exaggerated and fanciful. Later, when archaeologists started digging up old bones and putting them together, the word dinosaur was invented to describe this kind of animal.