EZRA
– Book of Rebuilding the Temple
Key Point –Why Church is important
Memory Verse – Ps. 122:1 “It made me glad to hear them say let’s go to the house of the Lord!”
Skit – Putting God first – It is important in all we do that we put church first. – A boy comes into the house and tells his mom that he is not going to church today because he is going to play baseball. His mom asks him if he thinks that church is important? The boy responds that he definitely thinks that church is important. The Mom asks if baseball means more to him, he says that church does. The Mom then explains to him that our actions tell us and others what our priorities are. We spend time doing whatever is important to us.
Skit – We need each other – Fellowship – A sort of nerdy boy gets picked on by a group of bully types they make fun of him because he goes to church. They pick on him and push him over he falls down and starts to cry. A older Christian comes out and sees the boy crying and asks what is the matter the boy doesn’t want to talk about it. The older Christian recognizes the boy from his church, lets the boy know that they go to the same church and that part of being Christians is that we are there for each other, we need each other especially when we are going through a hard time. That is a great reason why we go to church because we need each other the boy feels much better leaves encouraged.
Object Lesson – Crutch Vs. foundation – church is not a crutch to hold us up but a foundation which to stand upon. – Have someone stand with two crutches The MC will explain Church is not a crutch we lean lightly upon show how easily the crutch can be knocked out from under us easily church must be a firm foundation that we stand on.
Object Lesson – Rope to chair vs. 2×4 to chair – Take two folding chairs tie a rope from one chair to the other and try to walk from one chair to the other (be careful because this is part of the object lesson) as soon as you steep on the rope the two folding chairs will collapse. You will explain that when we stop coming to church it affects not only our relationship to God but also our relationship to others as well but when God is in control and we are attending church we have a strong relationship with God we have a stronger connection to God and to others. (Place a 2×4 from folding chair to folding chair and walk across easily.)
Bible Story – Ezra 3:7-13 Ezra & Israel rebuild the Temple
God’s people were living in exile they had been taken into slavery to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. God began to move on the heart of king Cyrus. He told the people of Israel who were in exile that God wanted Him to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, that all who wanted to go back an help with the work he would give them gold, silver an livestock.
Ezra 1:2-4
2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
” ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Anyone of his people among you—may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ”
God revealed to Cyrus how important the temple was how important worship was. Can you believe that a evil king that wanted to see the temple rebuilt so many of God’s people returned and they began to devote themselves to the rebuilding of the temple.
As the people started to build the temple God began doing amazing things.
Ezra 3:7-13 says
Rebuilding the Temple
7 Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.
8 In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work, appointing Levites twenty years of age and older to supervise the building of the house of the LORD. 9 Jeshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah [a] ) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.
10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the LORD, as prescribed by David king of Israel. 11 With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD : “He is good; his love to Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. 12 But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. 13 No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.
Sounds amazing doesn’t it. There was so much excitement over the temple and rebuilding it so that they could worship God like they had in the past.
Why is church important in our lives just like it was in the time of Cyrus, Jeshua, and Ezra.
It’s the foundation our lives are built on. – Understanding that Jesus has a rescue plan that he came to earth lived a sinless life and died for your sins and mine helps build a foundation for us to respond to God. We know what he did it’s important that we take time each week to remember, respond, renew.
1. Church helps me Remember – It Ezra it says some of the people watching the temple be rebuilt were crying because they remembered what the temple was like before it was destroyed and were so thankful that it was being rebuilt. Never forget what Jesus has done for us. When we meet each week it’s vital that we remember what Jesus did for us and why.
2. Church helps me Respond – In Ezra some who were watching and responding were shouting for joy because they were so excited for what God was doing. Church should be a place that is exciting. What Jesus is doing in our lives should be uncontainable. When we remember what Jesus has done for us it give us the power to respond to the work of the Holy spirit in our lives. It helps us to make wise choices and respond to what God wants to do in us every day of the week.
3. Church helps me Renew – When we remember and respond it will renew our passion and faith in Christ. We will be strengthened by what Jesus did when we remember but also when we share what Jesus did with others. It is so important that we have friends in our lives that we can talk about what Jesus did.
Church needs to be an exciting place. When we understand that God loves us no matter what it helps us trust him and when we trust him we want to spend time with him. We want to spend time with people who share our love for him. Our love for Jesus should be an uncontrollable unstoppable force that spills into every area of our life. If we don’t feel that way we need to stop and ask God to fill us with passion for the things He is passionate about. One of those things is the church. Lord help us be passionate about your church.
EZRA SMALL GROUP
Activity –
Have the kids write a note and draw a picture thanking the Pastor and his/her family all that they do. Telling them that they are thankful for church, their church.
Questions –
- What do people put before God?
- Why is church important?`
- Do you like church?
- Church helps make you strong.
- When it’s time for church are you happy or sad?
- If you were given a choice between your favorite thing to do (watch TV, play with friends, play Sony Playstation) and going to church what would you do?
- Why?
- What do our friends at church help us do? (Our friends in church help to make us strong.)
