Love God The Most
Skip convinces Ethel to rank everyone in her life to decide which one is most important.
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Large Group Full Program
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Large Group Full Program Instructions
Countdown / Rules
Question of the Day: What kind of junk food do you love the most?
WelcomeMaterials: Lab Coat (2), Heart Clothes Pins
The Host and Co-Host enter, wearing lab coats. This game uses heart clothes pins. You can also use regular pins place a heart sticker on them. The game is called “Peaceful Pins.” Begin by placing pins on the shirts of the kids playing the game. In this game kids must try to remove other kids’ pins, but since it’s peaceful, they must only walk, no running. The one with the most heart pins at the end of 60 seconds wins.
Host
Welcome to the Lab!
The Co-Host gives the Host a big hug and shakes him/her.
Host
Why are you squeezing the breath out of me?
Co-Host
To show you how much love I have for all of my friends.
Host
Does it have to be painful?
Co-Host
Like the song says, “Love Hurts.” I feel another hug about to happen.
Host escapes the Co-Host’s attempted hug.
Host
Speaking of love, let’s play a little game with these heart clothespins. It’s pretty simple. Our contestants will have 60 seconds to try to grab as many clips as they can off of other kids’ shirts. The twist is that you can’t run. You must walk. If you run or jog, you are out.
Optional, play game song. Play the game and count the pins.
Co-Host
This winner has really got heart. Get it? That’s because he/she has a lot of heart pins.
Host
I get it. When you see hearts around this time of year, you usually think of love. It’s everywhere from cards to candy. We’re going to discover in this series how God wants us to show our love. Let’s get ready to check in on the lab. But first, tell someone nearby something you love about your family.
Engage 1Materials: Lab Coat (2)
Host and Co-Host enter.
Co-Host
Do you think Skip is giving Ethel good advice?
Host
I don’t think we’re supposed to go around ranking everyone and everything that we love.
Co-Host
But if you were going to rank things, what would you rank me? Two? One? You’d rank me number one? Wow! (Tearing up) That means a lot. Do you hear that? Choo-choo! Here comes the hug train.
Co-Host chases the Host around.
Host
Actually, you are a really great friend, but our Big Point has something to say about who should be number one on our list. I need a volunteer to help us reveal it.
Host and Co-Host choose a kid to volunteer.
Co-Host
After we count down from three, you get to read the Big Point.
Host
Let’s all say it together, Love God The Most!
Co-Host
Oh, that makes sense. Of course we’d put God first. No one should ever try to compete with God…but I’m at least in the top ten, right? I know your mom and dad raised you, but c’mon? We’re really good friends, right?
Host
Let’s look at some situations. For each one, tell us if it’s a way to show others they matter. We’ll go around and ask some of you why you think each one does or doesn’t show love.
Read the scenarios and have the kids respond whether each one does or doesn’t show love by giving a thumbs up or down. Then interview a child and ask why they think it does or does not show love.
Spending time with someone
Ignoring a person when he or she speaks
Forgetting someone’s birthday
Making a special homemade gift
Saying hurtful things about someone
Telling someone the truth
Obeying a leader
Pretending to not know someone around others
Taking time to call someone on the phone
Returning a smile with an angry frown
Host
If someone said that they truly loved you, but did most of those negative actions, would you believe that person really loved you? You might question how deep their love is.
Co-Host
Sometimes we do those exact things to God. If we really love Him, then we should probably act like we love Him. I guess it doesn’t help to say we love God but do the opposite.
Host
Right, if we really love God the most, then let’s do our best to show that to Him. After all, God has already shown His love for us in the greatest way possible. He created us and gave His life for us so that we can be part of His family. Let’s see if Ethel can ignore Skip’s bad advice.
Engage 2Materials: Lab Coat (2), Heart Stickers, Poster
Engage 2 Prep: Prepare the Poster by choosing a category and placing pictures of items from that category on the poster such as favorite snacks, shows, etc. As the kids enter class, and prior to the service, have kids place a heart sticker underneath the item on the poster that they love the most. This Poster will be used in this Engage.
Host and Co-Host enter.
Host
Can you believe that Skip ranked his microphone as number one? How could someone love their microphone more than his mom or dad?
Co-Host
Yeah, he’s trying to get Ethel to rank stuff above God. I’m glad the crew has tried to help her understand the Big Point. Let’s say our Big Point,
Co-Host
Love God The Most!
Host
Herman shared a Big Verse that was really helpful. Let’s choose an assistant to help us reveal it.
Host and Co-Host choose a kid to volunteer.
Co-Host
After we count down from three, will you please read the verse?
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Co-Host
Deuteronomy 5:7 (NIrV) says, “Do not put any other gods in place of Me.”
Host
Back when the Bible was written, a lot of people worshipped fake gods. They called them gods, but they were nothing like the one true God. Sometimes they worshipped the sun or moon, other times they worshipped statues.
Co-Host
That seems pretty crazy right? Before service began, we had you guys rank what you loved the most out of (Category) with a heart sticker. Let’s see which one ranked the highest.
Show the poster and reveal the results.
Host
What if I told you that since (item) won the contest, we’re now all going to worship it, sing songs about it, raise our hands to it, pray to it, write books about it, and tell everyone how much we love it.
Co-Host
That would seem ridiculous, right? No one would worship (item). Did you know that whatever you love the most becomes what you worship? If you really, deep down, love baseball the most, then that actually is like your god. If you love to dance the most, then dancing is your god. Even something good like school, if it’s more important to you than Jesus, can become your god.
Host
It might seem crazy to worship a statue or a star, but it’s easy for us to worship things around us when we don’t focus on making God number one in our lives. That’s why we must love Him the most. In a moment, we’ll see what happens when some people didn’t do that. First let’s stand and give the true God our worship.
Big Story
Optional, play soft instrumental music.
Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes. Think for just a moment about what you’ve been putting first in your life. Who or what do you think about the most? What do you prefer spending your time and energy doing? If it’s God, then you are doing awesome. But if there’s something else that’s sitting at number one, then it’s time to rethink the order of things. You can’t be a follower of Jesus unless you make the choice to love God and make Him number one. If you’d like to pray about making the right choice for who’s number one in your life, give me a thumbs up. (Pause) That’s awesome! Take a moment at your seat to talk to God. Tell Him you’re sorry for putting something else in His place and make a commitment to love God the most. (Pause to allow kids to pray) Let’s all pray together.
Engage 3Materials: Lab Coat (2), Cookies Baked Without Sugar, Tray, Regular Cookies
Host and Co-Host enter. Bake some cookies without sugar. Have some regular cookies on a separate tray.
Co-Host
I’m glad that Ethel learned who belongs in the number one spot.
Host
The Israelites in our Big Story discovered that truth the hard way. Worshipping a golden cow got them in some hot water. It’s always better when you follow our Big Point,
Host
Love God The Most!
Co-Host
That’s a story you can share with your family when you do this week’s Big Do.
Host
Instead of using your free time for yourself, take some time to spend with God. You can listen to a worship song, watch a show about God, or read your Bible.
Co-Host
It’s important to put God first because if you don’t do that, things get messy. Who loves cookies? Let’s get someone to taste test these on the tray.
Bring a kid up to taste a cookie that was baked without sugar.
Host
How did that taste? Not good, right? They looked like regular cookies, but they’re missing a key ingredient: sugar. When we don’t love God the most, our life is missing a key ingredient.
Co-Host
Things just aren’t the same when God isn’t first. This cookie has all of the right ingredients. Have a taste.
Have the child taste a regular cookie.
Host
Always make sure you keep God in the right spot, at the top. Let’s turn and connect with our small groups and talk about loving God.
Small Group
Gather the kids into small groups and discuss the following.
Why do you think people have a hard time loving God more than stuff or activities? Why is it important to love God the most? Loving God the most shows that we worship Him as our only God. It puts everything else in the right place – under Him.
What did the Israelites choose to worship while Moses was gone? Golden calf Why do you think that God was angry they did that? They treated the calf like it was the thing that had saved them from Egypt. They made the calf more important. They chose something fake over someone real.
What is one way that you can show God how much you love Him this week?
What did Herman tell us to do with our families in the Big Do? Spend time with God, reading the Bible, listening to a worship song or watching a show about God
Big Review
Optional, play game music. Choose two kids from the audience to come on stage and answer the question.
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Our Big Point says Love God The _____!
Most
Least
What did Skip convince Ethel to do?
Pray
Rank how much she loved things
What did the Israelites ask Moses’ brother to create?
A book
Golden calf
Aaron told the Israelites that the calf statue was the god who saved them.
True
False
God was not happy with the Israelites’ choice.
True
False
Deuteronomy 5:7 (NIrV), “Do not put any other _____ in place of Me.”
People
gods
Name a way to show God that you love Him.
What could you do if you notice that you have made something or someone more important than God?
You can’t make something like a sport or school your god.
True
False
What challenge did Herman give us as this week’s Big Do? Spend time with God, reading the Bible, listening to a worship song or watching a show about God