Holy Cow?

(Bobby runs out onstage, yelling like its the beginning of a mega rock concert.)

Bobby: Thank you! Thank you! Hello, Nashville! Are you ready to ROOOOOOOOOOOOOCK?! (sings a loud, high-pitched rocker note)

Leader: Boys and girls, it's Bobby Rockit! How're you doing today, Bobby?

Bobby: I tell ya how I am today, bayyyy-buh! I'm madder than a mountain lion chewin' on a hornet's nest! YEAAAAH!

Leader: For somebody who is so angry you always sound so happy.

Bobby: That's just the music in me baaay-buh! I'm mad at my band's manager!

Leader: Boys and girls, in case you didn't know, Bobby's the lead singer of a band called – (Bobby interrupts)

Bobby: ExSCREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!! We're starting our world tour today!

Leader: You're starting TODAY?!

Bobby: That's right bayyy-buh! That's why I'm mad at our band manager! He says we're not ready! Somethin' silly about how “you can't play any music without instruments.” Whatever! He doesn't know anything!

Leader: Well, that sounds pretty tough....wait...did you just say that you don't have any instruments?

Bobby: Yeah! We're supposed to be getting these special new instruments made especially for us! New guitars, new drums, new keyboards, new everything! But, we can't wait on stuff like that, we're ExSCREAM! We're ready to take on the world! We gotta kick start this tour right now, with or without instruments!

Leader: How're you going to play without instruments?

Bobby: Like this! (does an air guitar solo, followed by an air bass solo, an air drum solo, then an air keyboard solo) It's gonna be great!!!

Leader: Bobby, you're energy is awesome.

Bobby: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!! Thank you!

Leader: But, I don't think anybody will want to see a concert like that.

Bobby: What're you talkin' about, baayyy-buh?! We're ExSCREAM! It'll be the world's first, air-instrument band! We gotta get this show on the road if we're gonna be the best in the world!

Leader: It sounds to me like you need to trust in God's timing.

Bobby: What're you talkin' about?

Leader: Well you've been praying to God for help, right?

Bobby: Yep!

Leader: Well when you're asking for God's help you have to know that God knows if you're ready or not. Sometimes when we know we're going to do something great for God, we want to do it right here and right now! But if we do that, we mess up because we're not really ready! You have to trust God's timing, because He's going to put you in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

Bobby: So what' you're saying is that we shouldn't start our world tour today? We need to trust God's timing and not rush into things?

Leader: That's right! Think about it, if you played anything right now, you wouldn't have any instruments and nobody could hear you!

Bobby: Wow! I guess you're right! We almost rushed into this and messed the whole thing up! Our tour would have been a disaster! Thank you, bayyy-buh, for helping me understand God's timing!

Leader: Anytime! So what are you going to do now?

Bobby: Well with all this extra time, I'm gonna go work on my wardrobe! YEAAAHH!! I'm gonna have the best looking purple-zebra striped pants EVER! I'll see you later, boys and girls! My name's Bobby ROCKIT! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!! THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT!!

Choose a boy and a girl to compete in this game. They will answer questions pertaining to events in the Bible as it relates to “timing.” Have the audience help the contestants by shouting out what they think the answer is. The team that answers the most questions correctly wins the game!

Today we are continuing to learn about Joshua, and EXTREME hero of the Bible. As we have been learning, Joshua did not just appear at the Battle of Jericho. We have many stories about how God prepared Joshua BEFORE he became the big leader of the nation of Israel.

Our Bible Lesson today is all about when Moses went up to Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from God. You may not have realized it, but Joshua actually went with him to the mountain. Joshua was Moses’ right-hand man, so he went with Moses in order to serve him. Moses told the people of Israel to wait in the camp while he went up to receive God’s instructions. So, Moses and Joshua left Aaron, Moses’ brother, in charge while they went up the mountain.

Halfway up the mountain, Moses told Joshua to wait at that very spot until he returned with God’s instructions. And, that’s exactly what Joshua did. He waited, and waited, and waited. He ended up waiting there for FORTY days! Can you imagine waiting FORTY days for someone to return to you? Well, that’s exactly what he did. He was obedient, and waited patently for Moses to return.

That’s much more than we can say about the children of Israel down in the camp below. They started getting VERY restless waiting for Moses and Joshua to return. They started to get impatient, thinking that this whole “Go up to the mountain and meet with God” plan was a bad plan. So, they took things into their own hands and went to Aaron and started to complain. They said, “Where is this man, Moses? Is he even coming back? We want you to do something for us!”

Then, they came up with a plan of their own. They asked Aaron to do something unbelievable! They asked Aaron to gather all of their gold jewelry and melt it down. Then, they asked him to take that liquid gold and mold it into the shape of a cow so they could worship it as a god. Can you believe that? They were going to worship a COW! (hold up the toy cow, then set it somewhere prominent)

Can you imagine how silly that must have looked? All these people dancing around worshipping the golden cow must have looked so ridiculous. What kind of worship did they do? What kind of songs did they sing? (sing a couple lines of modern worship choruses substituting the word “God” with the word “cow” just for fun and to illustrate how silly it must have looked). It must have looked and sounded totally ridiculous. They danced and worshipped the false god all the way until Moses returned. And, when Moses and Joshua returned—Moses was NOT happy.

Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments and saw what the people were doing. He got so angry that he dropped the Ten Commandments and broke them. He asked the people, “What are you doing worshipping this cow made of gold?” The people started to lie and say that it was all an accident. They claimed to have dumped all of their gold in the fire and then out popped this cow. It was a very sad day for the nation of Israel.

Through this story we can learn some important lessons about trusting God’s timing. Remember, this was a time BEFORE Joshua became the leader of the nation of Israel. God was still preparing him to become the leader was soon to be. By looking at this story, we can learn some important things about being patient with God’s timing.

We can look at how the Israelites behaved and see what happens when we get impatient with God’s timing. We start to do things “our way” instead of God’s way, and that ALWAYS leads to problems, and often leads us right into sin. We have to be willing to trust God’s timing and WAIT for the right time He has planned for us.

We can’t try to rush things. What would have happened if Joshua would have gotten impatient like the other children of Israel? After all, he had to wait the forty days, too. He probably would never have become the leader, because he would have ended up in sin as well.

Joshua was patient and waited on God’s timing. He waited on Moses to return, and as a result he was eventually chosen as the leader of the entire nation of Israel. When we are patient with God’s timing, we position ourselves for God’s blessing. He can lead us in the way we should go and be blessed by Him.

Kids, if we ever want to do EXTREME things for God, we have to be willing to be patient and trust His timing. I know you want to grow up TODAY. You want to be an adult TODAY. But, we have to be patient and allow God to prepare us for the EXTREME things He has planned for us in the future.

1. What was today’s Big Idea? Answer: “I Gotta Trust God’s Timing For My Life!”

2. Where did Ban go to workout today in the video? Answer: the gym

3. What was Ban Daid trying to jump over in the video today? Answer: a swimming pool

4. What was the name of the mountain that Moses climbed in today’s lesson? Answer: Mt. Sinai

5. Who went with Moses halfway up the mountain? Answer: Joshua

6. Who did Moses leave in charge of the nation of Israel? Answer: Aaron

7. What did they make out of gold and worship like a god? Answer: a cow

8. In our lesson, we learned “Impatience with God’s timing leads to _______.” Answer: sin

9. In our lesson, we learned “Patience with God’s timing leads to ___________.” Answer: blessing

10. Where was our Power Verse found? Answer: Psalm 37:7