CG Shake It Up title graphic Large Group

CG: “Shake It Up” title graphic

Large Group Leader: Hello everybody! Are you ready to shake it up? ! (Kids respond. ) I hope so, because we’ve been really shaking things up—literally! In fact, before we get started, I think we should do some warm-ups. Invite kids to stand up with you. Tell kids to begin by shaking their right hand along with you. After a few seconds, switch to the left hand. Continue switching to different parts of the body such as right foot, left foot, knees, head, stomach, tongue, etc. When you’re finished warming up, tell the kids to begin by slowly shaking their whole body. Every few seconds, tell kids to shake a little bit faster. When finished, tell everyone to take a seat.

Whoa—that was incredible. I’m surprised you didn’t shake a few body parts loose! During “Shake It Up, ” we’re going to be shaking our bodies a lot, but that’s not all we’ll be shaking. (Pick up a mystery box and begin shaking it. ) We’ll also be shaking some mystery boxes and trying to figure out what’s inside. Every time we discover what’s in the box, it’ll help us discover another part of the Big Bible Story. Before we get to this week’s story, though, I want to ask you about last week’s “Shake It Up” challenge. Last week you were challenged to stand up for what is right. Did any of you do that? What did you do? (Allow kids to share what they did. Lead the kids in a round of applause for anyone who shares. )

Nice job! When we stand up for what is right, it shakes the world! People will notice that we live in a special way and they’ll want to know Jesus so they can live that way too. So—are you ready to shake things up again? (Kids respond. ) Let’s get started! In today’s story, Jesus introduced His followers to a new kind of math. Let me show you what I’m talking about. CG: Show “Jellybean” graphic. Which is more, 3 jellybeans or 12 jellybeans? (Kids respond. ) Are you sure? How about this one. CG: Show “Cookie” graphic. Which is more, 1 cookie or 7 cookies? (Kids respond. ) Okay—one last question. CG: Show “Potato Chips” graphic.

Which is more, 2 potato chips or 25 potato chips? (Kids respond. ) Well kids—it might sound crazy, but you got every one of those questions wrong! If you’re confused, don’t worry—it’ll all make sense at the end of our story. Jesus is going to do some crazy math and show us that we think is more isn’t always more! CG: “The Big Bible Story” graphic One day, Jesus was sitting in the temple courtyard. Does anyone remember what the temple was? (Take answers. ) That’s right— the temple was like God’s house. It was a special place where God’s people could pray to Him, listen to His Word being read, and give Him offerings. Let’s see if our first mystery box can help us figure out what Jesus was doing at the temple.

Hold up box #1. Shake it as you ask the kids what they think is inside. Box #1 contains a watch. After taking answers, open the box and reveal its contents. Finally, after each reveal, play the “Shake It Up” music jam and have the kids who guessed correctly do their crazy “Shake It Up” dance. (Hold up the watch for kids to see. ) Do you think Jesus was telling time on His watch? (Kids respond. ) There was no such thing as a watch—so probably not! While Jesus sat in the temple courtyard, He watched as the crowd of people came in and out. All kinds of different people came to worship God at His temple—tall people and short people, rich people and poor people. But no matter who they were, most of them were doing the same thing. Let’s see if the second mystery box can help us figure out what they were doing.

Hold up box #2. Shake the box as you ask the kids what they think is inside. Box #2 contains a smaller box. After taking answers, remove the lid and reveal its contents (Hold up the smaller box with word “Offering” written on it. ) Hey, how about that—it’s a box in a box! The temple courtyard had offering boxes all around it. The offering box is where the people would give their money to God. Later on, the temple priest would collect the money from the boxes and use it to do God’s work, like taking care of people in need. (Place the “offering” box in the teaching area where kids can see it. ) As the crowd of people dropped their money in the offering boxes, Jesus noticed something. Maybe mystery box #3 can help us figure out what Jesus noticed.

Hold up box #3. Shake the box as you ask the kids what they think is inside. Box #3 contains fancy rings. After taking answers, remove the lid and reveal its contents. (Place rings on your fingers and saunter around as you deliver the following lines. ) A lot of rich people dressed in very nice clothes and wearing fancy jewelry walked up to the offering boxes and threw large amounts of money into them. (Grab a large handful of coins and drop them into the “offering” box with big effect. ) But for as much money as they gave, they still had a LOT of money left over. Then Jesus noticed something else. Let’s see if we can figure it out with mystery box #4.

Hold up box #4. Shake the box as you ask the kids what they think is inside. Box #4 contains 2 pennies. After taking answers, remove the lid and reveal its contents. From the middle of all the rich people, a poor widow emerged. A widow is a lady whose husband has died. In Jesus’ time, if your husband died, it was really hard to earn enough money to live on. (Approach the “offering” box. ) As the poor widow approached the offering box, she took out two very small copper coins—worth only a few cents—and she placed them in the box. (Quietly put pennies into the “offering” box. )

When Jesus saw what she did, he called His disciples to Him and said, (open Bible and read from Mark 12: 43 -44), “What I’m about to tell you is true. That poor widow has put more into the offering box than all the others. They all gave a lot because they are rich. But she gave even though she is poor. She put in everything she had. That was all she had to live on. ” WOW, she gave everything that she had…check out our questions: CG: “Big Bible Story Questions” graphic 1. What was your favorite part of this story? 2. Why do you think Jesus said that the poor widow gave more than the others?

CG: Show “Jellybean” graphic from earlier. Earlier I asked you which was more, 3 jellybeans or 12 jellybeans. Normally it would seem like 12 jellybeans is more, but imagine this—what if your friend had a giant bag of jelly beans like this (hold up bag of jellybeans) and they gave you 12 jellybeans from it. That sure would be nice of them, but is that a lot? Not really, because they still have a ton of jellybeans left over. (Take 3 jellybeans from the bag. ) Now imagine this—what if your friend only had 3 jellybeans and they gave you all 3 of them. Would that be a lot? (Kids respond. ) Of course it would! Your friend just gave you everything they had.

CG: “Shake It Up” title graphic That’s just like what happened in our story for today. (Grab a handful of coins from the “offering” box. ) The rich people gave a lot of money, but it was just a tiny bit of what they had; they still had a ton left over. (Take the 2 pennies from the “offering” box. ) The poor widow, on the other hand, gave very little money, but it was everything she had. That’s why Jesus said that she had given more than all the others. That was pretty generous of the poor widow, wasn’t it? Do you know what it means to be generous? (Take answers. ) Great answers! Let’s take a look at our definition: CG: Generous: (adjective) to give BIG with a cheerful heart

How hard do you think it would be for you to be as generous as the poor widow? (Take answers. ) Sometimes it can be really hard to give BIG to others. If we give at all, we usually just want to give a little. (Pick up bag of jellybeans. ) Imagine for a second that this was your bag of jellybeans. If someone asked you for some, would you say, “Sure, have as much as want” or would you say, “You can have a tiny amount”? (Kids respond. ) A lot of times we just want to give a tiny bit, but not the poor widow—she gave BIG! And I think I know why. Imagine now that these jellybeans aren’t just jellybeans …

Imagine that they’re every good thing we have. (Begin pouring the jellybeans into a bowl as you deliver the next line. ) The poor widow understood that everything we have comes from God—(pull out a jellybean for each of the following and set on the table) our money, our house, our clothes, our food, our toys, even our jellybeans! God has shared all of these things with us, so when the poor widow had a chance to share her things, she did it with a cheerful heart. And do you know what? That’s exactly how God wants us to give. That’s what our Bible verse for today tells us. Let’s take a look.

CG: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give. You shouldn’t give if you don’t want to. You shouldn’t give because you are forced to. God loves a cheerful giver. ” 2 Corinthians 9: 7 Tell the kids about how your church does tithes/offering. Begin by saying, One of the ways we can give with a cheerful heart is through tithes and offering. That’s when you give some of your money back to God at church. We do that with the offering you all bring in!! We take the first 10% and give it to the church…and then the rest of it goes for Judith and Velesky…so they can go to school and have money for the doctor and food.

God doesn’t want us to give just because we feel like we’re supposed to. (Illustrate the following as you say it. ) He doesn’t want us to cross our arms, scrunch our face, and say “Fine! Here you go!” Instead, He wants us to give cheerfully in the same way that He gives cheerfully to us. CG: SHAKE IT UP CHALLENGE: Give BIG to others with a cheerful heart. In fact, that’s our “Shake It Up” challenge for the week: Give BIG to others with a cheerful heart. When you’re a cheerful giver, people will notice and it will shake the world around you! Next week, we’re going to ask you how you shook up your world by being generous with what you have. I can’t wait to hear about what you do! Let’s Pray and ask God to help us be generous…