PRETEEN MINISTRY LESSON ON RESPECT FOR GOD

Use this FREE lesson to to help the preteens in your ministry have awe, reverence, and respect for God.

It includes a free download of the PowerPoint Game, “Show Your Face” – a fun way to start a lesson on an otherwise serious topic.

Enjoy the lesson 🙂

– Nick Diliberto, Preteen Ministry

PRETEEN MINISTRY LESSON ON RESPECT FOR GOD

DOWNLOAD PDF OF THIS LESSON

Bottom Line: The fear of the Lord means to give God awe, reverence, and respect.

Bible: Acts 10:1-3; 10:22-23; Deuteronomy 6:24; 1 Samuel 12:14-15; Psalm 31:19; Psalm 128:1-4; Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 19:23; Proverbs 22:4; Luke 1:50; 1 Peter 2:15-17

SUPPLIES

Show Your Face Powerpoint Activity. DOWNLOAD HERE

A Bible for each small group.

Scripture references from the end of the lesson – each on their own slip of paper.

OPENING GAME – SHOW YOUR FACE

Download the “Show Your Face” powerpoint activity.

If you don’t have access to technology, use a couple of leaders or preteen volunteers to show expressions as you call out different emotions such as joy, disgust, sadness, awe, frustration, fear, etc…

Say: We’re going to kick off our time together today with a fun activity where I’m going to need all of your faces.

Are you ready?

When I put up a photo, I want you to show me the expression you might have on your face when you see the image in real life.

Scroll through the photos up until slide sixteen and then pause.

Great job with those facial expressions.

Now, I want to review six of the photos and see your expressions again (slides 18-23).

Show the next three “fear/afraid” photos and the next three “fear/awe” photos.

All of these pictures we just reviewed show fear.

The first few are the kind of fear we feel when we are afraid.

The next three are about a different kind of fear that we are going to talk about today.

You see the Bible talks about the importance of fearing God.

I am here to tell you today that when we read that in our Bibles, it means this (show once again the three fear/awe photos-slides 21-23).

Not this (show the three fear/afraid photos-slides 18-20).

After seeing our two definitions of fear in these photos, what do you think the fear of the Lord means?

Allow preteens to respond.

TEACH

Yes, the kind of fear we are talking about today is awe, respect, reverence.

Discuss with preteens these simple definitions of awe, reverence, and respect.

Awe: Open mouthed.

Respect: To think highly of.

Reverence: Show honor, admiration, and appreciation.

All of these things together are what the fear of the Lord is about.

So how do we demonstrate our fear of God?

Let’s look at Acts 10:1-3.

Read out loud together.

Cornelius is a Gentile soldier who fears God, and not only does he fear God but his entire household does.

It says he prayed to God regularly and gave to those in need.

In this story he has a vision from God and it is about Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples.

Cornelius is told to send men to a place called Joppa to get Peter.

Meanwhile, Peter is in Joppa also having a vision from God.

Let’s read Acts 10:22-23 together.

When the men get to Peter, they tell Peter that Cornelius is a man who fears God and is respected among the Jewish people.

Peter goes with the men to see Cornelius and when he gets there, they both talk about the visions that God had given them.

Peter was learning through his vision that anyone who feared God could be saved and accepted by Him no matter if they were Jews or Gentiles (these were people who were not Jews, like Cornelius and his family).

This was a big deal.

As he told Cornelius about his vision and about how Jesus came to save people from their sins, Cornelius and his entire household receive the Holy Spirit.

Cornelius had a respect and reverence for God but now He also understood that God could save Him.

What an exciting time!

Cornelius was a man who feared God.

He showed awe, reverence, and respect in the way that he lived.

If Cornelius was able to do that, how can we show our awe, reverence, and respect for God?

Allow for responses.

Those are some great ideas! I have a few as well.

We can show our awe, reverence, and respect for God in the following ways.

USE GOD’S NAME APPROPRIATELY

This means not making silly jokes about God or using His name disrespectfully.

Have any of you ever heard God’s name being used disrespectfully?

Show of hands.

Can anyone describe how it made you feel?

Allow for responses.

Using God’s name disrespectfully is like someone taking the name you have and mispronouncing it on purpose or turning it into nickname you don’t like.

When people do this to us it is not respectful.

The same is true when we use God’s name.

How can we use His name respectfully?

Allow for responses.

We can use His name when we talk to Him, when we worship Him, and when we tell others about Him.

Here’s another idea, we can show awe, reverence, and respect for God by…

SETTING ASIDE TIME TO WORSHIP GOD.

In the story of Cornelius it stated that he prayed regularly.

We can tell God how awesome He is and what he means to us when we talk to Him in prayer and when we worship Him.

Worshipping God means telling Him what He is worth and noticing what makes God so fantastic.

What kind of words could we use to describe God that would be worshipful?

Allow for responses.

One final way we can show our awe, reverence, and respect for God is by…

OBEYING HIS COMMANDS.

The two most important commands found in the New Testament of our Bibles are to love God and to love each other.

When we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and then show God’s love to others we are acting in a way that shows we fear God.

Cornelius did this by being generous with the poor out of His love for God.

What does loving God and loving others look like today?

Allow for responses.

So why is fearing and respecting God so important?

Anyone have some thoughts on that?

Allow for responses.

Excellent answers!

We’re going to explore this a little more.

I’m going to break you up into a group with a leader.

Each group will look up one or more of the following verses and discover why it is important to fear the Lord.

When time is up, you’ll report your discoveries to the other groups so that we can see the many reasons why fearing God is important.

• Deuteronomy 6:24
• 1 Samuel 12:14-15
• Psalm 31:19
• Psalm 128:1-4
• Proverbs 9:10
• Proverbs 19:23
• Proverbs 22:4
• Luke 1:50
• 1 Peter 2:15-17

Call groups back together to report on their discoveries after 5-10 minutes. Add comments when appropriate to bring clarity.

Say: The fear of the Lord is not about being afraid of Him.

It is about acknowledging His awesomeness and showing a deep respect and reverence for Him.

The way we respond to God and talk about Him demonstrates our fear of Him.

When we fear and respect the Lord, the Bible promises that we will be blessed, that we will know Him better, and that we will have every good thing we need from God.

Close in Prayer.

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