Leader Guide

Teaching

Note: You may substitute a container of colored water or other safe, colored liquid for the baking soda and vinegar. Modify the presentation wording and simply pour the colored liquid into the glass of water and talk about how the coloring changes the water.

Our SuperTruth today says: “God will overcome my weakness.”

God wants us to focus on His strength, not our weakness! In the video, Moses only saw his weakness at first, not God’s strength to do what He was calling him to do. God knew Moses’ weakness and reminded Moses that He alone gives life and ability to His creation! When Moses trusted and obeyed God, He gave him words to speak and filled him with His authority and power! God’s supernatural power overcame Moses’ human weakness!

When we invite Jesus into our hearts, God sends His Holy Spirit to live inside of us. His Spirit overcomes our weakness and replaces it with His ability, power, wisdom, and direction!

Listen to what Jesus told the disciples just before He left them to return to heaven. They were sad that He was leaving, but here is what He said.

Read Acts 1:8:

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere — in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.″

How cool is that? The disciples had witnessed Jesus’ power; but now He was leaving them, and they felt weak and powerless. They didn’t know what they would do without Him. Jesus told them that He was sending the Holy Spirit to give them His power! Just like with Moses, the Holy Spirit would give them the words to speak. God gave them the power to tell others about Jesus!

Bring out the materials on the baking tray and place them on the table. Stand behind the table as you do the demonstration. Hold up the empty water glass.

Let’s say this glass represents me.

Pour in about 4 ounces of water so the glass is about 2/3 full. What’s inside me?

Just some plain water—nothing special, right? In fact, I have a lot of fears and weaknesses—represented by this baking soda.

Place the glass on the baking tray, then add a tablespoon of baking soda into the glass and stir. I’m not very good at talking, and I’m afraid of what people think about me.

Show how the liquid is swirling in the glass. See? I’m all stirred up about my weaknesses. I want to share Jesus with a friend at school, but I don’t have the courage and confidence to do that. I feel weak in this area.

What should I do? Pray, ask God for help, etc.

Oh! That’s a great idea! I will ask God to help me and give me His power.

Pour in some vinegar to activate the ingredients in the glass. It will overflow the glass. You can activate the ingredients a second time by pouring in some more vinegar, if you wish. Wow! God’s power is activated in my life! The Holy Spirit fills me with power and overcomes my weakness!

In Acts, Christians were being persecuted and imprisoned for their belief in Jesus. The believers gathered and prayed for boldness to continue to share the Gospel. Listen to what happened!

Read Acts 4:31:

After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.

God wants us to be bold, not weak! He will overcome our weakness in every area of our lives and supply what we are lacking! Now, let’s shout our SuperTruth with boldness: “God will overcome my weakness.”

Discipleship Challenge/Practical Application

Let’s talk about our Chain Link Challenge from the last lesson. Hand out Chain Link Challenge Patterns to any children who were not present for Lesson 1. Do you remember the SuperTruth from last lesson? “God sees, hears and understands me.”

Would anybody like to share the results of your challenge? Were you able to help anyone with a job or burden?

Allow children to share their challenge experience. The second Chain Link Challenge is to pray about a weakness you struggle with and ask God for His power to overcome it. Let’s all do this before our next lesson, and I’ll ask how God answered your prayer.