Trut h Ti m e Te a c h e r L e s s o n P l a n 0 20 6
CORRESPONDING LEVEL WEB #s
Defenders: 040206
Detectives: 030206
Developers: 020206
THE GREATNESS OF GOD
MATERIALS NEEDED
Bible; Teacher Preparation Guide (optional supplements: K4T songbook and PowerPoint files of lyrics);
optional paper for “if time” activity
SUGGESTED ORIGINAL KIDS 4 TRUTH SONG
“All Glory Be to You”
SUGGESTED HYMNS
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” “How Great Thou Art,” “Immortal, Invisible,” “To God Be the Glory”
OTHER SONG SUGGESTIONS
Older kids: “How Wonderful Art Thou,” “Great Is the Lord”
Younger kids: “He’s So Great [and I’m So Small],” “My God Is So Big,” “This Great God” [to the tune of the ABC’s song]
THE BASICS
PRIMARY TRUTH
God is all-powerful, and He is the Source of all power.
PRIMARY SCRIPTURE PASSAGE
Jeremiah 32:17
WHAT THIS DOCTRINE REVEALS ABOUT GOD
Nobody else is more powerful than God. Nothing else is as powerful as God is! One reason that God is unique
(One of a kind and above all) is His all-powerfulness. Nothing can overthrow God. Nothing can prevent God from
doing whatever He pleases. God’s absolute power does not make Him any less righteous. In other words, God uses
His power only in ways that are perfect and holy, for His glory and for the good of His people.
KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES – By God’s grace...
• The child will understand what “omnipotence” means and that God is all-powerful.
• The child will understand that God’s power can never be reduced in any way.
• The child will understand that God is the Source of all power.
• The child will understand that nothing is as powerful as God.
• The child will understand that there are demonstrations of God’s power all around us.
• The child will understand that God has the ability to accomplish all of His good and holy will.
ATTITUDE OBJECTIVES – By God’s grace...
• The child will revere God because of His all-powerfulness.
• The child will fear displeasing the all-powerful God.
• The child will learn to place his/her trust in the all-powerful God.
last saved revision 5 May 2008 (jem)
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P R AY E R
TEACHING PHASE – INTRO
(about 10-20 minutes)
OPENER* / DISCUSSION
What are some people or things that are powerful? Why do you think they’re powerful?
[Lead the children to consider that it may be because they are strong, big, mighty, authoritative, etc.]
The Bible teaches us that God is far more powerful than any of those. In fact, the Bible teaches us that it is
impossible for anything or anyone even to have any power apart from God.
The most important thing to remember about God’s being all-powerful is that He can and does whatever it takes to
get done what He wants to get done. He is totally able to accomplish all His perfect and holy will. God is able!
*NOTE: In the intro, we want to recap the primary truth and set the stage to use the primary truth to point the learners back to God.
INSTRUCTION & REINFORCEMENT
(about 10-20 minutes)
TRUTH TO TALK UP (#1) – God is all-powerful!
Theologians say that God is omnipotent. Can you say the word “omnipotent”? There are two small word pieces that
are combined together to form this word. The first part of “omnipotent” is omni, which means “all” or “totally.” The
second word – potent – means “powerful” or “effective.”
What are some other words which we might use to communicate the idea of being very powerful? Do you know of
anyone (other than God) who could be described as “omnipotent”?
BIBLE DRILL (#1) – What does each one of these verses teach about God’s power?
• Psalm 24:8
• Genesis 18:14
NAME OF GOD
God is called the “Almighty” more than 50 times in Scripture! There is nobody else whom we could call “Almighty,”
because nobody else has all might. “Almighty” is true only about God!
TRUTH TO TALK UP (#2) – God’s power will never increase.
God does not increase (grow, get bigger) in power. He doesn’t need to. Nobody ever gave God His power, and
nobody could ever give Him more of it. God hasn’t been increasing in power. He’s always been perfectly powerful.
If God were to grow in power, then we would have to say there was a time when He was not all-powerful.
We humans can “work up” our strength by exercising our muscles and eating rightly, but God has never had to work
up His strength. What are some other things that grow in power?
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TRUTH TO TALK UP (#3) – God’s power will never decrease.
God will never decrease (lose or shrink in) His power. Everything in our world decays (gets old and rots). Things get
used up, things run out, wear out, or even fade away completely. But God can never lose His power, and nobody is
powerful enough to take God’s power away from Him – not even a little bit of it!
Have you ever gotten a new battery-operated toy? Maybe it was a radio-controlled car. Maybe you were so excited
about your new car that you played with it right away, for a long time. What happened to the car controller’s
batteries after a few hours?
God’s power is not like a battery that wears down after being used for a while. When the Bible says that God rested
on the 7th day, that does not mean that God was feeling weak or worn out. He was not tired at all! “Rested” in this
case simply means that God ceased (stopped, put an end to) His creative work. Instead of working then, He rested.
Even though God used great power when creating the world, He did not “use up” all His power. His power cannot
be limited, and He does not use it all up when He uses it. What are some things that do decrease in power?
( )
(Here would be a great place to insert what you learned from your Teacher Truth Study.)
TRUTH TO TALK UP (#5) – Nothing limits God’s power.
Not only is it true that God’s power never increases (goes up) nor decreases (goes down), but it is also true that
nothing, nobody else can limit God’s power. Nothing else, nobody else could ever be as powerful as God!
When police officers arrest a criminal, they put him in handcuffs. What can he do with those handcuffs? Not much,
compared to what he could do before he was wearing them! The handcuffs limit (keep down) the criminal’s
abilities to move his hands or get away or fight. He cannot do what he wants to anymore, because the handcuffs
limit his ability to do his own will. But God cannot be “handcuffed” or limited in any way! Nothing limits God’s
power. God is unlimited in His power.
TRUTH TO TALK UP (#6) – God is the Source of all power.
Without God there would be no power. He is the Source (the beginning point, the cause) of all power. Anything
we do is possible only because God gives the ability to do it.
TRUTH TO TALK UP (#7) – Although God can do anything, He would never do anything that would go
against His own righteous character.
Someone might worry that God might use His power for bad things, like to destroy things or people we value. This
may be true! God has every right to use His power – whenever and however He wants to! – in order to accomplish
His will. But we can take comfort: Because God is also totally holy and good, we believe that He will never use His
power in a way that’s wrong. We may not like how He uses His power, but we can trust He knows what He is doing.
He is always faithful and righteous, even when we don’t understand His perfect ways or His perfect thoughts.
Think about a hurricane that tears up a whole neighborhood, or a car crash caused by a drunk driver, or the choice
of your best friend’s parents to move their family out of state. Couldn’t God have stopped those things from
happening? Isn’t He powerful enough? Yes! But sometimes God causes “bad” weather, and God lets “bad” people
hurt us, and God sometimes leads people in ways we think are “bad.” He does this because He is Who He is and
He has great purposes that are ultimately going to work out – for God’s own glory and for His people’s best “good”!
His ways are better. They are best. We might be tempted to call what He does “bad,” but we can rest assured that
God will never use His power to do wrong.
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TRUTH TO TALK UP (#8) – Since God is omnipotent, He can and does accomplish all His will.
Nothing is as powerful as God is! God is unique because of His all-powerfulness. Nothing can overthrow God.
Nothing can prevent God from doing as He wills (doing whatever He wants to do).
Think about it: What might an evil person do if he/she had the kind of power God has?
[He/she would use that power for his/her own evil purposes.]
God’s absolute power has not affected His righteousness. In other words, God uses His power only in ways which
are holy and good. He can’t help but use His power to carry out holy and good purposes, because HE is holy and
good. We can be glad our omnipotent God is not evil, but that He is holy and good.
BIBLE DRILL (#2) – What has God done?
• Psalm 115:3
GETTING BACK TO GOD*
{Recap WHAT THIS DOCTRINE REVEALS ABOUT GOD: Nobody else is more powerful than God. Nothing else is as powerful
as God is! One reason that God is unique (One of a kind and above all) is His all-powerfulness. Nothing can overthrow God.
Nothing can prevent God from doing whatever He pleases. God’s absolute power does not make Him any less righteous. In
other words, God uses His power only in ways that are perfect and holy, for His glory and for the good of His people.}
God never leaves anything undone that He wants to accomplish! He is omnipotent (om-NIH-po-tent), which means
He is “all-powerful.” Everything He wants to do is within His power to do. No one can hold God back if He does
not want to be held back. For the believer, it is comforting and challenging to know that God is always in control,
even when it seems to us that He is not showing Himself to be strong. Even though we cannot see God, and even
though we do not always understand what He is doing, we can place our faith in His all-powerful strength and
love. We can trust that He will use His power perfectly for for His holy name’s sake and for the good of His people.
*NOTE: Teachers, please remember that this section should include the fruit of your Teacher Truth Study and one or two personal illustrations or
anecdotes from the “Personalize It!” activity in the Teacher Preparation Phase.
A P P L I C AT I O N & A S S E S S M E N T
“INTERNALIZE IT!” from Teacher Preparation Phase
(about 5-10 minutes)
You might begin this section with:
“Boys and girls, as I’ve been preparing for this TruthTime Lesson, here’s what God has been showing me....”
You might continue by saying:
“Because of what God is teaching me, here’s what is going to be different in my life during this next week....”
You might conclude with something like this:
“Finally, here’s what God has taught me about Himself through these truths....”
DISCUSSION TIME QUESTIONS
• If a person believes God is all-powerful, how might that affect that person’s attitude and behavior?
• What are some things we find in nature that teach us that God is very powerful?
• Why might it be good to remind a very proud person about God’s omnipotence (His all-powerfulness)?
• Why would it be foolish to trust anyone else above God?
last saved revision 5 May 2008 (jem)
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APPENDICES OR “IF TIME”
(optional)
ACTIVITY
After handing each of the children a sheet of paper, ask them to write the following sentence:
God is OMNIPOTENT, and that means He is far stronger than...
Next, have the children write the word “OMNIPOTENT” vertically, in large letters down their papers. Then, allow
them time to think of words that either begin with or include one of the letters from “OMNIPOTENT.” Each of
these words should name something that may be very strong but that is still weaker than our all-powerful God. An
example is below with some ideas to help you get the boys and girls started!
PE – O – PLE
M
N
L – I – GHTNING
P
L I – O – NS
T – ORNADOS
D – E – ATH
N – IAGARA FALLS
T – EMPTATION
EXTRA DISCUSSION TIME QUESTION
Look up Job 38-42, and list some of the powerful created things that God mentions there.
• If God created all these powerful things and knows just how powerful they are, how could
we ever doubt that He is most powerful of all?
last saved revision 5 May 2008 (jem)
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