Scripture: I Kings 4,7,9,11 and 2 Chronicles 8
Learning Objectives:
- Students will learn God blessed Solomon in many ways, just like He blesses us in many ways.
- Students will learn God gave Solomon amazing wisdom and riches which Solomon could have used to serve God. God also gives us different gifts to use in His service.
- Students will learn Solomon eventually became distracted by the things his wealth, power and fame gave him. We too, can become distracted by things in the world and begin making poor choices.
- Students will do chores for money to donate to the ministry of their choice.
Guiding Question: How does serving others keep us from becoming distracted from the things of this world?
Materials: No materials needed.
Procedure: Review the story of Solomon’s Kingdom from the scripture above. Remind students that we are blessed by God in many ways just as Solomon was blessed. There are many all over the world that go without basic needs and we are blessed to have access to those things. God often blesses us so that we may share our blessings with others and serve others. This provides an opportunity to share God with them.
Tell the students that every day Solomon’s palace was so amazing it took 30 cows (2 500 lbs of meat each), 100 sheep and goats (aprox. 34 lbs of meat each) PLUS deer, antelope, roebucks and birds AND 185 bushels of flour (One bushel of flour can make 70 loaves of bread!) and 375 bushels of meal to feed everyone. He received 25 tons of gold each year in tribute alone. He owned 12,000 horses and his palace was so amazing it took 13 years to finish building. He also wrote thousands of proverbs and songs and knew a lot about science – in fact to this very day he is listed as the richest person that has ever lived with an estimated worth of 2.1 trillion dollars!
Introduce the service activity. Explain that Solomon eventually let his wealth distract him and made some bad choices that he wrote about in Ecclesiastes. One way to avoid being distracted by whatever amount of money we have is to remember everything is God’s and focus more on giving than receiving. Tell the students to do odd jobs at home throughout the week to earn money to donate to their favorite ministry. It will be their choice how much to donate and how much to keep. The next week, students will share where they decided to donate their money and how they decided how much to donate/how much to keep.
Additional Questions: How can giving up distractions lead to serving God more?
Supplementary Activity: Ask the students to make a list of the things in their life that may distract them from serving God. Challenge the students to go one week without these things/minimal use of these items. Have the students create a plan of how to accomplish this and how they can serve God without the distractions. The next week, have students share successes/challenges/what they learned.