God Knows Us!

Welcome

Greet Crews Outside and guide them in the room.

Hello everyone my name is Jesse, remind me your names.

(Hold the bible up)

It’s time for another totally true and amazing adventure from the Bible that is going to help us explore another important fact about who God is.

Before we start I want to review the bible point for today and what you are supposed to respond so we can improve on yesterday. When I or any other leader around VBS says God knows everything. You guys say (Wow, God!)

Lets Try:

Today we are going to explore the fact that God knows everything. (Wow, God!)

Yesterday we learned that God made everything from nothing just by speaking the words. He made everything is just 6 days and rested on the 7th to show is the importance of rest. God is our creator. (Wow, God.)

God’s most special creation was people just like you and me.

Today we are going to learn about a man God created called David.

You might know David as the shepherd boy who killed the giant with just one stone, or a great king, or even how God referenced him the man after God’s own heart.

What you might now know is that David was also a song writer and he wrote many songs.

Anyone in here want to be a song writer one day?

Today we can read David’s songs in the book of Psalms. The word Psalm means a Hymn or a song designed to praise God. We want everything we do to praise God.

Today we are going to learn about a Psalm or song that David wrote about how deeply God knows everything about us.

God Knows Our Hearts!

Let’s see how David started his song about how much God knows.

This is what is says in Psalms Chapter 139, verse 1:

Psalm 139:1 “Lord, you have seen what is in my heart. You know all about me.” (NIRV)

Sometimes we mistakenly judge people or people mistakenly judge us based on physical our outside appearance like our clothes or make up.

God doesn’t look at out physical appearance he examines or looks at our hearts.

Let’s learn a little bit more about our hearts since they are so important to God;

(Give out heart squishy’s to all the kids and leaders)

Alright now that everyone has one hold the heart squishy in which ever hand you would like. When I count to three, I want you to squeeze the heart and then relax your hold like this (demonstrate squeezing and relaxing the squishy)

You are going to keep squeezing and relaxing as many times as you can. I am going to give you a minute to see how many times you can do this.

Now I am about to time you for a minute but no stopping or changing hands. Silently count the number of squeezes if you want to.

Reay? 1, 2, 3! Squeeze! (Call time after a minute and have the kids return the heats to their baskets)

I bet your hand is tired at lease a little right now! That was a lot of squeezing!

Did anyone count your squeezes? How many did you count?

The human heart beats about 70 times per minute, your guys hearts beat a little faster than say mine or most of your leaders as they slow down a little with age.

Seventy times a minute however is a lot for such a “tiny” organ to do. And the force it took you to squeeze that squishy heart is about the same force uses to pump blood through out your body.

Imagine having to squeeze that squishy in the same hand seventy times per minute not missing a beat at full force, our hearts are very strong!

But your heart does more than just pump blood throughout your body.

We also use the word “heart” to describe who we are on the inside - Our nature, our character, and the things we love and care about.

God sees all and knows all about who we are in out hearts! He knows our nature without us ever saying a word because he created us and God knows everything. (Wow, God!)

Know we are going to make our hearts, please take one of the paper hearts, a clip board, and a pen and write your name in the center of the heart like this (Demonstrate putting your name in the middle of the heart)

Then we are going to flip the heart over and using the washable ink pads put your thumb print in the middle of the back of the heart like this (Demonstrate putting your finger print in the middle of the heart)

Now use the wet wipes to wash your hands and please do not get the ink on anything other than your finger, the paper heart, and the wet wipe.

Crew leaders can you collect everything but their hearts please.

Take a second to look at the finger print in your heart. It is totally unique to you, know one else in the world has the same finger print as you.

Take a second to compare your finger prints with the people next to you, do you guys see any differences?

(Give them about 30 seconds to compare and shout out answers)

Just like your finger prints, your heart - meaning who you are on the inside is unique and special.

You are the one and only you that God made!

And when it comes to what is inside your heart, God knows everything. (Wow, God!)

God Knows Our Thoughts and Actions!

David also wrote that God knows what we’re thinking!

Let’s see what it says in Psalms Chapter 139, verse 2:

Psalm 139:2 “You know when I sit down and when I get up. You know what I’m thinking even though you are far away.”

(Point to your head)

Let’s discover something about the amazing brain that God made for you and knows everything about!

Everybody hop up and stand in a circle with your crew.

Starting with your leader when I say “Go!” pass a high-five around your crew as fast as you can. You want to high-five as fast as you can but not as hard as you can, be nice to each other and your leaders. We will start with the leader and go around the circle clock wise so you will high five the person to your right.

Ready, Set, Go! (Give about 30 second to complete this task)

Alright.… and..… stop!

Each time that your hand touched another person’s hand in the circle, your brain received a message from the nerves in your hand.

That message traveled from your hand to your brain at up to 170 miles per hour which is more than most vehicles can even go! That is about the speed that a plane takes off and lands at!

That is incredibly fast!

What is even more incredible and honestly kind of crazy to think about is the fact that God knew everything that was going on in your brain as you did that all the messages that your nerves were send and even thoughts that nobody else might know about!

God is what we call omniscient which means God knows everything. (Wow, God!)

That includes all of our thoughts and our actions.

God Knows Our Lives!

So we have learned that God knows what is going on in our hearts and in our minds… but He also knows what’s going on in our lives!

Let’s see what is says in Psalm chapter 139, verse 3:

Psalm 139:3 “You know when I go out to work and when I come back home. You know exactly how I live.”

Alright we have learned a lot, so lets take a short 2-minute break and play a game. We are going to play a game of Simon Says. Do I have a leader who would like to be Simon.

(Give them 2-minutes to play the game)

Just like in the game Simon Says life can be hectic; one second you are patting your head and the next you are jumping around in circles like a crazy person.

Not just actions but sometimes we have to go all over the place to school, church, sport events, and all the other places in between.

Where’s a place that you guys are going this week? (Give an example to break the ice if needed)

No matter where we are or what we are doing, God sees us and most importantly he is with us always.

He is with us when we are at church or youth group but he is also with us when we are riding in a car or in a far away place. He is with us in the scary places and the not so scary places.

God knows everything about us and where we are because God knows everything. (Wow, God.)

God Knows What We Say!

In fact God knows so much about us, He even knows what we are about to say.

Listen to what is says in Psalms Chapter 139, verse 4:

Psalm 139:4 “Lord, even before I speak a word, you know all about it.”

When we speak, we use breath or air from our lungs.

Everyone put your hand on your chest.

Now take the biggest, deepest inhale you can, and hold it until I say.

(After about 3-4 seconds have them exhale)

Know I want you to show me with your hands how much air you think you held in your lungs when you just inhaled and held your breath. (Demonstrate with your hands)

Let’s see how close you are with your guess. Keep your hands in the position that you have and I’ll show you for comparison how much air fits in my lungs.

(Deep inhale, exhale into a balloon and pinch it closed)

(Take the balloon around and compare the sizes with their hands.)

Wow! Some of you were pretty close!

That is a lot of air to fit in my lungs.

In an average day your lungs move enough air in and out to blow up more than 1,000 balloons!

And every word that comes out of your mother is filled with breath from your lungs. (Release the balloon)

God knows so much about us that he knows that all that air you are breathing in and out is going to be used for including each and every word you say before you even say it, before the air even comes out of your lungs to make the word.

Celebrate You and How You are made!

It’s pretty amazing to think about how much God knows about us.

He knows all this about us because he made us wonderfully complex, like we learned yesterday we are his most amazing and important creation the ones he made after his own image!

Let’s see what is says in Psalms chapter 139, verses 13 and 14:

Psalm 139:13-14 “You created the deepest parts of my being. You put me together inside my mother’s body. How you made me is amazing and wonderful. I praise you for that. What you have done is wonderful. I know that very well.”

Have any of you ever knitted anything or seen someone knit?

God knit you together even before you were born. When you were still in your mother’s body God made you the exact way he wanted you!

Sometime life or other people can make us feel bad about ourselves or the way we are. It is so important that we remember God made you wonderful the exact way he wanted you to be.

Earlier we put a finger print on our paper hearts to show that God made us and our hearts unique.

He made you wonderfully complex, a special person made in his own image!

Crew leaders would you pass out markers and pencils/pens please in just one second to your crew.

Everyone is going to spend some time writing words or drawing pictures on your paper hearts that tell special things about how God made you.

For example: You could write “funny” or “creative.”

If you are not sure what to write take a second to ask God what you should write! He is the one who made you! He also knows you better than you even know yourself!

You can also ask your leaders and friends what you should write, everyone remember to be kind because we are all made in Gods image and are important to him.

Alright we are going to take about 2 minutes to do this, please try on these we are going to be displaying them for your parents to see and others!

Ok guys, finish up your hearts and then you are going to get a piece of tape and put it around the poster for today. Please tape it to the paper/table cloth behind the poster and not the wall or poster itself.

Wow! Look at all these things that make You, You! (Read a few of the words/images on the hearts)

No person in this room or even in this world knows everything about you - not even You!

But God knows everything about you because he made you, you!

God knows everything. (Wow, God!)

He knows and loves you!

Tomorrow we will find out even more about who God is!