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156: KIDS VERSION - The Return Home
9 Plays41 minutes ago
Today we learned about when God’s people got to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Parents, want to extend the discussion with your kids? Here are some discussion questions:
For your kiddos ages 2-4, say: What did God’s people build? Who did God’s people promise to follow? Who do you follow? (Play follow the leader!)
For your kiddos ages 5-9, say: God’s people pitched in their gold and silver to make the temple magnificent. Talk about a time you worked together with someone else to accomplish a big thing.
For your kiddos ages 10-12, say: The people got distracted building their own homes before completing the temple. Why is it important put God first in our lives?
One last thing! This week Hannah asked, “Why do you think God wants us to work together with others?”. Simply record a voice memo and send it in a text to 636-280-5433. You may even be featured in an upcoming episode. *By sending in a voice memo, you’re providing consent for your minor’s voice to be on the podcast*
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Transcript
Introduction and God's Actions
00:00:00
Speaker
following podcast is a Jill dev Divine Media production. We're just normal kids learning about God's big story. Welcome to Normal Goes Along With... For Kids!
00:00:13
Speaker
Hello, my friends! It's Miss Hannah, and I'm glad you're back to the podcast. We have been zooming in to these stories of the Bible to see how God worked for His people today. to show us his power and to show us his love.
Amazement at Daniel's Story
00:00:28
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Then we zoom out to see how all these little stories are connected to God's big story. Now, last week we heard from Ms. April about the little story of Daniel and the lion's den.
00:00:40
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We wanted to hear from you. What amazes you about this story? Here's what you had to say. he gets in, but then he prays like in the den and then he gets out the den.
00:00:52
Speaker
God saved him from not being eaten by the lions. Daniel was not even hurt. He came out and he was just better than he was before. He prays and then the lion doesn't attack him.
00:01:04
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. How cool to see God's power save Daniel like that?
Fun Facts about Legos
00:01:10
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Well, in today's story, we are going to hear about a time when the people had to build something.
00:01:16
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We thought it would be fun to share some interesting facts about Legos.
00:01:23
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It's time for some fun facts! Hi, my name is Everly. I'm nine years old. Lego is the largest toy company in the world. Lego bricks were invented by a man in Denmark. His family still owns the company today.
00:01:37
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At Christmas time, 28 Lego sets are sold each second. Do any of you build with Legos? I'd love to see your creation. Send them on in to me.
Return from Exile and Rebuilding
00:01:46
Speaker
Now today, before we talk about building something, let's zoom out again to think about God's big story. Where are we in the Bible right now?
00:01:56
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How is it connected to what God is doing? Well, we heard the past couple episodes about how God's people stopped listening and obeying God.
00:02:06
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They stopped following him. And so they were taken over by the Babylonians and sent to exile. Exile just means they were not living in their home anymore.
00:02:18
Speaker
They weren't living in God's promised land and they were slaves. Now, three generations of people were born and raised there. When I say generations, I mean, these people had kids and those kids had kids and those heads kids had kids. And through three generations.
00:02:37
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These people endured many evil kings and hard times as slaves. But finally, good king came along, King Cyrus.
00:02:48
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Yay, King Cyrus! Not only was King Cyrus a good leader, but he actually knew the one true God. He was kind and generous, and so he made a kind and generous choice.
00:02:59
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He decided to let God's people go back to their homeland, back to the city of je Jerusalem. I'm sure they were so excited.
00:03:10
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King Cyrus said, start packing, you're going home to Jerusalem. I'm sure they could hardly believe their ears. And just like if you and i were excited about a trip, they probably started packing right away.
00:03:21
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In fact, the king, King Cyrus ordered that they could take bunch of treasures from their original temple back with them to build a new temple. Now remember a temple is kind of like a church.
00:03:35
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It was the place where God's people went to give him offerings and to worship worship him. So a priest named Zerubbabel. Oh, okay. That one's fun to say. Okay. Pause. And you got to say this with me. Ready?
00:03:48
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Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel. Okay. A priest, which is kind of like a pastor. Zerubbabel led group of God's people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
00:03:59
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When they got there, they started by building an altar and they gave offerings to God and they were so happy. They worshiped him and celebrated him. And then they built a foundation of the temple.
00:04:13
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Now, you know, if you're building a Lego tower, you need a strong foundation before you build up any higher. So they took a lot of great time and care to build a foundation of the temple.
00:04:24
Speaker
When the priests were done with that, they put on special clothes and all the people had a party. They praised God and sang to him about how good he is. They probably played instruments and danced around, kind of like how I do when I'm excited.
00:04:39
Speaker
I put on my favorite music, I dance around, I sing along. And the people did that as well. They sang praises to God, saying things like, God is good, his love lasts forever, God.
Overcoming Opposition and Completing the Temple
00:04:51
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bu Some of them even cried tears of joy. Did you know you can cry tears of joy if you are just so happy? Well, get this. Between the tears of joy and the instruments and the singing and the praising, bet it was pretty loud in Jerusalem.
00:05:09
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And in fact, the Bible tells us it was so loud with all of the praising and partying that people could hear them from far away. fun. How fun. But not everyone in Jerusalem was excited about this new temple because there were people living there all the years that God's people were gone.
00:05:27
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And when God's people came back, they didn't want a new temple. They didn't want God's people to be there. And so they tried to start some trouble and get rid of God's people and stop the building project.
00:05:40
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But remember, King Cyrus was a good king and he had given the order for God's people to go back to Jerusalem. And so King Cyrus said to everyone, let them rebuild.
00:05:53
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In fact, the temple was paid for out of the royal treasury of the king. So they got to keep working on God's temple.
00:06:04
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They didn't need to stop. But another little hiccup in the road is that the people had to build houses, right? They were in exile, then they came back to Jerusalem. They needed a place to live.
00:06:15
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So they had to build their own homes and that distracted them. They forgot about working on God's temple. Friends, we're always supposed to put God first in our lives. And so God sent some messengers named Haggai and Zechariah to remind the people what they were supposed to be doing.
00:06:33
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Zechariah reminded the people that God loved them and wanted them to worship him in this temple. So they had to finish building it and focus on God. Zechariah told the people this message from God.
00:06:45
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I will save you. i will gather all of you back to me. I will bring you to Jerusalem. You will be my people. i will be faithful to you. i will keep my promises to you.
00:06:57
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They finally finished the temple. They celebrated and made offerings to God. i bet you it got loud that day too. They had a new place to worship God and God was going to keep his promises because friends, God always keeps his promises.
00:07:13
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So they promised to follow God and God promised to take care of them. Now, many years later, God would send his son Jesus to be with the people, to be with us.
00:07:24
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So now God doesn't just live in a temple. He lives right with us. He's near you and I. He lives in our hearts. So we don't have to go to a special place to worship him.
00:07:37
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Although we do have a church where we can learn more about him and spend time with other people that love him. But because Jesus is with us and God is in our hearts, it's even better than having a temple.
00:07:48
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He gives us himself. But let's get to the point. God's people promise to follow him. He wants me to follow him too. He wants to be your God. He wants to take care of you. His promises are true and forever.
00:08:03
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And when we follow him, we get to be with him and be blessed by him, just like his people were blessed by him.
Reflecting on Community and God's Presence
00:08:10
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Now, I loved hearing this part of the story where all the people had to work together to build the temple.
00:08:17
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They used their time and their skills and their talents and the jewelry they had and the treasures they brought back to make God's temple beautiful. Now, why do you think God wants us to work together with other people?
00:08:32
Speaker
Talk about it with your family or your friends and then tell us what you talked about. Record a voice memo and send it in a text to 636-280-5433. We might even feature you on next week's episode.
00:08:45
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Don't forget, friends, God loves you with a great big love.