VBS MOTTO: God’s Truth Never Changes!
THEME VERSE: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. -Proverbs 3:5
Bible Story: Satan Tricked Adam and Eve (Genesis 2–3)
Today’s Point: Truth comes from God.
Some People Say: Truth can be different for different people.
God Says: Truth comes from Me.
Items Needed:
- Bible
- Memory Verse Poster
- Story Sequence Pictures (hidden in sand)
- Sand in boxes w/ plastic shovels
- Beach Ball
- Pool Noodle
- Cardstock Printout of Tree
- Brown and Green Paint
- Red Pom Poms
- Googly Eyes
- 2 Pipe Cleaners
- Water cups and paper towels (to clean paint brushes)
Leader Devotion
You probably know the story. God gave Adam and Eve a wonder-filled creation to live in and gave them one rule regarding what they should eat. They were not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But
Satan tempted and tricked Adam and Eve into questioning what God said. They disobeyed God’s perfect instructions, bringing sin into the world.
It seems straightforward. And yet there’s something that bothered me from the time I was a child. God said “On the day you eat from it, you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:17). So why didn’t Adam and Eve die that day? In fact, Adam lived 930 years! (See Genesis 5:5.) Why? Did God really say… ?
The question unlocks a treasury of truth your kids need to hear. Yes, God did really say that Adam and Eve would die, and He meant it. It just turns out we don’t always recognize death when we see it. Adam and Eve died another kind of death that day: spiritual death. And they passed it on to the rest of humanity.
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Ephesians 2:1
We can’t resurrect ourselves, but the glorious truth is we are not trapped in spiritual death. And God promised this truth back in Genesis! In Genesis 3:15, before God even told Adam and Eve the consequences for their sin, He told the serpent, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between you and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” Bible scholars agree that this was the first record of God promising to send Jesus. Wrapped up in the horrible consequences of sin is the promise of how God would one day
fix everything.
Death cannot hold us captive if God sets us free. And Jesus came, just as God promised, to bring that freedom.
We can’t resurrect ourselves, but the glorious truth is we are not trapped in spiritual death. And God promised this truth back in Genesis! In Genesis 3:15, before God even told Adam and Eve the consequences for their sin, He told the serpent, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between you and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” Bible scholars agree that this was the first record of God promising to send Jesus. Wrapped up in the horrible consequences of sin is the promise of how God would one day fix everything.
Death cannot hold us captive if God sets us free. And Jesus came, just as God promised, to bring that freedom
6:30-7:00 Bible Story, Bible Verse Game, & Song
SAY: “Hey kids! Welcome to Adventure Week VBS! My name is _. Today we’re hearing a true story from the Bible about someone who pretended to be a snake so he could trick a man name Adam and a woman named Eve. Adam and Eve learned that some people do not tell the truth, but that God always tells the truth.”
PDF: SMALL GROUP BIBLE STORY LESSON
GAME 1: DIG WITH SHOVELS
Items Needed: Bible, “Sequencing Pictures”, one bin per crew with enough sand to cover pictures with a 1- to 2-inch depth of sand, small plastic shovels
Bury the “Sequencing Pictures” in the bins of sand. Remind boys and girls that God created the world, including beaches, the sand on beaches, and even each boy and girl! Explain to preschoolers that they are going to dig in sand with shovels to find pictures from today’s Bible story. Once they have uncovered all of the pictures, they will work together to put them in order. Invite boys and girls to recall the story once they have put the pictures in order. Remind preschoolers that Adam and Eve learned that some people lie but God tells the truth.
SAY: “We can trust what God says because truth comes from God!”
WORSHIP SONG
MEMORY VERSE GAME: BEACH BALL
Explain that boys and girls will get to practice saying the verse together as they play a game. Give one preschooler a beach ball and tell him that when the music starts, he will pass it to the person next to him. Explain that they will keep passing the ball until the music stops. Whoever is holding the ball when the music stops will get to go point to the words on the “Memory Verse Poster” while everyone says the verse together.” Play until preschoolers have repeated the verse several times.
7:00-7:15 Craft | Serpent & Apple Tree
- Cardstock Printout of Tree
- Brown and Green Paint
- Red Pom Poms
- Googly Eyes
- 2 Pipe Cleaners
Kids will make a serpent out of pipe cleaners by weaving them together and add google eyes to it. They will paint a tree printed on cardstock. Then they will add red apples (pom poms) with glue to the tree.
7:15-7:45 Games
GAME 1: ANIMAL LIMBO
Today, kids learned that God created the world and that truth comes from God. God made all the animals like the ones in our game. Ask children if they remember what animal Satan pretended to be when he talked to Adam and Eve. (snake)
- Have two leaders (or children) hold up a pool noodle between them as a limbo bar. Hold the noodle at a height that all kids will need to bend to go under it, but do not set it too low.
- Guide preschoolers to line up facing the limbo bar (pool noodle).
- Call out: “Penguin!” Children must go under the limbo bar moving as a penguin. Call other animals: bear, octopus, deer, beaver, mountain goat, wolf, snake, raccoon, squirrel, or other animals of the Northwest.
- As preschoolers pass under the bar, they should say Today’s Point: Truth comes from God.
- Play reverse limbo and lower the pool noodle for children to go over.
- For children who are not able to bend or jump, arch the pool noodle high above children’s heads and change the name of the activity to “Animal Parade” instead of “Animal Limbo.”
- Do not lower the bar between turns. Just change the method of moving underneath it.
GAME 2: APPLE-APPLE-SNAKE
“In our game, we have lots of good ‘apples’ that God gave us, but when the ‘snake’ comes, we have to be ready! Just like Adam and Eve should have remembered God’s truth when Satan the snake came to trick them. Truth comes from God!”
Have all the children sit in a circle on the floor Choose one child to be “It” and walk around the outside of the circle As they walk around, they gently tap each child on the head saying “Apple… Apple… Apple…” When they want to choose someone to chase them, they tap a child and say “Snake!” The child who was tapped as “Snake” must jump up and chase the first child around the circle The first child tries to sit down in the “Snake’s” empty spot before being tagged If the “Snake” catches them, the original child stays “It” and tries again If the original child makes it to the empty spot safely, the “Snake” becomes the new “It”
7:45-8:00 Snack & Daily Wrap Up
God created the world, including Adam and Eve. What happened to Adam and Eve in today’s Bible
story?” (Answers will vary)
Remind kids that God said He would send someone to beat Satan someday, and He sent Jesus.
Tell boys and girls: “Today’s story taught us that God’s words are true. God loves us and wants to forgive us when we choose to disobey.”
Pray. Thank God for sending Jesus so we can know God’s words are true and we can be forgiven when we
disobey.