What a dream!
Are you listening?
We’re looking this week at when Daniel asks God for wisdom and answers in order to be able to interpret and explain the King’s dream.
By praying and talking to God he even saved people’s lives!
The service starts at 9:30am on stwderby.online.church
But this button will go live at 10am on Sunday 7th February for you to watch the service again if you missed it live! You won’t want to miss out!
Hope you enjoyed our Werb’s Kids Service this morning!!
We would love to know your feedback so please don’t hesitate to message or email (amy.farrar@stwderby.org) so that we can keep making it better and better! But also do get in contact if you’d like to be involve as it’s OUR SERVICE!!
We are continuing with our new series all about Daniel which the rest of the church is doing too so the whole family can talk about the same thing and learn together!
FUN GAME!
This morning we played a game online using emojis. Maybe you could try playing a game using emojis too! Maybe you could see if you can write sentences only with pictures and no words!
You might want to use emojipedia.org to find the images you want!
See how good you are at talking just using emojis!!
Today we focused on Daniel Chapter 2 where Daniel listens to God and explains the King’s dream!
do you remember what happened in the story?
Why not try and act it out now OR like how Amy told the story, you too could make your own characters using salt dough! To make the dough it’s just plain flour, salt and water! Then you can pop your figures in the oven at about 100°C for about 20minutes or until they go white and are firm. Then you could paint them or colour them in with thick pens!
What do you think about the story?
Have you ever heard about it before? It’s quite unusual isn’t it!
When you think about people from the bible being about to understand dreams I bet you think of Joseph and his special multicoloured coat not Daniel. But God gave Daniel the gift too!
In the story this week we see how Daniel and his friends pray to God and ask him for wisdom, guidance and help with their situation and what’s going on around them.
They were in a very scary position. The king was super angry and he wanted all the wise men to die because he thought they couldn’t help him.
But Daniel trusts God and asks him for the answer to this problem.
And by asking God for help he actually ends up saving some of the other wise men!
Whatever question or problem you have God knows the answer.
So pray, talk to God. Ask him for an answer to the problem you face.
What is it today that you are finding hard? Is there something you need God’s help with?
As we’ve mentioned many times before God talks to us in many different ways it may be through a dream like what the king had and you might need to ask for help to understand it.
Or it could be through something you see or read or hear. It could be that God wants to speak to us whilst we are listening to worship music. We are lucky as well, to have the bible as a way of how God speaks to us.
God can use a voice or a feeling or a word written down on a page - ANYTHING to talk to us.
So be ready to listen and let God talk to you this week.
But do remember sometimes God doesn’t give us the answer we want so make sure you are really listening to what he says.
Some of you, like me, are probably missing your friends right now. And you might be praying like me, asking God to help us see our friends again. But God won’t just say yes as he knows we need to look after everyone and still stay in for now. Just because God doesn’t give us the answer we want doesn’t mean he hasn’t answered and that’s why we need to listen carefully as God will always give us what we need. Sometimes the best answer is not yet and that’s okay we need to trust God and be patient for he knows what is best for us.
And like what we saw last week when God gave Daniel and his friends strength after eating just vegetables, God will give us the strength we need with whatever we are facing.
In our story today Daniel and his friends show their faith in God by where they looked for wisdom and advice. They didn’t go home and search the internet or read lots of books about dreams for ways to know what the king dreamt and how to interpret or explain it like the other wise men did. Instead they fell on their knees and prayed to the God who knows all things and asked Him to show them what the king dreamt and what it meant.
Is there anything in your life at the moment that you don’t understand?
Try to learn this passage below. It will help as a reminder that if you’re ever stuck or unsure or if there’s something happening that you don’t understand then you can take it God in prayer. For as the verse says our God loves to help.
“If you don’t know what you’re doing,
pray to the Father.
He loves to help. You’ll get his help
and won’t be condescended
or looked down on when you ask for it.
Ask boldly, believing, without a second thought.
James 1v5”
GO DEEPER!
SPARKS (Preschool)
What do you remember about the story?
Do you remember what the happened to the King?
He had a really weird dream that he didn’t understand!
Sometimes God gives people dreams because he wants to tell them something special and this is what God did for the King but he needed someone else to explain it.
Do you remember the name of the person who helped the King? IT WAS DANIEL!
The same person who ate lots and lots and lots of vegetables last week.
Do you have dreams? When you sleep what do you think about?
Have you ever dreamt of a statue? Probably not!
Spend some time now having fun dressing up! Could you dress up like a statue or a soldier?
Then play musical statues to remind you of the kings dream and how amazing it is that God talks to us!
Finish your time together by talking to God. What would you like to talk to God about?
Is there anything you want to tell him?
Is there something you want to say thank you to God for?
You can end by saying this prayer together:
“Dear God,
Thank you that you spoke to Daniel and helped him.
Please talk to me, God.
Please help me understand what you are telling me God and to do what you say.
Amen.”
FLAMES (KS1)
Today’s story was an interesting one. What was your favourite part of the story?
What do you imagine the statue in the King’s dream looked like? It was an odd thing to dream about but had an important meaning. Daniel told the King that God wanted to tell him about the future.
How amazing is that!? I bet most of us would like to know what the future holds. But only God knows that and he might not always choose to tell us like he did for the King.
But what is cool is that like the King, God does want to talk to us.
Remember God talks to us in lots of different ways. Sometimes through interesting dreams which may need the help of others to understand.
Do you remember some other ways that were mentioned this morning of ways God could talk to you?
Have you ever spent some time listening to God?
Has God ever spoken to you? What did he say?
Remember you don’t just have to sit quietly in order for God to speak to you although sometimes that does help.
We also saw this morning how Daniel prays with his friends and together they asked God for help.
What is amazing is that we can pray together even when we are apart. We can all pray for the same thing bringing us together.
Many of you have already prayed for an end to coronavirus and we shouldn’t stop praying this so let’s all join together this week and pray for those in Derby and around the world who need God’s help.
One of the other things we saw this morning was how Daniel thanked God first before he went to tell the King what he knew about his dream.
As well as talking to God about things you find hard remember also to thank God when he does speak, just like Daniel did.
Daniel’s first response when he found out what the dream meant wasn’t to run off and tell the king, it was to worship God.
Daniel also could have taken all the credit and made himself look good by saying he was the one who worked out the answer to the dream but he didn’t.
Daniel was truthful but he also was thankful.
Is there anything you’d like to thank God for this week?
BLAZE (KS2)
We looked at a really interesting story today that you might not have heard of before.
See if you can answer these questions without looking back at the story! Answers are below.
Why was the king’s mind troubled?
What did the king want his wise men to do?
Why did Nebuchadnezzar become angry with the wise men?
How did Daniel find out what the king had dreamt and what it meant?
What did Daniel do first when God told him the meaning of the dream?
What did the king dream about?
Can you remember what materials each of the parts were?
ANSWERS
He had dreams that he didn’t understand
Tell him what his dream was and then he wanted them to explain what it meant
The wise men told the king that they couldn’t do what he asked. They needed the King to tell them his dream before they could explain it. They said only a god knows what he dreamt.
Daniel and his friends prayed and asked God what the dream was and what it meant.
Daniel praised God first and then went to tell the King the meaning of the dream so that the other wise men wouldn’t die.
The king dreamt of a large statue.
The head was pure gold, chest and arms were silver, belly and thighs were bronze, the legs were iron and the feet were part clay and part iron.
The main thing to take away from this is how Daniel acts through-out the story and how God can speak to us.
We see in the story how Daniel talks to the King’s Chief Guard calmly and wants to help fix the problem. He acts respectfully in front of the King both when asking for time to understand the dream and then again when he explains it.
Daniel also gives God all the credit when he could have made himself look good instead.
SO How could you be more like Daniel?
Daniel cared about and respected others.
Do you need to be kinder and more respectful to others? How can you do this, this week?
How is your relationship with God?
Remember in our story God speaks to Daniel but also to the King and so he can talk to anyone!
Do you trust God when things get hard?
How much time do you spend talking to God?
Do you need to talk to him more?
Think about your answers to these questions and what your next step might be if you need to change things in order to be a better friend to others and to God.
FUN ACTIVITIES + CRAFTS!
For those who LOVE colouring and activity sheets check these out:
Why not make your own statue to remind yourself of the story?
HERE is a website that can help.
But you could just cut out a person outline out of cardboard and then stick the right coloured materials onto the body. So the head would need to be….GOLD! You might need to recheck the story to ensure you get it just right!Make a thankfulness poster. Daniel thanked God for giving him the meaning to the dream and saving the other wise men. Draw everything you want to thank God for!
As well as dreams that we have when we sleep we also have dreams about things we’d like to do. Make a list of these things and see if you can tick any off this week.
For example if you have a dream to see a friend why not call them on zoom or drop something special like a card round their house and maybe even have a little chat, at a safe distance, on their doorstep!
WORSHIP + PRAYER
This morning Jess encouraged us to spend some time talking to God.
She told us how God spoke to her through worship and she felt a sense of peace whilst she listening to the music.
As she suggested this morning why don’t you find a quiet space now where you can ask God to give you wisdom, advice and guidance about something that you are facing this week that you are finding hard.
If you find sitting quietly hard why not draw or write whilst you talk to God. Or grab some playdough or salt dough and make something as you talk to God. Or as Jess did pop on some worship music. There are plenty of worship playlists on Spotify or YouTube you could access we have one called Songs Of Hope that you might like to listen to alternatively I’ve added a song below.
The chorus of the song says the words “Speak to me, I’m listening” which you could use as your prayer to God asking him to speak to you.
Spend some time now talking to God in whatever way you feel most comfortable.
Created using several sources
