Kids - Grow In The Lord -2

Welcome-

Songs

This Book of the law Joshua 1:8 - Pastor James

Submit Yourselves Therefore to God - Shannon

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Prayer - Shannon

Bible Memory Verse - Shannon

Lesson

Introduction - I want to go over what we spoke about last week.

Remember we looked at II Peter 3:18 which states, “18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”

And really what we were challenging you all to do is to grow as Christians.

We all begin in the Christian life the same way, by believing and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.

We are saved from:

Paying for our sin debt ourselves. --- the Bible says that the wages of our sin is death… this is the price owed because of sin. ---

From being separated from God for all eternity in a place called by the Bible Hell.

Hell is a terrible place. It is a place of seperation. It is a place of darkness. It is a place of suffering.

The only way of Salvation is Jesus Christ. He say in John 14:6 “6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

We come to the Lord Jesus Christ through faith. We call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith.

Agreeing with God that we are sinners in need of a Savior.

Believing what the Bible tells us about the Lord Jesus Christ, the He was the God-man—God became man without ceasing to be God. Believing that He is the Sinless Son of God.

Believing that He was crucified on a cross, bled paying for my sin.

Believing that He was buried and that three days later He arose from the grave.

We by faith call upon the Lord to save us. Asking Him to save us.

This is where the Christian life begins. Just like a baby being born into the world, we then begin to grow---or should grow as a Christian.

This is what Peter meant by growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then we understood that we must be in the right place.... We used the example of seed to illustrate this to you.

A seed must be in? ......Soil to grow.

So for the Christian, we too must be in the right place.

What was the right place we said:

church house

home

anywhere

Why? Because we live the Christian life eveyrwhere.

I do not just come to church and act right, and speak right here. I speak right and act right at home. I speak right and act right at school.

I act right and speak right when I am at the store or with my friends in the neighborhood.

In other words, I am a Christian all of the time, because the Lord lives inside of me.

We did say that there are several activities that will help us to grow as a Christian.

We must obey the Lord.... (Psalm 37:23) How do we know what the Lord wants us to do or has commanded us to do?

We must read His Word. (I Peter 2:2)

We must spend time speaking with Him in prayer. (Luke 18:1)

We must think on right things. (Philippians 4:8)

We must come to the church house when God’s people assemble together and pay attention to what is taught. (I Timothy 3:15 “15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” )

We must tell others about the Lord and Salvation by God’s grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. (Mark 16:15)

We must have the right friends. Those closest to us, ought to be following the Lord Jesus Christ as well. (Proverbs 16:27-28 “27 An ungodly man diggeth up evil: And in his lips there is as a burning fire. 28 A froward man soweth strife: And a whisperer separateth chief friends.”)

We noted at the end of class how it is that Peter in that same letter said that if you do not grow here is what is going to happen to you:

II Peter 1:8-9 “8 For if these things be in you [in other words you are growing] , and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things [or is not growing] is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.”

Today however, I want you to turn in the Old Testament to the book of Joshua.

Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua--- it is the sixth book of the Bible.

Now if you are able--- I want you to hold up Genesis through Deuteronomy.

Now imagine for a moment, that you are a young person ---maybe around your age who came out of Egypt with a man by the name of Moses.

You were born in Egypt--- and the Lord sent a man by the name of Moses who shows up and tells your parents that God is going to free you.

And He does. Moses by God’s power and Aaron His brother do many miraculous things in the sight of this evil oppressive Egyptian king that has made your parents work continuously.

And finally one day---Moses has a big meeting with all the adults and tells them that they leaving Egypt.

Only before you leave --- you must take lamb of the 1st year---a male— without blemish---- and kill it. You must capture the blood of it---and take the blood and put it on the lintels and side posts of the door.... And that if you do that---than you will be safe from the firstborn being slain by the Lord.

And thats exactly what happened.

You then leave town in a rush---- as the Egyptians really thrust you out of town.

You remeber as a young child coming up to the red sea--- no where to go and an huge Epyptian army pursuing you--- But God was there and went before you there was this magnificent pillar of cloud in front of you leading all the people… And at night the same pillar was a bright fire....

When the Egyptian Army was coming after you God took the pillar and stuck it behind you… between you and the Egyptians.. And Moses lifted up His rod---- and the huge sea parted so you could cross.... you were walking on dry land.... with water on either side.... when you came through the other side.... the Egyptians tried to follow, but God stopped them… and told Moses to stretch out His hand again and the Red Sea collapsed upon them..

The thing that bothered you though as you grew up was how the adults… sometimes spoke against Moses… and sometimes they spoke against God…

Your parents had promised to follow God and follow Moses’ instructions from God… but it seemed every once in a while they did not do that.

They even received tables that had writing on it…

You knew something big was about to happen because you came up to a place… where Moses and the Adult leaders had a meeting… They were saying goodbye to twelve men… One from every tribe… these men were going into this land to look at it.... And they were gone for 40 days....

When they came back there was a huge meeting… And most of the men were excited about the land… but were scared of it… They said there are giants in the land… and great walls and terrible people. Two of the men said that God was with us and we could go in and take the land because God gave it to us.

But everyone was against these two men.... All the adults were complaining and crying and mad at Moses and Aaron and God… They were so upset that they took up stones and were going to kill Moses…

And all of the sudden… the LORD descended on the Tabernacle and spake to Moses....He threatened to destroy them all… And Moses asked God not too. But the LORD told your parents they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years… till all of them were dead.. and so it was.... We wandered around in circles.... going where God told us to… out away from people in the wilderness....because of disobedience.

One by one all the adults died and we got older… and now here we are back where we were 40 years before.... this time Joshua --- the man who tried to convince us to go in to the land the first time is in charge… Moses had died… Aaron had died…

Be Strong and of a Good Courage.

When we say be strong, we are saying be strong in God’s ways. Be strong in standing for the Lord Jesus Christ. Be strong against the evil that is in this world. Be strong, don’t give in to the temptations to do wrong....

When we say good courage --- we mean by this, that you can do right and not be afraid of those who do not.

You can say the right things, and make the right choices and not have to worry about whether everyone else agrees with you or not, because God is on your side.

You can be one of the few that does what is right.

You can be one of the few that leads others to do what is right.

Speak About the Word of God.

“...shall not depart out of thy mouth...”

Meditate [Think] About the Word of God.

“...but thou shalt meditate therein day and night...”

Observe [Obey] the Word of God.

“...that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein…”

What is the result?

Thy way will be prosperous — according to the Lord.

Thou shalt have good success.

Success in this life will be determined by our obedience and faithfulness to God.

You may thing that those who are popular are successful, but unless they are obedient to God they are not.

You may think that those who have lots of money are successful… they have the good life. But unless they are obedient to God they are not.

You may think that those who are in charge have the good life… They have all the power and authority this world can offer… but unless they are obedient to God they are not.

What I am trying to tell you is this… the best life you can live will be listening to and obeying the Lord… following Him. That will be a prosperous life. That will be a successful life.