Goldfish for Kids

intro

SO today I thought I would talk about fish

In particular, Goldfish

Does anybody here have a gold fish?

How big is it?

There is something I learned about Goldfish in later years that I never knew before.

When I was a kid, I had a few different kinds of fish. Even a goldfish once. I had a little round tank that I kept them in. I probably wasn’t a very good fish owner, they never seemed to grow, or do anything very interesting.

Maybe they would live for a year, then all of a sudden they would be lying upside down. So I flushed them down the toilet, and got new ones.

I used to work with someone that has Goldfish. Except he knows how to actually take care of them.

I didn’t know this was possible, but his largest goldfish is 60 cm long, that’s like 2’.

I though, this is impossible, it must be some special breed of Goldfish. But he assures me, it is just a regular Goldfish like I had when I was a kid.

Then I learned some very interesting things about how to keep a fish so it grows so big.

I think our spiritual lives are kind of like these goldfish

Most of us have a certain expectation of what we should look like spiritually. But We are happy to be tiny little goldfish.

When we look at some of those rare people in the world. Like Charles Spergeon, Billy Graham, D.L. Moody. These are famous Christians who seems to have faith and a relationship with God beyond what we could ever get ourselves. We feel like we are tiny Gold fish, They are 2’ long Goldfish

We feel to be a Christian like that, is something that is impossible to get to.

But like the Goldfish, if we do the right things, I believe we can all grow to be super strong and amazing people for God.

1. Our environment

A gold fish needs the right environment to be able to survive and grow.

a. Clean Water

Like a fish needs clean water, we need to have clean hearts

The world is full of things that are not good for us. We find them everywhere. On TV, the internet, people everywhere that hate God.

God wants us to stay away from sin.

King James Version Chapter 4

James 4:7

So we read that first we need to submit ourselves to God.

To submit means that we put what God wants, ahead of what we want.

Just like a King tells his subjects what he wants done. Even if they don’t really want to do it. They do it.

What God says we should do, is always what is best for us, even if we don’t understand it at the time. We need to trust Him. Because He knows everything and is everywhere.

God says that if we resist the Devil, he will flee from us.

It is a daily battle to keep our hearts clean. We have to fight against the temptations to do wrong. And yes, often we make mistakes.

God promised that even when we make a mistake, he will forgive us if we ask Him

1 John 1:9

King James Version Chapter 1

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

2. We need bigger tanks

Did you know, that as long as a Gold fish stays in a small tank, it will stay small.

A fish needs lots of room to move around and grow

And I know we all have our own sort of tank that we live in as well

I like to call it the comfort zone. We all like to stay in a bubble of what is comfortable for us.

What do you think are things that are in you comfort zone?

Your home, your family, your school, friends.

What things do you think that are outside of your comfort zone that God wants you to do?

These are things that if you allow it, your fear will keep you from doing it

Maybe, going up front in church and saying something, or doing what I’m doing here today, and speaking to a group of people, or going to a different country to work for God, or even something like talking to your friends about your faith.

King James Version Chapter 12

2 Corinthians 12:9

*Give testimony or me being shy and how God challenged me

Every time we do something for God that we are not comfortable with, it makes our comfort zones a little bit bigger. Our tank gets bigger, giving us more room to grow.

3. Good Food

Like any living thing, we require adequate nutrition to grow.

It is the same for us spiritually

We have to eat good spiritual food to grow.

King James Version Chapter 6

John 6:35

Jesus says that He is the only source of spiritual food that will satisfy us.

King James Version Chapter 2

Col 2:6-10

The Bible says that after we have received Jesus as our Lord.

We need to walk in him, rooted and established in the faith

How can we be rooted in him?

We need to know what the Bible says. We have to study it and understand it.

This is an on going process.

I still learn new things all the time.

In verse 8 it says if we are not rooted in Him, we will be spoiled through philosophy, vain deceit, the traditions of men, the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ

What do these things mean?

Philosophy is the best understanding of man of how things work without God. Philosophers come up with all sorts of crazy ideas of the meaning of life, and how things work.

But because they do not know that God already tells us these things, they waste their time trying to figure these things out. And if you don’t know what the Bible says, they could convince you of some of these things too.

Vain deceipt is simple to explain. It is just to be deceived with no purpose.

Traditions of men is a big problem for many Christians. PEople love making up all sorts of rules. And sometimes these go against what God says. And if we are not careful. We can end of doing things that are harmful to ourselves and our neighbours because of these traditions that we follow. So, it’s important that we know whats God says and thinks about everything we do. So we can live in a way that pleases Him

Rudiments of the world. Rudiments means teachings. So the teachings of the world also spoils our spiritual development. There are many things that the world says is okay to do. But we know that it doesn’t please God.

So we need to be careful of all of these things, and be in the word of God, so we can have good spiritual growth.

So in review.

If we want to grow to be the person that God wants us to be.

we need to keep ourselves in a good environment

we need to challenge ourselves to do the things God wants us to, even if its scarey

we need to be in the word of God every day, and learn the mind of God. So we can live a life that pleases Him and brings Him glory.