Serving

Serve like Jesus

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Hi again!

jesusserves

Today’s lesson is from Philippians 2. Paul wrote another letter–this time to the people of Philippi–the Philippians. In this letter, Paul reminds the people about Jesus. He says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition” Do you know what that means? Being selfish means thinking only about yourself. “ME ME ME, MINE MINE MINE.” When someone is selfish, they only think about what THEY want, and not about other people.

Paul tells the Philippians (and us) to instead, “value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (That means think about OTHER people! Do you remember when Jesus told us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves? Treat people the way we want to be treated.)

He says “Be like Jesus.”  Jesus is God’s son, so He has all the power God does, and He lives with God in a perfect place….but because He loves us, He made himself nothing and came to earth as  a servant, becoming a man. He humbled himself (accepted God as King and obeyed Him) and He even became obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Remember Jesus didn’t WANT to die on the cross. He prayed and asked God if there was any other way to save us…but there was not. So He obeyed God.) And because He obeyed, God raised Him up and the Bible says that eventually every person will bow and worship Him.

Jesus came to serve. He healed people, He taught them, He washed their stinky feet and He loved them–even enough to die for our sins. (Remember the consequence for our sins is to die forever, but Jesus died in our place and now when God looks at us, He doesn’t see our sins, He sees us as perfect if we love Jesus).

Jesus did not think about ME ME ME MINE MINE MINE, He thought of others. Paul reminds the people to not think all about ME ME ME, but to think of other people too.

How can WE do that?

(Share our toys, help our mom and dad, let our brother or sister have the last cookie)

Selfish=Me Me Me Mine Mine Mine

Humility=not thinking you’re SO important…letting GOD be the most important

Can you and your family make a list of ways to serve other people?

 

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!

Acts 18-Loving those that serve

~ hebidsthemcome ~ Leave a comment

Our story today is presented a bit differently than what we’ve been covering. It comes from Acts 18 and is about Paul and some of his friends. For this story, I drew and added to our picture as the story was told. Here is our finished product: image

Paul (centered) was busy telling everyone about Jesus. Some people didn’t like that, but some people were happy and wanted to help. Two of those people were Aquila and his wife, Priscilla.

In our house, Daddy has to work make money so we can buy things like a house to live in and food to eat. Paul’s friends let him stay at THEIR house and shared their food with him so he could spend his time telling people about Jesus. They also met a man named Apollos, who loved God, but didn’t know the whole story of Jesus. So, Aquila and Priscilla brought him to their house and taught him everything they knew.

Some people tell their friends about Jesus at school or while they go to work. You can tell people about Jesus right where you live and play, just like Aquila and Priscilla did with Apollos.

Other people spend their time serving God and telling others about him…like Pastors or missionaries (who go to far away places to serve God). (If you support any missionaries, this is a good time to tell your kids about them..where they live and what they do.) Each week we give money to our church to help God’s house and to help the Pastor(s) be able to spend their time serving God. We also send money every month to the people we know who are missionaries around the world. This helps them be able to live and have a house and food.

Sometimes, God wants us to tell people about Him. Sometimes, He wants us to serve Him right where we are; and SOMETIMES, He wants us to help OTHER people who are serving Him.

The Bible tells us that everyone who loves God is in a family…and that we can all work together like all the parts of your body work together. Some people work far away, some work right here. Some people are like the mouth who tell people about Jesus and some people are the hands…giving and making things. There are LOTS of ways to serve God and to help other people who are serving Him. The Bible also tells us one way is not more important than another way. What are some ways YOU can help serve God? What are some ways you can be a helper to OTHER people who are serving God?

We are wrapping up in Acts–2 more stories, then we’ll focus on John’s vision, then we’ll be ready for June’s lessons. Thanks everyone. Love to you all!