Moses

We began our series by speaking on the commission of Moses.  God called Moses to go an deliver His people from their oppression in Egypt.  Moses was afraid that his deficiencies would prevent him from being successful.  God reminded him that He would be with Moses.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend.   We are back from camp which means we are back on this Sunday for middle school group.  I know that many middle school students sure had a great time hanging out at the beach last week at Young Life’s Breakaway Lodge, but we are all excited to get things started up again.

This weekend we will pick up where we left off in our “Live Loud” series.  This Sunday, Jarred will be speaking to us about living loud no matter the cost.

Being a follower of Jesus isn’t always the easiest thing to do.  It can be much harder to live a life that screams out Jesus’ glory; it can be costly.  Jarred will reflect on John the Baptist.  John the Baptist had spent his life serving God by preparing the way for Jesus, but in Mark 6:14-29 we hear where his ministry led him.  Despite serving the Lord so faithfully, John the Baptist is ultimately beheaded.

Many of us are afraid to speak out in our faith, even when the cost is low.  John the Baptist paid the ultimate price, and his life illustrates that being faithful to the Lord is more important than anything else, even our own lives.  Being obedient to God will cost us all something, the question is are you willing to pay the price? We will wrestle with this on Sunday, so take the time to read over this passage with your student and discuss how it may have importance in our lives.

In Him,

Ben

You could imagine how Ahab was feeling.  No rain meant no crops.  No crops meant no food for the animals.  No food for the animals meant no food for the people.  No food or water for the people makes for an angry nation for the king.  Ahab was furious with Elijah, blaming him for the the drought and famine.  This anger lead to Ahab desiring to kill Elijah.

It would make sense then, for Elijah to avoid the king, but at this time the Lord told Elijah to confront Ahab again.  When Elijah meets Ahab, he states the the drought was Ahab’s fault because he had turned to the worship of Baal.  Then he calls for a showdown.

Now most of us know the story.  Hundreds of prophets of Baal gather to go against Elijah, the prophet of the Lord.  They each have an opportunity to petition their god to light their altar and offering on fire.  The prophet’s of Baal dance, sing, even cut themselves and spill their own blood to get Baal’s attention.  They do this for an entire day!  The result? Nothing happens!  Elijah mocks them, then requests that his altar be completely drenched in water, prays to the Lord, and immediately fire came down from heaven, incinerating the altar.

The Israelites marveled at the power of the Lord and acknowledged him as God, while Elijah had the prophets of Baal gathered and executed for their sins.

So what’s the point?  Elijah had many reasons why he should not follow God’s call.  He could have been killed.  He was outnumbered.  Nobody else seemed to care about the Lord. Still, this did not stop him from being to the Lord, and living loud.  The result was that God used him in an extraordinary way to reach His people.

The same goes for us.  We have excuses and reasons to not follow the Lord.  But when we are obedient to Him, He will use us in extraordinary ways!

This last week, Pastor Jeff opened our series “Living Loud” by talking about Moses, and how he answered God’s call.  Despite all of his weaknesses, Moses made himself available to God, and God used him to extraordinary things.

This upcoming week, I have the opportunity to continue our series by speaking on another life that made noise for the Lord.  The prophet Elijah lived in a time where the kingdom of Israel was hostile against the Lord.  King Ahab and his wife Jezebel established worship of pagan gods, such as Baal.  Because Israel had turned away from Him, the Lord sent Elijah to Ahab to pronounce a drought on the land.  The rain stopped falling, and the waters dried up.

Three years later, and still no rain, God sends Elijah back to face Ahab. You can imagine how the king felt about Elijah considering that water and food had become so scarce.  Ahab desired to kill Elijah, the man he blamed for the drought, but Elijah had a message, one that would proclaim the supremacy of God.

Whats was Elijah’s message? What point was Elijah trying to make?  Why did God want Elijah to return to Ahab, the man that wanted to kill him?  Read 1 Kings 18 with your student to find out, and we’ll talk about it on Sunday.

In Him,

Ben

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up.  “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” (Exodus 3:2-3)

It was amazing. Can you imagine?

God called out to Moses, and confirmed who He was — the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The one true God (YHWH) had “certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt.” He continues:  “I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land.” (vv. 7-8)

Then Moses invented some excuses…

First, he thought he could not lead people.

But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?”
God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”

Then, he thought he needed something else:

13 But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”
14 God replied to Moses, “I  AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.
This is my eternal name,
 my name to remember for all generations.

God gives Moses the great promise of success: God would be with him.

This man of God would lack no good and necessary thing!

That reminds us of the great words from the band U2:

What you don’t have you don’t need it now
What you don’t know you can feel it somehow
What you don’t have you don’t need it now
Don’t need it now
What a beautiful day
—U2, Beautiful Day

Questions to Share:

1. What is the great promise Moses received from God?
2. WHEN GOD CALLS, HOW DO YOU RESPOND? // Have you ever sensed God calling you to do something difficult? » What was it? (How did you follow through?)
3. What activity will you do this week that requires courage?

Our memory verse this week is EXODUS 4:12:

“Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

Previous weeks Scriptures were:

• Philippians 2:13: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
• 2 Timothy 2:22: “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

Next week: ELIJAH (1 Kings 18)

Last Sunday we finished up our series INHABIT in which we looked at the life of Daniel to see how God was able to work through him.  Daniel inhabited a spirit that was faithful to the Lord, and for this reason he was able to have influence on all of Babylon for God’s glory.

As the summer continues, we will introduce a new 6-week series entitled “LIVING LOUD.” The purpose of this series is to educate the students on how their lives can have an impact for God’s kingdom.  Everything we do, no matter how big or small, has an impact in this world somehow.  How can we make it so that our lives impact it in a way to spread God’s word?

In this series we’ll take a look at 6 different people in the Bible and how they worked for God’s mission.  We’ll begin this Sunday as Pastor Jeff teaches us on how God called Moses and he surrendered his life to the mission.

In week 2 we’ll look at Elijah’s life on mission in a hostile world.

Week 3 will have us looking at John the Baptist, and how he was on mission despite having to pay the ultimate price.

Nehemiah rising to the challenge, despite naysayers will be the focus of week 4.

In the penultimate session, we’ll take a look at Philip, and how he lived his life to be open to God’s ministry at anytime and anyplace.

Finally, we will conclude the series with a look at Barnabas, who humbly supported God’s mission without seeking glory for himself.

We hope that as we look in this series that you will follow along with your student and join in on God’s mission.

In Him,

Ben

As I was studying this story, the more I realized that most of us have had a misunderstanding of this story all along. It isn’t a story about Daniel or lions at all! It’s a story about King Darius, and the enormous lengths God goes to reach him. Daniel is purely a pawn in the story.

The story really begins in the last verse of chapter 5, when Kind Darius takes the throne of Babylon after King Belshazzar was killed (if you ever wonder where the phrase “the writing on the wall” came from, reach Daniel 5). The first thing that Darius does in his rule is divide the nation into 120 “provinces”, each with its own leader. Daniel was put in charge of these leaders. Darius respected Daniel so much, that he decided to put him in charge of the entire kingdom of Babylon. Daniel had gone from a lowly captive and servant in Babylon, to the 2nd most powerful person in the entire nation.

Well, the 120 leaders weren’t too happy about this. The text doesn’t say why, so it’s not important. The important thing is that they wanted to get rid of him. The problem was they couldn’t find anything wrong with him. He was “faithful, and no error or fault was found in him” (6:4). The 120 decided that the only way Daniel would fail is if there was a law against his religion, so they went to King Darius, saying that he should make a law that all in the nation could not petition or pray to anyone but the king for 30 days, and if someone did, he or she would be cast into the den of lions (It’s important to note that they weren’t forcing people to pray to Darius, they were just saying that people couldn’t pray to anyone else for that period).

Darius quickly signs decree. Why? The text itself doesn’t answer this, but one speculation was that Darius was attempting to do something to unify the kingdom that he had recently took reign.

Well, Daniel decides that his relationship with God was too important to not pray for 30 days, so he continues doing what he always does, praying 3 times a day. The 120 leaders were quick to report this to Darius, who was shocked that Daniel, his most loyal and trustworthy subject, had violated the decree. But instead of casting Daniel into the lions den, Darius first tries to get Daniel out of his punishment. This hints that Darius was starting to realize his decree was wrong. The 120 leaders, though, quickly reminded Darius “no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed” (6:15). This wasn’t exactly true. A king had every right to make a counter-edict to his prior decree, but to do so in that culture was considered to be devastating to a leaders reputation. For a new king, this would be dangerous for his rule. Darius was trapped, and ordered for Daniel to be arrested and cast into the den of lions. As Daniel was being shut in with the lions, Darius declares “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” (6:16).

It is this statement that we begin to see a transformation in Darius, and how we know that this story isn’t about Daniel. From here, the narrative doesn’t follow Daniel, it follow Darius. Darius returns to his palace, where he would have been accustomed to feasts and “diversions” (it shouldn’t be too hard to determine what is meant by that). But instead, Darius shuts himself away, fasts for the night, and does not sleep. When daybreak comes, He sprints to the den of lions and calls out with an expectation. “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions?” (6:21) Daniel responds with grace to the king, telling them how God sent an angel to protect him from the lions.

Darius’ response is the key to this story. He orders that Daniel be released, and that 120 leaders be cast into the den of lions. Furthermore he writes to all the provinces of Babylon with a new decree, stating: “I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end” (6:26).

What happened to the king not being able to change the law? What happened to worrying about the nation? Not only did Darius change the law, but he executed almost the entire government that he had put in place! His reputation as king would be ruined! But that’s the thing… Darius didn’t care anymore. God had revealed Himself to Darius that day through Daniel’s obedience. Darius walked away with a transformed heart, a new creation.

When we looked at the great length God went to transform Darius, we are reminded of the extraordinary things He has done to reveal Himself and transform us as Christians. Amazing.

In Daniel 6, we see King Darius convinced to sign a decree that stated that for 30 days if anyone prayed to someone other than the king himself, that person would be thrown into a den of lions.  Daniel, knowing the consequence of his actions, continues to pray to God!  Why would he do such a thing?   Daniel wasn’t being asked to worship or pray to the king, he was being told that for 30 days, he wasn’t allowed to pray to God.  Daniel could have easily stopped for 30 days, and continued in his prayer when the edict was complete, but he chose not to obey the law while willingly accepting the consequences.  Why?  Because Daniel knew that his relationship with God was more important then any law established.

This coming Sunday we’ll gather together and reflect on the authority of God in our lives.  Read over Daniel 6 and think about how Daniel’s actions are a model of how we should live our lives as Christians.  As you reflect on these things, think over the following questions.

1. Was Daniel wrong when he violated the law established by the king? Why or why not?
2. How did God use Daniel in this story?
3. How does God use us when we are obedient to Him?

This last weekend Jarred did an awesome job on teaching about Daniel 2.  In this passage we saw how Daniel was able to rely on the Lord to allow him to have influence in the situation that Daniel found himself in.

This coming week we will continue in our Inhabit series as Pastor Jeff speaks on Daniel 3.  In this passage we see Daniel’s companions, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are faced with a dilemma; they either must bow to the golden image set up by King Nebuchadnezzar or be executed by a fiery furnace.

We have seen them be obedient to the Lord in Daniel 1, but will they remain obedient to the Lord when it would cost them their lives?

Together they took a stand, literally, by refusing to bow down and worship a god other than the true God.  Not because they knew God would spare them, but because that God was more important than their lives!

Does this have any relevance to us today?  Of course it does!  Read over Daniel 3 with you student and discuss your thoughts, and we’ll talk about it this Sunday.

I hope y’all are having a great week. This last weekend we had a great time looking at Daniel 1 and looking at how Daniel was intentional in his obedience to the Lord by refusing to eat the food given to him while in exile. This coming weekend we will continue in our look at the book of Daniel by looking at chapter 2.

In this chapter, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that disturbs him, and seeks counsel from all his magicians and sorcerers. When they fail to do provide answers about the meaning of the dream, it’s up to Daniel to come through. Daniel turns to the Lord for wisdom, and the Lord is faithful in return by providing Daniel with the answer and the opportunity to have an influence on all of Babylon. As we look towards this weekend, prepare by reading over Daniel 2 with your children and mulling over the following questions.

1. Who is the most influential person in your life? Why is he or she so influential?
2. Do you have an influence on others? How?
3. How do you see Christ in the story of Daniel?

Have a great week and see you Sunday!