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April 24 - May 6, 2017
No how-to-live lesson can wake the spiritually dead.
the conversion from a sinful nature to a reborn-by-the-Spirit one seldom comes by pressing for an external decision. It comes from being convicted of sin, hearing of God’s saving love, and finding delight in the matchless person of Jesus.
Saved kids need to see Jesus, too, so they can grow.
She says she trusts Jesus, but she actually bases her sense of God’s love for her on how well
she manages to obey at the moment. She’s constantly insecure, and her sins nag at her. She’s convinced God is often disappointed with her and might not be saving her.
Sarah doesn’t have a deep sense of her sinfulness, so she’s presumptuous and ungrateful.
She’s not becoming a stronger Christian because she won’t admit that she needs to.
he’s not interested in fostering an all-out reliance on God that produces genuine holiness.
Now, here’s the kicker: many church kids I know struggle with all three of these at the same time.
We make a mistake if we think kids are saved by hearing the good news and trusting Jesus, but then grow as Christians some other way.
We grow in the same way we became Christians—rooted in Jesus, with our hope in the good news.
In the exact same way? I don't think so!
separate out the good news (what God does for us) from the good behavior (what we do for God).
Why? They are related. Paul doesn't seperate them!
The good news and godly living are so intertwined that it’s hard to pick them apart!
We’ve failed too many kids. We’ve fed them things to do. We’ve fed them “worshipful” experiences. But we’ve failed to feed them more than a spoonful of the good news.
When we remind ourselves of this good news every day, feasting on it, we come to care for the King himself rather than what he might give us. We come to love him.
usually I talk to church kids as if they’re already saved.
If they’re part of the church family we ought to prayerfully expect God to be working in them, even if we know it’s possible they actually aren’t converted.
learning how to behave
learn to look for God and find delight in him.
Are these two in conflict?
I’d encouraged the kids to believe that good news above all. Even so, in their hearts they’d turned it into nothing but a what-you-must-do-for-God lesson.
earn points with God.
This trust in their religious and moral efforts takes the place of trusting Jesus.
They need to rest in Jesus until they have such joy over his beauty and what he’s done for them that it spills out into the way they live.
It sounds hokey, but our goal must be to build love for God. There are at least two reasons for this.
Christian behavior isn’t real obedience unless it starts ...
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Anytime we settle for “obedience” without love, we aren’t being serious about the most important obedience of all.
Nothing and nobody may come ahead of Jesus.
The Bible’s answer to how love grows is the good news:
knowing they’re pleasing Jesus, their parents, and me.
I’ve appealed to fear and reward.
at best, they’re secondary motivations.
At worst, they’re all about self.
When we motivate kids with the good news, we reject the nonsense that they just need to make a few life adjustments as they create a spiritual journey. The good news tells the truth—that kids need to be crucifying sin in their lives.
The good news takes us daily from despair to astonished laughter.
He loves us forever. No payback needed. No conditions. No guilt trips. We are loved, period.
Only a stronger love for Jesus can overpower and displace our love of sin.
this becomes a problem if it gets to be pretty much the only reason you open the Bible. This is because another function of those commands (and of the whole Bible) is to show us our sin and drive us to believe in Jesus.
The opposite extreme is not better!
obeying still takes effort and study. We just need to be sure that such a kid remains constantly grounded in the good news, because it’s foundational.
As kids learn this good news and believe it, love for God will naturally follow.
We don’t make his love stronger or weaker by anything we do.
The Bible gives us many motivations, all valid, but the top one is love for a God who has loved us.
Warnings about disobedience are all through the Bible. We must take them seriously, and be glad for God’s fatherly discipline that corrects us when we’re stuck in sin. That
said, it’s a mistake to think that a threatening approach is more forceful than the good news.
Parents: Use the “armor of God” to bless and pray for your kids. Follow these steps:
Esther had to decide which king had her first allegiance—the king of Persia or God. She had to believe that God was with her and that this was the true reason for her success.
We must never bypass Jesus when applying the Bible to our lives. To do so fits neither the Bible nor us.
We should teach the good news with an urgency and expectation that its payoff is good behavior, or else our doctrine will be served cold. And we must teach good behavior only when we show it flowing from the good news, or else kids will choke on moralism.
Every now and then I teach a class for the whole family.
there’s much that I like about teaching these intergenerational classes.
the best teaching moments seldom come from following a script someone else has prepared, even a good script.
