God Provides Food & Water

EXODUS 16:4
 Then the Lord said to Moses,
“Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you.
Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day.
I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.

WATER:
Exodus 15:22-27
Exodus 17:1-7

FOOD
Exodus 16

God RESCUES His people

"My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth"
Psalm 121:2

In today’s true Bible story you will see that he Hebrew people had been forced to live and work in Egypt for a long time.
God wanted to give the Hebrew people their own place to live.
God had Moses tell the Egyptian leader, known as Pharaoh, to let God's people go.
However, he would not listen, so God sent many plagues on the Egyptian people to convince Pharaoh to let God's people go.
Let's find out if Pharaoh finally gave in.

READ EXODUS 14: 5-31

Discussion Questions:
1. Pharaoh let God's people go, why did he change his mind. (God's people were doing all of the work for Pharaoh. If they left, no one would do all the work.)
2. When the Israelites saw Pharaoh's army chasing them what did they do? (They were very frightened and cried out to God.)
3. What did Moses tell the people? (Not to be afraid, God would fight for them.)
4. What did God do when Moses stretched out his hand over the sea? (God parted the water so that the Israelites could walk across the sea on dry ground.)
5. Did Pharaoh's army continue to chase God's people? (Yes.)
6. What happened to Pharaoh's army? (The walls of water flowed back together and drowned the army.)
7. What God did here was really a miracle. What are some other powerful and miraculous ways that God gives us protection? (Allow for discussion.)     

Joshua Listens & WINS

Joshua and the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land.
Shortly after crossing the Jordan River, the Israelites came upon the city of Jericho.
A large wall protected the city.

THE LORD GAVE JOSHUA VERY SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS.
THE LORD’S WAY INCLUDED MARCHING AROUND THE WALLED CITY FOR 7 DAYS
KEEPING VERY QUIET, EXPECT FOR THE PRIESTS BLOWING HORNS.
READ JOSHUA 6 TO FIND OUT ALL THE INTERESTING DETAILS

GIDEON

During this time in history, God's people were not honoring Him. Some even worshipped other gods. Because of this, God allowed an enemy called the Midianites to come and take everything from His people. The Midianites took the Israelites' land, animals, and food. God's people knew they were ruined and cried out to the Lord for help. The Lord heard their cries and had compassion on them. God decided to save His people through an unlikely warrior named Gideon. As we read the story in the Bible, we will see how Gideon learns that with God, nothing is impossible.

READ JUDGES 6 & 7

32000 - 22000
= 10000
10000 - 9700 = 300

In today's lesson, we see that God's people brought trouble on themselves when they stopped honoring Him and turned to other gods. God had mercy on His people when they asked Him for help. The Lord sent an unlikely warrior named Gideon to rescue the Israelites from the hands of the Midianites. As we read this historical account, we see that God used what the world would consider a "nobody" to deliver His people from their enemy. Gideon didn't rely on his own strength for the victory, but rather trusted God by obeying the plan God had given him. When we trust God, nothing is impossible.

ANANIAS
a Disciple in Damascus

ACTS 9:10 -19
Ananias is spoken to by the Lord in a vision.
He didn’t like what he was told.
But the Lord convinced him to obey…

MARY & ELIZABETH are CHOSEN
TWO MIRACULOUS BIRTHS
(JOHN & JESUS)

The angel Gabriel
appears to Zechariah (Elizabeth’s husband)
LUKE 1:5(11)
and to Mary, who is engaged to Joseph
LUKE 1:26

John the baptist would prepare the way for Jesus
(LUKE 1:17 & 76-77)
Jesus would save people from their sins (Matt 1:21)
because He would be the perfect sacrifical Lamb of God
(John 1:29)

Miracles of Jesus

JOHN 5:1-15

Jesus heals a lame man by the pool of Bethesda

The lame man had not walked in 38 years!!!
Jesus asked him if he wanted to get well
When he explained how he can never get to the water….
Jesus told him to
GET UP
and
PICK UP YOU MAT AND WALK

After he was healed Jesus went to find him at the temple and to speak to him about sinning.
You see Jesus had healed him physically but his heart still needed to be healed

Jesus walks on water

AND PETER WALKS ON WATER…

MATTHEW 14:22-33

WHILE PETERS EYES ARE FIXED ON JESUS HE TOO WALKS ON WATER
BUT THE MINUTE HE STARTS TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE WIND & WAVES
HE STARTS TO SINK

MIRACLES OF JESUS
OUR HEARTS MATTER

Mark 2:1-12 | Luke 5:17-26

A man who could not walk was brought to Jesus to be healed.
His 4 friends had to remove roof tiles and lower their paralysed friend through the roof as they could get to Jesus any other way.

JESUS SAW THEIR FAITH
AND TOLD THE PARALYSED MAN THAT HIS SINS WERE FORGIVEN
and then healed his body

BUT THIS ANGERED THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS
They didn’t recognise Jesus as the Son of God. So how could he forgive anyones sins.

What can we learn from today’s true Bible story?

The condition of our heart is more important to Jesus than our health.
By saying that his sins are forgiven - meant that the man was now right with the Lord. As it is sin in our hearts that seperate us from God.

Jesus sees our faith.
Jesus can read our thoughts.
Jesus heals.
Jesus forgives our sins.
Jesus is God.

THE INVITATION

Everyone is invited
but not everyone accepts

LUKE 14:16-24

Luke 14:16-24

THE INVITATION TO A BANQUET

Jesus told a parable when he was talking to Pharisees and lawyers. It's about a man who made a great supper and he invited many people, but most of them didn't come for various excuses. The man got angry and told servant to bring people who are poor, blind, or lame from the streets of the city. Even though servant invited them all, the house was not full yet. The man ordered the servant again to bring people by all means. Then Jesus said that "For I tell you that none of those who were invited will taste of my supper".

The parable explained:
The man is the God.
The invitation was to the future banquet in heaven through Jesus from God.
The Marriage of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9)
How to accept the invite: By accepting Jesus into your HEART

SMALL man - BIG change

Meet Zacchaeus

Zac was a very rich man
and a very unpopular man too

He was a Jewish tax collector who worked for the Roman Empire
That already made him unpopular.
But what made it worse was that he robbed people by taking too much money from them
Zacchaeus was not honest

But something changed in Zac, and he wanted to see Jesus.
So he made a really big effort to see Jesus.
And when Jesus saw him his whole world changed

Jesus went to his house and Zacchaeus was very sorry for all the bad things that he had done

That is when Jesus said that SALVATION had come to Zacchaeus’s house

ON A SIDE NOTE - when the other people in the crowd saw whose house Jesus went too.
They were mad.
Why would Jesus go to a BAD persons house.

Well Jesus told them….
THE SON ON MAN CAME TO SEEK & SAVE THE LOST

LUKE 19:1-10

We are all lost until we accept Jesus into our hearts

CREATION WEEK
On day 6 God made human beings in His image
Genesis 1:26-27

Genesis 2:7
The Lord formed Adam from dust and breathed life into his nostrils
and then placed him in a garden
THE GARDEN OF EDEN

Genesis 2:15
Adam was to look after the garden

Genesis 2:20
God brought all the animals and birds to Adam to name them

Then the Lord made a helper for Adam - God made a women from one of Adam’s ribs
Genesis 2:21

The BIBLE is not a book of fairytales
THE BIBLE IS GOD’S WORD

In today’s lesson you will hear how JONAH was angry with God.

Jonah was angry that God changed His mind and didn’t punish the people of Ninevah.

The people of Ninevah turned away from their evil ways and followed the Lord.

Then Jonah gets angry about a
WORM eating a vine that was giving him shade!

Jonah had to learn that God is in control.
God can make a vine grow.
He can send a worm to kill the vine.
And He can forgive who He wants

Jonah was more upset about the Lord taking his shade away
He should have been happy that the Lord saved lots of people.

… It's not a secret
It's not fairy tale
It's not made up
Jonah was in the whale
For three whole days
One, two, three!

… The greatest treasure
The word God's people wrote
It's in the bible
Where Noah built a boat
And it rained and rained

… The rainbows in the sky
To show God's promises are true
The rainbows in the sky to show the world
He's the only way
For your everyday

The BIBLE is not a book of fairytales
THE BIBLE IS GOD’S WORD

In today’s lesson you will hear how God gave JONAH a second chance to preach to Nineveh.

And this time Jonah obeyed the Lord and did what God asked him to do.

For 3 days Jonah went around Nineveh preaching that the Lord was going to destroy Nineveh in 40 days.

The king and the people LISTENED and they turned away from the wrongs things that they were doing
and started to do things God’s way.

And God changed His mind and did NOT destroy Ninevah
when He saw that they stopped their evil ways.

JONAH 3:10

… It's not a secret
It's not fairy tale
It's not made up
Jonah was in the whale
For three whole days
One, two, three!

… The greatest treasure
The word God's people wrote
It's in the bible
Where Noah built a boat
And it rained and rained

… The rainbows in the sky
To show God's promises are true
The rainbows in the sky to show the world
He's the only way
For your everyday

All Scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting
and training in righteousness,
2 Timothy 3:16

The Bible teaches us how to live on earth.
It tells us how much our Heavenly Father loves us.
It shows us how to have a relationship with our Heavenly Father.
To put Him first and to be kind to other people.
The Bible is like having an instruction sheet or a map on how to live.
Without the map or instructions we would get lost and muddled.
So God gave us His Word, the Bible.
The Bible teaches us the truth about God and how we should live our lives.

Last week you learnt the first 5 books of the Bible in the OLD Testament.
This week learn the first 5 books of the NEW Testament

The Parable of the GOOD SAMARITAN

LUKE 10: 25 - 37

Jeremiah visits the potter

We are lovingly made by the Lord
We are lumps of clay
That He shapes and He forms us
He is in control
He gentle applies pressure to shape us
into something useful

None of us are the same
We have different purposes
Just like clay jars

We are all in His Hands

KNOWN BY YOUR FRUIT

At the LAST SUPPER that Jesus shared with His disciples before they arrested Him and crucified HIm
He told His disciples many things….
TODAY we are looking at how he told them about branches and grape vines

JOHN 15:1-8

When we accept Jesus as the King of our hearts,
the Holy Spirit comes and lives in our hearts

HELPING US; GUIDING US; TEACHING US; CORRECTING US; COMFORTING US
John 14:15
John 16:13-15

Look!
The Son of God who takes away the sin of the world
John 1:29

The TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

The Fiery Furnace

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
REFUSED TO BOW DOWN TO AN IDOL

THEY STOOD FIRM EVEN IF THE CONSEQUENCES WERE DEATH IN THE FIERY FURNACE

Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way.”

Dare to be a Daniel

When Daniel refused to eat the King’s food and wine
THE LORD REWARDED HIM
with….
WISDOM & the GIFT OF INTERPRETING DREAMS

KING NEBUCHANEZZAR, wanted his dream interpreted but he wouldn’t tell people what his dream was!

HE TREATHENED TO KILL ALL THE WISE MEN IF THEY COULDNT DO THIS

So Daniel approached the king and asked if he could pray about it.

The Lord blessed Daniel will the dream and the meaning

SO ALL THE WISE MEN WERE SAVED BY GOD

Jesus is our Shepherd
and we are His sheep

Sheep need a shepherd for everything
Sheep need to be guided to find food and water
Sheep need to be protected from danger

We are Jesus Sheep
We need Him to look after us, love us and protect us

DID YOU KNOW
That Sheep only listen to THEIR shepherd’s voice
and they FOLLOW and OBEY their SHEPHERD

WATCHING FOR JESUS

Did you know that when Jesus came to earth as a baby, that was when He came to first for the first time
and after He died your us and came back to life and spent 40 days on earth He left on a cloud to Heaven
AND AN ANGEL THAT DAY TOLD HIS DISCIPLES THAT HE WOULD COME AGAIN
the same way He left

So even though we are excited about Christmas coming soon,
we should be even more excited about
HIS RETURN

When Jesus was on earth the first time, He said that NOONE know the day of His second return
MATTHEW 24:42
BUT HE TOLD US TO BE READY & TO WATCH FOR HIS RETURN

What does ready mean?
To be READY is to be RIGHT with the Lord
HOW
We must put Jesus first in our lives, we must love Him and follow His commands

CRAFT

LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE

DID YOU KNOW THAT MOSES FACE ACTUALLY SHONE!!!!

EXODUS 34: 28-35

We can SHINE for Jesus
HOW
By speaking to the Lord and spending time with Him
OUR FACES WON’T SHINE LIKE MOSES
But people will know that we belong to Jesus
by our KIND words
our LOVING acts of kindness
BY OUR FRUIT ( our ACTIONS)

OBJECT TALK
LIGHT HIDDEN UNDER A BASKET (Matt 5:14-16)
You will need a candle (or a solar lamp or flashlight) and a basket
Why do we light candles?
To see
Jesus wants people to see Him through us

How do we hide it away?
By being angry, saying ugly words, but being unkind

How do we let Him shine through us?
By our actions and words (our kind and good actions)

CRAFT TIME
LET’S MAKE LANTERNS
Decorate glass jars or make paper lanterns

Forgiveness at a Fish Braai

A few days after Jesus rose from the grave
He made breakfast for some of His disciples who had
GONE FISHING

AT BREAKFAST JESUS GIVES PETER
A SECOND CHANCE!

Why do you think Peter had messed up?

SO JESUS TELLS PETER TO FEED HIS LAMBS
TO TAKE CARE OF HIS SHEEP
AND TO FEED HIS SHEEP
That means the Peter is NOT to fish for fish
But to fish for men - men with a heart for Jesus

Jesus dies on the cross - and saves us

The TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

SAVED from the flood

GENESIS 7:11 - GENESIS 8.14

Noah and his wife
Shem and his wife
Ham and his wife
Japheth and his wife

It took 7 days to enter the ARK and then the Lord closed the door! Genesis 7:16
AND THE FLOOD GATES OF THE SKY OPENED and it rained for 40 days and 40 nights

After 150 days the Lord sent a wind over the earth and the water started to drop
After 7 months - the ARK landed on a mountain - Mt Ararat
In month 10 - tree tops appeared
Forty days later Noah sent out a raven - but it just flew back and forth
Then he sent out a dove - it too went back and forward
7 days later Noah sent the dove out again - this time it brought back an olive leaf
After another 7 days he sent the dove out again, but she did not return
THE GROUND WAS DRYING