Thursday, October 26, 2017

SS: Day three of creation

What did God create on the first day of creation?  Heavens, earth, light
What did God create on the second day of creation? The sky to separate the water
What is the difference between ‘making’ and ‘creating’? To make something is to already have the ingredients.  To create is to make from nothing.
Did God create or make the world?  Create…He didn’t have anything to start with

What did you have for breakfast today?  Cereal, doughnuts, toast, bacon, eggs.  Let’s think of cereal and doughnuts.  They were made from wheat or corn or rice which is grown on farms as plants.  Have you stopped to thank God for plants today?

Have you stopped to thank God for the ground you walk on today?  Did you know that God didn’t have to give us land to walk on?  But he did because he is loving and kind.  Let’s stop and thank God for making the land and the plants that give food.  Pray.

Genesis 1:9-13
God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.”  And it was so.  God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.”  And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, “let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so.  The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit according to their kinds.  And God saw that it was good.  And there was evening, and there was morning – the third day.

* God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.”  And it was so.  Pull out a dish and pour water into itPut a rock in the middle of the dish.
God created the dry ground!  Why did he create dry ground?  He created dry ground because not everything that he was going to create would be able to live in water.  So now he made dry ground appear so that the earth wouldn’t just be covered with water.

* God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.”
God is naming things again.  He named the land and the water.

* And God saw that it was good.
God is pleased with his work.  He sees that what he has done is good.  This shows that God has feelings and that he thinks about things.  He made dry ground and stood back to admire what he did.  He looked at it and saw that it was good.

* Then God said, “let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants. Place pants and flowers on the side of the dish.
This is the first living thing on the earth that God has created.  Up until now he had been preparing the earth for living things.  He makes sure that plants have their own seeds.  Why would plants need seeds?  God needed the plants to make more plants, so he gave them seeds.  The food would not run out.

* and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” Have an apple somewhere on there. 
So not only did God create plants with seeds. He now creates trees with fruit.  The fruit also needed to have seeds.

* And it was so.  The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit according to their kinds.
This is actually repetitive and annoying simply because we needed to know that it happened exactly the way God wanted.

* And God saw that it was good. 
God looks at his creation to admire it and call it good.  Everything he made was good.

*And there was evening, and there was morning – the third day.
A lot happened on day three.  He made both the land and its food that grows from plants. 

Did you know there was a time when God took away the land?  When God flooded the whole earth because of man’s wickedness, he saved on only Noah and his family.  And then the flood ended and God brought the land back.

Then, after God rescued Israel from Egyptian slavery, but before they came to the promised land, they were hungry, so God send bread from the sky for them to eat, and the people called it manna.  God did that for 40 years.

And then one time, Jesus was teaching people in the land of Israel in a land far from food.  In John 6:1-13, we read…

Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee, and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.  Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples.  The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”  He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.”  There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there).  Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted.  He did the same with the fish.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over.  Let nothing be wasted.”  So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces left over by those who had eaten.

After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 


Did you know that this is the only miracle besides Jesus coming back from the dead that is told in all four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?  That generation thought it was Jesus’s most significant miracle second to his resurrection because it showed that he is God, the same one who gave the Israelites manna in the wilderness, and the same one who created land and plants that give food on the third day of creation.

Sunday, October 15, 2017

SS: Day two of creation

Have you ever stopped to thank God for air today?  Why would we thank God for giving us air to breathe?  What would happen if there was no air?  Did God have to give us air?  No, God doesn’t have to do anything.  He does it all because he is good and kind. 

What about water?  What if there was no water?  Let us stop to pray and thank God for our air and water.

Read Genesis 1:6-8

And God said, “Let there be a space between the waters to separate water from water.”  So God made the vault and separated the water under the space from the water above it.  And it was so.  God called the space “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning – the second day.

For a long time I did not really understand what God created on day two.  In fact, not really until I had to teach the lesson this week.  Reading this, what do you think God created on day two?

·        God said, “Let there be a space between the waters to separate water from water.”
This shows the power of God speaking.  If he wants something to exist, he must speak it.  He said for a huge space to be between the waters.  Until this point, everything was water.  There must have not been anything except water.  We cannot imagine this.  God knew that we would need to breathe, so he made air.

·        So God made the space.
God wanted a space, so that’s what happened.  He made a space.  It does not say that God wanted a space so he kind of made one.  No, he wanted a space, so he made a space.  He made a huge space between the waters, and it was exactly how he wanted it.

·        And separated the water under the space from the water over the space.
God separated the water.  Only water filled the earth, but now God made a space in the water.  We can understand the water below the space because of the oceans and rivers and lakes.  Where is the water above?  Remember, clouds are made of water.  Rain, snow, and sleet all come from above the space.

·        God called the space “sky.”
God name it “sky.”  We still call it the sky.  God knew that we would need to call it something.

·        And there was evening, and there was morning – the second day.
So far, in two days, God created the heavens, the earth, light, and a sky space.

Basically, God turned water into something completely different: air.  Before that, people would not be able to breathe, and God wanted to create a world for people, so he made air.

Activity
Fill a bowl with water.  Scrunch up a piece of paper.  Push the paper into the bottom of the glass so that it cannot fall out.  Turn the glass upside down and plunge it straight down into the bowl of water.

What happened do that paper?  It stayed inside the glass.  That is the power of air.  It held up this paper just like it holds up the water in the sky.  How this works is that the air inside the glass takes up space and pushes.  The paper stays dry because the water can only get into the glass by squashing the air inside it.  Air can be squashed or compressed a little but then it pushes back and prevents water from reaching the paper.  This is something you can show your parents later today.

Do you want to know another time that God changed water into something else? (Does anybody else feel awkward teaching this next passage to children?  What if they ask if Jesus really made wine?  They didn't today, but seriously.)

John 2:1-12.

On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee.  Jesus’s mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  When the wine was gone, Jesus’s mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied.  “My hour has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, “Fil the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.  He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.  Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. 

After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples.  There they stayed for a few days.

In this passage, Jesus, who is God the Son, turned water into a drink that would bring life to a party.  Without it, a newly married couple could not properly celebrate their new marriage, and Jesus graciously turned something boring and possibly full of germs into something that tasted good and could even make people silly.

So, many times, God sees that we don’t have something that we need, and he will provide for it whenever the time is right.  For Jesus, it was after the wedding planners had run out of wine.  For God the Father, it was when he realized that people would need air to breathe.  What about for you?  When did God finally give you something you needed at the right time?

Just this year, God let me have a full-time job and a house closer to this church.  I didn’t get them until this year and I have been going to this church 4 years now and have been needing a job since I became an adult.  He also provide a husband when I was in my late 20s after being single for so long.  He brought me everything I needed in just the right time, though he did not have to do so.