Children—Luke Mackewich
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Good morning. Welcome to the Sunday School.
Today we have the privilege to share with you the good news about Jesus. But first we're going to start off with some singing. Does anyone have a favorite that they would like to sing?
Little donkey alright.
There once was a.
I am leaving last year alarms where I began to.
At $20 million to take off.
I'm clear, you know. I'm sorry.
Oh, I replied. And I'll see you and then go.
That was a good one. Anybody else?
The books of the Bible. All right, Genesis.
Three if I am first time I guess I'm new love them kings and first time suck it chronicles.
I lie near my asterisk. You'll die. Now what I've got.
Probably the eyes is on the one man I take care of my land and patience to be killed in your day.
Is going on my God may I'm out of time than I am yet after I am.
I was good. How about someone from this side of the room?
Yesterday, today forever, Yesterday I someone else can start that yesterday.
Today.
Good morning to his name.
The other day, Andrew and his name.
00778 Five 3786.
Anybody else?
Little ship on the sea.
A little ****.
00:05:01
10-4, 10-4 10-4 OH 10-4 8. 10-4 OH 10-4 30. 10-4 OH 10-4 30. 10-4 OH 10-4 OH 10-4 010 10-4 10-4 01. Griffiths are on the end of the thyroid width of the Sun.
And it's like what? Dark dark Ross. Dark darkness.
That's all I want.
So are afraid of taking it and not being.
In that one, I am still on the way in 1991.
937 eight 537,439 Reaching for help and create new and come when I'm planning I'm still not with our world.
That was a good one. One or two more.
IOSIVEDRUSAVED.
Are you too?
One more.
123-4567 Good song.
1.
5678, 5, 8, 975.
846-5462.
30, 00039.
989-780-0915.
4567, 8-9 10.
00:10:20
OK, now I know I said that was going to be the last song I was going to have you pick out, but I didn't tell you that I had one more song that we were going to sing and we're going to sing the verse and the chorus and it's read your Bible, pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow. You guys know that one.
Yeah, I just love Wow. Hello.
Alright, now before we get going, we're just going to ask the Lord for some help and some direction, all right, So you close your head, close your eyes and bow your head.
Our blessed God and Father, we thank Thee for the opportunity that we have to come together.
And learn more of your beloved Son and his love for us. Who is asked for that? All the words that would come forth would be from thee and not from me. We ask this in thy name, Amen.
I'm going to start with a few words.
In Ephesians 6 starting in the 1St 10. Now, I heard that some of the kids may have learned a little bit about this this week. Does anybody know what that is off the top of their head?
The armor of God. Pretty smart, Wonderful. Ephesians 6.
Starting Yeah, we'll start with verse 11.
Put ye on.
The whole armor of God.
That you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness and high places.
We read elsewhere in First Peter, it says.
We're warned of our adversary, the devil who walks about with a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
That's kind of scary if you have an adversary, the devil, and he's trying to bring us down, trying to destroy us.
But then you read something about the armor.
What is important about the armor?
Is #1.
Do you have the armor?
You know, we can read about putting it on, but if you don't have any armor to put on.
It doesn't do you any good now does it?
Now when the devil goes about seeking whom he may devour.
Do you think he cares whether you have armor on or don't have armor on? You're a tasty meal either way, and so it's important #1.
That we have the armor on now how do we translate that into our lives is number one. We need to be saved.
How do we How can we be saved? Who here knows how we can be saved, David?
Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ? Excellent. It's that simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Ask God for his forgiveness. Say, Lord, I know who you are. I believe that you are God, that you came to die for me.
I believe that you are raised from the dead for my sins. Please forgive me, it's that easy. But.
You know, if you don't have that armor, if you're not a Christian.
00:15:02
You have no protection. You're walking through life, whether at school or with your friends, and you are defenseless. Who here likes to be defenseless?
I don't. It's a scary thing. We like to feel safe. We like to feel protected. Now, I don't know a whole lot about armor. I wasn't in the military. I don't use it.
I work as an engineer and I work on construction sites and so I have a different type of armor that keeps me safe. You guys interested?
I have a hard hat.
Protects my head. I got to.
Snazzy.
High visibility safety goes fast.
What else do I have?
Safety glasses. Safety first.
I even have some really big boots to keep my feet nice and safe.
So I might not have armor as in helmet, Shields, whatever.
But I have different things that are required to help keep me safe at work.
No.
Let me try something else.
Can you?
Use somebody else's armor.
No. You sure?
Let's read a story about that.
First Samuel 17.
And verse 38, we've all heard the story of David and Goliath, but some part that some of us forget about is after David volunteered to go fight the giant, the king said unto him, You're not prepared here, take my armor, it says in verse 38. And Saul armed David with his armor, and he put on him a helmet of brass upon his head, and he armed him with a coat of mail.
And David girded his sword upon his armor.
And he has said to go, for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them. And David took them off.
We can't use other people's armor in our lives just because your mommy or your daddy is a Christian or your brother or your friend. We can't use their faith to save us. It has to be real. It has to be individual.
Now let me ask a question. Who wants to try on my armor?
We got to volunteer all right.
Come up over here.
Alright.
All right, come over here and turn around.
Oh no, your boots are a little too small, you know.
I think you're going to be able to go out and stay safe and fight your battles and that.
I think that might be a little hard. See, in our lives, sometimes we try to pretend or we try to use our friends faith or our parents faith, and we never make it real. But in reality, what happens is we go out and we look like that. We can't fight in somebody else's armor. We need to have our own armor that is suited for us. Thank you, You're a good volunteer.
But there's another part of that verse.
And it says I cannot go.
For I have not proved it. What does that mean? I have not proved it.
Anybody know?
That means I haven't tried it out. I don't know if it really even works. How do I know if it works?
00:20:00
Now I have another piece of safety gear in here.
See if anybody knows what this is. I know I'm gonna guess most people are gonna come up with no.
This year is an air monitor that I wear when I'm out on a dangerous site and it lets me know if there's enough oxygen in the air or if there's a lot of carbon monoxide or if the air is so explosive. If I make a smart well, I go boom.
You don't want that. And so I have this air monitor that I wear when I go out on a construction site or a refinery or oil pipeline. Now let me ask you, do you think it would be smart if I tested this to make sure it works before I go?
Yeah, you know, if I go out on site and it doesn't work, it doesn't do me any good.
So before I go, I need to try it, to make sure it works. And in our lives, in our armor, we need to put it on and we need to try it. We need to read our Bibles, we need to pray, we need to ask questions.
Now, I like to prove things out. So step number one is I'm going to prove out that these boots work. So which of you would like to prove that these boots work? Cameron All right, come up and stomp on my toes as hard as you can.
Let's give a flat surface. All right, there you go. Now, that didn't hurt at all, but I think it's just because you're really small, you know, these boots, No offense, but that was a good effort. I think. Should we try somebody bigger, see if they can stop really hard, make sure these boots really work?
Sam, we get an adult, a big person to come stop on my shoes. Is that going to hurt?
I didn't feel a thing. I proved my armor. I made sure it worked.
Have you proved God?
He will never fail you.
He will never leave you. All the defenses that you have in him will work.
Now I've been talking about the devil.
And these attacks that we get.
I just got stomped on my toes.
But often when we're attacked by the devil, those aren't the type of attacks that we get attacked by. You know, we may get some physical attacks, but often it's spiritual or inner minds or temptations or thoughts. Let's turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 10.
Starting in first three.
Says For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
You know, oftentimes when we're attacked or attempted.
It's a little whisper. It's, you can do that. That'd be fun. You know what happened? You should go punch your brother. He's being mean to you. You should go hit your sister. It's OK to take that, uh, extra cookie from the cookie jar. You know, often times those temptations that we get, they aren't necessarily physical fights or defenses, but in our lives, their thoughts, their intent, their desires that we have.
That really cause us to question God and who he is.
And so when we need to put on the armor of God, when we need to protect ourselves, often it's we need to protect our mind and our heart. And we do that through reading and praying as we was brought forth yesterday and how important it is to put it on daily.
But let me ask you a question.
00:25:01
How much of the armor, how much of my safety gear should I put on every day that I go to work all of it? You mean I can't just go to work with just my boots and forget the safety vest and the hard hat and the glasses and the gloves and all the other safety gear?
No, why not?
I won't be safe and I can get hurt very good.
In our lives, our.
We putting on the whole armor of God.
Are we reading and praying every day, or is our reading and praying well?
They're gonna read and pray at meetings, so that's good enough for me and that'll get me through the rest of the week. Is that what we need to do?
No, we need to do it every day.
But you know, I work out on construction sites and you know, you put on this safety gear.
It adds up. You know, I put this on, you know, I didn't even put on all my safety gear. You know what happens if I go on a site, I have to wear something like this?
It might smell really bad. You know, my wife might be changing a dirty diaper.
That might be fun for half hour hour. Can you imagine working outside all day long in the hot sun?
Starts to get really tired. You're like man.
I don't wanna wear that anymore. Nothing bad is gonna happen. I can just take off this piece of safety equipment.
You know, in our lives, sometimes we do that too, we could say.
I've had a really long day. I had all this fun at school playing with my friends, and then I came home and played on the computer and the video games played on the phone, and now I'm really tired and I need to go to bed.
I don't have time to read or pray.
Have we ever done that?
So often we can get caught up and the things that we're doing and say, oh, it's no big deal if I take off this piece of armor, it's no big deal.
If I don't use that today.
Do you know what happens when you take off your armor?
You're gonna get hurt and.
Sometimes it's not very pretty.
Now, oftentimes when we get hurt, we get enticed into sin. We get the devil says to us, you know, it's OK if you do this or that.
And you might steal that cookie from the cookie jar. You might lie to your parents. Maybe you're a older young person. And you might do a whole lot worse. You know, you might not get caught that one time.
Or the next.
Or the next.
But sooner or later it catches up to you and you get caught. And then not only do you suffer from.
Getting punished for what you did, then you also have the guilt and the shame and the fear and knowing that everybody else knows what you did. It's not just you who got caught, but everybody knows it was you. That's still the key from the cookie jar. It was you that lied to your parents. It was you.
That did drugs, it was you. That looked at *********** it was you.
And that eats away at us. And it might not get us the first time and it might not get us the second time. You know, the Bible says there is pleasure in sin for a season.
But the ends thereof are the ways of death.
And often we can get tempted into thinking that, you know, this situation, it's OK to put down our armor.
It's OK not to read our Bible. It's OK not to pray.
So that's when we get attacked. And if we don't have our armor, how do you defend yourself when you don't have your armor?
You can't. You can't get out of the way, and that's when we get hurt.
Now.
00:30:01
Part of being a Christian and part of having the armor.
Is training and growth.
We need to be able to know how to respond to different situations. I need to know if I'm going out on the construction site, do I need my air monitor? Do I need my respirator? What else do I have in here?
Am I going to be working at night and need a headlight?
Am I gonna be?
Wait, what's this? Am I going to be working on the ice? I need some foot traction so I don't flip and get hurt. And as Christians, we need to be able to discern different attacks from the enemy. Let's turn to Second Timothy 2:15.
It says study.
To show thyself approved unto God, a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Here's the key point rightly dividing the word of truth.
So not only do we need to read and pray for our protection.
But it helps us grow and to be able to recognize other attacks.
Who here remembers?
The first sin mentioned in the Bible.
What was it?
Adam and Eve.
Now let me ask you.
What did the serpent say? What did the snake say?
How did he attack them?
He told him to go to the tree with the wrong food on it.
He said that God has said that was afraid that you were going to be just like him when he ate the fruit.
Exactly. The devil said that God really say that. You know, I think what he really said was this and that.
Now.
When Satan tempts us or tests us.
He's very, very often.
We'll test us with miss loaded scripture.
Did you know that when he tempted the Lord Jesus in the wilderness?
He tested him with myths, quoted scripture.
Something that would, you know, mostly true and a little bit of a lie right in there.
And that's often how though, how we are attacked, how we are tripped up.
A little bit of a lie and the rest of truth.
Let me ask you if you haven't read your Bible and someone gives you a little bit of a lie and a whole lot of truth.
Well, you know whether it's right or whether it's wrong.
Does anyone know?
Often times people say and this verse says XYZ and you're like, sounds kind of right. I don't really know what it was. I never learned that in Sunday school as a kid.
And often times, if we don't learn the Word of God, if we don't read the Word of God, if we aren't in prayer before him, we will get tripped up when we're attacked by those deceptive little thoughts.
You know, I was told once it says that all sin no matter what we do wrong.
00:35:04
As when we have a doubt of the goodness of God towards us, and we question and we act and we do something because we're truly doubting about God.
Now let me ask you.
When the Lord was tempted in the wilderness.
How did he respond?
Does anyone know?
He responded with Bible verses.
Let me ask you, when you've been tempted, have you ever responded with a Bible verse when your brother or your sister ever said, hey, let's go take that from mommy, let's go take that extra cookie? Have you ever said thou shalt not steal?
When you looked and said that person has a really nice pair of shoes. I really like a pair of shoes like that. I wish I could go to the mall and buy a pair of shoes like that.
Have you ever responded? Thou shalt not covet?
So often.
Those little things that start off simple and lead us astray, we can nip those right in the bud by responding to what God has said, how He would have us. And so we need to train. We need to grow. As the song says, read your Bible, pray every day and go grow, grow, grow. You need to be able to spot, you need to be able to recognize those situations. You need to be able to recognize.
The danger?
But you know.
You don't need to learn or to study.
All the bad things out there, to know that they're bad, If you know what is good, you can tell if it's bad. You know when they go to a bank and they teach them how to spot, spot a counterfeit bill or a fake dollar bill. Do you know how they do it?
They make them study the real one very well, very in depth.
They don't need to know all the different tips and tricks of all the counterfeit if they know exactly what the real thing is.
They can spot the fake and the same thing in our lives. If we read, if we pray, if we're feeding on God, we can spot those fakes, those attacks.
Now I have one other thing that I want to talk about.
You know, oftentimes I'll go out on a construction site.
And I'll see somebody.
Doing something unsafe.
Have you ever seen somebody do something that was not safe?
Yeah.
I've seen people ride their bikes without helmets.
Well, I can't. I've seen plenty of things that aren't safe. And you know what we're taught at work? If you see something unsafe, tell them. You know, sometimes they might get distracted, they might not be paying attention. If you see one of your friends doing something that's wrong, it's OK to say that's you shouldn't be doing that.
When I'm out in the field and I'm not paying attention and I walk into a situation that's very dangerous and I'm not aware of it, I appreciate when someone says, hey, you shouldn't be standing there. They're lifting something above your head that could come down and squash you. Hey, you shouldn't be standing there. That guy is in a really big jump truck and he can't see you.
Do you think I get mad when someone says you're doing something very unsafe?
No, I'm thankful. And in the same way in our lives, if our friends come to us and say, hey, I see this in your life.
It's not safe, it's destructive, it's leading you down a wrong path.
Realize that they are doing that for your good. They want what's best for you. I know that my coworkers want me to come home safe. At the end of the day, your friends want you to be safe as well.
00:40:06
So I just ask you and kind of go to summarize.
One, we have an enemy that seeks to trip us up.
And he will seek to destroy us as a roaring lion.
Would you rather be protected by armor?
Or by nothing.
If you aren't protected by the armor.
If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Did you know that you can do it right now? You don't have to leave right now.
You can make sure before you walk out this door that you have the armor.
To say, Lord, I have sinned, please wash my sins away.
It's that easy.
Now if you do have the armor.
Make sure that you prove it. Make sure that you're in the word every day.
You're reading. You're praying.
That you're trying it out, You're proving, just as I got my boots stomped on.
You want to make sure that it works.
You know, it's something that you need to do daily and it's something that you need to have refreshers on.
Now, how many people here noticed?
When I put on my hard hat.
Do you know what these stickers mean?
These stickers mean every single sticker.
Was I went to a different construction site or even the same one and I needed to be reminded about the dangers and how to be safe?
It is something that we need to do daily. We need to be reminded of the dangers. We need to be constantly in God's Word. We need to constantly be aware of the troubles that we can face, you know, and construction and engineering.
There's two groups of people that get hurt the most. Do you know what they are?
The people who are really new and don't know anything.
And the people who have been there for a while and think they know everything and they just don't pay attention anymore.
So I ask you, each and everyone of you.
If you happen to fall in either of those categories, whether you are a young Christian or an older Christian who thinks you're doing all right and oh, I know how it works and I don't have to deal with that. I can, you know, not use my safety gear. I can skip my reading and pray and do it just when I come to meeting.
You're bound to be disappointed and you're bound to be hurt.
That we have a God who loves us and wants what's best for us. And so He's provided His word. And so I ask you to please just read it.
I'll be honest, I grew up in a Christian home.
My mom tried to get me to read the Bible.
Every day.
I pretended.
I went off to college.
I never read my Bible. I never prayed.
And I fell off the deep end.
It's not pleasant.
It's not pretty.
But God is able to restore and a lot of the issues and trials that I faced.
Would have been avoided.
If I had been in God's Word and I had read it. And so I urge you, whether you're little or a teenager or older.
Do not give up.
Your source of defense?
Don't let your guard down. Protect yourself. Disclose in prayer.
Our blessing God and Father, we thank Thee that we have the opportunity to open Thy word and learn of Thee, our source of strength and protection. Please ask if there's any here who is not put on the armor that they would accept you as their Lord and Savior. We ask that if there's any here who have thrown off pieces here or there because they were distracted by the things of the world.
They would realize their danger and put it back on that we'd be able to fight fully protected. We ask these things in thy name, Amen.