Children—Joseph Countouris
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
All right, welcome to the Sunday School.
We're going to do some singing first. Does anybody have a song?
If you have a song sheet, there are children's hymns on the back of it.
Which one do you want?
#46.
If somebody could start all these, I'd like us all to be able to enjoy them.
Anybody else have one?
Hey number, do you want #8 #8 #8 please?
Anybody else have one?
4343 and what number was that?
6016 Thank you. I was 40.
43 All right #43 first, then 16.
1.
00:05:02
Outside on the inside of you.
I'm ignoring only.
Decide on where side are you.
All right then #16.
#41.
#41 please.
Around the.
Children's Day children, Christians are all for everywhere.
And say.
It's not even a little spot. That's why I need to find a real vision.
Avery, you had one, right?
25 #25.
Like the best.
I.
We're going to move on to the memory verse. If anybody has wants to say it, you don't have to. I do have some treats here, if you will say it. There's a little incentive.
Does anybody want to say it? You do.
Let me grab a couple.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, searched the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine and 10. Excellent.
All right, good.
Jeremiah 17, Nine to 10.
The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked. Who can know that I, the Lord, search the heart? Jeremiah 17, nine to 10.
00:15:06
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine and 10. Excellent. Good job. Anybody else?
Anybody else you do?
My 17 nine to 10, the heart is successful above all, thanks desperately as who can know what I thought? JMI 17 nine to 10. Very good. There you go.
Jeremiah 17 under 10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know what I, the Lord, searched the heart. Jeremiah 1700 Very good, excellent.
Somebody else?
The heart is deceitfully wicked, but above all things the heart it is equally wicked above all things. The The heart is deceitful above all things, and deathly wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, Church of heart, Jeremiah 17, nine and 10. Excellent, good job. The heart is deceitful, but all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, Sir, the heart, Jeremiah.
17/9 and 10.
Good job.
Go.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
I, the Lord, searched the heart.
Jeremiah 17910 Good job, very good. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, searched the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine and 10.
Somebody else? OK, I'll go over there.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, searched the heart.
Jeremiah Iron and Tech.
You want to say.
I did, Lord search the heart. Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1710. Good job.
This one.
That is deceitful above all things. Who can know either or search the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine and 10. Excellent. Very good.
The heart is deceitful above all things.
And just really wicked. Who can know either? Lord search the heart Jeremiah 17910 Very good. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I the Lord search shall heart. Jeremiah 17, nine and 10. Good job.
Everybody will get a chance. Give me one second.
All right.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. Jeremiah 17, nine through 10.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately awakened. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. Jeremiah 17 through 9 and 10. That was excellent.
The heart. The heart is easy for about all things and desperately weak. Good. He'll can know what I Lords, is the heart. Jeremiah 17. That's very good. I like the way you guys say it.
Who is the heart is deceitful?
Above all things and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
I, the Lord.
Sarge Dahl.
Jeremiah.
17/9 and 10 Very good job.
00:20:02
Is that everybody?
OK.
So let's sing one more. Does somebody have one more favorite?
You do OK? What number?
44 #44.
Sanity.
All right.
I would like to talk to you kids today about the subject of two natures and two masters, 2 natures and two masters. Does anybody know what we've been talking about in our reading meetings at the conference this weekend?
We've been talking about the.
Our armor.
The armor of God, the armor of God, right? And we've been talking about a conflict that is that the Christian goes through and how that we need that armor. And I would like to talk to you guys about another conflict that usually happens before we get to that conflict. And in fact, it's a conflict that probably the believer spends more time in.
And even though it may not be normal.
From God's perspective, oftentimes it's normal in our life and it's the conflict of two natures. And so before we start talking about that, I'd like to play a little game. Have you guys ever played tug of war?
We just had a picnic and we played tug of war. You guys want to play tug of war? All right, so I need from you all the way over here. You guys go down here. Go ahead up, get up. You're going to grab the rope. Go ahead. And then everybody down here, you're going to stand up and you're going to grab this rope.
00:25:05
No, you're going to be down there, Jack. You guys are all down here.
You're right down there. Pick up the rope.
And this is what's going to happen. You guys are going to pull and they're going to pull, and we're going to see who's going to win. Can somebody just hold on to this microphone there? Thank you. OK. So we don't have much room to pull. So I'm going to say go. And then when I say stop, you're going to have to stop.
All right. You guys ready?
You sure? All right, 123?
Pull.
Stop, stop, stop. Good job. All right, we're going to call you guys team one and you guys are team two. Can you just loosen up a little bit? Walk this way. Walk this way. Let's go back. All right. Now, does that seem fair? Team One.
They seemed a little overpowered, but you know something in this game, there's a weird thing that happens. OK, we're going to play best. Out of three, you guys won one. But in this game, when you lose, things don't get easier for you, they get harder. So you guys need to lose somebody, and we're going to pick your best, strongest person. Can you go take a seat?
But not only do they get weaker, you guys get stronger.
You're allowed to lookout into anyone in this room, and you're allowed to pick somebody to be on your team.
He's saying Craig, you want Craig? All right, Craig, you're up.
All right. I hope you guys don't fly ready go.
Oh, all right, Good, good, good. All right. What happened? Why didn't you get him that time?
All right, you guys can drop the rope. You can go back to your seats. Let's talk about this for a little bit.
All right, two natures.
We have two natures. Let's just read a verse that talks about these two natures in John chapter 3.
Guys, I believe you'll remember the story about Nicodemus. He comes to the Lord.
And what he's been hearing from people who were in his circle did not match what he was seeing and hearing. And so he was having this conflict. And the Lord gets to the root of the problem, and that is that Nicodemus, just like you and I, needed something. And what he needed was life. He needed to be born again. He needed a new nature. And so the Lord said to him in John chapter 3 and verse six, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.
That which is born of the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, is spirit or spiritual. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. You have to be born again.
And so the Lord presents here that there were two natures. When we are born into this world, we come from the seed of Adam, and we all are born with an old nature. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and it can never get any better. It's always flesh. And so we need new life from the Spirit of God.
And he imparts that life, and the Spirit of God gives what is spiritual a spiritual life.
That life can get no worse.
But when we receive that new life, the old nature, the flesh sin, doesn't leave, it stays, and it creates a conflict like this game of tug of war, where one side is pulling and the other side is pulling.
Both sides want to win. Who's going to win in your life? I'm talking to believers here this morning. I should have said that this isn't a gospel per SE. If you're lost in your sins, you have one nature. It's an old nature. It's the flesh. You're on your way to hell.
You need life.
You need to ask the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart to take your sins away. Repent of those sins, accept them as your savior. But to those of us who are saved, who are believers here, you children, you have two natures. You have an old nature and you have a new nature. When your parents tell you to do something, they say, what's your name? Marcus. Marcus, come here.
Do you do that every time that your parents say that?
00:30:01
Every single time.
I didn't either.
And when the Lord talks to me, even today, I don't always do that. Something happens inside of us sometimes. And when our parents say come here.
Someone wants to say, no, I don't want to go. And there's this tug of war. Who are we going to listen to? All right, so let's read about this little tug of war. The context of the of the verses I'm going to read are a little bit different, but I'm going to take them in the application of of the struggle that we see between life and death. OK, so let's look at Galatians chapter 5.
In verse 17.
Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit.
One side against the other and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, constantly pulling this way and pulling this way so that you do not do the things that you wish or the things that you want to do. Romans 7.
Romans 7, verse 19.
I'm going to get to some questions in a minute about what I've been talking about. And we got more gum, so you got to listen.
OK, so Romans 7 verse 19, really there's a number of verses here that you could read, but I'm just going to read this one for the good that I will to do. I do not do.
So this man is saying he sees something good. My mom calls me and says come and I know it would be good to come but I don't do it. But the evil I will not to do. He doesn't want to do evil.
That I practice. So there's something that's positively wrong. Maybe you take a toy from your friend. Maybe you take a toy from your brother or sister. Maybe you speak not nice to your brother or sister.
Inside of you, if you're saved, you know that that isn't right. You know that that's wrong. And yet there's something in you that's telling you, tugging. You go ahead and say it. Go ahead and do it, and you do it. And this man is finding this struggle. The evil that I don't want to do, I keep doing.
All right. So a couple of questions on these two natures that we need to understand that we have.
How many natures does an unbeliever have?
How many natures does an unbeliever have?
Juan, Juan, Juan, very good, Jack, how many natures does a believer have?
Sorry, I'll get you 22. Very good. OK, I'll get back to my questions.
How would you describe these two natures? What are they called?
What's one of them?
Out Old, old nature. Good job. What's another way that we could describe one of these natures? The new nature, New nature, Good job. Anybody have another one? Another way that we could describe this. Did you have one?
The old nature? Yep. Anything else? Any other besides old?
Sinful nature. Sinful nature.
Sinful pill. OK, another word that we could use to describe it as the flesh.
On the the good side, we could call it the spiritual nature, that which is of the spirit of spiritual. OK, another question, can the flesh?
The nature that we received when we were born into this world as children of Adam, can that flesh get any better? Can we improve it? Can we get it to the point where it's just a little bit better? No. No. Can the new nature, the nature that the Spirit of God gives, can it get any worse? Can it get worse? No. No. OK, so we have the flesh sin, the old nature, it can't get any better.
We have the new nature, the spiritual nature, that that which is from the Spirit of God.
It can't get any worse. It's perfect.
What happens? Remember our tug of war game? Remember what happens when you guys lost?
What happens when one of those natures, either the old or the new, wins a battle? When they win, what happens? I just gave you one. Anybody else? What happens when?
00:35:03
What happens?
The one that lost gets.
The strongest person goes away, right? Very good. So, so when you when you lose a battle, that nature gets weaker. What happens when you win a battle? When the when, when one of the natures wins, you get in the next person you do. And that means that it gets stronger. There was more strength over there.
All right, so you have these two natures, flesh, sin, new nature, spiritual.
You use one of them, there's a tug of war. You use one, it gets stronger. You use the other, it gets stronger. You use one, this other one gets weaker. So what happens when you your parents say come do the dishes, clean up your room, be nice to your kids, share and you don't do it.
What nature are you using?
Which nature are you using?
The bad nature, that's right. And what happens when you use that bad nature? What happens to it? You know what happens to that bad nature?
It gets stronger, it gets stronger. And so the next time you're confronted with this tug of war, is it easier or harder to win and do what your parents want you to do and ultimately what the Lord? Harder, harder.
That's a tough lesson to learn.
It's a lesson that often takes a long time to learn.
All right. I want to talk to you now about two masters.
OK, so Bob, Tony yesterday said that.
Talked about a ship and he talked about I think there was 276 about.
On that ship. And he said no, there's about 276 people here. And I would like you guys to use your imagination when your kids usually you have a vivid imagination. So look around this room. You know, we're on here, we're on a ship.
It's a huge ship. Up there is where the captain is. He's got the steering wheel up there. This ship is triple masted, double decks, 50 guns. We'll call it the Unicorn.
It's huge.
But on this ship you have a captain, and the captain has gone crazy.
What are you going to do with a crazy captain? He keeps shouting out crazy things. Jack, burn the sails down.
Avery, jump overboard.
What are we going to do with the crazy captain?
You know what we're going to do? We're going to take them to the mast because he's gone crazy. And if we follow what he's saying to do, we're all going to die. And we're going to tie him up with this rope. So imagine this big mast in the middle and we tie him up and we appoint a new master, a new ship captain. And the ship captain gives you good orders. And he said the winds at our backs sails up. Let's go.
But the old master is still there.
Was it Marcus? Was that your name? Marcus walked the plank.
Says the old captain.
Sorry, says the old captain tied to the mast. Are you going to listen to the old captain Marcus?
No.
He's still shouting out crazy orders. Burn down the sails. Are you going to burn down the sails? Who are you going to listen to?
The new captain. The new captain. All right, so let's read some verses.
Keep that story in mind.
Romans 6.
Verse One. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Sin is that old captain. He's the one who's calling out all these crazy orders. But if you're saved, you have a new captain. Who's the new captain? Who's the new captain?
Jesus, Jesus Christ, He is the new captain. You take your orders from him. When you receive that new nature. The old doesn't go away. You're still going to hear from that old captain.
00:40:06
But we have a secret in this chapter, in chapter six, that is incredible.
It is amazing what God has done for us and what He has helped us to know.
Let's keep reading. We're going to skip down to verse 7, Romans 6, and verse seven. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more death, no longer has dominion over him for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, listen to this.
You also reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin that old master, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Avery, can you do something for me? I want to climb up here on this table.
And I just want you to lay down. Can you do that? I'm going to hold on to it. Go ahead.
OK. And what I want you to do, Avery, I'm going to put your hands like this. When you close your eyes, you're dead, OK? I want you to pretend that you're dead, OK? And so when when I talk to you, I want you to respond like you're dead.
Avery, take all the gum in the bag.
Avery, go take the candy that I gave to all the other kids.
Avery.
Why isn't he doing what I say?
Why isn't he doing what I say?
Because then he's dead. If you were dead, how would you respond to sin telling you to go do something bad? How would you respond if your parents said, hey, come, hey, clean your room and something inside you said don't do that. How would you respond to that? Don't do that.
I will listen. I go clean my room and, and and you would respond to that voice in your head from that old master as if you were dead.
We're dead. We're dead to that master cave where you can stand up. But not only are we dead, but it says that just as Christ has risen from the dead.
We.
Walk in newness of life. And so Avery, do you have any gum left?
Do you have any gum left in your pockets or do you eat it all? It's OK if you did, I don't care. Does anybody have any gum left?
You have come, OK? What I want you to do. I'm that new ship, Captain. Could you take all the gun that you have left and give it to somebody else that doesn't have it?
You can give it right to the person behind you. Could you give it to him?
Thank you. You can give you got to give it all though.
That all you have left.
Okay.
So we walk in newness of life.
And what does the Lord do when we use that new nature and we walk in newness of life? He blesses us. He gives us more.
He will be no man's debtor, Satan, sin. They want you to believe that God doesn't have your best interest in view, that you're going to miss out. But in reality, you walk according to that new master who operates with that new nature and he is going to bless you.
OK, so just a couple of questions here. Who is the old master? What's his name?
Not stating exactly.
Sin very good. Who's our new master?
Jesus, what do we become? Sorry.
What do we become to the master we serve?
When a master tells us to do something, one of those two masters, what do we become when we say yes to that master?
Starts with an S sin. Now we become a slave slave. We become a slave to that master.
How are we to respond? How are we to respond when that old nature, sin, nature tries to tell us something? We respond as if we are dead. How do I know I can respond this way? Because God said it. God said it right in this chapter. If you guys are struggling with that, ask your parents to sit down with you or sit down yourself. Open up your Bible and read chapter 6 of Romans.
00:45:02
And it says no know this, know this.
Take God up at His Word.
Believe that God has said you are dead. Do we need to try to do it? No, it's a work that God has done. We just need to take God up at His Word and act in the good of it. There's nothing we can do. OK, so we didn't get to the results. The results. You can go home and you can read Romans 616 to 23 and you can see the happy, fruitful results of following.
Not submitting to that old nature under control of that old master.