Week of 09-04-22

We encourage you to use the resources below to follow up on what your kids and teens learned at Sunday School and Wednesday's Student Ministry Gathering and as a guide for having some Christ-centered conversations with your family this week.

For Kids:

Unit 12: Session 1 - God Gave Solomon Wisdom

Bible Story Summary:

• Solomon, King David's sons became king of Israel.
• One night, God spoke to Solomon in a dream. God said He would give Solomon anything he asked for.
• Solomon asked for wisdom to be a good leader for God's people.
• God was happy with Solomon. God made Solomon the wisest man who ever lived, and He gave Solomon riches, long life, and success too.

Christ Connection

• Solomon was a wise king who wanted to follow God's plan. God had a plan to send a wiser king -- Jesus. Jesus trusted God and followed God's plan.

This Unit's Key Passage Phrase: The Lord is a kind and loving God. - Exodus 34:6

This Unit's Big Picture Question: What is mercy? Mercy is when God does not give us the punishment that we deserve.

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For Students:

“The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” Psalm 24:1

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1) How does God's sovereign control of everyone and everything comfort you through the struggles and
challenges of life?
2) What areas of your life (words, actions, and motivations) seem out of sync?
3) Pray that God would continue to transform you to be more like Him and to be someone who praises Him
for His great work.
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QUESTIONS FOR PARENTS:
1) How have you seen God's sovereign plan at work in your life and the lives of your family members?
2) How can you live a synced life before your kids in which your words, actions, and motivations are all in
line?
3) How can your family remember to give God credit and praise for His work in your lives and the lives of
others around you?

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For Family Worship:

New City Catechism Question 37: How does the Holy Spirit help us?
The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, comforts us, guides us, gives us spiritual gifts and the desire to obey God; and he enables us to pray and to understand God’s Word.

Ephesians 6:17-18
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

Reading:
I’ve always been struck by Jesus’s words: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” They are a humbling and refreshing reminder that our need, from first to last, isn’t partial, but total. By giving us the Holy Spirit, Christ has given us all we need and more, from first to last. The Holy Spirit gives us life. He fills our life and points us to the One who is life. He gives us life in that our starting point is not simply that we’re spiritually needy, but that we are dead in sin. Our spiritual life begins when the Holy Spirit regenerates us, giving us new life. When he turns our heart of stone into a heart of flesh, he makes the truth of God’s Word real to us, and we freely embrace Christ as he’s offered to us in the gospel. This reminds us that being a Christian isn’t about being a better person but about being a new person, by God’s grace alone, through faith alone.
Not only does he give us life, but he also fills our life. When we become Christians, God the Father adopts us as his children and gives to us his Spirit of adoption. He comes to live in us and fill us, and in doing so he guides us as a counselor would—supporting, convicting us of our sin, strengthening us in Christ, encouraging us in the way we should live, helping us to pray, and even praying for us when we’re too weak to do so ourselves. In all this, he grows us in Christlikeness, enabling us to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do. And he gives us specific gifts to use to contribute to the building up of the body of Christ, and to love, serve, and obey God.
So he gives us life. He fills our life. And finally, he points us to the One who is life. Jesus said, “[The Spirit] will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. He doesn’t draw attention to himself but glorifies Jesus and gives us the grace to do the same, making him who is life our life and love. So the One who is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, has given us his Spirit to supply all we need from first to last. He gives us life, fills our life, and points us to the One who is life.

- Leo Schuster

Pray:
God the Spirit, have your way in us. Shine your light on the secret sins of our hearts. Equip us for tasks that are too large for us. Make us glad in what delights you. Intercede for us and open our eyes to rightly understand the Word of truth. Amen.