Special Event Study Valentine s Day 2018 Lesson Two

Transcription

1 Special Event Study Valentine s Day 2018 Lesson Two Word: What does the Bible say? This Week s Verse: 1st John 4:9-10 God s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. (CSB) This Week s Verse for Preschoolers: 1st John 4:10b - God...loved us and sent his Son. Whisperings: What is the truth we are learning from God s Word this week? Love comes from God! God showed us He loves us through Jesus! Because God loved us, we can love others. Welcomings: What can we learn about this truth? Have you kids ever heard the saying, Actions speak louder than words? Well, God did not just tell us He loves us; He showed us He loved us. He showed us His great love through Jesus. Before we dive into learning about our verse for this week, I want to go back to the history of Valentine s Day and how it began with a man named Valentine of Terni. He wrote a special letter to the daughter of Asterius, encouraging her to always stay close to God and to always remember what God had done for her. This week, I want to tell you more about this story! 1

2 Valentine actually met Asterius daughter because, of all things, he was in jail. Valentine was not in jail because he was an evil person, though. Valentine was thrown into jail by the evil Emperor Claudius the 2nd because of his faith in God and his belief in the sanctity of marriage. There in jail, Valentine met his jailor, who was the man named Asterius. Now, even though he was a prisoner, Valentine was a good man who earned his jailor s respect. Asterius liked Valentine so much that he brought Valentine food and gifts and, eventually, introduced him to his blind daughter. Church history says that, when Valentine found out she was blind, he prayed for her and asked God to restore her sight. And guess what? God healed her! God showed Asterius daughter how much He loved her by doing a miracle in her life. This is what Valentine s letter reminded her to always remember. Valentine s example reminds me that, instead of just talking about love, God wants us to show love. Valentine showed his love through prayer! We can send words and letters and valentines, but we back those statements of love up with our actions. This is exactly what God did for us! He did not just tell us He loves us, He showed us He loves us! It s one thing to say, I love you. It s another thing to show I love you. Words are wonderful, and then actions prove that your words are real. In the Scripture passage we are going to memorize this week, the Bible says that God sent Jesus into the world to literally show us His great love for us. He did not do this because we are so great and wonderful, or because we are so loving and good. He sent Jesus for one reason: He wanted us to have life through Him. God sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins, so that we can truly live. With that in mind, we are going to work on these next verses in this month s Scripture memory passage: 1st John 4: God s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10 For Preschoolers: 1st John 4:10b - God...loved us and sent his Son. 1st John 4:10b I m so proud of you kids! I love memorizing God s love letter to us with you!!! 2

3 Wonderings: What questions do we have about this? Questions Specifically for Preschool Families: o Who did God send because He loves us so much? (His Son Jesus!) o How has God shown us that He loves us? (He sent Jesus to take our place) o What really special thing did God do for Astrius daughter? (healed her of her blindness) How did Valentine show Asterius and his daughter that he loved and cared about them? (he prayed for them even though he was in jail; he cared about them even though he was in a really hard place; he wrote her an encouraging letter ) How has God shown us that He loves us? (He sent Jesus to literally be the sacrifice in our place!) Valentine s letter to Asterius daughter encouraged her to remember what God had done for her. What was that? (legend has it that God healed her from blindness in answer to Valentine s prayer) If the Bible is God s Valentine to us, what does God want us to remember? (God wants us to remember how He sent Jesus to heal us from our sin!) Workings: How do we apply this truth to our lives? Old Testament Words about God s Love: Last week we read Psalm 136, that super special song praising God for His everlasting, faithful love. King David and his worship leaders led all the people in singing this song, and we did something like that in our discipleship time, too! Well, as David praised God, his son Solomon learned to praise God, too! When King Solomon grew up, he built a beautiful temple and dedicated it to the Lord. At that dedication ceremony, he sang the song that he had heard his father sing, the song that we are repeating this month! The Bible says, When Solomon finished praying the glory of the Lord came on the temple. They bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement. They worshiped and praised the Lord: For He is good, for His faithful love endures forever (2 Chronicles 7:1-3). It was an incredible time of worship, one generation repeating the praise of the former generation. David and Solomon are examples to our family of praising God for His love then repeating those praises as you grow up. Today we are going to read more of Psalm 136 and, like last week, when I read a phrase, you echo, His faithful love endures forever. Read the entire Psalm 3

4 136 this time and let your children echo with the phrase His faithful love endures forever. New Testament Example of Being Loving: The New Testament gives us an example of a group of believers that kept showing love to others. God saw how they put their love into action by serving others, and He made sure that they knew that He would never forget all the love they showed in His name. The author of Hebrews wrote: 10 For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints and by continuing to serve them. (Hebrews 6:10). God wants us to remember the love He showed, but He also wants us to know that He remembers the love we show. God sees everything we do in His name. When we love others because He loves us, He takes note; He doesn t forget. In fact, Jesus said that if we so much as give a cup of water to a child because we are His disciples, He sees and will reward that! (Matthew 10:42). Let s talk about three specific ways our family can show God s love by serving others this week. Spend some time brainstorming with your kids then make a plan to do what you talked about! Mommy Disciple Me: What Does This Mean to Me? It is one thing to say we love people; it is another thing to show them we love them. Sometimes, loving others is really hard. The story of Valentine of Terni proves this! He was in a very hard time in his life when he chose to be loving toward his jailer and that man s daughter. Still, Valentine didn t just talk about God and His love; he showed it. Now, today, none of us are in jail, but life is still challenging in ways for us. You may go to school and not feel super important. Friendships may be hard. Valentine s Day may not end up being a super great day to you because of what you are going through in your life. But God sees when you push past what is hard and still love others. I think it would be great for us to spend a few minutes as a family talking about what challenges we face this week and how we can be loving in spite of them. o For Preschool Families, repeat this little chant from last week with your children: One, Two! God Loves You! One, Two, Three! God Loves Me!!! Worshipping: How shall we respond to the Lord for this truth? Worship through Praise: God, this week we memorized Your Word that says You sent Your one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. Your Word also says, The wellspring of life is with you. By 4

5 means of your light we see light. Spread your faithful love over those who know you (Psalm 36:9-10a CSB). Lord God, thank You for the life we experience through You! Worship through Prayer: Pray this prayer over your children: Lord God, I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39 CSB). Nothing in all creation can keep us from Your love. Help my children to understand this and know this everywhere they go, and help all of us show Your love to others! Amen! Family Disciple Me/Daddy Disciple Me: Ask your kids to tell you what they learned about the history of Valentine s Day this week. Then, you can affirm that with this: God did something really special for Asterius daughter. And, I hear that not only were her eyes healed, but that both she and her father came to know Christ because of Valentine s ministry to them while he was in jail! This puts Valentine s Day into a new perspective, for sure. What if for Valentine s Day we actually show others God s love so that they can know Him better? How can our valentines encourage others to know God better? How can we show others God s love? Can we each name one thing we can do? Lead your family in a conversation about this, giving them ideas if need be. Then pray for each of your kids to have actions that speak even louder than their words Tosha Lamdin Williams, Mommy Disciple Me 5