/ March 25, 2018 Humbly Obey the Lord By Carol Wilde Focus: Humbly obey God and follow His commands. Bible Basis: 2 Chronicles 7:12-22 Memory Verse: If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and see my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 Students will discover how to humbly obey God. OPENING ACTIVITY: Should I Say Yes or No? Before class, write common church activities on slips of paper such as Sing in the choir, Set up the fellowship hall tables, or Visit the home-bound church members today. Place the slips of paper in a basket and ask students to select one slip each. Ask students to look over the tasks they pulled from the basket and think about how they would respond if someone in the church asked them to do this. Then ask them how they would want to respond if God asked them to do these tasks. Is there a difference? Are there any tasks they would tell God they didn t want to do? OPENING STORY: [Read aloud or hand out copies for students to read] AMERICA S PASTOR CELEBRATED AS GOD S HUMBLE SERVANT The world hasn t seen anyone quite like Billy Graham, who died February 21 at the age of 99. In addition to familiar nicknames like America s pastor, leaders referred to Graham as the most influential evangelist in America, modern history, and the world. Both Billy Graham and Evangelist the Rev trended on Twitter. By midday of his death, his name was among the trending topics on Facebook, with more than 1 million users posting about Graham. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), called him the most important evangelist since the Apostle Paul. However, He preached Christ, not himself, not politics, not prosperity. An estimated 2.2 billion people heard Graham preach for decades through his pioneering radio, television, and online evangelism, according to statistics by LifeWay s Facts & Trends magazine. And 2.2 million people made decisions for Christ at Graham s crusades.
Graham appeared on Gallup s list of the top 10 most-admired men in America longer than anyone else a record-setting 61 years in a row. Part of that admiration came from his humble attitude. Don Wilton, Graham s pastor at First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, South Carolina, since 2008, said, The closer God allowed me to sit at Mr. Graham's feet, the more I ve realized this man has an intimate relationship with the Lord. He takes no credit for himself. He is a servant of the God most High. It s all about Jesus. He is almost offended by any effort to try and make of Billy Graham anything outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. He deflects the attention away from himself to the point of his own irrelevancy. Steve Gaines, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of the Memphis-area Bellevue Baptist Church, said Graham is the nearest thing to a true prophet that Christians have had in the past century. He was a man of integrity, simplicity, love, and evangelistic fervency... He was a legendary man of God, and every born-again Christian will miss him. He was converted to Christ in 1934 at an evangelistic crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, led by evangelist Mordecai Ham. He soon felt the call to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the world has never been the same. Jerry A. Johnson, president of the National Religious Broadcasters, said, The world has lost a great man, but those in heaven are surely rejoicing in the homecoming of this good and faithful servant. Only God knows how many are there with him because of his ministry and how many more there will be. Ken Garfield, Director of Communications at Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and author of Billy Graham: A Life in Pictures, wrote in the Charlotte News and Observer, His simple message never changed, nor was it sullied by scandal. And though he came to counsel presidents and allowed himself to get too close to the powerful by his own admission, his legacy lies with the lost and the restless: Those even on the last row who felt he was talking directly to them, giving them hope, promising them that life can be better, and that heaven awaits. His humility even impressed the late heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who liked to call himself The Greatest. Ali told a biographer when he arrived at the airport in North Carolina to visit the evangelist, Mr. Graham himself was waiting for me. I expected to be chauffeured in a Rolls Royce or at least a Mercedes, but we got in his Oldsmobile and he drove it himself. I couldn t believe he came to the airport driving his own car. When we approached his home, Ali continued, I thought he would live on a thousand-acre farm and we drove up to this house made of logs. No mansion with crystal chandeliers and gold carpets, it was the kind of a house a man of God would live in. I looked up to him. In living until 99, Graham had done plenty of thinking and preaching on death. He is remembered as saying, When we reach the end of our earthly journey, we will have just begun, as well as, My home is in Heaven. I m just traveling through this world. Have your students form small groups to discuss their answers to these questions. Which words other would you associate with humble (for example, meek, lowly, modest )? How could someone so famous as Billy Graham still be a humble and obedient servant?
What person that you know would you honor today who humbly and obediently serves the Lord? (When you are finished with the questions, go on to Step 2 in your Adult Teacher s Guide.) News Sources: Kate Shellnutt, http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/february/how-america-is-praisingevangelist-billy-graham-tribute.html http://www.bpnews.net/46988/muhammad-ali-heard-gospel-from-graham-rogers http://bpnews.net/50420/billy-graham-to-lie-in-honor-in-coffin-made-by-prisoners http://bpnews.net/50404/billy-graham-99-now-in-the-presence-of-god http://bpnews.net/50405/billy-grahams-impact-praised-by-baptist-leaders
/ March 25, 2018 Humbly Obey the Lord Focus: Humbly obey God and follow His commands. Bible Basis: 2 Chronicles 7:12-22 Memory Verse: If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and see my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 IF MY PEOPLE WILL HUMBLE THEMSELVES In this week s Bible passage, Solomon reminded everyone present at the dedication of the temple that they were actually making a covenant, an agreement that had consequences if broken. If the people stopped worshiping the one true God, they broke the covenant. God would not bless them, or protect them, or give them land and prosperity. In fact, He would tear up their roots in the land! They must keep their word about God s statutes and ordinances, or else they would break the contract and suffer the consequences. And as our verse of the day says, if the people wanted God to hear their prayers, they first had to humble themselves and enter His presence acting like who they really are. They had to see things from God s perspective! So often, we get caught up in thinking that the world revolves around us or our family. But when we look at ourselves from God s perspective, we realize how small and weak we really are. Only when we give ourselves completely to God, and He makes us His sons and daughters through the redeeming work of Jesus on the Cross, can we walk each day in love, ready for God to use us for His honor and glory. As the late Christian artist Larry Norman wrote, I am a servant, I am waiting for the call I will humbly bow before thee to live s a privilege, to love is such an art, But I need your help to start, O please purify my heart, I am your servant. Ask students to return to the groups they had in Step 1 and discuss these questions. What helps you focus on God and see yourself as He sees you? How can we humble ourselves to worship and serve Him today and through this coming week? Close the time together in prayer, asking God to help us see ourselves from His perspective and humbly obey Him in service this week.
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