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VERSE of Scripture John Chapter 1 New Life Version

Christ Lived Before The World Was Made

John 1:1-14 The Word (Christ) was in the beginning. -The Word was with God. The Word was God. ' He was with God in the beginning. He made all things. Nothing was made without Him making it. Life began by Him. His Life was the Light for men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness. The darkness has never been able to put out the Light.

John The Baptist Tells Of The Coming Of Christ

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came to tell what he knew about the Light so that all men might believe through him. John was not the Light, but he was sent to tell about the Light. 9 This true Light, coming into the world, gives light to every man. He came into the world. The world was made by Him, but it did not know Him. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. He gave the right and the power to become children of God to those who received Him. He gave this to those who put their trust in His name. 13 These children of God were not born of blood and of flesh and of man's desires, but they were born of God. Christ became human flesh and lived among us. We saw His shining-greatness. This greatness is given only to a much-loved Son from His Father. He was full of loving-favor and truth.

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Power Team ISOB 1996

  1. Picture 1
  2. Picture 2
  3. 1 John 1
  4. 2 John 1
  1. 3 John 2
  2. 4 John 3
  3. Picture 3
  4. 5 John 3
  1. 6 John 4
  2. Picture 4
  3. Picture5
  4. 7 John 4
  1. Picture 6
  2. 8 John 5
  3. 9 John 6
  4. 10 John 7
  1. 11 John 8
  2. 12 John 9
  3. 13 John 10

 

Power Lesson

CHRIST IS ONE OF THE THREE-IN-ONE GOD

CHRIST ALWAYS WAS, IS NOW, AND

ALWAYS WILL BE. The Word of God tells in many places that Christ was with the Father. There has never been a time when Christ was not. The first five verses in John tell of this. John 1:1-5 says, "The Word (Christ) was in the beginning. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was with God in the beginning, He made all things. Nothing was made without Him making it. Life began by Him. His Life was the Light for men. The Light shines in the darkness. The darkness has never been able to put out the Light." The first verse of Genesis tells about when the world was made. But John tells us about the One Who was before the world was made. As there has never been a time when God the Father was not, so there has never been a time when Christ was not.

Christ is One of the Three-in-one God. He is the One Who left heaven and lived in human flesh. I Timothy 3:16 says, "It is important to know the secret of God-like living, which is: Christ came to earth as a Man. He was pure in His spirit. He was seen by angels. The nations heard about Him. Men everywhere put their trust in Him. He was taken up into heaven." (Christ was the Lamb of God Who was killed for man like a lamb and given on the altar.) A good man who was full of loving pity and loving-kindness would not have been good enough. Man needed the Lord of heaven, the Christ Who could pay for man's sins with His own blood and set him free. Man needed One Who has always been alive and always will be. (Isaiah 53:6)

Making the world from nothing was the work of Christ. John 1:3 says, "He made all things. Nothing was made without Him making it." Colossians 1:16 says, "Christ made everything in the heavens and on the earth. He made everything that is seen and things that are not seen, He made all the powers of heaven. Everything was made by Him and for Him." In Colossians 1:15 it says, "Christ is as God is. God cannot be seen, Christ lived before everything was made." It is true that He entered the human family to live as a man, but this was not the beginning of life for Him. He always was. All things were made by Christ and for Him. Nothing was made that He did not make. That is why Christ is the Head of all things.

Lesson taken from Topical Study Outlines - Gleason H. Ledyard

-ISOB 1996

VERSE of Scripture

John Chapter 1 New Life Version John 1:1-4 The Word was in the He was with God in Him. John 1:12-13to He

favor and truth.

John 1:29-34 The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him. He said, "See! The Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. I have been talking about Him. I said One is coming after me Who is more important than I because He lived before I was born.' I did not know who He was, but I have come to baptize with water so the Jews might know about Him.

32 Then John said, "I saw the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit stayed on Him. I did not know Him then But God sent me to baptize with water God said to me, The Holy Spirit will come down and stay on Him. He is the One Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. I saw this happen. I am now saying that Jesus is the Son of God."

Matthew 3:16-17 When Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens opened. He saw the Spirit of God coming down and resting on Jesus like a dove. A voice was heard from heaven. It said "This is my much-loved Son. I am very happy with Him".

Power Lesson

God - a Three-In-One God

Notice from these Scriptures in John chapter 1 that i t talks about God showing Himself three different ways FATHER, SON and HOLY SPIRIT. This is called the Trinity which stands for three. Sometimes our human minds cannot understand how God can be One, yet still Three. That is because God is so much greater than we are. We need to believe the Bible because it cannot lie.

One thing that can help us understand this is understanding the reason God is a Three-In-One God.

God loves us so much He wanted to make us His children. When we are born into this world, God loves us, but we are not His children yet. He invites us, and we must accept.

FATHER: To have children a father is needed. Fathers not only cause children to be born, but they take care of them after they are born.

SON: To have children a seed is needed. Just like plants reproduce with seeds, humans need sons and daughters to have more children. 1 Peter 1:23 says that the Word of God is our seed. Jesus the Son is the Word of God.

SPIRIT: The Holy Spirit is God also. He comes to live inside of us after the Father and the Son gives birth to us. Even with our earthly parents, we kind of inherit their spirit. So it is with our heavenly parent God, we cannot really be His children without having His Spirit.

So God is all Three-in-One so that He can be our Father, we can be His children, and we can have a close friendship with Him.

If this were no so, we could not be in His family. If you had a dog, you could love him, but you could not make him just exactly like you and be very, close. You could not talk the same language. In the same way, God wants to be very close to you so He has to make you just like Him. We have to become His children.

The Word will do miracles in your life

John 2:1-9 Three days later there was a wedding in the town of Cana in the country of Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and His followers were asked to come to the wedding. When the wine was all gone, the mother of Jesus said to Him " They have no more wine." Jesus said to her, "Woman, what is that to you and to Me. It is not time for Me to work yet." His mother said to the helpers, "Do whatever he says." Six stone water jars were there. Each one held about one-half barrel of water. These water jars were used in the Jewish worship of washing. Jesus said to the helpers, "Fill the jars with water." They filled them to the top. Then He said, "Take some out and give it to the head man who is caring for the people." They took some to him. The head man tasted the water that had become wine. He did not know where it came from but the helpers who took it to him knew.

John 2:11 This was the first miracle Jesus did. It was done in Cana of Galilee where He showed His power. His followers put their trust in Him.

Power Lesson - How did Jesus do this miracle?

Look at what Jesus did. He did not touch anything but instead He spoke His Word to some ordinary people. They obeyed His Word, and God did the miracle.

The Word of God works like a seed. We do not have to be super adult Christians to have miracles.

Jesus used this example in Luke 8, Mark 4, and Matthew 13. He said that when He speaks His Word, it is a seed. Our hearts are the soil. We need to have good hearts so the seed can grow healthy.

So when we let God talk to us by reading His Word (the Bible), we are putting a miracle into action by planting God sized seeds.

But we have to watch out for the Devil

Read the Picture Story in Luke 8: 4-15

Jesus taught about invisible things by telling picture stories. This story tells about a man who scattered seed on four different types of ground so he could grow fruit. The seed is the Word of God and the soil is our hearts.

The Devil stole the seed in the first two places because the people's hearts either did not believe or they were tempted to only believe for a little while, then they gave up.

The third type of ground (or heart) grew some fruit but the weeds choked it out. The weeds are love for money and things, and all kinds of selfishness. The Devil tempts us to be selfish.

The fourth type of ground (or heart) is the good ground. Jesus said it was a "good and true heart". Being truthful is one of the biggest things we can do for God and ourselves. Notice Jesus did not say that the good ground was perfect people, but they were truthful people. This is where the Word of God produced an abundance of fruit. When we make mistakes, we can run as fast as we can to God, and He forgives us; this keeps the seed in the ground.

What kinds of miracles does God want to do with the seeds of His Word?

The fruit of the Spirit

There are many different kinds of miracles - but the most important one is making you to be like Jesus. The fruit of the Spirit growing inside of you is the one miracle that will make all the other miracles work for you.

The fruit of the Sprit is found in Galatians 5:22-23. It is love, joy, peace, not giving up, being kind, being good, having faith, being gentle and being the boss over our own desires.

Are you willing for God to do a miracle through you? It could help you - it could help your family - it could put the Power Team to work to set a prisoner free from Satan.

4 VERSE of Scripture

John Chapter 3:1-18

Born Again ?

Read John 3:1-18

Power Lesson This man Nicodemus really got a great lesson from Jesus. Like many of us, Nicodemus had a heart to know more about God but he could not understand certain things. Jesus told him that he needed to be born a second time. What did Jesus mean?

When we are born the first time from our parents, our spirit is not connected to God. This is because our relatives from a long time back, Adam and Eve, did not choose to stay connected to God, and we inherit things from our relatives. Being disconnected from God is called sin. When we are disconnected, we cannot go to heaven, and we cannot enjoy knowing God while we are here on earth.

Jesus gives us the way to solve this problem. He said that there is a way to get your spirit connected back to God. We need to be born again, and then God becomes our Father and we are connected again.

Why did Jesus tell the story about Moses and the snake?

Thousands of years ago, before even Jesus lived, Moses was leading God's people out of Egypt where they were slaves. While they were in the desert after they left Egypt, they began to complain and grumble. They could not understand why they needed the Word of God. So Satan attacked them by sending snakes to bite them. The best way to keep Satan from getting us is to stay close to the Word of God and keep it in our hearts and minds all the time.

When they asked God to help He told Moses to form a snake out of brass and hang it on a stick. Whoever would look at this snake would be healed. They did and they were healed. This is called MERCY. They did not get what they deserved. They deserved to die, but God gave them a way to live.

Jesus Traded Places With Us Thousands of years later Jesus came to solve the problem for good. He died on the Cross like a sinner. He never did sin, but He died for our sins because He loved us. So the snake on the stick is a symbol of Jesus on the Cross. Why a snake? Jesus was not a snake, or a sinner, but He took our place as a sinner so we did not need to suffer and go to Hell. He traded places with us. God will give us mercy when we think about Jesus trading places with us. We too can be saved and born again.

This is also called MERCY. We deserved to die, but Jesus traded places with us

Remember, Jesus not only died on the Cross, but He defeated Satan by coming back and living again. He is alive today and He can see us right now. He is waiting for us to come to Him and believe.

How are we born again? Like we learned in the last lesson, the Word of God is a seed. I Peter 1:23 says that You have been given a new birth. It was from a seed that cannot die. This new life is from the Word of God which lives forever.

1. So when you hear or read the Word of God, you can get the seed of God in your heart. When this happens God comes in and invites you to be His child.

  1. 2 . The next thing is you have to do is tell Jesus that you will trust in Him by making Him your boss, or Lord. On the Cross, Jesus paid a price to buy you, now you belong to Him.
  2. 3 . The way to make Jesus your Lord is to make the Word of God your Lord. Jesus is the Word; and the Word is Jesus.
  3. 4 . We go to our boss (or parents) every day and let them tell us what to do. We go to the Word of God every day and let Him tell us what to do.

Does it seem hard to have a boss or obey your parents? Does it seem unfair to go to the Word of God as your boss and obey Him? It will seem easy and wonderful if you know that God just wants to love you and protect you. He will put His Spirit in you so that you can obey easily. He does not want to keep you from having fun, He wants to make your life wonderful.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Whoever puts his trust in God's Son will not be lost but will have life that lasts forever.

ISOB 1997

VERSE of Scripture

John Chapter 3:16-21 THE TRUTH. Why is it important?

Read John 3:16-21

Power Lesson -Notice in these Scriptures that God loved the world and all of us so much that He gave His most precious possession to purchase us - His Son Jesus. Then He says that Jesus did not come to make us feel guilty and bad and beat us up, but to save us from the punishment of sin. Jesus then said that not all people would be saved from sin and go to heaven.

Some people think that they do not have to do anything to be saved from sin, that God did it all. That is right. We cannot pay for our own sin, but we must do something also.

What is that? He said in John 3:19-21 that we must come into the Light and hate darkness. Now those were some fancy words which mean, we must be honest and hate lying. Light means truth or honesty, and darkness means lying. When something is in the light, we can see it real good; we can tell what it really is. But when something is in the dark, we cannot really tell what it is. It is easy to lie in the dark, but in the light everything is open to be seen.

Why is telling the truth so important to God? Do you remember the lesson about the picture story of the sower planting seeds (Luke 8)?. What was the good soil that produced a lot of fruit? It was the honest heart.

Jesus has many names, and one of those names is Truth. He said I am the Truth, the Life and the Way. He is also called Light and Love.

When we trust in the truth we are trusting in Jesus. Some people think that they can make their own life happy by pretending and lying. But if they do this they are not trusting in the Truth and they are not trusting in Jesus. Remember it says in John 3:16 that if you trust in God's Son you will be saved. Well that means that you must trust in the Truth also. The Truth is Jesus and Jesus is the Truth.

When you trust in pretending and lying you are trusting in the world's biggest liar - the Devil! You are giving the Devil power over you.

In John 8:42-45 Jesus told the Pharisees (the proud religious law-keepers) that their father was the devil because they were not honest.

But He told the crowds in John 8:32 if you keep and obey My Word, then you are My followers for sure.

You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.

Some people always come to church and raise their hand to let Jesus in their hearts, but they never want to give up their pretending and lying. They are not serious about Jesus, but they are just trying to look good to their friends and make themselves feel good.

If we really want to feel good, we will be honest and tell the truth.

The truth gets rid of our sin 1 John 1:8-9 says if we say we have no sin, we lie to ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we tell Him our sins, He is faithful and we can depend on Him to forgive us of our sins. He will make our lives clean from all sin.

When we make a mistake, God wants us to run to Him fast and tell Him, then He will forgive and remove the sin and make us clean, right away!

If we are not honest with our sin, it will hurt us real bad.

Jesus was killed on the Cross for our sin. But we need to put our sins on the Cross and Jesus by telling Him about them.

Power Action !

  1. We need to tell the truth to God
  2. We need to tell the truth to our parents
  3. We need to tell the truth to our friends

An honest heart is needed if we want Jesus to help us.

You should go to God and other people to whom you have not been truthful and tell them you are sorry. It may not feel good right away, but God will reward you!

I don't need God, bad friends, bad movies, wierd music, This woman needs Jesus,

she has been looking for

nobody telling me what to do, that is what will make me happy. Oh, I am so thirstylove in the wrong places.

for living water

Oh Jesus, thank you for coming into my heart; I will never try to do the bad things that the world says to do; You are my living water!

6 VERSE of Scripture

John Chapter 4:1-15 What is Living Water?

Read John 4:1-15

Power Lesson

Jesus loves people and loves to help them. As Jesus was traveling through a place called Samaria He stopped to rest by a well which people used for water to drink. There He met a woman who came there to draw water for her household.

She had not been a very happy woman. Life had been hard for her; she had been married and divorced 5 times. She had been searching for something to satisfy her in her life, but she could not find it.

Jesus was very friendly with her. God (Jesus) is a friend to lonely people who have ruined their lives looking for happiness in all the wrong places. We need to understand that God (Jesus) loves to help people who are hurting. He does not scold them for being bad, but He comes to them to give them what they REALLY NEED.

What did this woman REALLY NEED? She thought that she was thirsty :

(1)

thirsty for water to drink because it was hot and dry.

(2)

thirsty for a husband because she was lonely and her life was dry. A woman had no way to pay her bills back then, and her only security was to have a husband or a man friend.

Jesus knew she was really thirsty for the love of God.

(1)

He knew she needed normal water from the well.

(2)

He knew she also needed Living Water. He knew she needed to feel like someone cared about her and loved her for who she was, and would not hurt her. He also knew that she needed real security that a husband could not give to her.

3 . She had been looking for love in all the wrong places. Then He compared drinking the well water to finding love in the wrong places. After you had a drink, you get thirsty again. That what it is like when you look for love in all the wrong places.

What are some of ways we can look for love in the wrong places?

Popularity with our friends. Getting a boy or girl friend. Drugs, alcohol, dating, watching too much TV, bad movies. Adults try to find love by using money and being famous. Kids try to show off. Kids try to control other kids to love them.

What is this Living Water?

It is Jesus Himself. In the Bible, the Word of God is called water. Water, or Living Water is the Word o f God, and it is Jesus. The Holy Spirit Who is God living inside of you is also called Living Water. We need both the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

Living Water never runs dry, it never runs out. It is always there.

This woman had a great change in her life. Jesus wants us to change to be more like Him so we can be happy. But Jesus knows we cannot change without His power. She changed because she got the Word of God.

How do you get this Living Water? Do what this woman did.

Power Action !

1 . Pray and tell Jesus everything about yourself.

2. Give your whole life to Jesus. Let Him be your best friend so He can love you.

3 . Tell others about Him.

  1. Live your life in honesty and truth.
  2. To go to His Word and find out what He wants you to do every day.

You can depend on Jesus. He will never leave you alone. He will be your security and help. He will be your best friend. He will be there to love you even if you make mistakes, even if you are not very smart, even if you have been bad, He will be there to give you Living Water to change your life.

Are you thirsty for Living Water?

7 VERSE of Scripture

John Chapter 4:46-54 How important is it to obey?

Read John 4:46-54

Power Lesson : Jesus loves to help people who will believe and obey his word Some people do not think it is very important to obey people who are in authority, like parents, teachers, police, pastors, and yes, even God!

If you could get a look into the invisible world that is all around you where God lives, where angels and demons live, then you would understand how important it is to be very obedient. The invisible world works on obedience and authority.

How did this man In John 4 get his miracle? How was his son healed?

Notice the man begged Jesus to come to his house to heal his son, but Jesus said some strange things to the man. Jesus let the man know that it was not important that He come to his house. He told him what was important was that the man would obey the Word of God, or the Words of Jesus.

So Jesus told the man to go home and his son would be healed. The man TRUSTED in Jesus' Words. Before the man got home he found out that his son was healed. His son was healed at the very time that Jesus spoke the Word and the man trusted the Word. The man got blessed for obeying the Word of God.

The Bible is the Word of God and it is the Words of Jesus.

When you read the Bible today, it is just the same as Jesus talking to this man in the Bible. When you obey what He says, God will work for you and do miracles in your life.

Adults and Kids can both get the wrong idea about obeying authority

They can think that having someone tell you what to do is just no good. They can think that they want to be their own "boss". They can think that they are too smart to obey someone else. They think that it is "sissy" to obey.

But God told us something different. He said in Matthew 20:25-28 that authority was to protect and bless people. Whoever we obey is required to protect us and take care of us. They are not supposed to mistreat you, but they are supposed to bless you.

Also, they should not have to make you obey, but you are supposed to run to them and be quick to obey. Your job is to run hard after your authority and find out what you can do to obey.

Jesus saved us from Hell by obeying H i s Father God.

Philippians 2:8 After He (Jesus) became a man, He gave up His important place and obeyed by dying on a cross.

God promises blessings for obedience

Hebrews 5:9 And having been made perfect, He (Jesus) planned and made it possible for all those who obey Him to be saved from the punishment of Sin.

Isaiah 1:19 If you are willing and obey, you will eat the best of the land (blessings).

He also warns that we are in danger if we d o not get under our proper authority.

2 Thessalonians 1:8 He will punish those who do not know God and those who do not obey the Good News (Gospel) of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God gives us other people to obey in H i s place. And when He does, He watches to s e e what we will do. He will reward us if w e obey them.

God gives us parents, teachers, police, and government people to be our authority to protect us and take care of us.

Power Action !

1 . Apologize to your parents and teachers for not obeying (when you do not).

2 Then find out how you can obey them more.

3. Run to God's Word and find out what He wants you to do. Obey Him!

4 . After you do all this, watch out for God's blessings!

OK God, I will just do what you say. Boy I hope this works......

Wow ! The Power of God really works when you obey Him !!!!

My son, stop blaming others for your problems. Just obey Me, God, and I will replace your weakness with MY POWER!

Oh thank you Jesus. Power Team, God and the kids win again!!!

Power Lesson : Jesus loves to help people who are weak and helpless

This story takes place before Jesus was known by many people. His miracles were not yet known by many people. The Pool of Bethesda was a place where weak and sick people would stay all day long hoping for a miracle by God. Sometimes people got miracles, sometimes they did not. It seemed to depend on how much help they had for someone to get them into the pool when the angel came.

But Jesus is different. He is not looking for strong people who have a lot of help. He is looking for people who realize that without Him they are weak. He is looking for people who are going to obey His Word no matter what.

Jesus knows that when we hear Him speak, it does not matter how weak we are or if there is no one else to help us. If we obey His Word, His miracles will work for us.

With Jesus it does not matter if you were born, smart or not so smart; or if you were born to good parents or bad parents. With Jesus it does not matter if you were born in a family with a lot of money or no money.

He does not want us to blame other people for our problems, because if we do we cannot get His help.

He wants you to know, that all you need i s Him, His Word, and to obey His Word.

Did you know that the Devil can talk to you?

Yes he does. He can whisper in your ear and tell you lies and make you think that it is just your mind talking to you. He can make you think that God does not care about you or love you. He can make you think that just because you made a mistake that God will not forgive you. He can make you think that if you are weak, sick or not very smart, that God will not help you. He can make you think that if you are poor or not good in school, that God cannot help you.

This is a lie. God loves to help weak people!

Why do not all people receive God's help?

God cannot do it by Himself. He needs us to accept His help and to obey His Word. Notice in this story you just read that Jesus asked the man "Would you like

Are there things in your life that you are not good at?

Read John 5:1-9

to be healed?". The man told Jesus that no one would help him, so he thought, "Yes I would like to get healed but I am too weak and I have no help". This did not bother Jesus. Jesus just gave the man His Word, He said "Get up, pick up your bed and walk". The man obeyed the Word of God and he was healed. When Jesus speaks to you, you do not need anyone else to help you. It does not matter if you are rich or poor, sick or healthy, weak or strong, the Word of God will work for you if you obey it. You may not feel that you are weak, but problems come to all of us. Jesus wants to help us with our problems; both big problems and small problems.

God told Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 -I am all you need. I give you My loving favor (grace). My power works best in weak people. (Paul said) I am happy to be weak and have troubles so I can have Christ's power in me. I receive joy when all these things come to me because of Christ. For when I am weak, than I am strong.

Power Action !

1 .

Be honest with God and yourself about

 

your weakness or problems.

2

Run to God's

Word every day to hear

 

Him speak to you about His power.

 

If you do

not

read real good yet,

then

 

try using a tape player.

 

Take your

Power

Lessons

home and

 

read them over and over.

3.

Find out what God wants you

to do

to

 

obey Him.

4 .

Keep believing and obeying

until God

 

works His power for you.

                       

VERSE of Scripture

John Chapter 6:1-13

God can take your small gift and make it big.

Read John 6:1-13

Power Lesson : Jesus can make something big out of your small gift. This is an amazing story of how Jesus fed more than 5,000 people from five small loaves of bread and two fish that a little boy had. That little bit of food is really not enough to feed 10 people, but it fed more than 5,000 people! God kept making more and more fish and more and more bread.

If you have the question in your mind "how did God do this", the answer is -He did a miracle.

Do you remember the lesson we had about the Word of God being a seed? Well there are other kinds of seeds also.

Giving is a seed. When this young boy gave his bread and fish to Jesus, it became more than bread and fish. It became a seed! A seed has a miracle inside of it. Just think about a little tree seed. You plant it in the ground and it knows exactly how much water and minerals to mix together to make a giant tree! In the same way, our small seeds, when we give them to Jesus, can make BIG THINGS!

What is Jesus trying to show us about our giving? If that little boy had not given his small amount of food but instead he ate it, then thousands of people would have been hungry, and he would have missed a BIG BLESSING. If he had been SELFISH, he would not have been BLESSED, and he would not have pleased God.

God wants us to be like Him, unselfish. Why? Because He knows we are never happy when we take, but we are only happy when we give. God wants us to be like Him, and He is a BIG GIVER! He gave His only Son Jesus so that we could go to Heaven.

When we give we can see God do miracles.

There was plenty left over.

Even after the 5,000 people ate all they wanted, there were 12 baskets full of fish and bread. There were 12 disciples of Jesus. Each one of them gave away a whole lot of food, but they all had enough left over for themselves, more then when they started. Most likely the little boy had a lot left over also; he probably got a very big blessing.

Here is God's promise: Luke 6:38 -Give and it will be given to you. You will have more than enough. It can be pushed down and shaken together and it will still run over as it is given to you. The way you give to others is the way you will receive in return.

ISOB -1996

What are some things we can give besides money or food? Friendship, kindness and love are a few things you can give. Giving our time to help someone is another. Sometimes it is good to share our clothes or toys and give them to other people. Some people give away big things like bicycles and cars, even airplanes. But God always give them back more than they gave away.

Sometimes it hurts at first when you give something away, but later it always feels good.

Do you need a miracle? Do you want a friend? Then be a friend to someone. Do you want to feel good, then help someone else feel good. Always look around for something to give and not something to take. Does your family need help with their money? Then help them start giving.

The best reason to give is that it makes God very happy. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says that God loves a cheerful giver. verse 11 says that when you give it makes people give thanks to God. He likes that!

God wants to use us for His miracles. He could do miracles without us, but He wants to partner with us for His work so He can bless us like He blessed His disciples that helped Him feed the 5,000 people.

Power Action !

Things you can do to please God.

1 .

Always be unselfish.

2 .

Every day, look for a way to gi

ve.

3 .

Make

sure

you

give

money

to

your

church.

4 . Ask God to show you new ways to give.

VERSE of Scripture John Chapter 7:1-17, & 37-43 How can you be sure of Jesus and what He said?

Read John 7:1- 17, & 37-43

Power Lesson :

How do we know for sure that we can trust what the Bible says about Jesus? How do we know for sure that we can trust what Jesus said?

The world is full of all sorts of "religious stuff". Notice in this chapter that Jesus' friends and brothers went up to Jerusalem to a religious feast. Verse 5 says that not even His brothers believed in Him. There are so many religions in this world, how can we know for sure that the Bible and Jesus is true? How do we know for sure that the other religions are wrong? Good question, I am glad you asked!

1 . Jesus does not reveal Himself to just anybody.

Look at verse 17. He said that if anybody desired to do His will or follow Him, then that person would know if the Words that Jesus spoke were really from God. So we need to make sure that we lay down our lives to follow God, and then God will show us that what Jesus says is true.

2 . God gives us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us to make us sure. Look at verse 38-39. Jesus said if you believe, then out of your innermost being will flow "rivers of living water"; in other words the Holy Spirit will come and live inside of you and no one will have to prove that Jesus is real; the Holy Spirit will do that.

God gives us Bible prophecies to prove the Bible is true. Look at verse 42 about the Old Testament prophecy that Jesus was to come from David, and from Bethlehem. How did God know to write this down before it happened? We need to be able to trust The Word of God no matter what comes our way!

If there is one thing The Word of God dares to do that no other book in the world does, it is to accurately predict the future.

This proves beyond argument, that only God could have authored the Bible

There are over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in His birth, life death and resurrection, but consider only 17 most prominent ones. The combined probability against these 17 predictions occurring is equal to:

Concerning the over 300 fulfilled prophecies about Jesus, it is ridiculous to imagine that these prophecies would all be fulfilled by accident by one person. Only one chance in a number followed by 181 zeros! To give you some idea of the size of this immense figure, think of a ball that is packed solidly with electrons (two and a half million billion make a line about one inch long). Now in your mind imagine this ball expanded to the size of the universe - some four billion light-years in diameter ( a light-year being the distance that light travels in a year at the speed of over 186,000 miles per second). Multiply this by 500 quadrillion. Out of this vast container of electrons, remove just one electron, and "color" it red and return it to the container, and stir it with the other electrons for a hundred years. Then blindfold a man and send him in to pick it out the first time. Impossible? With the same chance, Jesus the Christ lived and died was resurrected and is now alive according to the Scriptures by "accident"! WOW!

Power Action !

Things you can do to please God.

  1. 1 . Verse 17: Make sure you have no other desires except for God's will.
  2. 2 . Believe on Jesus. Believe means to do something to obey Him not just believe in your brain.
  3. 3 . Look at verses 40 and 41. Are you like the ones who believed, or like the ones w ho doubted?

VERSE of Scripture

John Chapter 8 Why is the Truth so important to God?

Read John 8:25-47

Power Lesson : You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free John 8:32. The interesting thing about these Scriptures is that Jesus was talking to a bunch of people who looked like they were very religious, but He told them that their father was the Devil! WHY?

The Devil is the father of lies and the father o f those who always lie. Do you want your father to be the Devil? All you have to do is go around lying and pretending. Revelation 21:8b ..and all those who tell lies will be put into the lake of fire and sulphur. Proverb 19:9 A man who tells lies about someone will be punished. He who tells lies will be lost.

If you continue to pretend and tell lies, you will be under a curse, and God will not be able to help you.

Another name for Jesus is TRUTH. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me.

Do you want your father to be God? Then always live in the truth. Do no pretend, do not cheat, do not lie.

If you live in the truth, You will be near to God

Psalm 145:18 The LORD is near all those who call on Him, all those who call on Him in truth.

There are some things that we cannot see with our eyes. We cannot see God, the Devil, and we cannot see lies and truth. But God and the Devil do see lies and the truth when it comes out of our mouth. They are both waiting for us to say something. The Devil loves to see us lie because he can have power over us when we lie. God loves to see us be real and tell the truth, because then He can protect us and bless us.

What are some of the ways we can lie.

We can tell a big lie to our parents, friends or teachers. Or we can tell little lies, they are just as bad.

We can cheat in school or take something that does not belong to us.

We can pretend to be someone that we are really not. We can act one way around our friends, and another way around our parents. That is lying. But God sees everything and He knows that pretending to be someone we are not is going to hurt us.

Another kind of lying is lying to yourself. Did you know you can lie to yourself and you can begin to believe it? Sounds funny but it is so true. We need to be real honest with ourselves every day when we pray. That is why it is

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very important to read your Bible every day because that helps you be honest with yourself.

What if you have been lying?

Run to Jesus and confess your sin of lying; He will forgive you. Then be honest after that. When you tell the truth about your sin, you are putting your sin on the Cross of Jesus and he takes your sin. 1 John 1:8-9 says If we say that we have no sin, we lie to ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we tell Him (God) our sins, He is faithful and we can depend on Him to forgive us of our sins. He will make our lives clean from all sin.

If you trust in lies, then you are trusting in the Devil. If you trust in the truth and honesty, then you are trusting in Jesus.

The Devil is sneaky. If he can get you to lie just a little bit you will fall into his trap.

Power Action !

Things you can do to please God.

  1. 1 . Don't be like the religious people in John chapter 8, who pretended to be Godly but were really liars.
  2. 2 . Run to God when you sin and tell Him the truth.
  3. 3 . Run to your parents and teachers when you make a mistake and tell them about it.
  4. 4 . Do not pretend to be real cool around your friends. Be real!
  5. 5 . Read the Bible every day so you can be honest with yourself.

VERSE of Scripture John Chapter 9 New

Jesus can turn your problems into blessings

Read John 9:1-7 and 9:25, and 9:35-38 (Optional for upper grades, read the entire chapter)

Power Lesson : The Pharisees (called the Religious law keepers) asked Jesus why this man was blind when he was born. They asked if he sinned or his parents sinned; which was it that made him blind, they asked.

Jesus answered them in a funny way, he did not choose either one of their answers; but instead he said that this man's problem was there just so God could show how He could do His work in someone who has big problems.

Most people feel like if they have big problems that God does not love them, or they did something wrong to deserve being punished by God.

God does not punish by hurting people. The devil hurts people, but God heals.

Sin does cause problems. Jesus was not telling those people that sin does not cause problems, it does for sure. People have lived without God in sin for thousands of years and that has caused all kinds of sickness, disease, and big problems not only in our bodies and minds, but also in our families, schools and jobs.

When you live your life for Jesus, He may not keep all problems away from you, but He will give you the tools to turn your problems into blessings.

Problems into blessings ! That is what Jesus was telling these people. He was going to show them that His power was much bigger than any problem. When Jesus died on the Cross, He took every problem with Him and paid the price for every single problem. We do not have to pay the price again.

Notice that Jesus gave this man something to do so that the man could obey God's Word. In verse 7 He told him to go wash the mud off his eyes in the pool of Siloam. The man obeyed the Words that God spoke, and he was healed. First he was blind, but now he could see!!

What tools do we need to turn our problems into blessings?

Sometimes God wants to turn our problems into blessings in a different way then what we want. But His way is always better. We should trust Him.

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Look again at John 9:35-38. The blind man who was healed bowed down and worshipped Jesus, Who is God. We need to worship Jesus a lot, not only when we come to church, but every day.

We can worship Him by thanking Him, by telling Him how much we trust Him, by singing, by obeying Him or just by telling Him how much we love Him and praising Him.

After this man was healed, he gave his testimony to help other people. He told other people what Jesus did for him. He was not ashamed of Jesus. He was very thankful for Jesus and he did not mind telling people about Him. He even tried to help these other people around him who were giving him a hard time and criticizing him.

Power Action !

Things you can do to please God.

  1. 1 . Tell God that you trust Him to turn your problems into blessings.
  2. 2 . Read or listen to God's Word every single day.
  3. 3 . Obey God and His Word.
  4. 4 . Worship God.
  5. 5 . • Tell others that God is good and wants to help them too.

VERSE of Scripture

John Chapter 10

Jesus is our Shepherd We are His sheep.

Read John 10:1-18 (Optional for upper grades, read the entire chapter)

Power Lesson : In this chapter Jesus is using the picture story showing us as sheep and Him as the shepherd. Lets look at some of the things He was trying to tell us in the picture story.

Sheep are dumb animals. They are not like lions or wolves or bears or dogs or even horses. They cannot survive without a shepherd. They cannot feed themselves. Sheep have no way of protecting themselves against their enemies with help from their shepherd. Sheep go astray a lot. They get lost all the time.

There are good and bad shepherds. Good shepherds risk their lives for their sheep. They love their sheep. They fight off the wolves, bears and lions. They take their sheep to good pastures and lead them to clean waters to drink. They get rid of their bugs, trim their hair and keep them clean.

We are like sheep. Not that we are "dumb", but when we try to live without God we are dumb. We do need a shepherd, and His name is Jesus. Most people feel like they can live their lives without having God lead them every day. They are WRONG ! The Bible said we were all like sheep that left home and got lost.

The Devil tried to become our shepherd. He knows we need a shepherd so he fools us and using sneaky ways to control us. He will not let us know that it is really him. He lies to us and makes us think that it is not really him.

Jesus is not only the Shepherd, but in this story He calls Himself the DOOR into the sheep pen. The sheep pen is where sheep are kept at night when they are traveling up into the mountains looking for green pastures for eating. Jesus is using this story to tell us that once we were in the Devil's family and he was our shepherd, but if we come through Jesus the REAL DOOR, then we can walk through that door right into God's family. When we are in God's family by making Jesus our Lord or boss, we can spend eternity with Jesus in Heaven.

Jesus said that the Good Shepherd lays down His life

for the sheep. How did we get into God's family, what is the DOOR we must walk through? It is the Cross of Jesus when He died and laid down His life for your sins and rose again so that you could go to heaven.

How did the shepherd get his sheep to come with him from the sheep pen? His sheep knew His voice and they would not follow the voice of a stranger.

In the morning when it was time for the shepherds to gather their sheep from the sheep pen, their sheep were all mixed in with sheep from other shepherds. They all spent the night in the same sheep pen (that is an outdoor hotel for sheep).

Now that we are in God's family that means that Jesus is our Lord, or boss or Shepherd. Right? Well only i f you choose Him as your Shepherd.

How can we make sure that Jesus is really our Shepherd? Jesus will not force Himself on you. He will not bully you around like the Devil. So you must make Jesus your Shepherd on

purpose. HOW? How can you hear God's voice like a sheep hears his shepherd's voice?

It is different then hearing a human speak.

Jesus is our Shepherd through His Word and through the Holy Spirit Who lives inside of you. The more you read His Word in the Bible and obey what you read, the more you will learn to hear His voice. You get it little by little; first you read His Word and obey, then He speaks again, they you obey again. You do not hear Jesus in your ears, but you hear Him speak in "ears of your heart". It is different then hearing a human speak.

Things you can do to please God.

  1. 1 . Read and obey His Word
  2. 2 . Invite the Holy Spirit to take over your mind and body. Please him by being like Jesus to other people and being honest.