Leading Children by the Spirit

One of my greatest joys, and also one of my strongest callings, is sharing the stories of the Bible, the Word of God, and the love of God with little children. I have been blessed with the opportunity to do just that here at Messiah. Since all the children know that I “do magic” (LOL), I often incorporate some magic trick into the teaching. I always make it clear that I’m just performing some trick, and that my ability is due to practice, hard work, and a blessing from God. We’ve seen that using a magic trick to emphasize a point helps the teaching stay with the kids for a longer time. To tell the truth, adults aren’t much different.

Often, I work all week on a passage for the Children’s Message and tie in some trick, only to wake up on Sunday morning being led by the Spirit in a completely different direction. I learned a long time ago that listening to the prodding of the Spirit always brings about wonderful results I never could have foreseen.

In my children’s messages, I ask the kids a lot of questions. My timing is such that I don’t always wait for answers, otherwise chaos results from 50 to 75 voices clamoring to be heard. When I do want an answer, I try to guide them toward it, and REALLY get excited about whoever gives me the answer I was looking for; then I continue on immediately.

The message I’m sharing today is from a Children’s Message I did in October of 2007. It’s called “Jacob’s Family” and is from Genesis 29:1 – 30:24 of the Bible. There is really no magic associated with the telling of this story… just a colored balloon that can be inflated to the size of a head, a marker (to use on the balloon to draw a picture of “pretty Rachael on one side, and “not-so-pretty Leah” on the other), and a scarf (or opaque piece of cloth to be used as a veil). Hint: it’s easier to draw on an inflated balloon. If you need to know exactly what to do with the props, you may contact me for details, but it should be pretty obvious as you read the story.

OK, here’s the message. Open your heart, and let the child inside of you follow along:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jacob’s Family (Genesis 29:1 – 30:24)

You guys remember the story of Jacob so far?

Remember how he tricked his father Isaac into giving HIM the blessing, instead of his brother Esau?

Remember how Esau was soooo mad that he wanted to kill his brother Jacob, and how Jacob’s mom, Rebekah, tricked Isaac into sending Jacob off to his uncle Laban’s (which was far away in a place called Haran) until Esau could calm down a bit?

And don’t forget, along the way Jacob was visited by God, and received God’s blessing.

Well, today… we catch up with Jacob just outside of Haran where he asked some shepherds if they know of his uncle Laban. They say that yes they do, and that Laban has 2 lovely daughters, and not only that, but here comes one now.

Jacob turns around to see the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen in his whole life… she was the younger of Laban’s daughters, and her name was Rachael.

Jacob falls crazy-cuckoo, head-over-heels in love with Rachael. He’s so much in love with Rachael that he offers to work for Laban for 7 years if he can marry Rachael.

Guess what? Laban thinks that’s a great deal… for HIMSELF, so he agrees and Jacob worked the next 7 years for free for Laban.

Now, Jacob was so over-the-moon for Rachael, that the seven years just seemed like seven days to him. At the end of the 7 years, he told Laban, “Now give me my bride.”

So Laban ordered a big wedding, with a special dress and a veil for the bride (and I bet they had wedding cake, too)… and Jacob got married.

But, OH MY GOODNESS, when the wedding was over, and Jacob lifted the veil to kiss his bride, it wasn’t Rachael, but her older sister, Leah, who Jacob had just married!

Jacob, who was so good at tricking everyone else, had just been tricked by Laban… and BOY was Jabob mad!

Laban said: “Calm down. The custom around here is that the oldest daughter gets married first. But you can still marry Rachael, if… you work another 7 years for me.”

So, Jacob married Rachael, too, AND worked another 7 years for Laban.

Of course, now Jacob had 2 wives… and get out of the way, because Leah and Rachael were jealous of each other! Can’t you just her it? “He likes me best.” “No! He likes me way more than you!”

[You ever get jealous of your brother or sister?]

And then things started really getting crazy… each woman wants Jacob’s love and affection so much, that they bring their maids in, and make them wives, too! Now Jacob has FOUR wives, and before you know it, all those wives give him 12 sons and 1 daughter.

Can you imagine a house with 1 dad, 4 moms, and 13 kids, and… dad likes one kid best? Everybody wanted something different; they never agreed on anything. They were probably fighting from morning to night! It was one crazy family!

[You ever fight in your house?]

How could anything good come from such a messed up family? Did any of them live up to what God wanted? Do you think God wanted Jacob to have so many wives, or for everybody to be tricking everybody else? Do you think God wanted them to be jealous, or to argue and fight with each other? Was it God that made the mess, or was it the people?

Well… remember how God gave Jacob a blessing? God remembers His promises, and so from Jacob’s mixed-up family came 2 of the most important tribes of Israel, and the house of David, and eventually… even God’s only son… Jesus.

When we ask Jesus into our heart, God promises to forgive our sins. But what if we mess up like Jacob? Will God turn away from us? With Jesus in our hearts, the answer is always “NO”! We are saved by God’s grace, NOT by what we can, or cannot, do.

No matter how mixed up your life may feel, always remember:
God has a plan to bless your life. Put your faith in God!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In getting the message to be simple enough for the kindergarten through second grade crowd to understand, I often discover that God’s Spirit has helped me to understand Scripture in new ways, in exciting ways, and in far simpler ways. God doesn’t complicate His message of love and salvation… we (so-called adults) do. So remember what I told the children… I tell you, and I tell me, too:

No matter how mixed up your life may feel, always remember:
God has a plan to bless your life. Put your faith in God!

Your brother in Christ,

Dave