Essential Gospel Truth #10

10) Those who trust in Jesus will live to please Him and will receive the promise of eternal life — enjoying God forever in heaven.

Suggested Verse: Luke 9:23;  John 11:25;  1 John 2:25;  Psalm 16:11

Explanation: “If you want play the piano or be on a baseball team, would you expect that it would take a certain amount of time and practice? Would it be a good thing want to think about this before you started piano lessons or joined the baseball team? Why? There is a “cost” involved in the choices we make. If you want to play the piano well it will demand your time because you will have to practice. You will need to give up other things in order to do it. What might you have to give up in order to play the piano well? What will you need to change in order to be a good baseball player?

                  Salvation is a free gift offered to you by God and it is given to everyone who truly repents and is trusting in Jesus. But salvation is a free gift that will cost you something also – the cost is your whole life! What does that mean? It means that you must to do things Jesus’ way instead of your own way. It means that every day you must trust and follow Jesus for the rest of your life – when you’re 10, 20, 50, and even 90 years old. In order to do this, there are things you will have to give up and things and you will need to change.

                  For example, you will need to spend time praying instead of just playing. You will need to spend time reading your Bible instead of just watching television. You will need to spend time thinking about God instead of just thinking about friends. And that is hard work! Have you thought about the “cost” of trusting in Jesus? Are you ready to truly repent and trust Jesus and then do things His way for the rest of your life? Even when you get old?

                  God has a promise for everyone who is trusting in Jesus: He will give you a special Helper, the Holy Spirit. The Holy

Spirit is God and lives inside every person who trusts in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is all-powerful and He is there to help you with the hard work of doing things Jesus’ way. The Holy Spirit will begin to change you so that you love, trust, obey, and enjoy God more and more. 

                  There is a cost in following Jesus, but God has promised a HUGE reward for everyone who trusts in Jesus. A reward that is so great and exciting that it is better than anything that we can even imagine. What is it? Eternal life! Eternal life is living forever in heaven with God. Heaven is a real place where everyone who is trusting in Jesus will someday go to live. God’s people won’t sin anymore. Our bodies will be perfect. No more ouwies. No more being sick. No dying. No more feeling hurt or lonely. There will be no bad things or things that scare us in heaven. Everything will be clean and perfect and beautiful. But those things aren’t even the best part of heaven. The best part of heaven is that God will live there with His people. We will finally get to really SEE Jesus! And there is nothing or no one who is as amazing, great, wonderful, fantastic, beautiful, and exciting as Jesus. And being with Jesus is what will make us happy forever.”

Heather’s Illustration:

·       Practice: When the child is practicing (baseball, piano, Spanish, etc) Explain to them “It sure does take a lot of time and effort to become skilled at doing this doesn’t it? But after your game the other day it sure did pay off when you hit a double because of all your batting-practice. That’s a little bit of what its like to follow Jesus. It will cost us our time and effort to read our bibles and to pray but there will be a special happiness knowing we are doing what Christ has called us to do.”

---Emphasizing the Holy Spirit’s Role in following Jesus---

*It is important that “cost” doesn’t get associated with living a life of works. Driving home the role of the Holy Spirit will prevent a mindset of works*

·       Planting a flower: Plant a flower seed with the child. Talk about “ We are planting the seed. We will also water the seed. Do we make it grow? Who makes it grow? Can we say ‘Listen here flower seed you grow right now!” No. It does not listen to us. We follow the process by planting and watering but it is not us that makes it grow. God does. He makes what it is supposed to be- a flower. That is a little bit of what it’s like to follow and obey Jesus. We do what he calls us to do and the God-the Holy Spirit- will work in us to help us be what we are supposed to be-a follower of Christ.

Implication: If you are trusting in Jesus for your salvation, you must follow Him. Jesus has promised that when you die He will bring you to heaven to live with God and enjoy Him forever.

Heather’s thoughts:  When I was listening to the message on-line Jill Nelson ran out of time and wasn’t able to give illustrations. So sorry you weren’t able to get her experienced illustrations. You only have mine. I hope they make sense. If you have any illustrations for this one, I’d love to hear them!

Well that’s the last one. I hope they have been a blessing to you in working with the children in your life-or even simply understanding the elements of the gospel.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope ~Romans 15:13

Heather