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LESSON 3: THE PURPOSE OF STRENGTHS

Remembering back to our first lesson on strength we said that, “First, He is the fountainhead of our strength. Second, He stands ready to renew our strength if we will seek Him, trust Him, and wait on Him. Third, God gives us strength not for our own selfish interests or nonsense but to glorify Him and do the good works of the Kingdom that He has prepared in advance for us to walk in.” Let’s talk this week about that last point. The Bible teaches that as followers of Christ we have been given the right to be called “children” of God. It goes on to teach us to imitate God, “as dearly loved children.” In what ways can we imitate God?

LESSON 2: KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

There are many wonderful theological messages to be gleaned from the account of David’s defeat of Goliath. One message that should not be taken from it however is that David was a skinny kid, unprepared for battle, who, despite his overconfidence, was used by God to miraculously defeat an experienced warrior. Many times the way we teach this to children leaves them with the idea that they to can face the metaphorical “giants” in their lives if they just believe. Let’s take a closer look at the account before we get the children in our care metaphorically body slammed by their giants.

LESSON 1: STRENGTH TRAINING

What is strength? How is the word used in scripture? It can mean our physical strength or energy, strength of character, strength of the will, perseverance, capacity or ability to perform work, or emotional strength. These are all different aspects of strength, but they all have two things in common: their source and their purpose.

“You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18)

LESSON 3: REMEMBER WHEN?

Why is it that God spends so much time in the Bible telling His children to “remember” Him? I’d like to venture four reasons I believe are grounded in scripture. When we fail to remember God we risk…

1. Falling into idolatry/trusting ourselves or our possessions (Deut. 8:13-14)
2. Never growing in trust of/faith in God (Isa. 40:20-21)
3. Stumbling into sin and suffering the Father’s discipline (Deut. 8:19)
4. Forfeiting a generation to the enemy (Judges 2:10-11)

So how can we use our minds to remember God? Here are five ways, listed below, that God has ordained for us to remember Him, who He is, and all that He has done. Help your kids use their memory to love God
this week.

LESSON 2: TEACH THE CHILDREN WELL

When we think of Daniel we think bravery, good looks, government leader, survivor of the lion’s den, prisoner of war, advisor to kings,  child… What? Where did child come in? Let’s think about it for a moment.

We know from Scripture that Daniel was a youth, probably about 14 years old (think 8th grader), when he was taken from his home in Israel and into captivity in Babylon. Upon his arrival he was offered the best food and wine in the palace, but thought of a plan to keep himself kosher. Already as a young teenager Daniel was knowledgeable about his God and his faith. I’m fairly sure that the King of Babylon didn’t have any Hebrew schools at the palace.

LESSON 1: MIND MARINADE

When we talk about our mind what exactly do we mean? What are the functions of the mind? When we talk about the mind in the Bible we are talking thoughts, attitudes, imagination, will, purposes, convictions, intelligence, understanding, and memory. In the Bible the mind and the heart are closely tied together. Many times they are used interchangeably. They communicate and work together to influence our actions.

What would the mind of a Jesus follower increasingly look like?

We believe the whole church, including children, should be involved in missions as outlined in the Bible (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8, Roman 10:13-14, Matthew 24:14).

Quest4Missions is a direct reflection of the commitment of Reston Bible Church to missions and missionaries. It is the goal of Q4M to foster this same passion in the hearts of our children at a very young age. One of the ways we do this is focusing on missions during Missions Sunday in the same way that the main service does.

Here are some ways you can get involved at home on Missions Sunday:

• f you don’t attend in person, watch the video of the QUEST service for Missions Sunday (live on facebook.com/rbcquest or posted later on restonbible.org/blog). RBC-supported missionaries will be speaking to the QUEST kids.
• Read through the RBC Missionary Booklet (you can get one at the Welcome Desk) and pick a missionary to pray for. Send them an email or note letting them know you are thinking of them.
• Use a globe or map to pick out different countries and pray for the work of the Gospel there.
• Research and learn about a missionary from history.
• Read Matthew 28:16-20 and discuss The Great Commission.
• Check out the QUEST library or order your own copies of some of the resources below!

Recommended Resources on Missions/Missionaries

• Window on the World by Molly Wall: This book is a guide for children to learn about different countries and cultures and focus their prayers on specific needs for those areas of the globe.
• Trailblazer Series by Dave and Neta Jackson (missionary stories)
• Heroes of the Faith Series (missionary stories)

Visit restonbible.org/QUEST4Missions to read more or to give to the QUEST mission project online

LESSON 3: THE GOAL OF THE SOUL

What Is the Goal of the Soul?

Our souls were built for relationship with God. That relationship once founded in Christ, can either be cultivated or neglected. Remember back to your childhood for a moment. When you learned to turn cartwheels or dive headfirst into the pool, did you shout, “Daddy! Look at me”? How about when you got good grades, your first job, or got engaged? In a healthy father-child relationship it is natural to want to please Dad. How much more so our perfect heavenly Father? Cultivating our relationship with God means aiming to please him out of love, not obligation. When we love God with our soul we are pleased to please Him. Take a nice slow read of the following two passages and then prayerfully reflect on how we can help the kids cultivate their soul relationship with the Father.

LESSON 2: SOUL MATE

Who Is Your Soul Mate?

Who is your favorite person to be with? Who is your soul mate? If you could, would you spend every free moment with that person? I have often asked my children, usually when I am frustrated by their lack of time in the Word, if they truly love God. Of course their answer is, “yes.” I usually follow up that question with something like this, “Do you find it strange that you spend so little time with someone who you claim to love above all others?” It’s a great question, but one that rightly should be turned back on myself. David wrote, “My soul thirsts for you, the living God.” Wow! What makes David different from many of us? Is it that we don’t thirst? I don’t believe so. Our souls do thirst and so do the souls of the children we minister to. What made David a man after God’s own heart was that he recognized what, or better, who, would quench his thirst.

LESSON 1: AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL

When we talked about loving God with our heart we referenced our personality and passions. That’s pretty deep. When we talk about loving God with our soul, that’s deeper still because our soul is the innermost part of who we are. It is used as a synonym for life, our life, our essence. It’s the part God created to last for eternity. Sadly when sin entered the world it separated our soul, our life, from God’s presence. We are eternally dissatisfied until our soul finds rest in Him. Why? Because before we accepted Christ our soul was enslaved to sin. We were longing for Him, for a perfect leader in this Quest called life. After we know Jesus our souls can rest because we have “returned to the shepherd and guardian of our souls” (1 Peter 2:25).

Download Soul, Lesson 1

LESSON 3: MY GIFT OF LOVE

Loving God Is My Gift to Him

“So what’s on your heart this week?” Hopefully you have taken some time during our study to reflect on how to use your interests and passions for God. But what about when you see things in yourself that fall short of God’s standard? Do we assume we’re a lost cause and of no use to God? We cannot hide our good qualities or our failures from Him. He “alone knows every human heart” (1 Kings 8:39). But be of good cheer, the ungodly things I find in my heart bring me to Him in a special way, a humble way. I wish I could bring to Him a Great Commandment Christian-fully assembled and ready to serve, but I came broken and, though I’m not a slave to sin, my flesh still fights against my makeover. When I recognize this and grieve my sin then I am in a position for God to transform my heart. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, but the Lord promises that He is near to the brokenhearted.

LESSON 2: GOD’S GIFT OF WISDOM

Wisdom – God’s Operating System for Your Heart

About two years ago I started using a Mac laptop instead of my old PC. One thing that prompted that switch was the problems I was having with viruses on my PC. As it turns out, the Mac operating system is much less prone to virus problems. It does a better job on its own, without the expense of extra virus protection services, of keeping out unwanted and damaging material that could slow down or freeze up my machine.

Last week we talked about the good passions and desires that God has put in our hearts, let’s call them the pre-loaded software. We also talked about guarding our hearts from storing up ungodly things, let’s call them malware or viruses.

LESSON 1: START WITH YOUR HEART

For an Extreme Makeover: Start with a Heart Check

When Jesus gave the greatest commandment, He was responding to a scribe who was asking the most important question for someone who believes in the all-powerful God of the Bible. What does God want from me? Jesus was glad to answer. He quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5. The answer was simple but profound…if you want to know what God really wants from you, the answer is love – practical, everything I have and am, love – and it starts with your heart.

INTRODUCTION: THE GREAT COMMANDMENT

Introducing a Really Big Idea – The Great Commandment

Thanks for joining us in this quest to educate and challenge the children of our church. We want to give you a preview for the upcoming lesson. Any hiker worth his Gatorade looks over the map before he heads out. Our ‘Trail Guide Devotional’ gives you an opportunity during the week to think about the Big Idea and to look for ways that God is using these lessons in your own life.

LESSON 11: WISDOM IS AS WISDOM DOES

Character and a good name are built, not with increasing knowledge, but rather one choice at a time, one action at a time, one day at time. If you’ve ever learned to type you remember the hunt and peck phase. Struggling to not look down at your fingers, wearing out the backspace key, and breaking the auto-correct on your computer. If your work has forced you to keep at it, day in and day out, over any length of time, your fingers are now likely
flying over the keys as you bang out emails, reports, and social media posts. You may even be able to carry on a conversation with someone while looking at them and still be typing. How did you get there?

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ABOUT FAMILY QUEST: At Reston Bible Church, we firmly believe that parents are a child’s first and most important spiritual leader.  In order to support you that mission, we have created a parent devotional and some discussion starters to go along with each lesson your grade school age children are learning at Quest on Sundays. Our hope and prayer is that this material will help you to engage with your children around the topics they are learning on Sunday mornings, answer their questions, go deeper with them, and find real, day-to-day applications. We are honored to be able to partner with you in the critical task of sharing Christ with the next generation.