Participants:
Series Code: SWJ
Program Code: SWJ000041S
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00:01 Hey kids, it's time for Sabbath School. Grab your Bibles and
00:03 let's go. 00:04 ♪ ♪ 00:31 Welcome everybody, I am so glad you're here with us. We have a 00:34 really fun program. We have a nature story and a sharing time 00:39 and we have a Bible story about remembering to say thank you. 00:44 So before we get to that though what do we start with? Well we 00:49 start with Jesus but we also start with some singing about 00:51 Jesus. So let's get to some singing. 00:53 ♪ ♪ 04:24 Hi everyone, I am at the Tahoe National Forest here in the 04:32 Sierra Nevada mountains in California. Well as we were 04:35 walking we came to this beautiful alpine lake. There 04:38 were some amazing vistas and some places where you could see 04:42 for miles and miles all across Donner Summit. Now as we were 04:48 walking back to the truck I saw something that caught my 04:52 attention and you know what it was? It is these bulrushes. 04:57 Look at those bulrushes. They're kind of growing at the 05:02 edge of a beautiful alpine lake. Now bulrushes aren't out in the 05:10 deep area. They're actually right here, right by the side of 05:13 the lake. They're really neat. You can see that they grow up 05:20 out of mud and out of the dirt. So as I was here and I saw 05:23 these bulrushes, guess what story it reminded me of. Can you 05:27 guess? That's right. Baby Moses. The king where Moses lived was 05:33 afraid that the Israelites were getting to be too many and too 05:36 numerous so he decided that he was going to kill all the baby 05:40 boys. Well Moses' mother wanted to save him, so she prayed to 05:45 God and after three months she knew she couldn't save him 05:48 anymore, she couldn't hide him, and so she went and she took 05:53 bulrushes just like these and she wove a basket and then after 05:58 she wove a basket she went and she put it in the Nile River. 06:03 Now this isn't a river. This is actually a little pond/lake. 06:07 But she put it in the Nile River and she prayed that God would 06:10 keep her baby safe. And what ended up happening? The Princess 06:15 came. So the Princess came and she took Baby Moses and she had 06:19 him stay with his mother for several years and then she took 06:23 him to the palace. And they taught him all the wisdom of 06:27 Egypt. Now Moses, he ended up becoming a great man for God, 06:32 didn't he. But God had a time for him in the wilderness. Well 06:36 it reminds me of us and God has a special plan for your life. 06:41 And sometimes things may not be going the way that we think it 06:45 should. Sometimes life might be really hard, but did you know 06:49 that God has a plan for you. You know sometimes life may not 06:52 be going the way that we want it to and it might be kind of hard. 06:56 Maybe we can't do the things that we used to be able to do or 07:00 maybe we are having to go to a new school or maybe even do 07:05 school at home because of this whole COVID thing. Well I know 07:09 that God has a special plan for your life just like he did for 07:12 Moses. And he can take care of you in the scary times, in the 07:16 good times, in the times of waiting in the wilderness. 07:20 God has a plan and we can trust him. In fact, in Proverbs 3:5,6 07:24 it says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on 07:29 on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him 07:33 and he shall direct your path. Just like Jochebed, Moses' 07:38 mother she trusted God. Just like Moses trusted God when 07:42 things were not clear, we can trust him too. We'll see you 07:45 later, bye, bye. ♪ ♪ 08:05 Dear Mom and Dad: Thank you so much for the amazing gift you 08:10 gave me. I really appreciated it. It was so nice when you 08:13 watched my little one so that I could sleep in too. Thank you so 08:16 much for being the best grandparents ever. I love you 08:20 and can't wait till we can hang out again. Love Michelle. 08:24 Oh, you just caught me. I was writing some thank you notes. 08:28 Have you written a thank you note before? It's one of my 08:30 favorite things to do. And a lot of people may not do it anymore 08:33 but I still think it's really important to send a little note. 08:36 Nothing like getting something in your mailbox, right? It's so 08:38 exciting to get mail. Today we're going to talk about 08:41 thankfulness. And let's pause right now and thank Jesus for 08:44 being here with us. 08:46 Dear heavenly Father, thank you for loving us, thank you for all 08:49 the blessings you give us like I could pray this whole story time 08:52 about all the things I'm thankful for, but most of all 08:55 I'm thankful for your love. And please be with us. Send your 08:58 Holy Spirit and thank you for your Spirit that guides us into 09:00 all truth. In your name we pray, Amen. 09:03 Today our story is called, Remembering to Say Thank You. 09:07 Have you ever had someone some up and say to you, Ah, Miss 09:11 you have something in your teeth Oh, I'm so thankful when people 09:15 do that, right? Especially when it's toward the beginning of the 09:18 day instead of the end, right? Or maybe they'll say, Oh Miss 09:23 Michelle, your zipper is unzipped. Oh, it's so nice to 09:26 know that because otherwise, it's really embarrassing, right? 09:28 But back in Bible times if someone were to say, Oh, um, it 09:34 looks like you have a little white patch of skin right there. 09:38 That could change someone's life. You see, there was a 09:42 disease back then called leprosy. Mmm, you may have 09:45 heard of that before, right? And it started with just a few 09:49 little white spots on your skin and pretty soon the priest would 09:51 confirm that you, in fact, had leprosy. And in Leviticus in the 09:56 Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, third book of the 09:59 Bible, chapter 13, verse 2, we learn a little bit more about 10:04 leprosy. Leviticus 13 verse 2, it says:... When a man has on 10:09 the skin of his body a swelling, a scab or a bright spot and it 10:12 becomes on the skin of his body like a leprous sore, then he 10:16 must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, 10:20 the priests. [And then what should happen.] Verse 3 10:24 continues. The priests are to examine the sore on the skin of 10:26 his body and if the hair on the sore has turned white and the 10:29 sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body it is a 10:32 leprous sore and then the priest shall examine him and pronounce 10:36 him Unclean. 10:38 This was like one of the worst things that could happen to you 10:40 in Bible times. Let's skip ahead in that same chapter to verse 10:45 45 and 46. It says:... Now the leper on whom the sore is his 10:50 clothes shall be torn and his head bare and he shall cover 10:55 his mustache and cry, Unclean, Unclean. He shall be unclean all 11:00 the days that he has the sore. Then he should be unclean. 11:04 He is unclean and shall dwell alone. His dwelling shall be 11:07 outside the camp. 11:10 How sad. If you had that leprosy not only did you have to leave 11:15 your family and your job and everything and live outside the 11:18 camp away from people, also the sad part was that people decided 11:25 that while you had that disease was because you were a terrible 11:28 sinner, it was God's punishment for you and they believed that 11:32 you could never be forgiven for that punishment. Isn't that sad? 11:37 Now in Jesus' time there were many lepers and, like I said, 11:41 there was no cure then. And there were 10 lepers. Now of 11:45 these lepers some of them were Jews but we know that at least 11:48 one of them was Samaritan, which was very interesting, because as 11:50 you guys have probably learned from the stories already, Jews 11:54 and Samaritans didn't get along. In fact, they would buy and sell 11:57 from each other, but that was about the extent of their 11:59 relationship. After that, they did not like each other. In fact 12:03 you may have even used the word hate which is really strong but 12:06 it was kind of applicable in this case. But one was Samaritan 12:11 they figured we all have this terrible disease, like who gives 12:14 a care. I guess we can just hang out and be friends because we're 12:17 all just going to die anyway alone and sad. So these 10 had 12:20 banded together and were friends and they kind of went through 12:24 life together, right? And they had heard about Jesus and they 12:29 thought wow! He's even healed leprosy. Oh I hope, I wish, I 12:33 hope, I wish that some day we will be able to see Jesus and 12:37 then it happened. Let's go to the book of Luke. Interesting 12:42 because Luke was a doctor, that he would talk about the story of 12:45 leprosy. I'm sure other gospels have this story too. Today we're 12:48 going to go to Dr. Luke and learn about what happened. 12:51 Luke 17 is where we're going to pick up this story and I really 12:57 do like reading parts, at least parts, if not all, right from 13:00 God's word. I think that's very important. Verse 11 says:... 13:03 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem, He [capital He, that 13:06 means Jesus] passed through in the midst of Samaria and 13:10 Galilee. Then as he entered a certain village there met him 13:13 10 men who were lepers who stood afar off. 13:17 They were following 13:18 protocol. They wanted to run to Jesus, fall at his feet and beg 13:22 mercy and say please forgive us for our sins and please heal us, 13:25 right? But they stood afar off like they were supposed to. 13:29 And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, Master, 13:35 have mercy on us. 13:36 Now have you ever done this before where you have a group 13:39 of friends and you're trying to get someone's attention who's 13:41 all the way across the playground or maybe all the way 13:43 across the parking lot and you say okay, one, two three, Hey 13:46 over here. You're louder together, right? So together 13:50 they called out to Jesus. And in verse 13 what happens? That's 13:57 when they shouted. In verse 14: 13:58 So when he saw them he said to them, Go show yourselves to the 14:03 priest. 14:05 Why would Jesus not say, You're healed! Have a great day! Why 14:09 wouldn't He say that, right? Once again. Jesus was always 14:12 intentional. There was always a reason for why he did things a 14:17 certain way, right? And Jesus knew that if he healed them 14:19 right away it wouldn't grow their faith. They had to believe 14:23 that they were going to be healed and have faith and He 14:26 knew that they would be stronger people because of that. So he 14:30 said: Go to the priests. Now the priests were like the doctors 14:33 kind of back then or like the doctors' assistants or I don't 14:36 know. They were professional judgers, that's for sure. 14:38 But they were the ones who would pronounce you clean from leprosy 14:42 so it was inferred that they would be healed by saying go to 14:46 the priest. It was Jesus saying, You will be healed. Go there. 14:52 But they weren't actually healed at that point. In verse 15 14:55 it says, sorry in verse 14 the second part, I didn't read you 14:58 the whole thing. So let's rewind 15:00 So when He saw them He said to them, Go show yourselves to the 15:03 priest. And so it was that when they went they were cleansed. 15:08 They're on their way, they're headed for the priest and on 15:10 they're way, they are cleansed! And wow! Isn't that exciting? 15:17 They were healed. Their whole lives narratives, their whole 15:21 life story had changed. They no longer were the 10 lepers. They 15:25 were the 10 men who had been healed from the leprosy by Jesus 15:29 Wow! Now this is where the story has an interesting twist because 15:34 just like today a lot less people say thank you than maybe 15:37 used to or just in general, sometimes we forget to say thank 15:39 you. Some of them forgot to say thank you. And you might think, 15:43 Oh Miss Michelle, probably like 50 percent so five went back and 15:47 said thank you, right? That would be better odds than there 15:51 were, right? So out of these 10 only one went back and said 15:56 thank you. So 10 percent, out of 10 only one, that's 10 percent. 16:00 One out of 10 said thank you. Here's what happened. 16:03 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, he returned 16:07 and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face 16:12 at Jesus' feet and was giving thanks to him. 16:16 Then the Bible adds: And he was a Samaritan. 16:19 This was not even one of God's "special" people. I mean Jews 16:23 were God's special people but they were supposed to reach out 16:25 to the people around them and bring other people into the 16:28 special family of God, right, just like we're supposed to. 16:31 And yet in fact the only one to come back and glorify God and 16:35 say thank you was the Samaritan. Wow! [signs deeply] What happens 16:44 then? 16:46 And Jesus answered and said, Were there not 10 cleansed, but 16:54 where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to 16:59 the glory of God except this foreigner? And Jesus said to 17:03 him, Arise, go your way, your faith has made you well. 17:09 Wow! That's like, we talked about this before, Jesus going 17:14 to the grocery store and finding some random person and saying 17:16 they have more faith in me than you do. How would that make us 17:20 feel as Christians, right? It's a good thing to think about. 17:23 They could have a normal life again. They could go home to 17:28 their families all because of their faith in Jesus and Jesus' 17:33 miraculous healing. One man said thank you. One man gave us an 17:39 example, the Samaritan man gave us an example of what we should 17:43 do. How disappointed Jesus was in the other nine. What shall we 17:47 thank Jesus for today? Maybe you can make a list. Ah, make a list 17:51 and then think about it. Did you say thank you to Jesus for any 17:54 of those things yesterday? Mmm. That's a sobering thought isn't 17:58 it. Sobering means make you really think. Our lesson study 18:02 made a list of some really cool things to be thankful for and it 18:06 gave a little description for why. So I encourage you to read 18:08 that in our lesson. They wrote, Jesus, the Bible, angels, heaven 18:14 being able to choose, having freedom of choice, so important, 18:18 and health. Those are the things we can be thankful for, right? 18:21 I just sat down for just a couple of minutes and came up 18:25 with many more ideas and I could have been even more specific but 18:28 I just gave categories instead. So I'm thankful for my family, 18:32 friends, my home. It's so cute, my almost-two-year-old now 18:35 knows how to say the word home. How adorable. School, church, 18:39 food, clothes, toys, books, nature and playgrounds. And that 18:45 was just for a couple minutes it took me to think of those things 18:48 and you could even get more specific and say specific people 18:51 or specific things that you have in your life. I am thankful most 18:55 of all for the gift of salvation that God has given each of us. 18:59 Wow! We have so much to be thankful for. Wow! The lesson 19:06 ends with a very thought provoking question, something 19:10 that makes you think deeply. It says, How would you like to 19:14 change the way you say think you to Jesus? Mmm. What are some 19:19 traditions or some habits that we could start in our lives that 19:23 would help us to be more thankful? And I'm kicking myself 19:26 not really, that would hurt. But I'm bummed that I forgot at home 19:30 my thankful journal. I have a gratitude journal that's super 19:34 fun. Each day it has like three or four spaces where you can 19:38 put things that you're thankful for that day. And that has been 19:41 really life-changing for me, especially this year, this past 19:44 year, because it was really a tough year for all of us, right? 19:48 And it helps me to stay positive by writing down things that I'm 19:52 thankful for. Maybe you can have a special time of the day when 19:55 you thank Jesus, not just maybe right before we eat although 19:58 sometimes we may even forget to do that, to just simply thank 20:01 God for our food before we eat it. Or maybe while you're taking 20:06 a bath, would be a good time, or a shower to think about the 20:08 things you're thankful for. Or maybe while you're out on a walk 20:11 you could take turns naming things you're thankful for. Or 20:14 when you're driving in the car whatever you see that you're 20:17 thankful for you could talk about. Being thankful is so 20:21 important but not only does it show God how much we love him, 20:24 but it changes our mindset. In today's day and age there's a 20:28 lot of things that we could be bummed about or even depressed 20:31 about. Depressed means sad like most of the time, right? And 20:35 there are a lot of bad things that are happening around us, 20:37 but when we look for the good things that Jesus has done in 20:40 our lives it can completely change our mindset and help us 20:43 to see how much he loves us and how he will always, always be 20:48 with us. I want to challenge you guys to try that this afternoon 20:51 with your family, seeing how many things you can come up that 20:54 you're thankful for. And remember how much Jesus loves 20:58 it when we tell him thank you. Oh, P.S., you're parents like 21:01 it too. See you next week. Bye. 21:04 ♪ ♪ 21:18 Thank you Miss Michelle for that Bible story on thankfulness. 21:21 It's time now for our answers to last week's questions so let's 21:26 what those answers were and who sent in their answers. 21:33 ♪ ♪ 21:51 And now... We have our new questions so are you ready? 21:55 Question #1: ♪ ♪ 22:07 Question #2: ♪ ♪ 22:19 And Question #3: It's more of a challenge. I want you to think 22:23 of three things that you're thankful for today. 22:27 ♪ ♪ 22:31 You can send in your answers to us at: 22:35 Answers@startingwithJesus.com and you can also tag us on 22:40 Instagram and Facebook with your answers. We love to see how 22:44 you're participating in Sabbath School. 22:46 ♪ ♪ 22:54 It's time now for our memory verse. Let's say it together. 23:01 Psalm 100:4 and 5: Be thankful to him and bless his name for 23:08 the Lord is good. 23:12 ♪ ♪ 23:26 I like stories. My grandpa had great stories. When I was young 23:31 I loved to listen to my grandpa. You see he'd done 23:34 a lot of things in his life. 23:36 He had been a baker and he had been a chicken farmer 23:40 and he sold books about Jesus. One of the stories was about one 23:47 day when he was selling books about Jesus, he went to the door 23:52 and he knocked on the door. And the lady came to the door and 23:56 and said, Oh, I don't have time to talk right now. I'm baking a 24:00 chocolate cake. She had flour all over her hands and she was 24:04 wiping things because she had her nice apron on. And grandpa 24:08 said to her, Are you making a chocolate cake? Did you ever 24:12 wonder how to get that wonderful Hersey flavor. Oh, she said, yes 24:18 He said, I'll show you. And so he got invited in and they went 24:22 into the kitchen and he showed her how to add just a little bit 24:26 of peppermint to make it taste just right in the chocolate cake 24:30 And they put the cake in the oven and then grandpa said, let 24:34 me show you the books. And he opened up and he showed the 24:36 books about Jesus and she was really interested. 24:40 She appreciated help with the cake and she appreciated help 24:43 understanding about the books and what a wonderful opportunity 24:47 it was. Well grandpa said, time to take the cake out and she 24:52 said, No it has five more minutes. And he said, No, if you 24:57 leave it in any longer it'll taste bitter. And she said, I 25:01 wondered. My husband always said my chocolate cakes are bitter. 25:06 Well, let's take it out now. So they took it out and they had 25:10 had the cake and she liked the books so much she bought some of 25:14 the books. Grandpa learned that he could sell books by just 25:18 helping people. And you know that's what Jesus does. He helps 25:21 us in many ways and that's what the stories about Jesus 25:24 are about. 25:27 ♪ ♪ 25:31 I'm so excited. Starting tomorrow we are starting our 25:33 starting our seedpod podcast for kids. We have a daily 25:39 program just for you so that you can start your day with Jesus. 25:44 And we are so excited. There'll be singing, there'll be reading 25:49 in the Bible of different Bible stories. There'll be a memory 25:53 verse every week and things to help you to have that daily time 25:58 with Jesus. So for more information go to: 26:01 startingwithjesus.com/seedpod and you will learn how to sign 26:07 up for our podcast. You can also, go back and check out the 26:12 reading through the story of Jesus that we did all the way 26:15 through December to January first and you can check it out 26:18 startingwithjesus.com/the story. It was a huge blessing, learning 26:22 about the life of Jesus and how he's so wonderful to us so go to 26:28 startingwithjesus.com/the story to be able to listen through the 26:33 story of Jesus. We have some other really fun programs 26:37 planned this year. Something's happening this summer that is 26:41 really going to exciting and I can't quite tell you yet but if 26:44 go to our website at: startingwithjesus.com and click 26:49 the subscribe button you'll be able to sign up to our news 26:53 letter and find out what is coming this year. We send out 26:58 an email about once a month so we try not to send you a deluge 27:02 of emails. Just every now and then when we have some really 27:06 exciting news for you. So you can check that out at: 27:08 startingwithjesus.com. It's time to end our Sabbath School and 27:13 I've been so blessed that you've been here with us. Let's thank 27:16 Jesus for this time we've had together. 27:19 Dear Father in heaven, thank you that you are so wonderful to us. 27:24 Thank you that you give us the opportunity to come to you in 27:28 prayer. And we love you so much. I pray that you will forgive us 27:32 for our sins. Help us to be like you and help us to be lights 27:37 shining in all the world especially right now when 27:40 sometimes it seems like there's just a lot of sadness and hurt. 27:43 Help us to be with kindness and kind to others and to be loving 27:49 to those around us and to show them you. We love you Jesus 27:53 and we thank you. In Jesus' name, Amen. 27:56 Thank you for joining us. Have a blessed week and keep in touch. 28:01 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2021-10-25