Category Archives: Kids In Revival

Kids Entering the Presence of God Part 6 – The Golden Laver

Posted on July 18, 2011 | 1 Comment

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1 Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.

John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Psalm 24:3-4  Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.

The next item in the outer courtyard is a golden laver. The golden laver had reflective mirrors in its basin and was filled with pure water. It symbolized sanctification.

Many adults don’t really understand what sanctification is. They usually reduce it to following a number of rules to keep themselves from becoming worldly. But that’s not real sanctification.

The word sanctification means set apart. One way to teach children about sanctification is to show them a collector’s item or a special dish, maybe a piece of china, used on special occasions. It’s set apart for special use. God thinks that way about His children. His children aren’t like everyone else. Their Heavenly Father sets them apart for special use.

One definition of the word, sanctification, which is easy for children to understand is this. Sanctification is the power to say yes to God and no to sin. It’s as easy as that.

Another way to explain sanctification is when you are dirty all over, you need a bath. Before we’re saved, we need God to cleanse us completely. But after we’re saved, we may, at times, get out hands dirty. In other words, we might do things God doesn’t want us to do. When we get our hands dirty, we don’t need to take another bath. We only need to wash our hands. We need to tell God we’re sorry and ask Him to help us not do it again.

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Posted in Kids Entering the Presence of God Series, Kids In Revival, Revival/Praise and Worship

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Kids Entering God’s Presence Part 5 – The Brazen Altar

Posted on July 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

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But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.   Hebrews 10:12 

The brazen altar is the first piece of furniture is the tabernacle of Moses. It’s located in the outer courts. This was where the sacrifices took place. The fires on this altar burned day and night, consuming sacrifices for the sins of the people.

We no longer have to sacrifice on the brazen altar. Jesus paid the price for our sin. He is our ultimate sacrifice.

Children cannot enter the presence of God until they have accepted this sacrifice, until they have been saved.

Leading children into salvation is the greatest thing you can do as a children’s pastor. Unfortunately, there are many who believe children shouldn’t accept Christ as their savior until their older, until they understand what their doing. This is faulty thinking. They may not understand everything about salvation. I don’t either. But they can respond to what they do understand.

According to Barna studies, 43% of all Christians today were saved before the age of 13, and 64% were saved before the age of 18. These statistics show how important it is to lead children to Christ at an early age.

In churches where salvation altar calls are given, it is joked about that some children will “get saved” every week. This should not be discouraged. Although you can teach children that the commitment they make to Christ will last, every time a child wants to respond to God, it’s a good thing.

Also as children grow and mature, they will respond to God on deeper levels and may feel the need to renew their commitment to God from time to time.

There were different types of offering given at the brazen altar. These types of sacrifices can help you teach children the ways they need to respond to Christ’s sacrifice for them.

  • Sin and Trespass Offerings:  Jesus was our sin offering.  If we ask Him to He will save us from everything we’ve ever done wrong.
  • Burnt Offering:  We are to offer our lives & our own self-interests to God.  Romans 12:1.
  • Meal Offering:  We offer our time & talents to God.
  • Peace Offering:  If we have anything against someone, we need to get it right before we worship.

The best method I know for teaching children about salvation is the Wordless Book. This link  will show you how to use the book. These are the basic colors of the book:

  • Gold represents God. God is in Heaven where there are streets of gold. God wants us to live in Heaven with Him.
  • Black represents sin. We can’t live with God in Heaven because we have sinned.
  • Red represents Christ. Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
  • White represents salvation. If we accept Jesus as our savior, He washes away our sins making us as white as snow.
  • Green represents growth. It doesn’t end there. God wants us to grow closer to Him.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of preaching salvation and the sacrifice Christ made to children. Unless children have accepted Christ as their savior, it doesn’t matter how good they are or how much they obey their parents and teachers. It doesn’t matter how many Bible stories they know and how many verse they memorize. They are still sinners in need of a savior.

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Posted in Kids Entering the Presence of God Series, Kids In Revival, Revival/Praise and Worship, Salvation of Children

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Kids Entering God’s Presence Part 4 – Entering Into Worship

Posted on July 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

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Romans 12:1 So brothers, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him. This is the spiritual way for you to worship. 

You’ve entered His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Now it’s time to enter into the Holy of Holies. It’s time to worship God. Worship requires a surrender of our own wills and a response to God’s love for us. It is not for the timid Christian, but it is for Christian children.

You can’t teach children to worship. That’s a decision every person has to make. But there are some things you can do to help children come to a place where they choose to worship God.

Worship Words: These three Hebrew words express worship and are translated as worship. The first word can also refer to praise, but the second and third word always refers to worship.

  •  Yadah (pronounced yada) To lift the hand in praise. Psalm 28:7
  • Barak (pronounced bawrak) To kneel down, adore, salute. Judges 5:2
  • Shachah (pronounced shacha) To lay prostrate before, to bow yourself flat as to royalty. Psalm 45:11

As the children in your ministry learn these words, let them know these are acceptable ways to express their worship to God. You may want to play worship music and give them a time to express this worship.

If you do this, always make sure you instruct them with what you expect. If any children don’t wish to participate, have them sit quietly in the back of the room with a worker so they don’t disrupt the others.

Don’t ever push a child to worship if the child isn’t ready. This will not result in true worship.

Worship Songs: Worship songs  are love songs to God. They express our adoration and surrender to Him. A couple of examples are “Your Love Is Deep””, Offering, and “Live To Worship” They are songs you sing to God.

Preach the Word: We cannot respond to God until we hear from God. That means, if you want your students to respond to God, you need to teach them meat from God’s Word. Your sermons don’t have to be long, five minutes is long enough, but they do need to go into the deep things of Scripture. Children don’t need watered down Bible stories. They need the undiluted Word of God delivered and packaged in a way they understand.

A Living Sacrifice: This link is to a children’s sermon I wrote on being a living sacrifice. Every child needs to know that God requires that child to give Him his whole life as a sacrifice. That is the kind of worship God wants.

Worthy of Our Worship: We can praise many people and things. But God is the only one who is worthy of worship. Children need to know that God is the only one we worship because He is above all else. He is royalty above all royalty. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Response: Every time you have a children’s service where you preach the Word of God, you should have a time for children to respond to what they’ve heard.

Some church denominations have altar calls where children pray at the front. Some have one on one prayer time with workers. Others have time at their seats where they consider what they’ve heard. Still others have a group prayer. However you decide, make sure to allow time for your students to respond.

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Kids Entering God’s Presence Part 3 – Enter His Courts With Praise

Posted on July 11, 2011 | 2 Comments

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Psalm 150   1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his Temple. Praise him in his mighty heaven. 2 Praise him for his strength. Praise him for his greatness. 3 Praise him with trumpet blasts. Praise him with harps and lyres. 4 Praise him with tambourines and dancing. Praise him with stringed instruments and flutes. 5 Praise him with loud cymbals. Praise him with crashing cymbals. 6 Let everything that breathes praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!

Praise: An expression of approval or commendation

After the thanksgiving part of the service, it’s time to enter His courts with praise. Praise is an expression that shows we appreciate God for who He is and what He does. It requires action to express it. We can be thankful to God silently, but to praise God we have to do something.

Praise Primers: One way to help children with praise is to give a praise primer each week before praise time. A praise primer is an object lesson dealing with praise – what it is and why we should praise. You can look in your local Christian book store for object lesson resources John Tasch Ministries also has an excellent resource DVD of Praise Primers at this link.

Praise Words: There are many different Hebrew words for praise in the Old Testament. Each word denotes a different expression of praise. Teach the children a different word every week and encourage them to express their praise using these methods. I’ve listed some of the words, where they are found, and their definitions.

  •  Tehillah (pronounced tehela) To sing our praise to God with all our hearts. Psalm 35:28
  • Zamar (pronounced zamar) To use instruments to show praise. Psalm 57:7
  • Shabach (pronounced shabak) To shout. Psalm 145:4
  • Halal (pronounced halal) To celebrate, go mad over, or to be clamourously foolish. Similar to a celebration at a sporting event. Psalm 150:2
  • Machowl (pronounced machowil) To turn, skip, move around, lift the feet in dance. Psalm 150:4
  • Towdah (pronounced toda) To extend the hands in acceptance or agreement with God’s words and promises before you see the answer. Psalm 42:4
  • Yadah (pronounced yada) To lift the hand in praise. Psalm 28:7
  • Sachaq (pronounced sawqua) To laugh. Proverbs 8:30
  • Guwl (pronounced gool) To dance or spin. Psalm 118:24
  • Alats (pronounced awlais) To let out a battle cry. Psalm 68:3

Songs: Songs are a very important part of praise in Scripture and should be given a place of prominence in your Children’s Service. Songs used during praise time should express praise. Encourage the children to stand and participate by expressing themselves from the heart during praise songs. Make sure the songs don’t have too many words and that you don’t introduce too many new songs in one week. You want the children to concentrate more on praising God than learning words.

Motions and Sign Language: Motions are an important part of singing praise songs to God because children love to do things with their hands. What better thing could they do than express their praise to God. You can create your own motion or buy Children’s ministry DVD’s with the motions to the songs. One thing I love to do is to teach children sign language to the most important words in the song. Children love to do this. It’s easy to learn. Just go to the library or buy a book on religious signing.

Drama and Expressive Arts: Expression is an important part of praise. If your children’s ministry doesn’t have children’s team for drama, banners, dance, creative movement, or signing, consider starting one.

If you have a great resource for praise expression, please list it under comments. The next blog will focus on leading children into worship.

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Posted in Kids Entering the Presence of God Series, Kids In Revival, Praise & Worship Music, Praise & Worship Object Lessons, Revival/Praise and Worship

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Kids Entering God’s Presence Part 2 – Enter His Gates With Thanksgiving

Posted on July 7, 2011 | 3 Comments

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Psalms 100:4   Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.

Psalm 95:2  Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

There are a lot of great ways to start children’s church. Some children’s ministries show countdowns and have fast-paced music playing. Some make sure children are excited with a high energy game. Still others love to have the children sing high energy activity songs.

All of these are great ways to start a children’s service and to get the wiggles out. In fact, Psalm 95:2 says we should enter His presence by making a joyful noise. But whatever we do, we need to make sure it’s for the glory of God.

So if we play a game, it should have something to do with the message that day or we might want to forget the game. Whatever activity songs we sing or activities we do should make a joyful noise and glorify God or we need to remove them from our programs.

Some children’s pastors at this point might gasp. “No game.” Breathe deeply. It will be all right. You don’t have to have a game in children’s church every week if you can’t think of a game that goes with that week’s message. You could even save your game bag for the end of service in case the pastor preaches longer than usual. It will be all right.

But there’s more to these Scriptures than making a joyful noise. You’ll also want to enter God’s presence with thanksgiving. Here’s a few ways you can incorporate thanksgiving into the beginning of your children’s service.

Prayer: Every children’s service or event should open in prayer. Make sure to thank God for the children in your children’s church during prayer time. If a child prays, have him or her thank God for bringing the children to children’s church.

Thanksgiving Song: Sometimes you might want to add a song of thanksgiving to your activity songs. One song that could be used is “Bonkers” by Uncle Charlie (Made 2 Praise Vol. 11), but there are a lot of others. This isn’t necessary every week, but it’s a good idea from time to time.

Thanksgiving Lesson: Lessons on thanksgiving shouldn’t only happen at Thanksgiving.

Beanbag of Thanksgiving: Another way to have the children thank God is to have a beanbag of thanksgiving. Throw the beanbag to a few children during this part of the service. Any child who catches it must tell something he thanks God for. Remind children that this is a time for thanksgiving not prayer requests.

Thank God For Children: At the end of the Beanbag of Thanksgiving or during some time near the beginning of the service, you should thank God out loud for the children under your care. You can say something like this. “Scripture says children are a reward from the Lord, and blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. So I thank God for all of you. You are my reward from God.” This not only shows the children you’re thankfulness, but it gives them the assurance that God considers them a blessing when the world sometimes considers children a curse.

At this point, you’ll be ready to enter His courts with praise. I’ll blog more about that, next time.

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Posted in Kids Entering the Presence of God Series, Kids In Revival, Praise & Worship Music, Praise & Worship Object Lessons, Revival/Praise and Worship

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