New City St Louis Children's Ministry

May 12, 2019 Lesson Topic The Bronze Snake from Numbers 20-21 Dear Parents, Last week, our kids learned that the Israelites didn’t trust God to help them conquer the Promised Land the first time they arrived there. As a result, God will punish the Israelites for their lack of faith by having them wander an additional 40 years before they are able to enter the Promised Land. During this time, the Israelites once again begin to complain about their living conditions, despit...e having seen God provide for their needs time and time again. God disciplined them because He knew their dissatisfaction was a sign of a bigger issue: a heart problem, a sin problem. They stopped believing that God is good. In their hearts, the Israelites believed the same lie that rattled Eve in the garden: maybe God isn’t interested in giving us what is best. Maybe He is holding out on us. So, God sent venomous snakes that bit the people and killed many of them. The Israelites repented. They wanted Moses to ask God to take away the snakes. God provided a solution. He told Moses, Make a snake image out of bronze and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover. In John 3:14, Jesus said, Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. What was Jesus talking about? Second Corinthians 5:21 says, He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So Jesus invites us, Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other (Isa. 45:22). As you talk to your kids this week, help them understand that the Israelites faced a huge problem because of their sin. God sent snakes to punish Israel, but anyone who was bitten could look at the bronze snake on the pole and live. Because of our sin, we face a huge problem: we are separated from God. We deserve to die, but anyone who looks to Jesus on the cross and trusts in Him will live forever with God. Family Discussion Questions: Do you think God was right or wrong to punish the Israelites by sending the poisonous snakes? How did God show mercy to the people of Israel even in the m See more

May 5, 2019 Lesson Topic Joshua and Caleb from Numbers 13-14 Dear Parents, Your kids have been learning about the Israelitesformer slaves in Egyptas they moved toward the promised land. Before God rescued His people from slavery in Egypt, He promised to bring the Israelites back to the land He had given to Abraham so many years before. (Ex. 3:8) From Egypt, the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and traveled toward Mount Sinai. When they were hungry and thirsty, God provide...d food and water. (See Ex. 1617.) Israel spent one year at Mount Sinai, where Moses received God’s law, including the Ten Commandments. But time and again, the Israelites rebelled against God, Moses interceded, and God pardoned the people. This week we will see what happened when Israel arrived at the edge of the promised land. God instructed Moses to send scouts into the land. Moses twelve men, including Joshua and Caleb, who traveled through the promised land of Canaan for 40 days. They returned with much fruitgrapes, pomegranates, and figsand gave a report on the land, describing it to be abundant, flowing with milk and honey, just as God had promised it would be! They also gave an account of the people, who were physically strong with heavily fortified cities. Caleb’s immediate imperativeLet’s go up now!was met with resistance by most of the group. They compared their own natural strength with the strength of the people occupying the land, and thought the cause was hopeless. But they were forgetting God’s strength! The Israelites complained: If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! Joshua and Caleb tried to persuade the people of God’s presence and protection, but the people would not trust God. So God gave them what they thought was better. He sent them into the wilderness to wander for 40 years. They would die there. Only Joshua, Caleb, and the Israelites’ children would enter the promised land. Help your kids contemplate the punishment Israel faced for their rebellion. The Israelites rebelled against God because they did not trust Him, Jesus trusted God perfectly. He took the punishment we deserve for our sin. See more

April 28, 2019 Lesson Topic Rules for Sacrifice from Leviticus Dear Parents, Our last lesson before Easter was on God’s instructions to Moses for building the tabernacle. This week, we learn that t he tabernacle was complete. God now had a place where His glory could dwell without causing the Israelites to fear death. God had given His people laws from the mountain, and He gave them more rules for living and worshiping Him in the tabernacle. These rules are recorded in t...he Book of Leviticus. The reasoning behind Leviticus can be found in Leviticus 19:2: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. In Leviticus 17:11, we learn that God set apart the blood of a creature as the means for making atonement for sin. This answers the question, Why did Jesus have to die? God’s requirement for the forgiveness of sins was the shedding of blood: According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). It is important to note a New Testament revelation about the sin offering. Hebrews 10:4 says, It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Then why did God require people to make sacrifices? The institution of a sacrifice was to point to something greaterthe ultimate sacrifice God would make by sending His own Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for the sins of the world once and for all. (See Eph. 1:7; Rom 5:9.) The sacrifices God required of His people were a hint of what God was going to do to forgive sinners. We no longer need to offer sacrifices because we trust in Jesus. Jesus offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice that takes away our sin once and for all! Hallelujah! Family Discussion Questions: What happened to the two goats on the Day of Atonement? Why don’t Christians still offer sacrifices today? Who is our perfect sacrifice forever? Explain that while we no longer offer sacrifices to God to pay for our sins, we can still make sacrifices that help other people. Come up with a sacrifice your child or family would like to make that would benefit someone in need. Big Picture Question and Answer: What is worship? Worship is celebrating the greatness of See more

April 21, 2019 Lesson Topic Jesus’ Crucifiction and Resurrection from Matthew 26-28 Dear Parents, This week, your kids learned about the Easter story of Jesus’s death and his victorious resurrection. We also talked about the basic facts of the gospel: that all people on earth are sinners, and we have hearts that want to live to please ourselves instead of pleasing and obeying God. That sin against God needs to be paid for. Jesus died on the cross to pay for sin and rose ...again to defeat death. Those of us who believe that Jesus died in our place for our sin and rose again will live with God forever!At Children’s Worship this week your child was given a chance to pray to the Lord and respond in faith to God’s offer of forgiveness of their sins through Jesus’ death on the cross. We highly recommend that you follow up by asking your child how they prayed to respond during the service. Please let me know if you would like any additional resources on how to follow up with your child. ~Marianne See more

May 12, 2019 Lesson Topic The Bronze Snake from Numbers 20-21 Dear Parents, Last week, our kids learned that the Israelites didn’t trust God to help them conquer the Promised Land the first time they arrived there. As a result, God will punish the Israelites for their lack of faith by having them wander an additional 40 years before they are able to enter the Promised Land. During this time, the Israelites once again begin to complain about their living conditions, despit...e having seen God provide for their needs time and time again. God disciplined them because He knew their dissatisfaction was a sign of a bigger issue: a heart problem, a sin problem. They stopped believing that God is good. In their hearts, the Israelites believed the same lie that rattled Eve in the garden: maybe God isn’t interested in giving us what is best. Maybe He is holding out on us. So, God sent venomous snakes that bit the people and killed many of them. The Israelites repented. They wanted Moses to ask God to take away the snakes. God provided a solution. He told Moses, Make a snake image out of bronze and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover. In John 3:14, Jesus said, Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. What was Jesus talking about? Second Corinthians 5:21 says, He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So Jesus invites us, Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other (Isa. 45:22). As you talk to your kids this week, help them understand that the Israelites faced a huge problem because of their sin. God sent snakes to punish Israel, but anyone who was bitten could look at the bronze snake on the pole and live. Because of our sin, we face a huge problem: we are separated from God. We deserve to die, but anyone who looks to Jesus on the cross and trusts in Him will live forever with God. Family Discussion Questions: Do you think God was right or wrong to punish the Israelites by sending the poisonous snakes? How did God show mercy to the people of Israel even in the m See more

May 5, 2019 Lesson Topic Joshua and Caleb from Numbers 13-14 Dear Parents, Your kids have been learning about the Israelitesformer slaves in Egyptas they moved toward the promised land. Before God rescued His people from slavery in Egypt, He promised to bring the Israelites back to the land He had given to Abraham so many years before. (Ex. 3:8) From Egypt, the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and traveled toward Mount Sinai. When they were hungry and thirsty, God provide...d food and water. (See Ex. 1617.) Israel spent one year at Mount Sinai, where Moses received God’s law, including the Ten Commandments. But time and again, the Israelites rebelled against God, Moses interceded, and God pardoned the people. This week we will see what happened when Israel arrived at the edge of the promised land. God instructed Moses to send scouts into the land. Moses twelve men, including Joshua and Caleb, who traveled through the promised land of Canaan for 40 days. They returned with much fruitgrapes, pomegranates, and figsand gave a report on the land, describing it to be abundant, flowing with milk and honey, just as God had promised it would be! They also gave an account of the people, who were physically strong with heavily fortified cities. Caleb’s immediate imperativeLet’s go up now!was met with resistance by most of the group. They compared their own natural strength with the strength of the people occupying the land, and thought the cause was hopeless. But they were forgetting God’s strength! The Israelites complained: If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness! Joshua and Caleb tried to persuade the people of God’s presence and protection, but the people would not trust God. So God gave them what they thought was better. He sent them into the wilderness to wander for 40 years. They would die there. Only Joshua, Caleb, and the Israelites’ children would enter the promised land. Help your kids contemplate the punishment Israel faced for their rebellion. The Israelites rebelled against God because they did not trust Him, Jesus trusted God perfectly. He took the punishment we deserve for our sin. See more

April 28, 2019 Lesson Topic Rules for Sacrifice from Leviticus Dear Parents, Our last lesson before Easter was on God’s instructions to Moses for building the tabernacle. This week, we learn that t he tabernacle was complete. God now had a place where His glory could dwell without causing the Israelites to fear death. God had given His people laws from the mountain, and He gave them more rules for living and worshiping Him in the tabernacle. These rules are recorded in t...he Book of Leviticus. The reasoning behind Leviticus can be found in Leviticus 19:2: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. In Leviticus 17:11, we learn that God set apart the blood of a creature as the means for making atonement for sin. This answers the question, Why did Jesus have to die? God’s requirement for the forgiveness of sins was the shedding of blood: According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). It is important to note a New Testament revelation about the sin offering. Hebrews 10:4 says, It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Then why did God require people to make sacrifices? The institution of a sacrifice was to point to something greaterthe ultimate sacrifice God would make by sending His own Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for the sins of the world once and for all. (See Eph. 1:7; Rom 5:9.) The sacrifices God required of His people were a hint of what God was going to do to forgive sinners. We no longer need to offer sacrifices because we trust in Jesus. Jesus offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice that takes away our sin once and for all! Hallelujah! Family Discussion Questions: What happened to the two goats on the Day of Atonement? Why don’t Christians still offer sacrifices today? Who is our perfect sacrifice forever? Explain that while we no longer offer sacrifices to God to pay for our sins, we can still make sacrifices that help other people. Come up with a sacrifice your child or family would like to make that would benefit someone in need. Big Picture Question and Answer: What is worship? Worship is celebrating the greatness of See more

April 21, 2019 Lesson Topic Jesus’ Crucifiction and Resurrection from Matthew 26-28 Dear Parents, This week, your kids learned about the Easter story of Jesus’s death and his victorious resurrection. We also talked about the basic facts of the gospel: that all people on earth are sinners, and we have hearts that want to live to please ourselves instead of pleasing and obeying God. That sin against God needs to be paid for. Jesus died on the cross to pay for sin and rose ...again to defeat death. Those of us who believe that Jesus died in our place for our sin and rose again will live with God forever!At Children’s Worship this week your child was given a chance to pray to the Lord and respond in faith to God’s offer of forgiveness of their sins through Jesus’ death on the cross. We highly recommend that you follow up by asking your child how they prayed to respond during the service. Please let me know if you would like any additional resources on how to follow up with your child. ~Marianne See more

April 14, 2019 Lesson Topic The Tabernacle Was Built from Exodus 35-40 Dear Parents, Thirteen of the last sixteen chapters of the Book of Exodus contain instructions for building the tabernacle. The word tabernacle means dwelling place. The tabernacle was a portable tent where God met with His people. God wanted to dwell among them. (See Ex. 29:45-46.) Moses had been on the mountain talking with God for 40 days. God wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant,... on tablets. When Moses returned to the camp, he called all of the Israelites together and gave them the instructions God had given him. (Ex. 24:3-4) God’s directions for building the tabernacle were very detailed. God was not trying to burden the people; He was trying to show them His holiness and absolute authority. God gave the Israelites the tabernacle as a visual picture of His dwelling with them. The tabernacleand later the temple that replaced itwas a temporary place for God’s glory to dwell until the coming of Christ. (2 Cor. 4:6) Every part of the tabernacle was designed to illustrate God’s relationship with His people. Jesus is the New Testament fulfillment of the Old Testament tabernacle. John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. Jesus made His dwelling with people. As you talk to your kids about the building of the tabernacle, show them God instructed the Israelites to build a tabernacle where He would dwell with them because God desires to be with His people. As part of His plan to save sinners, God sent Jesus to tabernacle, or dwell, with people on earth. Emphasize that in the future, He will dwell with us forever. (Rev. 21:3) Family Discussion Questions: Why does God want to dwell with his people? Why is it good for us to have God with us? How does God dwell with his people today? Describe a time when you felt God’s presence with you. Big Picture Question and Answer: What is worship? Worship is celebrating the greatness of God. Key/Memory Verse: The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. Exodus 15: 2 See more

March 31 (Children’s Worship) and April 7 (Sunday School), 2019 The Golden Calf from Exodus 32 and 34 Dear Parents, This week and next week, the kids will be learning about the infamous incident when the Israelites created a golden calf to worship because they were impatient on waiting on the One True God. Even though God had been taking care of them in such tangible, visible ways (parting the red sea, providing manna for them to eat, leading them by pillars of flame and... smoke, etc.), their sin nature tempted them into idolatry. This is, of course, a major theme in the Bible and, in fact, one of the major battlefields of the Christian life. Pray for the Lord to give your kids supernatural understanding as this may be the first time they are exposed to the concept of idolatry. It would be good to further discuss the concept of idolatry with your kids this week. An idol is anything a person puts in the place of God. Explain that idolatry is a sin. The Israelites deserved to be punished for their sin. In the same way, we deserve to be punished for our sin. Point out that God’s people sinned against God, and Moses asked God to forgive them. Moses acted as their mediator, standing for them before God. Moses could not do anything to make up for their sin, but we have a better MediatorJesus. Jesus paid for our sin on the cross and stands for us before God. When we trust in Jesus, our sins are forgiven. Family Discussion Questions: Why is it wrong to worship anything other than God? What are some reasons God deserves our worship? What are some things we sometimes worship other than God? Family Activity: Go on a nature walk with your kids. Discuss the amazing things you see. Each time you notice something, say a quick prayer to thank God for making such amazing things. Praise Him for being the wonderful Creator of everything. Remind your kids that worshiping creation itself is foolish. Big Picture Question and Answer: What is worship? Worship is celebrating the greatness of God. Key Verse: The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. Exodus 15: 2 See more

Lord, thank you that you ...

Lord, thank you that you ...

This is what worshipping God through art looks like!