Month: December 2022

[Before reading the lesson, listen to the song “Gratitude” by Brandon Lake and read along with the lyrics. As you listen, think about why you might explain how this is a Christmas song.]

One of the lines from this song says, “So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again”. This is the inspiration for today’s verse which is from Ezra 9:5:

I fell to my knees and lifted my hands to the Lord my God.

Even though few of us reading this right now are probably feeling the strong need to drop to our knees and cry out to God, below is an example of a situation that may help us understand why we might do that.

Imagine that right in the middle of enjoying the Christmas season, you get sick and have to go to the doctor. And after running all the tests, the doctor gives you the worst possible news. You have a terminal disease that will take your life. There is no known cure. Image the sense of dread and desperation. Who would you call first? Maybe your family and closest friends? What would you say? You would probably be very emotional and might shed a few tears. You might also cry out to God and maybe even lift up your hands and ask “why?”. You would probably have trouble sleeping and wouldn’t have an appetite. The Christmas season is supposed to be filled with hope and joy but it would be almost impossible for you to share in the Christmas spirit.

But now imagine that you get a call from your doctor who has the most incredible news – they’ve found a perfect cure and the treatment is very easy. You’re going to be just fine and there’s nothing to worry about.

How would you feel then? Who would you call and what would you say? You would probably dance around and maybe even cry out again to God in gratitude with your hands lifted up.

This story is the story of Christmas. We are born flawed people who are separated from God by our sin. We are sick but Jesus offers the gift of the miraculous cure. He offers the miracle of eternal life as a gift we can’t earn and one that can never be taken away. For all time, He is ours and we are His! Halleluia!

Let’s read these powerful words from today’s song one more time:

So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
‘Cause all that I have is a hallelujah
And I know it’s not much
But I’ve nothing else fit for a King
Except for a heart singing hallelujah

Questions:

1. Did any of the lyrics in the song “Gratitude” stick out to you as especially meaningful at Christmastime?
2. Do you agree that the Christmas story is very similar to the story of the sick person in today’s lesson? Why or why not?
3. If you are comfortable sharing, has there ever been a time when you felt like throwing your hands up and crying out to God?
4. What is something we can do to thank Jesus for His sacrifice that gave us the gift of eternal life? What is a Christmas gift we can give Him?

The last two weeks, we’ve been talking about friendship. We started by establishing that God wants us to have great friends and that to have a friend we need to be a friend. Then, last week, we talked about how important love is in friendship and we identified some of the important ways we can love others to build friendships with them.

This week, we’ll talk about the most important friendship of all, which is our friendship with Jesus. This may sound odd since we typically think of friends as people we physically spend time with, text, or call on the phone. Those things would be great to do with Jesus but, at least until He returns to Earth, we can’t. So, then, how should we think about being friends with Jesus? We are fortunate that Jesus answered this question for us in John 15:15 which says:

I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Jesus said this to his disciples as part of a long set of instructions outlined in the four chapters from John 13 – 17. This took place in the short period between His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) and His crucifixion a few days later. These words were among His last in-person instructions to the disciples, who He had been training for over three years.

Being able to hang out with Jesus in-person for three straight years must have been an incredible adventure for these young men, all of whom were likely teenagers when they started following him. While there wasn’t a written test to graduate, Jesus was essentially recognizing all of them as graduates of the “Jesus academy”.

Specifically, He said to them “everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you”. And this fact is the basis on which He said they were qualified to be His friends. Note that He didn’t say they were friends because they knew everything He shared but simply because He had shared it with them. In other words, we can’t earn His friendship. It is a gift freely offered, like the salvation He offers.

Once again, we see an example of Jesus doing everything He can to build a friendship with us. And we see that gift of a friendship with Jesus is ours to take if we want it. Let’s go through a few questions to discuss what we can do now that we know this gift is being offered to us.

Questions:

• As we think back over the past three lessons on friendship, what are some of the main criteria for calling someone a true friend?
• As Christians, we think about Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but have you ever really thought about Him as a friend? Share any thoughts you have about that.
• Just because Jesus offers His friendship, does that mean we’re friends with Him? Why or why not?
• What does it mean to you to know that you can count on Jesus as a true friend?
• What are some things we can do to enhance our friendship with Jesus and become true friends?