“JESUS TOOK A DEMOTION”
YEAH! CHURCH - SUNDAY, JANUARY 9, 2022
Doing Life with Jesus”
2022 Theme verses:
Colossians 2:6-7, NLT – “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
Today’s Lesson - “Jesus Took a Demotion”
Video Story/Resource:
https://www.kidology.org/andy (Resource to explain the incarnation to children)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l8QMgKvXdA (Douglas Talks – Putting Others First)
Be humble…like Jesus!
Philippians 2:5-8, NLT – “ You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”
Can you imagine the president of a country giving up his/her job to become a fry cook at McDonalds? Nope! Not gonna happen. Why would someone so important give up their position to do a job that is far less important? Well, the Apostle Paul tells us that God did something similar—Jesus gave up His ‘divine privileges’ to become a human being. That meant that he chose to ‘obey’…he would no longer be in charge, but would take his orders from God the Father.
Why in heaven would he do that? Because he loved us! We know from the book of Genesis in the Bible that God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) created the whole world. But when the first people disobeyed God, sin infected the planet and people were doomed to spend eternity in hell away from God as a consequence. God loved people so much that he couldn’t bear to see that happen and wanted to give people the choice to be forgiven.
The way to make the choice, however, came with a huge price tag. God the Son chose to come to earth as a human being so that he could die and suffer the punishment we deserved…in our place.
Jesus didn’t hesitate. In order to help us, he chose to become one of us…he literally gave himself a demotion in order to do so. Thank you, Jesus! But that’s not all there is to it. The Apostle Paul tells us that we should have the same attitude as Jesus did. If we see that someone needs help and we are able to, nothing should stop us. Helping other people can sometimes cost us money, we can lose out on sleep, we might have to share our stuff and sometimes it may mean not getting everything we want and we need to ‘take a demotion.’ Being like Jesus is not easy, but if we are truly grateful for all that he had done for us, we should work hard to be…each and everyday!
Engage:
• Jesus was God. Why would he agree to become human?
• Jesus willingly gave up many of his ‘divine privileges’ when he became God-human. Can you think of some of the things that Jesus gave up?
• Jesus created the world, but as a human baby he had much to learn. What things would Jesus have had to learn?
• We are to have the same attitude Jesus had…ready to help others, no matter the cost. Can you think of someone who needs your help today? What will you do?
Weekly verses:
Philippians 2:3-4, NLT – “3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”
Family Activity – Why not make some cookies to take to someone else? https://www.foodnetwork.com/.../simple-chocolate-chip...
Prayer – Dear God, we have so much to be thankful for! Thank you for Jesus’ example of putting others before himself. Help me to have the same attitude of Jesus…caring about others more than myself.
~ Pastor Jane