Family Service
Sunday, July 25th, 2021
FINAL WEEK of POWER UP!
Families, gather around and enjoy this service together. Watch the video and then use the discussion questions below to have a conversation about the lesson.
Week 8 of
POWER UP!
Parents, whether your kids are attending church, or worshiping at home online - this page is FOR YOU as well as for them! Watch with your kids and then use the discussion questions below to have an intention conversation on the week's lesson. If your kids attend Highpoint Church with Pastor Karl, it's a great review! If not, welcome! And we hope you'll have a great time learning about Jesus!
If you enjoy these services, let Pastor Karl know. Your feedback is always encouraging!
THIS SERIES EXPLORES THE GREATEST STORIES OF THE BIBLE AND THE "POWER UPS" GOD'S PEOPLE USED TO BE VICTORIOUS IN THE CHALLENGES THEY FACED!
Sunday's Video:
There are many amazing stories in the Bible, but JESUS is the greatest hero of them all! After all, He saved the world! What does it mean to "accept Jesus" and follow Him? How can you be saved? Here is Pastor Karl explaining it:
Learn it - Live it!
This weeks Power Up: MEEKNESS
Today we are learning about the GREATEST HERO of them ALL! Jesus Christ!
You all know the Christmas Story. It’s actually unfortunate we usually only tell it at Christmas time, but it’s not really a Christmas story – it is the story of God coming to earth. If you think about it, that’s a pretty big event! GOD, the CREATOR decided to come to earth to meet his people in person, to teach them, help them, love them, and ultimately save them. I don’t know about you, but if I were to give God advice about how to make His grand entrance into the history of earth – the entrance that would forever determine our calendar and set events in motion that would lead to the creation of nations – I don’t think I would have recommended a birth to an unknown girl marrying some lowly carpenter, and certainly not poor people. I wouldn’t have had GOD born in a stable and laid in a food trough for animals. I wouldn’t have smelly shepherds be the first to meet him or have him born where the king would try to kill him so his parents had to run and hide and raise him in a foreign country. Honestly, as cute at the Christmas Story is, I wouldn’t even have recommended God arrive as a little, weak, naked, smelly, crying baby. It’s so... beneath the majesty of the King of Kings. No, I would have had the sky part, trumpets sound, an Army of Angels, surrounded by smoke and lightning, and I’d have recommended Jesus make His big entrance on the back of a white winged horse carrying a huge flaming sword! But, yea, He did the baby-in-the-manger thing, because, well, He’s meek. He could have done all that cool stuff, but He held it back to come as a Humble servant and Savior.
After that baby grew up, He started going around and doing all kinds of cool things. He made blind people see, handicapped people walk, even dead people come back to life! He fed a crowd of thousands with just a few fish and loaves. He walked on water, but more importantly, he walked with people, all over the place, telling them about God. He told stories, did object lessons just like we do in kids church, and helped people understand just how much God loves them. When He was attacked by religious leaders who didn’t like Him, He didn’t fight back. In fact, He forgave them. They didn’t like Jesus’ message that you didn’t need all their rules to go to heaven, that you just needed to love God and follow Jesus, so one day, they came and arrested Jesus! Did He zap them with lightning from heaven? Nope. In fact, when one of his disciples, Peter, attacked a solider and cut off his ear, Jesus healed the soldier’s ear, and then went with the soldiers to a fake trial where He knew they were going to sentence Him to die.
It doesn’t sound like Jesus was Leveling Up – but in truth, He was. His enemies thought they were defeating Him and getting rid of Him. What they didn’t understand was that the entire reason Jesus came was to save, not only the people he was ministering to, but his enemies, too. They wanted to get rid of Jesus, but Jesus had come to die for them. They wanted him to lose, but in doing so, they were actually helping him to win. As you probably know, they put him through a fake trial, made up lies about him, and sentenced him to death. Soon, he would die on the cross for our sins. He died to take our place, dying a death that we deserve, because we are the ones who disobeyed our Creator. Jesus never did even one thing wrong.
We started this Level Up game with the Story of Christmas. Do you know what the other big holiday is that is all about Jesus? (Allow the kids to respond.) Yes, Easter, of course! That is the Spring holiday when we celebrate that Jesus did not stay in the grave but rose again from the dead! And just like Jesus’ birth should not be only talked about in December when we celebrate Christmas, we shouldn’t only talk about Jesus’ resurrection in the Spring on Easter. It is the single most important event in all of human history! If Jesus had not risen again from the dead, while he might have been a good man, he would be no different and no better than any other religious leader in human history. What sets Jesus apart and makes Him different from every other religious leader on the planet? He is the only founder of a religion that, when he died, did not stay dead. There is no grave where you can go visit the founder of Christianity. Jesus finally used his incredible power to prove that he was indeed who he said he was, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, indeed the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
You all know the Christmas Story. It’s actually unfortunate we usually only tell it at Christmas time, but it’s not really a Christmas story – it is the story of God coming to earth. If you think about it, that’s a pretty big event! GOD, the CREATOR decided to come to earth to meet his people in person, to teach them, help them, love them, and ultimately save them. I don’t know about you, but if I were to give God advice about how to make His grand entrance into the history of earth – the entrance that would forever determine our calendar and set events in motion that would lead to the creation of nations – I don’t think I would have recommended a birth to an unknown girl marrying some lowly carpenter, and certainly not poor people. I wouldn’t have had GOD born in a stable and laid in a food trough for animals. I wouldn’t have smelly shepherds be the first to meet him or have him born where the king would try to kill him so his parents had to run and hide and raise him in a foreign country. Honestly, as cute at the Christmas Story is, I wouldn’t even have recommended God arrive as a little, weak, naked, smelly, crying baby. It’s so... beneath the majesty of the King of Kings. No, I would have had the sky part, trumpets sound, an Army of Angels, surrounded by smoke and lightning, and I’d have recommended Jesus make His big entrance on the back of a white winged horse carrying a huge flaming sword! But, yea, He did the baby-in-the-manger thing, because, well, He’s meek. He could have done all that cool stuff, but He held it back to come as a Humble servant and Savior.
After that baby grew up, He started going around and doing all kinds of cool things. He made blind people see, handicapped people walk, even dead people come back to life! He fed a crowd of thousands with just a few fish and loaves. He walked on water, but more importantly, he walked with people, all over the place, telling them about God. He told stories, did object lessons just like we do in kids church, and helped people understand just how much God loves them. When He was attacked by religious leaders who didn’t like Him, He didn’t fight back. In fact, He forgave them. They didn’t like Jesus’ message that you didn’t need all their rules to go to heaven, that you just needed to love God and follow Jesus, so one day, they came and arrested Jesus! Did He zap them with lightning from heaven? Nope. In fact, when one of his disciples, Peter, attacked a solider and cut off his ear, Jesus healed the soldier’s ear, and then went with the soldiers to a fake trial where He knew they were going to sentence Him to die.
It doesn’t sound like Jesus was Leveling Up – but in truth, He was. His enemies thought they were defeating Him and getting rid of Him. What they didn’t understand was that the entire reason Jesus came was to save, not only the people he was ministering to, but his enemies, too. They wanted to get rid of Jesus, but Jesus had come to die for them. They wanted him to lose, but in doing so, they were actually helping him to win. As you probably know, they put him through a fake trial, made up lies about him, and sentenced him to death. Soon, he would die on the cross for our sins. He died to take our place, dying a death that we deserve, because we are the ones who disobeyed our Creator. Jesus never did even one thing wrong.
We started this Level Up game with the Story of Christmas. Do you know what the other big holiday is that is all about Jesus? (Allow the kids to respond.) Yes, Easter, of course! That is the Spring holiday when we celebrate that Jesus did not stay in the grave but rose again from the dead! And just like Jesus’ birth should not be only talked about in December when we celebrate Christmas, we shouldn’t only talk about Jesus’ resurrection in the Spring on Easter. It is the single most important event in all of human history! If Jesus had not risen again from the dead, while he might have been a good man, he would be no different and no better than any other religious leader in human history. What sets Jesus apart and makes Him different from every other religious leader on the planet? He is the only founder of a religion that, when he died, did not stay dead. There is no grave where you can go visit the founder of Christianity. Jesus finally used his incredible power to prove that he was indeed who he said he was, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, indeed the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
GOD CONTROLLER:
REMOTE CONTROLLED BY GOD!
We’ve learned about a lot of buttons on your controller, and each has an important purpose, but for this final lesson, let’s talk about the most important button of them all. Any guesses which that would be? (Allow the kids to guess.) That’s right, it is the POWER button. The POWER button is the very first one you turn on. Without the POWER button, there is not only no winning, there’s also not even a game to play. If we want to win a game, before we can go forward, or backwards, or duck, or jump, or attack, or build, or even hit pause, we have to turn the game on. There is no winning without power. In real life, if we want to be real winners, if we want to experience what God has planned for us, we have to have Jesus in our life. Only Jesus can give us the POWER to win and be victorious. If you have never asked Jesus to be your Savior, to be the leader of your life, then there’s absolutely no chance of winning in life.
We’ve learned about a lot of buttons on your controller, and each has an important purpose, but for this final lesson, let’s talk about the most important button of them all. Any guesses which that would be? (Allow the kids to guess.) That’s right, it is the POWER button. The POWER button is the very first one you turn on. Without the POWER button, there is not only no winning, there’s also not even a game to play. If we want to win a game, before we can go forward, or backwards, or duck, or jump, or attack, or build, or even hit pause, we have to turn the game on. There is no winning without power. In real life, if we want to be real winners, if we want to experience what God has planned for us, we have to have Jesus in our life. Only Jesus can give us the POWER to win and be victorious. If you have never asked Jesus to be your Savior, to be the leader of your life, then there’s absolutely no chance of winning in life.
HAVE YOU ACCEPTED JESUS AS YOUR SAVIOR?
Let me ask you the single most important question anyone could ever ask you in your entire life. The question is simply, “What have you done with Jesus?” Have you asked Jesus to be your Savior? Have you come to the point in your life when you realize that you can never win on your own? In video games you sometimes get several lives, sometimes you get to respawn, or just reset the game and start over. But in real life, we only get one life. Unfortunately, the Bible tells us that we have already failed the first levels of the Game of Life. Meaning, we have already done bad things. The Bible calls that sin. But the Good News is that Jesus has come, he has completed the game for us, so we don’t have to win on our own. This is a good thing, since we can’t anyway. We don’t have to fight the Boss Battle, because Jesus already fought it for us, and won! All we have to do is tell him that we are sorry for our sins, that we want his forgiveness, and we get to pass all the way to the Winners Circle!
If you would like to accept Jesus, here is a very simple prayer you can pray right now:
Dear Jesus, I know that I have sinned, I have done bad things. But I’ve also learned that you came and died on the cross to pay the penalty for sins. I also know that you did not stay dead, but you rose again to prove your power over death and that someday you can raise me, too! Please forgive me and welcome me into your family. Thank you for forgiving me! Help me no, to live for you every day in every way even when it’s hard. In Jesus name, AMEN.
If you prayed that for the first time, and really meant it, you just got the ULTIMATE POWER UP of them all, the Power Up of Salvation!
Let me ask you the single most important question anyone could ever ask you in your entire life. The question is simply, “What have you done with Jesus?” Have you asked Jesus to be your Savior? Have you come to the point in your life when you realize that you can never win on your own? In video games you sometimes get several lives, sometimes you get to respawn, or just reset the game and start over. But in real life, we only get one life. Unfortunately, the Bible tells us that we have already failed the first levels of the Game of Life. Meaning, we have already done bad things. The Bible calls that sin. But the Good News is that Jesus has come, he has completed the game for us, so we don’t have to win on our own. This is a good thing, since we can’t anyway. We don’t have to fight the Boss Battle, because Jesus already fought it for us, and won! All we have to do is tell him that we are sorry for our sins, that we want his forgiveness, and we get to pass all the way to the Winners Circle!
If you would like to accept Jesus, here is a very simple prayer you can pray right now:
Dear Jesus, I know that I have sinned, I have done bad things. But I’ve also learned that you came and died on the cross to pay the penalty for sins. I also know that you did not stay dead, but you rose again to prove your power over death and that someday you can raise me, too! Please forgive me and welcome me into your family. Thank you for forgiving me! Help me no, to live for you every day in every way even when it’s hard. In Jesus name, AMEN.
If you prayed that for the first time, and really meant it, you just got the ULTIMATE POWER UP of them all, the Power Up of Salvation!
