Walking by Faith - Isaac
August 7, 2019
Notes for Kids’ Sermon - Walking by Faith - Isaac - 8/4/2019:
Supplies:
Mini marshmallows – one for each child
100 mini marshmallows in a Ziploc bag
4 Signs: “Obey,” “Stick with it,” “Honor,” “Love”
4 large drops of water, cut from blue construction paper (hold up when you talk about each well)
Bible (NIV) – Genesis 26: 1-5 and 12-32
Introduction:
Let’s pray. Father, open our ears and hearts to Your Word today. Holy Spirit, teach us the things that You would have us learn. We thank you in advance for this in the name of Jesus.
As you know, we are studying Faith. What is faith? Listen to answers from the kids.
Examples: When someone is explaining something to me, I like examples of what they are talking about. The same is true of faith.
What does faith look like in action? If someone is in faith, what does that look like?
Today we are going to look at what walking in faith looks like from a story in the Old Testament. We are going to look at a man called Isaac. Does anyone know who Isaac is? Son of Abraham, ancestor of Jesus.
Lesson:
Get out your bibles and turn to the very first chapter in the Bible. What is the name of that book?
Genesis, Chapter 26. I am going to read this story to you first, and then I am going to talk to you about how this is an example of walking in faith.
Read Genesis 26: 1-6 and 12-32 (NIV).
So, let’s go back to verse 1. What is a famine? A famine is usually caused by crop failure or disaster. Although the "extreme shortage of food" meaning is most common, the noun famine can also mean any shortage or insufficiency.
A drought. No rain and so the plants do not grow and there is no food. Grass doesn’t grow, so there is no grass for the sheep to eat. The lakes and rivers and shallow wells dry up and there is no water to drink. What happens when there is no food or water? Sheep and people die.
Isaac was a man with a lot of sheep, probably thousands of sheep in great big herds. He moved around the country to where there was plenty of grass and water because a lot of sheep need a lot of grass.
So, he moved to Gerar because he thought that there would be grass and water there. But, he must have also been thinking about going to Egypt. The Nile River in Egypt had a great big wide river valley where there was grass. Many years before this story of Isaac, Isaac’s father Abraham was faced with a famine and he went to Egypt with his sheep to find grass and water, so I guess Isaac was thinking about doing the same.
But in verse 2, God talks to Isaac and he tells him not to go to Egypt. (Read verses 2-5.) Now Isaac has a choice to make. He can either go to Egypt or stay in Gerar. He can obey God or do his own thing. Verse 6 tells us what he decided to do. He obeyed God.
Step 1: Obeying God is the first step to walking in faith. God told him what to do and Isaac did it. Walking in faith means that you believe what God said in his Word - the Bible - or in what he says to you through the Holy Spirit when He speaks to your spirit.
So what happened when Isaac obeyed God? Let’s look in verse 12-13. Isaac planted seeds even during this drought or famine, and God blessed him for his obedience. He planted and had a 100 fold return. That means, for every seed he planted, he got 100 seeds back.
Here is a mini marshmallow. I am giving everyone one. This one mini marshmallow represents one seed. If we planted one seed and got a 100 fold return, what would that look like? Here in this baggy is 100 mini marshmallows. Hold up the one marshmallow next to the baggy. That is 100 fold return. That is a big increase.
Obeying God brings the blessing.
Step 2: Sticking with it even in adversity. So, Isaac was blessed by God and everyone knew it.
Read Verse 14-16. So, the king didn’t like the fact that Isaac was getting so rich, so he told him to move away from there. Isaac was settled and had made his home there, but the king told him to leave. He was facing adversity. Does anyone know what adversity is? Difficulties, bad luck, hard things.
Obeying God means that you will be blessed, but it also means that you may have to face adversities, too. In order to stay in faith, Isaac had to believe that even when the king kicked him and his sheep out of the country, God was still with him. So Isaac stuck with it, even when bad stuff happened. And bad stuff did happen.
Read Verses 17-22. So not only did he have to move, he had to dig wells everywhere he went to make sure he had enough water for his sheep. But, he had to dig and dig and dig. So, these drops of water represent the wells he had to dig.
Drop 1. Verse 19. The shepherds of the land argued with him and took over the well. Esek - dispute
Drop 2. Verse 21. Dug another well and they argued over that one too. Sitnah - opposition
Drop 3. Verse 22. Dug another, but he was so far away by that point that the shepherds did not try to take over that one, so there was peace. Rehoboth – room
Step 3: Honor God. The next thing Isaac did to walk in faith was to honor God. Even though he had to go through all that adversity, Isaac still had faith in God and he showed it by honoring God.
Verse 23-25. Isaac built an altar to God and prayed and sacrificed to God.
If you and I were to honor God like Isaac did, we would go to church and tithe and give offerings and pray and praise God all the time. Honoring God is recognizing Him for what He has brought you through and His continued blessings on you. In spite of all the trouble, staying close to God and continually honoring Him is walking in faith.
Step 4: Love Other People. One of the things that is key to walking in faith is loving your neighbor, no matter what. In Galatians 5:5-6 (AMPC), Paul tells us this.
5 For we, [not relying on the Law but] through the [Holy] Spirit’s [help], by faith anticipate and wait for the blessing and good for which our righteousness and right standing with God [our conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action, causes us] to hope.
6 For [if we are] in Christ Jesus, (neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything,) but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love.
So, let’s look at Isaac’s story again. Remember that the King of Gerar kicked him out of the country and the shepherds of the land took over the wells that he dug. I can imagine that this made Isaac mad, but he did not fuss with the king, he just moved. He had faith that God would take care of him even if he had to live somewhere else.
But now Isaac had a new challenge. Even though the King of Gerar hurt his feelings, he had to walk in love and be kind to the King. Let’s read verses 26-31. The King came and wanted Isaac to forgive him and make an agreement with him that they would be friends and not become enemies. You see Isaac became so great, that the King was now afraid of him. Isaac could have refused to become friends with the king or he could have started a war or even killed him, but he didn’t. He walked in love and accepted his offer of friendship.
Walking in love is so important. It keeps the blessing flowing as we see in verse 32.
Drop 4. Dug well and found more water. Shibah – oath
The finding of water at Shibah is a symbol of God’s continued blessings on Isaac for his faithfulness. You can expect that God will continue to bless you if you show kindness toward your family, classmates in school, and people you meet every day. When you are kind to people even when they are not kind to you, God will bless you.
Conclusion:
So the story of Isaac is a story of walking in faith. It shows us how to walk in faith through the four steps.
1. Obey God – Bible and Holy Spirit
2. Stick with it in the face of adversity – even when bad things happen
3. Honor God – go to church, tithes and offerings, pray, read Bible
4. Love others – Show kindness even to people who are not nice to us
So, what are the four steps to walking in faith?
Let’s pray. Thank you, Lord, for showing us in your Word those things that will help us walk in faith. You have given us the Bible so we can know what to do to please you. As we start a new school year, remind us that we are your hands and feet, that the kindness we show others is a reflection of your love for everybody. We take that seriously and ask your continual strength, so we can walk that out. Guide and protect us. In Jesus name, Amen.
