Hey Kids, Let's Talk
Hey Kids, Let's Talk
RULES AND REST
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Maya, Marcelo and Dylan join Pastor Jim to talk about the Sabbath Day of Rest and what it really means!
Hey kids! Let's talk! Thank you for listening to the Parkway Kids Podcast. Today we're talking about something very important. And here's your host, Pastor Jim.
SPEAKER_02Alright, everybody, here we are, and we are in my office. I'm Pastor Jim, and I'm the child children's pastor at Parkway Fellowship in Richmond, Texas. And I have some amazing young people across the way from me here, and their parents are sitting over here on some of them, are sitting over here on the side. It's so good to have you guys here. So, Maya, you all right?
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02She was like point church. I was scared like you were choking or something. Uh so uh it it it's so good to have these guys here tonight. We're gonna do uh we're gonna do this podcast. It's uh it's about a lesson that the big people are gonna hear in church this Sunday. So it's a exciting, exciting lesson, and uh it's good to bring you uh some kids' thoughts about all this. And uh so yeah, we're just gonna jump right in. So I'm gonna ask people their names and what grade you're in and what your favorite summer activity, because summer is coming up. It's been a little bit warm here in Houston the last couple days, so it's reminded us that summer is on its way. So I'm gonna start over here, right over here with this young man in the red shirt. What is your name and what grade and other stuff?
SPEAKER_04Hello, my name is Dylan, and my favorite summer activity is going on vacation.
SPEAKER_02Going on vacation. What grade are you in, Dylan?
SPEAKER_04Fourth.
SPEAKER_02Fourth grade, and where do you like to go on vacation?
SPEAKER_04Last year um my parents went on a cruise and they took us. And I think I and not this summer, but next summer we're gonna go on another one.
SPEAKER_02Another cruise? Where did you guys go on your cruise?
SPEAKER_04We went to Mexico and Honduras.
SPEAKER_02Awesome! That was fun. What was your favorite thing about the cruise?
SPEAKER_04Well, when we went to Honduras, like the water there was like so clear and like teal that you could literally see the fish swimming.
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's awesome. Okay, next, right here in the middle. What's your name, grade, and your favorite summer activity?
SPEAKER_03Hi, my name is Marcelo. I'm in fourth grade. My favorite summer activities are probably just drawing with my friends and swimming in my aunt's pool in Mexico.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, Mexico again, man. You guys awesome. So um your aunt lives in Mexico, so do you visit her every summer or do you just ever so often?
SPEAKER_03Uh my whole family lives in Mexico and we usually go there every summer. Sometimes we don't, and sometimes we don't.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, it's that's a great summer activity. I remember going to the pool with my friends. The pool that I had as a kid, it was so the water was so cold, and I was like, I was always like, why is this water so cold? And they said it was from a spring. The water that we had in our pool in my town was from a spring, and it felt like it was barely above freezing. But after a while, it felt good. It was it was amazing. Okay, so next, nice to have you, Marcelo. Next on the list. Hit it.
SPEAKER_07Hi, my name is Maya. I'm in fifth grade, and my favorite summer activity was dance camp.
SPEAKER_02Dance camp. Did that did that help you in your uh in your cheerleading stuff too?
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Well, tell everybody what you do, what you just came back from.
SPEAKER_07NCA.
SPEAKER_02NCA, like a like a cheerleading competition. Awesome. Well, it's so good to have you guys here. Okay, so I need everybody to say Matthew.
SPEAKER_07Matthew, Matthew.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that was a week. That was like all three different times. Okay, we're gonna have to practice. Matthew!
SPEAKER_04Matthew!
SPEAKER_02Oh, that was so much better. Eleven.
SPEAKER_04Eleven.
SPEAKER_02Twenty-eight. Twenty-eight.
SPEAKER_06Matthew.
SPEAKER_04Matthew.
SPEAKER_06Eleven.
SPEAKER_04Twenty-eight!
SPEAKER_06Twenty-eight!
SPEAKER_02Matthew 28, 11, 11. Matthew 11, 28 is an awesome, awesome scripture. And it says, I will give you rest. Okay, so we have some signs. We're gonna I'm gonna tell you uh what to do to say the words. It's gonna remind us what to say. So when we point up to God, what word are we gonna say, do you think?
SPEAKER_04God.
SPEAKER_02No, not God. But it was close. It's I. Because we're talking about God. He says I. So when we point up to God, we're gonna say I. Ready? Hit it.
SPEAKER_05I.
SPEAKER_02That was pretty good. Okay, I. Now, will put take your right hand, open your palm, and put it by your ear, and then bring it down, and that's sign language for the word will. Okay? So what word do we say when we do this motion?
SPEAKER_05Will.
SPEAKER_02Nice. So what was this?
SPEAKER_05I will.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Now the next word is really easy. You put something in your hand and then you extend it out like you're giving it to somebody. And that's sign language for the word give. Okay, so what word do we say when we put our hand out like that?
SPEAKER_05Give.
SPEAKER_02Nice.
SPEAKER_05So from the beginning, Matthew 11, 28 says, I will give.
SPEAKER_02Now this one is easy. You point at somebody and say you.
SPEAKER_05You. You.
SPEAKER_02I'm so glad not. You guys usually they point all at me, and I'm like, don't point at me, point at somebody else. So you guys all pointed at somebody else. That's awesome. Okay, so that is what we say, what we say, you. Okay, so let's start it from the beginning.
SPEAKER_05Matthew 11, 28 says, I will give you.
SPEAKER_02Now, the most important word in this sentence, well, other than I, because we're talking about God. So we're gonna do the um rest. So see, uh dominant hand in the flat O shape. So palm faces upward, hand starts in front of the torso, and then move. You know, I don't know, I don't even know what that means. Let's just do let's just do a pillow and put it on, put like your hand on side your head and lean your head over and say, rest. Rest that's so much easier.
SPEAKER_05Okay, from the beginning, Matthew 11, 28 says, I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I almost fell asleep. Sorry, I almost fell asleep while I was saying rest. Okay, I will give you rest. So this is what Matthew 11, 28 through 30 says in the message. Are you tired? Yes. Worn out? Yes. Burned out on religion. Well, not so much. Come to me, get away with me, and you'll you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. Oh man, I love that. So that's God and Jesus saying that. And it's uh Matthew 11, 28 through 30 in the message. So we're gonna say the scripture uh maybe one more time, maybe two, and depending on how well you do. Okay, so Matthew 11, 28 says what?
SPEAKER_05I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I like that scripture. I will give you rest. Good job, everybody. Give yourself a pat on the back. That's from me. Wow, that had to hurt. That was a that was a solid. Okay, we're gonna do a thing called a rock and roll story. Here we go. It's rock and rolls. Did you find it, Maya? Nice. Alright. I didn't hear anybody singing. Okay, well, I'll expect you to sing on these uh songs, on these words. Okay, when I say the word Pharisees or rules, we're gonna sing danger. Oh, I didn't hear that one right. Pharisees are rulers or rules. When I say Jesus, we're gonna sing. What was that, Marcello?
SPEAKER_06That's not like I like it.
SPEAKER_02Okay, when I say the word heal or rest, now we're gonna sing that song. You guys know that one good. All right. In the book of Matthew, everybody say, Matthew. Chapter 12, we read a true story about Jesus. You know you one Sabbath, Jesus and his disciples were strolling through a field of ripe grain. Hungry, everybody say, Oh, I'm so hungry.
SPEAKER_04I am hungry.
SPEAKER_02The disciples were pulling off the heads of grain and munching on them. Some Pharisees got mad and reported it to Jesus. You make me the Pharisees said, Your disciples are breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus said to them, There is more to this than trying to follow strict rules.
SPEAKER_06Danger.
SPEAKER_02I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual or rule.
SPEAKER_06Danger! Uh-huh. Danger!
SPEAKER_02The Son of Man is uh is no yes man to the Sabbath. He's in charge of the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_06When Jesus left the field, he entered a meeting place.
SPEAKER_02Don't forget, it's still the Sabbath. Do you guys know what Sabbath is? It's a day, it's a day of rest. So it starts for the Jewish people, it starts Friday night at sundown and ends Saturday night at sundown. So it's a day that they're they're really supposed to rest. Okay, so Jesus is doing stuff during the Sabbath. Okay, so when he left the field, he entered a meeting place. Don't forget, it's still the Sabbath. There was a man there with a crippled hand. The Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus.
SPEAKER_06You know you make me want to kick my heels up the shell.
SPEAKER_02They said to him, Is it legal to heal? On the Sabbath, well, in their ruled following minds, it was. It was not legal. It was it was breaking the rules. Imagine that be but to put those Pharisees in their place, Jesus, you live in the mid-minute woman told the man with the crippled hand, hold it out. And when the man did, his hand was healed. Jesus, you live me proved that rules don't equal rest. Oh, I love that story.
SPEAKER_01So that video player guitars and rumbles.
SPEAKER_02Nice. So what part of the story did you like the best and why?
SPEAKER_04When Jesus healed his hand.
SPEAKER_02When Jesus healed his hand on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees were like, What just happened? It's like this. They were there was drama in their minds. But when Jesus healed the guy's hand, man, that was an awesome time in that story. Okay, anybody else got a thought? What's your favorite part of the story?
SPEAKER_07Everything.
SPEAKER_02Everything. Everything. That's good. I like the part where the disciples are they're walking through a field and they see some grain on, you know, like a wheat, wheat, like a wheat field, and so they're starting to pick the heads off of the because they're hungry. And the Pharisees are just getting all upset, like, oh, look at what they're doing. They're actually doing work on the Sabbath. Bum, bum, bum, bum. But then Jesus said, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. You guys don't understand what the Sabbath, a day of rest, should mean. They had taken a day of Sabbath and made it into a bunch of rules and things that you had to follow in order to be a true follower of God, which is completely false. So, anybody else got any thoughts about the favorite part of the story or anything? Okay, cool. Uh why do you think the Pharisees were s so strict with their rules?
SPEAKER_04Maybe because, like, um, it's been passed down through generations.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. It's been passed down through generations. Do you think it had anything to do with controlling people?
SPEAKER_04I don't think they were trying to, but they ended up doing it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't think they're probably at the beginning, they didn't, they were just trying to create these rules. But it became so so burdensome that you could So Jesus also told a story in this passage that I didn't talk about in the story, but he said it the does if you guys own animals and one of them anim one of the animals falls in a ditch on the Sabbath, are you going to save that animal out of the ditch?
SPEAKER_05Yes. No. I would.
SPEAKER_02Maybe Yeah, I think you're gonna save that animal out of the ditch. It just because it's Sabbath doesn't mean you can't do something that's absolutely necessary. They were just trying to create rules to make it so burdensome, and it became this thing that was like, put your hands on your shoulders and just press down like this became this thing. Dylan, come on, man. Come on, come on, Maya, push your shoulders down like uh make some noises.
SPEAKER_04Go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It became this thing that it was like they were so caught up in the rules that they didn't have any compassion about it. They didn't have any any like I don't know, uh like love for for stuff. Okay, so uh what's the difference between working to get stuff done and working with compassion? What do you think?
SPEAKER_04Working to get stuff done, you get a reward at the end. And working um for just for like just for love, um, it it gives you the reward of like you just made this man happy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. So what do you think? I mean, they both have merit. They both have merit. Like working to get stuff done is good, but sometimes I think we get so caught up in the rules that we forget to have love and compassion about it. So do you guys have a story about doing something out of love or receiving something out of love that you that I okay, I'll I'll maybe help you. So one time, a long time ago, my kids and I and my wife, we were living in a house in Cleveland, and we had some next door neighbors that were very elderly, and so the guy would go out to mow his grass, it was getting kind of tall, and he had one of those electric lawnmowers, and that he would go and and he would do one strip of grass and then act like I gotta go sit down, and he would go back in the house and go sit down, and then he would be gone for a little bit, and so then he would come back out and do another strip of grass, and I went over, I was like, Oh, I feel sorry for this guy. And so I went over and I said, Hey, hey uh friend, can can I help you with your grass? Can I help you with your yard? And he's like, Oh no, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. And I was like, Oh, I feel so bad. And so I I made a scheme. I made a scheme with my kids. I said, Hey, hey guys, we're gonna go over and help the guy mow his grass, and we're not even gonna we're not even gonna say anything to him, we're just gonna do it. And so they would leave to go to the doctor or visit somebody on Saturday, and they so I said, Okay, when they leave, we're gonna go over and get their grass mowed and do a bunch of stuff in their yard. And so they left and we were we were mowed their grass, and my kids were like your guys' age, and we mowed and we raked and we cut and trimmed branches and cleaned up all the sticks and there was it was just a uh it was a it was a big job, but we did it because we wanted to bless them and to show them that we loved them. So then we ran back inside after we were done, we went back in our house, and we kind of waited by the window to see when they came home what they would what they would do. And so they came in, they came back from from their trip, and they got out of the car and they were just all look looking around like what happened to our yard? And and we were just like, oh. And I said, see kids, we didn't have to do that, but how did that make you feel? How do you think that made us feel when when we saw their reaction?
SPEAKER_04Excitement. Happy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we were happy and excited, and later on, the lady, the the lady of the house, she came over to our house and she gave us a piece of furniture, and and she said, she pointed her finger at me and said, We know it was you who mowed our grass all those times. I said, Yeah, uh it was us. But we wanted to do we wanted to show you that we love you. So there's a big difference between working because you have to, and working with rest, working with compassion. So, do you have a story about working with compassion, doing something for somebody that they didn't expect?
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_02Okay, get it.
SPEAKER_04Um Dylan. So about a few weeks ago, um uh me I was dropping my sister off on a Sunday. Yeah, and then we're about to go to big church, and then Pastor Jim was like, Do you want to come see the puppet show? And I'm like, Yeah. And then now I'm doing it like every two services, and it's compassion.
SPEAKER_02That's true.
SPEAKER_04I'm not working to get it done, I'm working because I like it.
SPEAKER_02You like it, and it's because you're doing something for the smaller kids. Yeah. Your sister's in that class, isn't she? So he's doing the puppets and helping us with that. So that's doing something out of compassion. It's not something that you have to do, but it makes you feel good when you do something that uh that is that fun and that. Uh anybody else got anything? Anyone else? anybody else? anybody else? Bueller? Bueller? Okay, uh, okay, so your assignment. Okay, one more question. Do we struggle with rest? Do we struggle with rest? Do we struggle with rest in our bodies? Do we rest with do we struggle with rest in our souls? How do we how do we fight the the hardness of being always having to do something and not resting? How do we how do you think we rest with with God in mind? Do you guys have any ideas?
SPEAKER_04Praying.
SPEAKER_02Praying is a good thing.
SPEAKER_04Reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_02Reading the Bible, not having to have a screen in front of you all the time. You know, reading a book, uh, talking with your family, uh, blessing a neighbor, figuring out something that you can do to to show them compassion and love. Those are the things that kind of help, I know they help me, they they surely help Dylan too, but they help everybody who does that those kind of things because you are doing something out of compassion and out of love for somebody, and that's that's going to give you rest. It even though it's kind of counteractive, like it doesn't make sense all the time, but you you're actually doing something compassionate for somebody, that's going to give you a really great feeling. Like when Jesus touched that guy in in the church, and he said, Stretch your hand out, and a guy stretched his hand out and it was completely healed. I'm sure Jesus was like, Oh yeah, that was good. That was really, really good. So okay, your assignment this week. Ask your parents how they will rest this week. Ask them how how they're going to rest this week. So, that's your assignment. So, this this message will make a lot more sense to your parents who are sitting here after church on Sunday because they're gonna hear a whole message about it. So make sure you ask them how they are going to rest. Are they gonna rest their body? I hope so. Are they gonna rest their minds? I hope so. Are they going to rest their spirits? Like we rest our spirits because when we come to church we rest and we do worship, and those are those are all things that help us rest with God. So that's your assignment for this week. And when I see you, I'm going to ask you have you asked your parents about rest? Okay. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay, cool. Uh who wants to give a shout-out? Somebody. Oh Maya Maya wants to go first.
SPEAKER_07I want to shout out to Abigail.
SPEAKER_02Abigail. She's in Mexico. She's in Mexico? We have a lot of Mexico connections here tonight. Nice. I love it. So, um Abigail, is she in your grade? Okay, so she's on like spring break now?
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Oh, that's nice. Good shout-out. So, what's Abigail do that makes you uh happy?
SPEAKER_07We just have fun a lot together at school.
SPEAKER_02Nice, nice. Do you guys ever just rest? Or do you always do stuff?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_02You don't always do stuff, you just kind of hang out?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Nice. That's good rest. Okay, who else?
SPEAKER_04Me.
SPEAKER_02Dylan. Hit it. So who do you want to give a shout-out to?
SPEAKER_04Um, my sister.
SPEAKER_02Oh Savannah. Savannah. She's probably listening to this right now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, probably.
SPEAKER_02And she I know she's smiling too much because I always see her, she's smiling too much, just like Marcella's smiling too much right now. So, yes, Savannah. Nice. Anybody else you want to give a shout-out to?
SPEAKER_04Also myself.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Nice. Shout out to the show. So who's your who's your uh who's your puppet? Who do you do again?
SPEAKER_04Uh grape.
SPEAKER_02Grape. Yes, he's got he's the little he's a little monster puppet about.
SPEAKER_04The tiny purple one.
SPEAKER_02And we have uh we have vegetables and and fruit names for them. So you're grape. So Marcella, you got anybody you want to give a shout-out to?
SPEAKER_03Oh my friends, you know what you did.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you know what you did. Wait, I got a sound effect for that. Alright, so uh great, great shout-outs. Um, thank you for being here tonight. And Dylan, I think you're gonna pray.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Alright, let's go.
SPEAKER_04Dear God, thank you for my life and everybody else's life. Please let everybody that's listening here ask for forgiveness from God and let them believe that Jesus is the Son of Christ. Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_02Amen. Great prayer.