July 14 - Combined Sunday School - Purity

This Week's Supported Workers of the Week are the Layers in Poland.
Check out this video about their ministry.

Click HERE for Sunday's combined Sunday School notes sheet and coloring page.

For a list of songs we sing, click HERE

Definition: 

To pursue moral purity means choosing to live by the highest moral principles in both speech and physical relations despite your own desires to do otherwise and despite any external pressures to compromise.

For Mike DIckinson's breakdown of this definition, go to drodgersjr.blogspot.com/2024/07/purity.html23.

Memory Verse: Psalm 119:9, 11

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.

Some verses to look at:

• Psalm 119: 9, 11
• Romans 8
• Philippians 4:8
• 1 Timothy 4:12
• 1 Timothy 5:1-2
• 1 Timothy 5:22 

The Desiring God article entitled "More Than Sexual Purity" contains an excellent challenge for Christian men.

Where would you look in the Bible to build a stronger, fuller vision for Christian men?

First Timothy 4:12 is a familiar, yet strangely overlooked, map for men.  The apostle Paul writes to his spiritual son, Timothy, a young man (not child) and elder in the church,

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

In your Christian living, do you consider how you speak and spend your life, what good you are to others, how passionate you are for God, and how you live a pure life?

The same article states that "worldliness - overt or subtle devotion to pop culture, sports, movies, shopping, social media, or whatever lures you must - can be as spiritually polluting as sexual temptation (James 1:27)."

A godly, pure life is not lived in our own strength.  It must be lived in dependence on the holiness of God the Father, the work of God the Son, and the power of God the Holy Spirit.

"The battleground of a Christian war is your heart...  This is a war for your soul.  And, like most wars, it is fought to be won or lost.  There is no peacekeeping treaty.  God is jealous for your heart, and he is not going to concede this territory to the devil (Jer. 31:33)."  Reju, Deepak.  Pornography: Fighting for Purity

Remember, Purity is a Heart Battle.

 

Don't Blame the Mud is the children's book I referred to.  Here is the link to the author reading this book, https://youtu.be/rym8mRLFF9w?si=fTxoOIcpK8696zLC

Daily Prayer:  

Dear Lord, help me live in the holiness that honors You. Help me not to fall into the traps of our sinful nature.  Help me not to make myself impure by dabbling in idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, uncontrolled anger, greed, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, or drunkenness.  These things bring pain to myself and others.  I desire to live with You, Lord, as my focus as I help my neighbors as much as possible.  Purity will show when I live with patience, kindness, and sincere love.  Then, I can testify to the power of the Holy Spirit that enables me to do any good deed.  Amen.  Adapted from crosswalk.com

Children's Church Lessons 

Toddlers

• God Answered Prayers for Peter
• God answers our prayers
• Acts 12:5-17
• 1 Thess 5:17

PreK/ K

• God Calls His Missionaries
• God saves people, so they might be missionaries
• Acts 9:1-19
• Mark 16:15

1^st–5^th  CC

• Spiritual Gifts
• God gives us spiritual gifts to use in our service for Him
• Rom 12:1-8; Eph 4:11-16