Follow Jesus
Follow Jesus
A special note to our adults for this guide: The decision to follow Jesus is one most Christians will make, re-make, and re-make again throughout their lives. In some ways, this decision is even made daily. But for most, there is an initial “yes” in us—a moment or period of time where we decide Jesus is the one we will follow, and turn toward him and away from sin.
This guide is written much like other Family Guides in our discipleship series in the sense that it’s made to work through and discuss with the children in your home. That said, it would be surprising indeed if the children in your life came to the conclusion that Jesus is king and they want to follow him all in the course of one discussion that came up at the time of your choosing. You have most likely found that the most profound questions and thoughts seem to arise within children at random times—on car rides, after reading a bedtime story, during meals, in the bath, or building blocks. There can be a temptation to want to wait until we are having a “real” or more focused conversation about Jesus to talk about the gospel. But for children, these are not lesser moments for discipleship: they are the moments that make up their lives. Odds are, they are listening to you just as much (if not more) from their booster seat in the car as they would be kneeling by their bed.
You may find yourself wondering things like, is my child old enough to decide something like lifelong discipleship to Jesus? Do they really “get it”? Does this “count”? Honestly, we may never know the answers to these questions to our satisfaction. But, we can say with confidence that no moment in which we teach our children something about Jesus’s love for them is wasted, and no instance of sharing God’s word will ever return void.
In that spirit, the hope is that this guide will give you material to draw from as you have these conversations, and some helpful frameworks for the day they make a decision or pray a prayer of commitment to Jesus. Finally, please know we are praying for you, we are with you, and we love your kids.
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Have you ever watched a row of ducklings swim through the water? What about geese flying through the sky?
What did you notice about them?
Have you ever wondered how it is that little ducks know what to do, or where to go? Why they swim in a line?
When ducklings swim around in the water, they follow after their mother! That’s how they learn what ducklings do: what’s safe, what’s not safe, where to find food, how to stay warm, and really, how to become a healthy grown up duck who has a happy duck life. They learn and become who they are meant to be by following the mother duck.
In some ways, you and I are just like those baby ducklings. When we are little, we follow after a parent or a trusted grown up we live with to show us how to do things like, walk, talk, eat food, turn a somersault, or ride a scooter. You may not have a lot of choice about who teaches you these things, because it’s determined by the family we’re with when we are little.
While baby YOU didn’t pick me to be the one who taught you things like how to walk, big kid YOU—and grown up me—do get to choose who to follow after and listen to for the rest of our lives: how we think, how we live, and how we treat people. We get to choose who we follow. Can you guess who I follow? I’ll give you a hint: it’s someone we talk about when we go to church, and someone we want to be with, becoming like, and do what he did. That’s right—it’s Jesus!
Today, we’re going to talk about God’s big story and our place in it, what happens when we follow Jesus, and then we’ll talk about options for what we can do next.
Part 1: God’s Story and Our Place in it
Through the Bible, God tells us His story and our place in it.
In the beginning, God creates a beautiful world. He fills it with nature, plants, animals, and best of all, people! People were created in the “image of God.” That means we were created to be like Him and to display His glory to the world! God created us to be with Him: to be in community with Him and to experience his love, and to do good work in the world to help the earth and everyone in it flourish.
But this beautiful world and relationship is broken when sin enters the picture. Do you remember the story of Adam and Eve? That story shows us how we as people tend to think that our way is better than God’s. While we were created to be examples of His glory and be with God, sometimes we choose to follow someone else, like ourselves and our own ideas, or even Satan’s. Do you ever find it hard to make a choice you know is right or kind, because you want to do things your way?
The whole story of the Bible shows how much God loves us, and is always coming closer to us and pursuing us. God promised that He would send a Rescuer, a Savior, to make things right again. The world waited a long time, until that Savior came. Do you remember who that Savior is? That’s right—the Rescuer is Jesus!
Jesus taught us how to live God’s way. But we can’t do that perfectly and we still sometimes make decisions that hurt us or hurt other people. Because of that, Jesus died and came back to life (wow!) to forgive our sins, bring victory over death and evil, and to bring His Kingdom to earth.
LIke we talked about earlier, all of us get a choice about whether we want to live God’s way, and choose to follow after Jesus, or go our own way.
How do I say yes to following after Jesus? In the Bible, Jesus says it’s really simple! Choose to turn away from sin, and follow him! He says it like this:
Whoever wants to be my disciple [that means follower] must deny themselves and follow me (Mark 8v34).
What does that mean?! It means to say no to only following what only I want to do (go my own way and what I think is right), and to choose every day to follow what Jesus wants us to do.
Part 2: What happens when you decide to follow Jesus?
You might be wondering, what happens when I decide to follow Jesus? Actually, some pretty exciting things happen! You get three new things.
Let’s open our Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5v7 and read it outloud together.
New Identity
This part of the story of the Bible explains the first thing that happens when we say yes to following Jesus: we get a new Identity! So, what does that mean?
Discuss the following questions together:
What do you think Paul means when he said that he is a new self? What is exciting about a new self?
How do you think it would feel to know that Christ was alive in you?
How does your heart feel when you think about Jesus and being set free from sin?
When we say yes to Jesus, we get a new identity. You are a whole new YOU—a child of God! Paul says that our old self has died with Jesus on the Christ, and you are also raised to life as a new self just like Jesus. Your sins—any lies, mean words you’ve used, or hurt you’ve caused—all those things are paid for by Jesus, and they’re over and gone. You don’t need to feel sad or guilty about them anymore. The Bible says your sins are as far from the east is from the west: that’s a long long way! Your new identity is being a child of God… part of God’s family.
New Family
That brings us to the second new thing you get when you follow Jesus. You get a new FAMILY! Do you know who that family is? It’s the church! Remember how your new identity is child of God? Well, everyone else who follows Jesus who are also children of God are now your brothers and sisters “in Christ.” The church is a big, wild, wonderful family: we pray together, spend time together, and help each other both with the things we NEED, and also help each other to stay on the path of following Jesus. It is so special to be in God’s family together.
New Mission
The third new thing that you get when you decide to follow Jesus is a new Mission. Do you remember in the story about God’s world and our place in it, that God is on a mission to renew and restore the whole world? To make everything good and beautiful? When you’re part of God’s family, you get a special invitation to be part of that big, important mission. God uses every person differently, and when you say yes to him, he gives you a special part to play that’s just for you. He invites us to make things fair, to be creative and make beautiful things, to live in peace with others, and to invite other people to be part of God’s family with us.
And you know what? God helps us to do all these things. After we say yes to Jesus, his Holy Spirit speaks to us in our hearts about how to live and treat people. We can pray to God any time to share about our day, to ask for help, or to say how you’re feeling or what you’re thinking about.
How cool is that?
Part 3: What happens next?
Everyone you know who follows Jesus today—like me, your friends at church, and the leaders you see onstage or helping in your Bridgetown Kids classrooms—was once a kid just like you. And all of them at some point made a decision to follow Jesus for the first time and become part of God’s family. When you’re ready, you get to make this choice too! Is following Jesus a choice you’ve thought about before, or made before?
When we choose to follow Jesus, we are saying that we believe God’s story and our place in it. Did you know that believing isn’t just about what we choose to think? It’s also about what we choose to do! We might say “yes” to Jesus for the first time today, but then we get to say “yes” to Jesus every day too. We say yes to Jesus by being with him, becoming like him, and doing what he would do if he were us.
Whether this is a new idea or something you’ve decided or thought about before, let’s talk through some questions to help us understand what we’re saying yes to.
Work through these questions together:
Do you understand that without God’s help, you do wrong things (called sin) sometimes?
Do you believe that Jesus died and came back to life, to be our rescuer from sin and death?
Do you believe that God loves you, and trust that he wants to take care of you?
Do you want to follow Jesus and his ways the rest of your life?
When we feel like we can say “yes” to all of these questions, we can tell Jesus that we say say “yes” to him and want to follow him. We can do that by praying something like this:
God, thank you for loving me.
Please forgive me for the wrong things I have done.
Thank you Jesus for dying for me, and I know you came back to life!
I want to follow you and be part of your family—please fill me with your Holy Spirit, and show me how to live and love you.
Thank you for being with me!
I love you!
Amen.
Is this prayer something you agree with and want to pray now?
Adults, below are two options for sections to read through depending on the response to the above.
Option 1: More time
You might not be ready to say yes to following Jesus today. That’s perfectly fine! Big decisions that are important take time, and it’s so good to make sure you understand and are ready. Let’s pick a time to talk about this again—but also, please know that you can ask me about this any time you like. Is there anyone else you want to talk to about this?
Option 2: Ready to say yes
If you’re ready to say “yes” to Jesus, let’s pray the above prayer together now.
Pause to pray together.
Let’s celebrate that you said “yes” to Jesus today! Are there any other adults or friends you want to share this big news with? We can choose to go do something special with just us or our family, or share with others too like our Bridgetown Community! Let’s make a plan.