 Stand up, stand up for Jesus He's so jazzy, lift her, it must not Dear Jesus, as we start our children's story, I pray that you'll understand it In Jesus' name I pray, Amen Hello boys and girls, we are amazed with the never-ending love for God for us and for you That's why we say, God is good all the time God is good and that is His nature We the teens class are happy to be preaching the children's sermon this month Last week, Brenda, Michael and Cynthia taught us lessons about the wonderful gifts given to us by God and how the disciples use them in organizing the first church They even gave us an example from the Bible about the church and how it is like the body Do you guys remember that? Of course, the biggest lesson they taught us is that all gifts are important and everyone can use their gifts to make the church of God a wonderful place for everyone You know, I do recall them saying that when we use our gifts to serve God we may learn into trouble here and there because, of course, Satan is never happy when we serve our heavenly Father Yup, but hold that thought right there This month we're learning about fasts This means the fast things that happen For example, last week we learned about the fast church and today we will tell you about the fast Christian mataiah Our theme still is the period of fasts Luke, he said, I see heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God Guys, shall we talk about sins? You mean that big thing from the sea? Why talk about a sea mammal? I knew somebody would say that Zola, that's why I gave you the letter and the letter contains some secret confidential message That means a specific person can read it Oh dear, sea animals on envelopes now, this is interesting Open and read what is inside Boys and girls, listen carefully In the book of Revelation, we are told of a time when John saw Jesus opening a seal and say the seal was an altar and under the altar, he saw souls of dash Yo, that was beginning to get really interesting Who are the people who are seen under the altar? All right, all right, all right, guys I'll tell you, only if you pay attention He saw souls that had been killed because they had promised to serve their Lord and also because they went to the highways and the highways which was more dangerous to do so Guess what? As they were given white robes to wear, they waited for God to revenge on their death and I'm so sure that Stephen was among those people Stephen? You mean that Stephen will learn about last sabbath? The head deacon? This is really beginning to make a lot of sense You know why? Because Stephen was a first Christian matire The Bible really is interesting, isn't it? Can you tell the children of this awesome, amazing and wonderful first Christian matire? Yes, of course children Stephen was a godly deacon who promised to serve their Lord He was also courageous because he took every chance that he had to tell the people the true word of God The teachers and doctors always debated with him thinking that they would win the debate but to their rude shock they couldn't resist his wisdom and the good spirit that was always in him I can tell he was clearly a good student of sabbath school, adventurers, glorious corral and master guide The more Stephen preached the more they insulted him instead of listening to him they planned ways of getting rid of him through death until one day they caught him and took him to the Sanhedrin who children, as we have learned from our previous summons, were the judges of the Jews At their courthouse, many lawyers and religious people came to accuse Stephen Whoa whoa whoa whoa Ladies and gentlemen, is that who I think it is? My goodness, that, my dear friends, is Saul, Saul of Tassas I have heard of him He's a very learned and well-spoken man but he's also a very dangerous guy I think he's the lead attorney Lead attorney, what's that? That means he is representing all the accusers of Stephen for example, Jesus qualifies as our lead attorney in heaven and children with Saul as their lead attorney they went forward and accused Stephen of preaching false and dangerous teachings But boys and girls, Stephen was cool and calm His calm wisdom meant that the priest and his accusers could not find anything against him He was truly innocent But they were so determined to make an example of him The priests and the rulers hired false people against him Children, bearing false witness against someone is commandment number what? That would be commandment number nine That's correct Children, they accused Stephen of blasphemy Do you remember when Jesus was accused of blasphemy? Jesus had told their people that he was the Son of God and he was equal with God He also told them that he would destroy the temple and build it in just three days So children, the priests and the rulers did not believe in Jesus as the Son of God And so they went through the court and told them that it was not correct O poor Stephen, as he stood there, his face was shining with holy light Children, did you know that the people who were there were trembled and covered their faces? Because the face of Stephen was like that of an angel Can you imagine that even with all that, they still did not believe Stephen? So now boys and girls, there were movements in the room The people became angrier The priests and the rulers pretending to be more angrier Stood up and tore his clothes But Stephen resisted and asked them Why do you guys resist the Holy Spirit? With courage and power, they did the same to Stephen And with that, they rushed to Stephen and caught him It was like the priests had become cruel wild animals My goodness, what happened next was that Stephen was taken to the council And he prayed and was offered to the court To him, the gates of heaven opened wide Behold, I see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God Said Stephen And with that, they took him away from the city And one by one began to throw stones at him Kneeling down, Stephen prayed, Lord, lay not my sins against them That sounds really familiar When Jesus was about to die, he too said, Father, forgive them For they know not what they do And he died Both Stephen and Jesus forgave their accusers when they died Children, to serve God is a wonderful honor To walk with him is a great joy To be saved by him is to be saved forever And to die with him is to live with him People that were amazed by the love Stephen had for Jesus Guess one person who? The lead attorney, Son of Tatars As Saul continued to persecute Christians He met Christ and became a zealous servant of God Boys and girls The story of Stephen teaches us so many lessons First, Stephen was a kind and compassionate man Who used his talent to take care of others We too, boys and girls, can help others As we are guided at church and taught by our parents at home Christine, tell us what else can we learn from this story Children, Stephen was a faithful servant We too can be great Bible students As we continue to study the Word of God And do all things including Christ Diana, our final lesson for us Our final lesson for us is that one day You and I, boys and girls, will be called to be martyrs for God And when that day comes We should stand up like Stephen And embrace the cross of Christ And until the trumpet sound We will proudly stand and boldly say Stand up, stand up for Jesus The trumpet call obey For to the mighty conflict In this His glorious day He that are He now serving Against a numbered foe Let courage rise with danger And strength to strength oppose Let's pray our kind and loving Father We thank you for this day We thank you for the story that we've had And I pray that God one day we may be martyrs for you Just like Stephen In Jesus' name I pray amen Children, thank you for joining us this Sabbath Join us next Sabbath as we study about The Gospel in Samaria But for now, bye