POINT #3 – POSSESSING THE PROMISE
READ
Joshua 14:13-14 NLT – “So Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave Hebron to him as his portion of land. Hebron still belongs to the descendants of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite because he wholeheartedly followed the Lord, the God of Israel.”
After Caleb reminds Joshua of his promise from the Lord that this land would be his INHERITANCE, Joshua blessed Caleb and gave him his portion of the land to possess as his INHERITANCE. Do you remember what the word POSSESS means? (allow your child to answer: it means to to have and hold as your own, to take something for yourself, to enter into and control). Joshua told Caleb the land could be his, BUT…Caleb still had to first drive out the people that were living there and then possess it.
What do you think the word INHERITANCE means? (allow your child to answer: when it is your legal right to get something from someone after they die. Usually from a family member.) Sometimes people will leave an inheritance of maybe a house, or land, or things they own to family members or other people after they die.
Just as Caleb went into the land that was given to him as his inheritance and possessed it, we must also do the same. We have to POSSESS the promises that God has made to us. We must possess our INHERITANCE that God has promised us. Jesus says that he will give us an INHERITANCE as a reward, and that we must OBTAIN it.
When we OBTAIN something we gain or get a hold of something, with effort. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NLT) says, “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All who compete in the games use strict training. They do this so that they can win a prize—one that doesn’t last. But our prize is one that will last forever. So I run like someone who has a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something, not just the air. It is my own body I fight to make it do what I want. I do this so that I won’t miss getting the prize myself after telling others about it.”
We must “run” or LIVE our lives so that we OBTAIN the prize! Remember when we talked about running our race to win? We don’t get a prize for starting a race, do we? When do we get a prize? (allow your child to answer: when we FINISH the race, when we WIN!) It’s just like when we complete a homework assignment or test, we receive a grade for our effort. Or, when we complete a chore or a task at home, maybe we get an allowance or a reward. We don’t get a grade before we finish our work. And, we don’t get our allowance until we finish our chores. We don’t get our reward, our INHERITANCE from Jesus, until we FINISH our race. Until we FINISH what He has planned for us to do. Until we love Him, follow Him, and carry on our relationship with Him until our last day here on earth. We have to run our hardest and with the best effort we can, to FINISH our race and win the PRIZE!
Scripture Memory Verse
“You know that in a race all the runners run, but only one runner gets the prize. So run like that. Run to win!” – 1 Corinthians 9:24 ERV
Prayer
Jesus, we want to possess the inheritance you have for us. We want to possess all the promises you have given to us. We don’t want to just know about them, we want to POSSESS them. We want to run OUR race, and run it with ALL of the strength, power and might that you give us to run with. We don’t ever want to give up or slow down. We want to be focused on You, Jesus. Holy Spirit, we ask you to help us to want to FINISH our race. To not get tired of running our race for Jesus. We want to OBTAIN our INHERITANCE. Thank you for your promises, Jesus. We love you, and we pray these things in your beautiful name, amen.
Application/Activity
Organize some running races outside! Maybe even an obstacle course race to demonstrate how we sometimes run into obstacles in life, but we must keep pushing through them to finish the race in order to win!
Make a crown for the winner!
https://www.firstpalette.com/craft/paper-crown.html
https://whereimaginationgrows.com/easy-crown-craft-kids/
Worship Song
“Deep Cries Out”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkJH3zGM-cs&feature=youtu.be