Author: davebunnell

Dave Bunnell, American pastor serving in Romania. Walk of Faith: free grace devotionals, Bible teaching, sermon vids, & evangelism

Temptation of Christ (Children’s lesson of the week)

This week’s children’s Bible lesson

Jesus was tempted to sin and defeated the devil

Luke 4:1-14

When Jesus was 30 years old, it came time for Him to begin publicly teaching about God and calling all the people to believe and follow the Lord. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, and God the Father spoke out loud, identifying Jesus as His Son. John introduced Jesus as the Messiah to his followers, promising Christ would take away sins as the Lamb of God.

Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit brought Him into the wilderness then. Israel had failed to trust God’s word and obey Him in the wilderness. Now God would let Jesus be put to the test there. If Jesus failed like every one of us, and sinned when He was tempted, then He could never save us. Because He wouldn’t have been able to die for our sins if He had any of His own. So God the Father let Jesus be tempted and tested by the devil there in the wilderness for 40 days. The Bible tells us that in that time Jesus was in every way tempted just as we are. That means Satan tempted Him to commit every kind of sin that exists. Each time, though, Jesus resisted. The Bible then tells us about the last three temptations Satan came up with, to try to keep Jesus from accomplishing salvation for us.

During that time, Jesus never ate food, making Him very hungry after 40 days. Satan noticed His hunger and tried to get Jesus to forget His relationship with God the Father. “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread,” the devil said. He was apparently hoping Jesus would do what you or I would do if we were that hungry from days with nothing to eat. We would probably think, “Is God really there for me? Why do I have to be so hungry? It’s not fair! If I have to sin to get the food I need, then I will, because God hasn’t given me what I need.” Satan was probably a little surprised that trick didn’t work. Because when he tricks people like you and me into doubting God’s love for us as His children, so often Satan is successful, and we sin.

Jesus didn’t though. He knew Who He was and knew His relationship with God was true. He knew that God would not let Him down. So He didn’t dishonor God the Father by making bread for Himself in rebellion against the Father. He quoted the word of God to Satan to defeat Him. “It is written,” Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” Jesus knew that what our bodies need like food is not enough to give us life. We need a relationship with God to find true life. So Jesus didn’t get mad at the Father for letting Him be temporarily hungry. He still trusted God and obeyed Him.

Then Satan took Jesus up high to look over the kingdoms of the world. Satan said that he ruled over those kingdoms and that he would give them to Jesus if Jesus would worship Satan. Satan was tempting Jesus to become Lord of the world without first being our Savior. Tempting Jesus to escape going to the cross and dying. Jesus again refused to sin to get what He wanted. Jesus answered the devil, “It is written you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.” Instead of sinning to get what He wanted, Jesus quoted the word of God by faith, and conquered temptation. We need to do the same. Instead of sinning to get what we want, we should quote God’s commandments, trust Him, and obey.

Satan tried one more time. He took Jesus to Jerusalem to the top of the temple. He told Jesus to prove He is the Son of God by jumping off the temple and letting God keep His promise to protect Him. Satan was misusing God’s word there to make Jesus test God instead of trusting God. Jesus wasn’t fooled. He again answered Satan with the Bible, defeating the temptation. “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test,” Jesus quoted.

The devil had lost the battle to get Jesus to sin. Jesus had won, and proved Himself worthy to be our Savior.

Children’s lesson Exodus 32

Israel makes a golden calf idol to replace God

Exodus 32

After God gave the Israelites the 10 Commandments, Moses was away from the people up on Mt. Sinai with the Lord for several days. During that time, God was speaking to Moses, but the people didn’t hear Him. It caused them to grow impatient. They decided they didn’t want a god that they couldn’t see.

They had heard His voice give the commandments. They had seen Him do wonders for them. But they weren’t willing to wait to hear from Him. Unfortunately, sometimes Christians do that. Some of them even depart for churches that claim God is doing more miracles and speaking more prophecies than they are hearing at their own church. So they leave, wanting God to entertain them and thrill them. When they do that, they often end up listening to false teachings that didn’t come from God or His word at all. They become false worshipers then.

That’s what happened to Israel while Moses was on the mountain receiving all of the law of God. The people went to Aaron the priest. They said, “We don’t know what has become of this Moses. Maybe he is never coming back. You, Aaron, get up and work to make us a god in an image like the other nations worship. Make a god for us to follow who will go before us.”

I’ve got terrible news for you: Aaron didn’t tell the people “NO” like he should have. He told them to bring the gold jewelry that God had made the Egyptians give them to pay for their years of slavery. He molded all that gold into the shape of a calf. Then he told the people a lie. He said, “Here are the gods that brought you out of Egypt,” pointing to the calf he had made. Aaron said, “Tomorrow we’ll have a feast to God, celebrating the calf.” The people got up early in the morning to celebrate the calf. They ate and drank and got drunk. And they had a wild party, with sinful activities, all to celebrate the calf, pretending it was God.

Now remember what they had heard God’s voice say from the mountain in the 10 Commandments. “You will have no other gods.” They now had taken another god. “Do not make any images or idols for worship.” They now were worshiping an idol shaped like a cow. “Do not lie” and they were lying about who God was. “Do not covet what someone else has.” And they were coveting the false gods of the Egyptians. God had told them such things were sinful, and because they didn’t want to wait for God to lead them, they followed Aaron and the false god he made with his own hands.

God told Moses to go down the mountain because the people were rebelling and worshiping an idol. God even offered to wipe them out and make a new nation from Moses’ descendants. Moses passed the test before him, though. He pleaded with God to forgive them and keep His promises to the nation of Israel. Moses didn’t want God to honor Moses. He wanted God to honor His own name so that all might believe. This is exactly what God did.

When Moses got down the mountain, all of the sinfulness he saw made him angry like God was angry. He destroyed the idol and burned it. He demanded an explanation from Aaron. And Aaron lied. He claimed the idol formed itself in the fire. (People who worship idols like to lie about the idols and claim they can do miracles. But only God can actually do those miracles.)

Then Moses and the tribe of Levi who were God’s real priests, punished with death the worst offenders of the nation, who had done the most vile things in worship of the idols. And a plague of sickness from God came on the people, and many suffered.

This is what sin and rebellion against God can bring. It is very important to learn that after God has saved us and made us His children by faith in Christ, that we must obey Him. We must try not to sin. And when we do fail and commit sin, we must confess it to God and receive His forgiveness. God is worthy of our obedience. And we learn that today from what the Bible just told us about the nation of Israel and their golden calf idol to replace God.

Revelation 21 – The new earth and New Jerusalem

As the Bible approaches its last words for us, our ongoing Revelation study shows us our eternal destiny after the rapture and the millennial kingdom of Christ. Coming: The new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells, and the holy city, the New Jerusalem. After listening to this message, you will, like never before, obey Jesus and “rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Hallelujah.

Revisiting Pride Month


Pride is never a virtuous thing. But pride in things that we should be ashamed of is pride of the worst kind. Our world today isn’t in need of more pride—there was never a time in history with a shortage of pride. When we follow our basest, darkest desires, we do things that should humiliate us. Our sexual sins of any kind or degree should be things we want to keep hidden because of shame. We shouldn’t want our nakedness exposed, nor our moral failings known. If as an individual, one of us reaches the point where he or she can engage in the worst behaviors their flesh is capable of desiring, and he or she feels no shame, that’s a level of lostness that should make him or her very sad. Because at that moment, there’s no reason for hope. Not hope of happiness. Not hope of life. Not hope of honor. Not hope of joy. Not hope of satisfaction. It’s just wallowing in darkness, and celebrating the condition of hopelessness. We’re all sinners, but we should all want our sins covered, not exposed and celebrated. We’re celebrating the very things that destroy us. That’s not sane. And it isn’t just happening to individuals anymore. Our whole world is joining in, not just doing these things, but celebrating those who do them. There is no lower point for our world to sink to. There is no reason for hope for society. But for individuals in darkness who seek hope, there is one place for it to be found. You see, the God who made us wants us to be cleansed and made whole. To have hope for satisfaction, joy, peace, love, honor, and glory. For most of human history, God provided a system of sacrifices that would cover the sins of those who believed. Their shame was covered and their lives could have hope for eternity. Then, when the time was right, God stepped into humanity, as the eternal Son of God made Himself flesh and walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ lived a sinless life without need of shame. He lived that perfect life on our behalf, in our place, so that His righteousness could earn us eternal life and joy with Him. Then, He took our shame upon Himself, along with all of our sin. He hung on a cross, naked and bleeding, exposed to the world, bearing the guilt and shame for all that we have done in our rebellion and the hopeless darkness of our depraved minds. He suffered in our place, because of our guilt. He bore our shame upon His own back. Then He died for us. He paid the price for our sins. He absorbed every ounce of the punishment we had earned. It was in our place, instead of us, that He died. He deflected God’s judgment from us by taking it Himself. Then three days later, He rose again to life, proving Himself to be God and proving He had paid the full price for our sins. He rose to life and promised eternal life, abundant life, salvation from condemnation in hell, peace, and eternal joy in heaven to everyone who believes on Him. Unlike the animal sacrifices that only temporarily covered sin and shame, He had become “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” When you trust Jesus Christ to save you from your sins and the punishment for them, He doesn’t just cover your sin and shame; He takes it away—forever. Whatever kind of sexual activity or desire or identity has been yours up until this moment, don’t take pride or try to persuade yourself that you are fine as you are. God made you. He loves you, even though you’ve done wrong. He wants to give you life today. Let Him. Don’t listen to the voices of those who want you to stay in darkness and never-ending cravings that can never satisfy your heart. Come to Jesus. Drink of His living water by believing in Him and His promise: “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” Don’t be lost anymore. Let Him rescue you today.

Revelation 20:1-10 – The Second Coming of Christ pt II — Millennial Kingdom

Revelation 20:1-10 – The Second Coming of Christ pt II — Millennial Kingdom

Christ’s Kingdom comes and God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven, beginning with Christ’s reign over the earth from Jerusalem for 1,000 years. .

The chapter also covers Satan’s imprisonment in the bottomless pit, his temporary release, the final rebellion, and him being cast into the lake of fire to be tormented forever.

The stage is set for the eternal joy of God’s eternal kingdom.

Children’s Bible lesson Exodus 17 pt 2

Children’s Bible lesson for this week

God gives His people the victory when Moses worships Him

Exodus 17:8-16

After God had provided for His people with water from the rock, something frightening happened to them. Something that the nation of Israel, as God’s chosen nation, has faced throughout history. Another nation, called Amalek, came with its army to fight a war against Israel.

God had saved them from slavery in Egypt, provided food for them in the wilderness, and given them water even in places where there was none. But could He also help them defeat an army in war, even though none of them had ever fought a war before, nor been trained to use weapons?

The next day they would find out, and learn another new reason to worship God.

Moses told Joshua in the night to gather men who would go out and fight against Amalek in the morning. “I will go up on the hill tomorrow, and hold my staff in the air to the Lord.”

Joshua gathered the army, and Moses climbed the high hill overlooking the valley where the battle would happen. Moses had his brother Aaron the priest, and a man named Hur, with him. When the battle began, Moses worshiped God for all to see, holding his staff up high. Whenever this act was done, Israel was overwhelming their enemies on the battle field. But Moses was old, and his arms were so tired that he couldn’t hold them up all day. Whenever he took his hands down to rest, Amalek was stronger than Israel and started to defeat them.

So Aaron and Hur brought a large stone for Moses to sit down on, and they each stood beside him, to his right and his left. They held Moses’ arms up for him, and he was able to worship with his hands raised until the sun went down that night. Israel completely defeated Amalek, wiping them out entirely.

Moses built an altar there for worshiping God. He named the altar “The Lord is our Banner.” By this Moses declared that we win battles by praising God and depending on Him for the victory. One way to worship the Lord and let others see and know you are praising Him and relying on Him, is to lift up your hands so that all can see. That’s what Moses did, and God responded to Moses’ prayer and praise. He made the nation victorious over an enemy that was stronger than they were!

So there is power from God to help us when we praise Him and pray to Him for help.

Water from the Rock – Exodus 17 kids lesson

Next week’s children’s lesson for the church:

Water from the Rock

Exodus 17:1-7

God continued leading His people through the wilderness, moving them toward the place where He would give them His law and make His permanent promises to them. Along the way, they ran out of water, as they had before.

It would have been good for them to remember the last time that happened. Because then they could have prayed, and God would provide. But instead of trusting God and asking Him to help again, they complained again. They went to Moses and used very harsh words to attack him. “Why did you lead us out of Egypt to a place of no water?” They asked. “Did you just want to kill us and our children and animals, dying of thirst? Is God really with us, or not?” They were so upset that Moses felt threatened and intimidated. Has anyone ever been so angry with you that they made you afraid? That’s how Moses felt that day. So Moses cried to the Lord for help. That was the right thing to do.

“Lord, what do I do with these people?” Moses asked. “For they are so angry they’re ready to pick up large rocks and throw them at me to kill me.” God didn’t want Moses to focus on the rocks he thought the people were about to hit him with. There was another rock God wanted to show Moses. Not a rock of anger. But a rock of solid help from God for all the people.

God told Moses, “Walk past the people in front of them, taking some of the elders with you. Carry the staff you struck the Nile River with to turn it to blood in Egypt. Come to Me at the great rock of Horeb. Then you shall strike the great rock, and I will make water gush out of it in a stream, and all of the people will drink.”

Now you must understand that this would be a miracle. Rocks don’t have streams of water inside them. But God is the Maker of everything in heaven and earth. He can do anything, even miracles like causing abundant water to flow out of a rock. Moses obeyed God. He struck the rock with his staff, and water flowed from it like a mighty waterfall. Every thirsty person and animal had as much as they needed.

The New Testament tells us that this rock was God’s way of giving us a picture of what Jesus would do for us. Jesus spoke of “living water,” that when He gave it to someone it would be eternal life. The rock and the water from it were a metaphor. A symbol of Jesus and the eternal life He gives. Jesus came, and He was struck like the rock. He died for our sins. And His blood flowed from Him, becoming like living water that cleanses our sins and gives us eternal life when we believe. At the end of the Bible, in Revelation, which Dave is teaching later, Jesus promises to give the water of life for free to anyone who wants it. You can have it today. If you believe in Jesus, and believe He died for you and rose again, He will forgive your sins and give you eternal life.

God and Moses wanted the people to learn these lessons and always remember them. So the place was named Massa and Meribah, words that mean “testing” and “quarreling.” This is because the people tested the Lord and quarreled with Moses. We need to learn not to put God to a test or fight with each other when we’re in need. Instead of testing and quarreling, trusting and praying is the answer.

Revelation 18 Fallen, fallen is Babylon

Revelation 18 A tale of two cities

The world’s great city Babylon picks a fight with God’s great city Jerusalem (and its heavenly counterpart). It’s a fight Babylon can’t win. The second falling of Babylon is great, and precedes and paves the way for the second coming of Christ, Who will bring us back from heaven with Him to reign. Revelation 18 closes the great tribulation period, in our ongoing study through the book of Revelation.

Manna from heaven

Here’s this week’s children’s lesson for the church

God provides Manna from Heaven

Exodus 16

The people of Israel had been rescued from slavery by God. They followed Him into the wilderness and worshiped Him. After about a month and a half, their supply of food ran low.

Now, what should they have done? They should have remembered God is their provider, and asked Him for help. Last week we learned that when they didn’t have a source of water, God provided for them abundantly when Moses prayed. Now, they were running out of food and were hungry. The wise thing to do would be to ask God.

` Jesus taught us that, too. He said to pray to God to give us each day the food we need for the day. Since God told us to ask for that, we can trust Him to answer that prayer. As a child of God who believes on Jesus, always know you can depend on God to provide food when you ask. And when you eat, give thanks to God each time for giving you food. It even helps you enjoy the food more when you start the meal by thanking God for it.

Unfortunately, the people of Israel didn’t ask God to provide when they were hungry. They were out in the wilderness, and they thought there was no way for God to give them food there. So they didn’t ask. Just because we don’t know how God could help us is no reason not to ask Him. When we’re in need, we must pray. The Lord is wise. He can figure out a way to help us, even if we can’t think of a solution.

The people didn’t pray, though. Instead, they complained. They grumbled against Moses and Aaron the priest. They said, “It would have been better if we had died in Egypt where we had food, since you’ve brought us out into the wilderness to die.” That was a pretty silly thing to say, wasn’t it? They thought it would have been better to have stayed slaves and died in Egypt than to live free with God but have needs for food. See how wrong we sound when we complain against God? Isn’t it obviously better to pray when we need help than to complain?

God told Moses and Aaron to tell the people that He would start sending quail in the evening, so that they would have meat to eat. And He said to tell them He would make bread from heaven appear on the ground in the morning, enough for everyone to be full. And then God did just what He said He would. God said in the morning there would be enough food to gather for that day. On the sixth day of the week, Friday, there would be enough of the bread from heaven to collect two-day’s worth of it. Then they could obey God, and take the seventh day of the week as a day off from work to rest. The first five days of the week, they would work to gather that day’s food. On Friday, there would be twice as much on the ground. Then on Saturday they would have enough food already that they didn’t need to work to have food. On other days, if there was extra kept, it would rot at night. But on Friday night, they would have extra and it would stay fresh through the next day.

God did all these things just like He said He would. And He taught the people to depend on Him to provide. For the next 40 years, God made them this food from heaven and put it on the ground for them in the morning.

When the people first found and ate it, they said, “What is it?” And so this heavenly bread came to be called “manna,” because in the Hebrew language, that word “manna” means, “What is it?” That was an everlasting reminder that God can provide for His people’s needs, even if they don’t understand how He helped them.

If anyone didn’t trust God, and tried to gather enough manna for several days’ worth, the extra they gathered rotted overnight. But new manna was there for them in the morning. This was to teach the people that each day, God would meet their needs that day. They didn’t need to worry about tomorrow. Just trust God today, and see the Lord provide. If we learn that God is our Provider, we will always know how to live trusting Him.