Teaching Notes

It should put a smile on your face to know that you are important to God. He wants to spend time with you and to help you make the right choices. Drawing by Jamie Williams.

Does God Want to Talk to Me?

2 Kings 23:21-23 (The Message)

The king now commanded the people, "Celebrate the Passover to God, your God, exactly as directed in this Book of the Covenant." This commanded Passover had not been celebrated since the days that the judges judged Israel—none of the kings of Israel and Judah had celebrated it. But in the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this very Passover was celebrated to God in Jerusalem.

Notes: The King had the people gathered to hear the words of the Covenant of God. The people listened and agreed to obey the words of God. The king then ordered that everything that had been against God to be destroyed. The altars were torn down where Baal and Asherah had been worshiped. The sexual shrines and places where the young children had been sacrificed where torn down. The king was not satisfied until everything that was against the holy God was removed. He then told the people now we will honor God as he directs, by keeping the passover.

Question: Why is it important to follow God's directions? And why do you think the passover was important to them?

Answer: First, the passover was important because it was a time for them to remember how God had delivered them from Egypt from the bondage they were in. One of the many plagues that hit Egypt was the death of the first born children. God instructed them to place the blood of a lamb on their doorpost and the spirit of death would pass over them. This is a reminder for us today that we should also remember how death passes over us when we accept the gift of salvation of Jesus. Jesus' blood is the lambs blood that is placed on our "doorpost" of our heart so that the spirit of death (spiritual death) cannot take us, we belong to God. The second question, is it important to follow God's directions, is yes. The people when they followed God's direction were again able to have communion or fellowship with God. We wanted to talk to them. He wanted to direct their lives. When you obey God and listen to him, he will direct your life. That is why it is important to talk to him and to then listen to what he has to say. He does not want you caught up in this worlds snares, doing things that are sexually impure, or that will destroy your youth.


Prayer: Lord, help us today to follow your directions so that we do not set ourselves up for destruction. Help us to listen to you because you care about us.