Well now that we come to the book of Haggai and Zechariah, we find them writing in a time period when the 70 years of exile was ending and the people were returning to Jerusalem. What a time to have been alive, right?! Seeing God’s people be able to return to their homeland, the land God promised them surely had to be exciting. And it was! But Haggai and Zechariah wanted to warn them too. They tell the people that God has great things planned, His promises are still true, if the people commit to the Lord and His ways as they return to the land.

Haggai focuses on the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem and how it’s important that they do it the right way so that it’s holy and honoring to God. Remember that the temple was where God’s presence would dwell, so it’s important to get it right! That’s what Haggai was communicating. And God cheers the people on through Haggai’s words by saying things like ‘be strong’ and ‘don’t fear, my spirit remains among you.’

And then there’s Zechariah….like any good prophet, Zechariah has all sorts of crazy dreams with crazy images. Things like horsemen and horns and a guy who has a measuring tape and a gold lampstand and olive trees and my favorite, the flying scroll…. but these dreams were like symbols and confirmations to Zechariah and the people of God’s plans for them. And while these dreams spoke of things that would happen Zechariah’s lifetime, they also pointed forward to when Jesus would come both as Messiah and Conquering King. Almost like setting the stage for God’s grand plan that He’s writing throughout history.

This classic episode helps us get excited for Easter where we celebrate Jesus' resurrection! The best news ever is that Jesus came to this earth, died for our sins, and rose to life again. He conquered sin and death and now offers us the victory and hope of eternal life! 

Listen to this podcast with your kids and get ready for Easter! 

Have you ever played a game of telephone? Where you whisper something to someone and then they whisper that same message to someone else and it goes on and on until you get to the last person and they say the message out loud. It’s usually pretty funny because the last person never gets it right. They say some gibberish that’s totally different from what the first person said.

Well, in some ways, the Bible for thousands of years, was like a game of telephone. They didn’t have it written down like we do today. For thousands of years they just told the next person and they told the next person and they told the next person. Like a game of telephone. So, how do we know that the Bible we have today isn’t some gibberish version of what the first person said? I think that’s a great question to ask. So let’s talk about how we know the Bible can be trusted today.....

What do emojis and Psalms have to do with each other? Take a listen to this free preview of our Extra Nuggets: Psalms episode to find out! You'll learn that we can take all of our emotions to God and pour our heart out to Him.

If you enjoy this episode, check out Backseat Bible Nuggets: Extra Nuggets by subscribing in Apple Podcasts. We have are working our way through the books of the Old Testament in the Bible.

I’m sure this never happens in your house, but in our house there are some weeks where I’ve heard my kids ask, “do we HAVE to go to church today?” And it’s not that they don’t love our church, it’s just that some weeks they wake up tired or with other plans in mind for that day.

Well, whenever they ask, our answer is always, “we don’t HAVE to go to church, we GET to go to church today.”

So we GET to go to church, not because we HAVE to, but because we WANT to. And that’s what I want to remind us of today. But there might come a day where you’re tired or have other plans and so we wrote a fun song for you to sing on those days…..

“I want to go to church. I want to go to church. The Bible will be taught to me, I want to go to church.

I want to go to church. God’s people will be there. It is good for me to see God’s people everywhere.”

Hebrews 10:25 says, “let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”

Hear from a Backseater as they read Luke 19:1-10 to us! This scripture is the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector. He climbs a tree because he wanted to see Jesus. And the story ends up with Jesus going to Zacchaeus' house to eat with him! This unexpected act changes Zacchaeus' life and salvation comes to his house. What a story of redemption!

Jesus’ birth is one of the biggest events to ever happen in human history. It changed everything when He came to this world as a human. And so today, I want us to read together the story of Jesus’ birth written by Luke.

Luke was a guy who became a follower of Jesus after Jesus died. So, Luke’s writings are based on things he learned about Jesus from people who personally knew and followed Jesus. He does a great job recording the amazing, miraculous facts of this story. But as you listen, I want you to imagine these things taking place. This is a real story, not a fairytale, but a story that is true. And it changes everything, listen to Luke 2:1-21…

A few questions I want you to think and talk about.

1.     Why is this story so important?

2.     What part is the coolest to you? What was your favorite part?

3.     What is your response to this story? Does it make you want to thank God or do you want to tell someone else this awesome story? Or do you want to think on it more, read it or listen again and again? Or maybe something else…what’s your response after hearing this?

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EXTRA NUGGETS:
All I want for Christmas are some extra nuggets, extra nuggets, extra nuggets.

We could all use a few extra nuggets in our life, right!? So hit the subscribe button in Apple podcasts and you will find episodes where we are doing an flyover of every Old Testament book. It’s a great way to see God’s big connected story. Oh, and it’s only a few dollars for the most convenient kid’s devotional ever!

Maybe you’ve heard the Christmas story lots and lots already. But have you taken the time to listen, I mean REALLY listen, to what the Bible has to say about Jesus’ birth as written by Matthew. There are 2 different people who wrote down the majority of the details of Jesus birthday and it’s Matthew and Luke. Today, we are going to read through Matthew 1:18-2:23 together. And while we do, I want you to think deeply about the details. This is a real story! All of these details are true. And this is one of the most important stories ever written. I mean, it changed the WORLD! So listen to what Matthew wrote about just how Jesus was born.

 
Matthew 1:18-2:23

A few questions just to get us talking about this story….

1.     Was there anything new you learned from listening that you didn’t already know?

2.     What does Emmanuel, the name given to Jesus, mean?

3.     If Emmanuel means God with us, why is that important to me and you today?

Hear from a Backseater as they read Luke 1:1-14 to us! This scripture details Jesus being tempted by Satan and how Jesus responded to Satan each time with scripture. The Bible says that God's word is like a sword and here we see Jesus using it to fight back against the crafty tricks of the enemy. In the same way, you and I need to know God's word well enough to be able to use it to fight against temptation.

Do you know that you have the ability to tell you brain what to think? Like you’re the boss of your brain. And you’re in charge of what it thinks. If it starts thinking something that you don’t like you can make it stop. Or if you start thinking about things you love and make you happy, you can keep thinking about those things. 

Well, when we’re talking about a presidential election, we can get really focused on what the news is saying about the election or the people running for president. Or we can start thinking all about what our friends are saying. We can start thinking what will happen after the election depending on the outcome and who wins. And we can easily find that we’re thinking about it more than we want to, possibly.

And as always, God’s word has something to say about the things that we spend our time thinking about. 

Colossians 3:2 tells those who believe in Jesus to “set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

Earthly things are things around you – the things you can see, touch, feel, smell, taste. It’s also things you might worry about or be scared about. Earthly things are things happening well…on earth! And the Lord doesn’t want us to keep our minds there. He’s telling us to set our minds on things above, which just means to think about Him and His ways. Rather than just looking at the world around us, keep our minds focused on Him. When we do that, we have a much better way of understanding the world around us!

And with a presidential election coming up, you might hear a LOT of talk about it. You might even hear a lot of mean things being said from one person about another if they support different people who are running for president. A big part of the election process is trying to convince people to vote for one person or another. It’s like they are competing for votes and often times they are willing to do anything or say anything to get those votes…even if it’s mean or isn’t even true. The Bible calls this type of mean talking about someone else slander. 1 Peter 2:1 says to “put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.”

Sometimes our sinful world shows it’s worst self during an election. So many things said that aren’t true and that are hurtful about the people who want to be president. It’s like a big disagreement that we all have to live through and it gets exhausting.

But remember Colossians 3:2 tells those who believe in Jesus to “set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” If we have His Holy Spirit living in us as believers, then He can help us not focus on all the disagreements around the presidential election and the Lord can help us set our minds on things above! We have to realize when our brains are getting to caught up in the worldly stuff and stop and tell our brain to set itself on things above. 

As the boss of our brain, we remind ourselves to think about Jesus. And His kingdom. And just who He is. And just what His kingdom is and will be like for eternity. And when we start thinking about the Lord instead of the worldly problems, you know what happens? We take a deep breath. We relax. We aren’t worried. We feel secure knowing this world isn’t our ultimate kingdom. In fact, this world isn’t our home. Hebrews 13:14 says, “for this world is not our permanent home, we are looking forward to a home yet to come.” Let’s keep our minds focused on the things above by looking forward to that home with Jesus.

Okay let’s get to talking about this.

1.     Why does the Lord care about what we think about?

2.     Why do you think it’s easy to get focused on worldly things like the presidential election rather than keeping our minds on things above?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Respect. 

 I bet you already know a lot about respect - you know, realizing that someone is in charge and therefore needs to be listened to and obeyed or maybe it’s just being polite to others and treating them well. Respect for authority is a big part of your life whether you realize it or not…..you respect your parents and grandparents, your teachers, your coaches and so many other adults in your life. And this isn’t just because it’s fun to do. It’s because that’s what the Bible tells us to do!

But, since we are talking about this presidential election coming up. What does the Bible tell us about respecting people in our government? People like the president? Are we supposed to respect the president like we do our parents or teachers? Great question! Let’s look to God’s word to find out what He has to say about it. 

Romans 13:1 lays out pretty clearly just WHY and HOW followers of Jesus are supposed to respect the human authority that governs them. Listen… “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”  There is no asteric, that says UNLESS the governing authorities aren’t who you or your parents voted for. No! It says there is NO authority except that which God has established.

And we know this is true because we just talked all about God’s sovereignty in the last episode. So, of course, it’s no surprise that God expects us to honor and respect those that He has put into a place of authority. In other words, we respect the President not only because he has a super important job and we are thankful for that person taking on the job of being in charge of running our country, but we also respect the President because GOD put that person there in that job. So, our respect for God Himself overflows to those He’s put in charge of us.  That means no matter who is president or no matter who our teacher is or who our coach is, they must be respected by followers of Christ. 

Now, I also have to tell you another piece of respecting human authority or those who God has put in charge over us. We respect them all the way until they ask us to do something that goes against God’s word. Remember our first episode talked about how we are citizens of God’s kingdom first. That’s our MOST important citizenship. And after that we are citizens of our country. So, we respect authority UNLESS they are asking us to do something that goes against what God has told us to do in the Bible.

A great example of this is Daniel. The king who was in authority over Daniel told everyone in the kingdom to bow down and worship the king each day. Well, clearly, God had already given the 10 commandments and said “you shall have no other gods before me.” So, this was directly against God’s word. And Daniel refused to do what the king said. He stayed true to God rather than the king and that was GOOD in this case. That’s what he should have done since he was being asked to do something against God’s word. Do you know what happened next?

Yep, that famous story of Daniel being thrown into the lions den and God closing the mouths of the lions. ALL because Daniel chose to show his respect to God over the human king.  

We must remember that we resect human authority that God put in place, but we respect God more than anything or anyone else. So, God’s ways first. Respect human authority second as we are told in Romans 13. 

Okay let’s get to talking about this.

1.     Why should we respect the President no matter who wins?

2.     How should we respond if our president asks us to do something that is opposite from what God tells us to do?