Serving Challenge Kids: An 11-Day Adventure to Serve Like JesusSample

How Do We Serve?

When God made the world, His plan was for people to work together and help each other. You learned about Helpful Jack yesterday. If a dolphin can help others, so can we! But something messed up God’s plan. Sin made us selfish, and now we often think more about ourselves than others.

Some kids are too afraid or too busy to help. Serving others means you may have to give up something, such as your time or money. As a result, we often don’t want to serve.

But Jesus wants us to serve, even when we might not like it.

Let’s break down Philippians 2:7.

Part One: “…by taking on the nature of a servant…”

Yesterday you learned that Jesusbecame a servant. He wasn’t just wearing a servant costume or putting on an act. Jesus had a servant’s heart on the inside.

Part Two: “…being made in human likeness.”

“Human likeness” means Jesus had an actual human body. Although He is God, Jesus chose to be born like all of us. His body was a lot like yours. For example, if Jesus ran too hard, He got out of breath.

One reason Jesus had a human body was so He could understand what it feels like for us to be hurt. He had a heart for our hurts. Research has shown that when you hear or see someone else’s pain, your nervous system responds much the same as when you feel your pain. That’s called feeling compassion.

The desire to show compassion is as much a part of you as the need to eat or breathe. You don’t have to teach someone how to feel bad for someone else. Compassion comes naturally. So, when we see others sitting alone at lunch or a new teammate who doesn’t know anyone, most of us want to help.

As we look to Jesus, however, we see the true test of serving is if you can not only feel compassion for someone, but then act on it as well.

Feeling + Action = Compassion

God gives us plenty of opportunities to serve. Most serving can happen right where you are. You can jump into action when you see others in need because you know the way through the rocky passage. And you know the way because Jesus is the Way.

In other words, when you serve others, you show them Jesus. And when you show them Jesus, you show them the Way.

Challenge:

Show compassion to someone today. This might mean giving a hug, making a card, or saying something kind to someone who is sad or upset.