Sanctification

Raise your hand if you want to be tall when you grow up? I think every kid I know cares a lot about their height. I know we do at our house! I bet you can tell me who is the tallest in your class or group of friends and I bet you can tell me who is the shortest. And have you noticed how adults so often make comments about how they just can’t believe how much you’ve grown?

As a kid it’s important to get the right amount of sleep and eat the right healthy foods in order to grow. Have your parents ever told you that? It’s true!

Well, just as you will get bigger and taller as you grow up, you can also GROW as a Christian as you get to know and follow Jesus. There’s a fancy word for this called sanctification. Can you say that? Sanctification. PAUSE. Good!

This complicated word just means that as we get to know Jesus better through reading about Him in the Bible or singing songs to Him or talking about Him with other people then we grow to become more and more like Him. Have you ever hung out with someone for a while and then you realize that you start saying some of the same things they say? Or maybe you start acting the way they act?

Same things happens when we hang out with the Lord. We start to think the way He thinks and we start to say the things He said. This is sanctification.

And it doesn’t happen over night! It takes years and years, just like it takes years for us to grow as a kid. It’s a process. And just as healthy food and good exercise and sleep can help you grow taller, in the same way, lots of time reading the Bible, praying and talking with other people about Jesus helps us become more like Him. It helps sanctify us!

So, that’s sanctification. The growing over your lifetime to become more like Jesus. Hard to say word – but pretty basic thing to understand, right?

The Bible has a lot to say about sanctification and we see that growing process played out in the lives of all people in the Bible. But, for today, I chose just one verse. 1 Thessalonians 5:23a says, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.”

Here are some questions to talk about. You can pause after each question and discuss. Oh, and there’s no wrong answer to these. So don’t overthink it!

1. What was that word that we talked about today that is a fancy word for growing to become more and more like Jesus over time?
2. How do we know if we are growing to be more like Jesus? It’s not someone that we can measure on a growth chart, like our height, so how do we know if we’re growing more like Jesus?
3. What are some things that you can do today to help you grow to be more like Jesus?

One last time before we sign off, let’s practice our verse together. You can repeat after me. “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely” 1 Thessalonians 5:23a.

*Music: "Forest" by Vlad Gulschenko