Happiest News: Matthew 4b (Ep. 105)

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Hi, everyone. Dave here. It was really nice to receive a five star review on Apple Podcasts the other day. It said, I love this podcast. Please make as much as you possibly can.

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Good day, and welcome to stories of a faithful god for kids. What sort of things make you happy? What warms your heart or makes you smile? Sometimes it's the little things that'll make you happy. Your favorite meal, the smell of fresh flowers, the feeling of a new piece of snot plucked from your nose and rolled between your fingers or on your tongue.

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Sometimes there are things that give you a much deeper, richer happiness that makes you feel really warm inside, like when you have a really long hug with someone you love or when you're lying in bed snuggled up under the sheets and you know it's cold outside, but you're feeling lovely and toasty. Sometimes, though, there's an even greater happiness than that. It's a happiness that comes because a bad time is over. When you've been rescued from danger and taken to a really happy place of safety. When you were really sad, but someone's taken away your sadness and made you happy.

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When you were sick, but you've been made better. It's a happiness that's made even more happy because you know how bad things were before. And that's the sort of happiness we get to see in today's story. Get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful god for kids. At the end of our last episode, Jesus had just defeated the devil.

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He'd become the first human in history not to believe the devil's lies. He'd proven that if anyone can save us from all the problems of sin, it's him. Now Jesus hears that John the Baptist has been put in prison. Someone obviously didn't like what he had to say. It's time, though, for Jesus to start saying exactly the same thing.

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Jesus moves from the town of Nazareth where he grew up to the town of Capernaum. Capernaum is right on the shore of the Sea Of Galilee in the Far North of Israel. It's a place you can still go to today, although no one lives there anymore. Back in Old Testament times, Israel had been divided up into 12 family or tribe areas. Capernaum was around two of these tribe areas called Zebulun and Naphtali.

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An important thing about those areas was that they were in the danger zone. Israel's biggest enemies always attacked from the North, and Zebulun and Naphtali were the furthest north of all the tribes. That means they were the first to be attacked. Of course, if the Israelites had trusted and served God, they never would have been attacked. God would have kept the enemies away.

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Unfortunately, the people of Israel didn't trust and serve God. They worshiped fake gods and did whatever they wanted, not whatever god wanted. And so god sent big, mighty empires to attack and punish them. The first people to feel those attacks, the punishment from god, lived in the areas of Zebulun and Naphtali. Now Jesus is living in that same area.

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He hasn't come to bring the judgment of God, though. He's come to save people from what they deserve. These lands had been in sadness, but Jesus has come to bring happiness. It's a bit like when you're in the dark and it's really scary, and then someone switches a light on. Suddenly, there's nothing to be scared of anymore.

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The prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament had talked about Jesus arriving here. In Matthew chapter four verse 14, we're told, Jesus did this to make true what the prophet Isaiah said. Land Of Zebulun and Land Of Naphtali are on the way to the sea. They are along the Jordan River. This is Galilee where the non Jewish people live.

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These people who live in darkness will see a great light. They live in a place that is very dark, but a light will shine on them. Jesus has come to give that light, to bring happiness, to save people from sin and punishment and darkness. And so he starts preaching exactly the same thing that John had. He says in verse 17, change your hearts and lives because the kingdom of heaven is coming soon.

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Remember, this is the kingdom you want to be in. It's a kingdom of happiness, and Jesus is inviting people to stop living their sinful lives against God, turn around, and start trusting and living for God. Come into his kingdom. Jesus wants a team to help invite people into the kingdom of heaven. As he's walking by the lake, he sees two men who are brothers.

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One is named Simon, though you might also know him as Peter or Simon Peter, and the other one is named Andrew. The brothers are in business together as fishermen. When Jesus comes across them, they're actually fishing by throwing a fishing net into the sea. When Jesus sees them, he says something very strange to them. In verse 19, he says, come follow me.

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I will make you fishermen for men. Fishing for men? You mean, they're gonna take their nets and throw them over people and then cook them and eat them? Quick, everyone. Get away from Simon and Andrew.

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They're coming to catch you. What's that? Are you sure? Oh, okay. I've just been informed that that is not exactly what Jesus means.

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Apparently, he wants them to come and preach the good news about the kingdom of heaven with him. And people will be so attracted to the good news, they'll want to come into the kingdom, a little bit like trying to catch fish by offering them bait. Except it ends up with the people being really happy, unlike the fish who just get eaten. Thankfully, Simon and Andrew don't make the same mistake I just made. They understand that Jesus is inviting them to a really exciting job.

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They're so excited, in fact, they just dump their fishing nets and follow Jesus. They leave their old job behind to do this much more exciting job with Jesus. Jesus keeps walking along the edge of the lake, and he sees two more men who are brothers. Their names are James and John, and they're in their fishing boat with their dad, Zebedee. They're getting their fishing nets ready for fishing.

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And just like with the last two guys, Jesus tells James and John to follow him. And they don't even hesitate. They don't say, can we just finish getting the nets ready? Or can you come back after we've been out fishing? No.

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What Jesus is inviting them to is so exciting, so good, that immediately they leave their boat, they leave their dad, and they follow Jesus. Jesus must be so good if it's worth following him like that. And pretty soon, they get to see just how good Jesus is. Jesus travels around the area of Galilee. He goes into synagogues, which are a bit like Jewish churches, and preaches the good news about the kingdom of heaven.

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The good news that people who turn away from sin will be welcomed into God's kingdom by God. They'll be forgiven, saved, and changed. It's super happy news. Jesus does something else that makes people happy. He starts healing sick people.

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In fact, everyone he meets who's sick, he heals. It doesn't matter how sick they are. Jesus makes them better. How happy would you be if Jesus came into your town and just made everyone who's sick better? I bet if that happened, you'd want to tell someone.

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And that's exactly what the people in Jesus' day do. They tell everyone they can. In verse 24, Matthew tells us how the good news about Jesus spreads further and further and further. He says, the news about Jesus spread all over Syria, and people brought all the sick to him. These sick people were suffering from different kinds of diseases and pain.

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Some were suffering very great pain. Some had demons, some were epileptics, and some were paralyzed. Jesus healed all of them. Many people followed him. They came from Galilee, the 10 towns, Jerusalem, Judea, and the land across the Jordan River.

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People are so excited. They're so happy. They want to follow Jesus. It isn't the sort of happiness that's kind of nice for a few seconds or that you get when you have a nice warm hug. It's much bigger than that.

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It's the sort of happiness that comes when people have been saved from danger, rescued from darkness, set free from pain and sickness and sadness and worry. People traveled from all over to see Jesus and get this sort of happiness. Do you know Jesus still gives this sort of happiness? It isn't exactly the same because Jesus isn't here as a human with us. We won't get to see him until he comes back again.

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But still, the salvation he gave people, the rescue from the punishment they deserved, the gift of being brought into God's heavenly kingdom, we can have all of that. When we know what we've been saved from and what we've been saved to, we'll know how good it is to be saved into the kingdom of god. And if you think that makes you happy now, it's nothing compared to the happiness we'll feel forever when Jesus comes again. Now with all these people wanting to follow Jesus, it would be good to know what does it actually mean to follow Jesus. How does he want us to live?

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What does he want us to do? Well, that's a story for next time. Thanks, everyone, for listening. I hope you're enjoying the show. I would encourage everyone to go to the website faithfulgod.net and sign up to the club so that you can hear every episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

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If you don't wanna sign up to the club, if you don't want that ongoing membership, then another thing you can do is actually buy individual series. If you go to the shop at faithfulgod.net and go to the family membership section, you'll see that you can either join the club or super club, or you can also buy individual series of stories of a faithful god for kids. That's another way to access the episodes. Keep trusting Jesus, everyone. Bye for now.