Opening Prayer
Dear Jesus, thank you for giving us ears to hear your voice. Help us listen to you today with soft hearts. Amen.
Scripture: Psalm 95
Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout for joy to the Rock who saves us! Let us come before him with thanksgiving and sing happy songs to him.
For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth, and the mountain tops belong to him too. The sea is his — he made it. And his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down and worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts like Israel did at a place called Meribah, in the wilderness. There your fathers tested me, even though they had seen everything I did. For forty years I was grieved with that generation. I said, “They always go the wrong way in their hearts. They do not know my ways.” So I promised in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”
What This Means
This psalm is like a song with a surprise in the middle.
It starts out happy. “Come on, everybody — let’s sing! Let’s shout! Let’s kneel down!” Imagine the whole family running to church, excited to see someone they love. That’s what the beginning sounds like. God is our Rock. He made the oceans and the mountains and us. We are his sheep, and his hand is holding us right now.
But then the song stops. And God himself starts talking. His voice gets serious. He says one word that changes everything: “Today.”
“Today, if you hear my voice, do not harden your hearts.”
What does it mean to harden your heart? Think about Play-Doh. When you first open the can, it’s soft. You can shape it into anything. But if you leave it out on the table overnight, what happens? It gets hard. You can’t do anything with it anymore.
God says our hearts can be like that. When God speaks to us — through the Bible, through Mom and Dad, through church — our hearts can stay soft and listen. Or we can ignore him, and our hearts get a little harder each time. The people of Israel saw God do amazing things — he split the sea, he gave them food from the sky, he gave them water from a rock — and they still said, “We don’t think God is really with us.” That’s a hard heart.
But here’s the good news hidden in that serious word: God said “today.” That means he hasn’t given up. He is still speaking. He is still inviting. Right now, this morning, his voice is reaching your ears. He is the shepherd, and you are the sheep of his hand. He’s not letting go.
Let’s Talk About It
Eberley: The Israelites saw miracle after miracle and still didn’t trust God. Why do you think seeing amazing things wasn’t enough to give them faith? What does give us faith, if not seeing miracles?
Eberley: What’s the difference between honestly asking God a hard question and “hardening your heart”? How can you tell which one you’re doing?
Sonja: The psalm says we are “sheep of his hand.” What does a shepherd do for his sheep? How does it feel to know God is holding you like that?
Sonja: Have you ever ignored someone who was trying to tell you something important? What happened? How is that like what God is warning about?
Dahlia & Freddy: What happened to the Play-Doh when it got left out? Do we want our hearts to be soft or hard when God talks to us?
Remember This
God is still speaking to you today — so keep your heart soft and listen.
Closing Prayer
Thank you, Lord, that you have not given up on us. Thank you that you are still speaking today. Keep our hearts soft like new Play-Doh so we can hear your voice. You are our Rock, our Maker, and our Shepherd. We are the sheep of your hand, and we are glad. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Memory Verse
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” — Psalm 95:7-8