God Provides: "My Hope for the Future"- Lifted Up Sampel

After God miraculously delivered the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt, they rebelled against Him and spent forty years wandering in the wilderness. Then, as the remaining Israelites neared the land God chose for them, they spoke against Him again - and against Moses, their leader. As the film for this session portrays, God sent poisonous snakes to bite these rebellious people. Confessing that they were wrong, the people asked to pray for God to remove the snakes. Following God's directions, Moses put a bronze snake on a pole, and anybody dying of snakebite who looked at the pole lived. God mercifully provided a way for those people to escape the consequences of their sin (wrongdoing). Many years later, Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth to save us from our sins and give us spiritual life - salvation. One night, a religious leader named Nicodemus visited Jesus. Their conversation reveals that any person can be spiritually transformed and enjoy a personal relationship with the living God of the universe. The Israelites looked at the bronze snake lifted up on a pole, believing in God's remedy for their condition. In the same way, people today can believe in Jesus, who was lifted up on a cross to bear the sins of humankind, died, and rose from the dead. Through Jesus' loving sacrifice, each of us can receive forgiveness for sin, a spiritual rebirth, a new life being transformed by God, and the certainty of eternal life in heaven.