Welcome
Welcome to the sermon series Your Kingdom Come: God’s Project for Making All Things New! Here you will find a brief overview of this week’s passage and a few ideas for going deeper into the sermon topic with Preschool, Elementary, and Middle/High Schoolers.
Recap
Come back to God!
This is the motto of the Kingdom of God. Our passage today in 2 Corinthians talks about coming back to God five times. In fact, it says that this is what Jesus came to invite us to.
But oh, some days I am selfish and greedy. Come back to God.
But some days I want my ways more than God’s ways. Come back to God.
But some days I feel hurt and sad. Come back to God.
Some days I hurt others. Come back to God.
But how can we come back to God? Only because Jesus brings us back. The Bible says that in Jesus, we are a new kind of creature, the kind who can come back to God, because of what Jesus has done. We are the kind of people who can invite people to come back to God.
Preschool
Read your child stories this week of God finding and brining people back to himself. There are many parables like this. The parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son in Luke 15 are a good place to start. You can ask your child if they ever feel far from God, and teach them this breath prayer. Breath in and pray “Good shepherd,” breathe out, “you find me when I am lost.”
Elementary School
Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 from a child-friendly version of the Bible like the NIrV.
How many times does this passage talk about coming back to God? What do you notice?
How are we made right with God?
What does this passage say about anyone who lives in Jesus?
How do you see God making you more like Jesus?
Middle/High School
Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 in the New Living Translation.
Paul says that we (those who live for Christ) “have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.” What do you think he means by that?
Verse 17 says that “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new creation.” Do you feel like a new person? If you have believed in Jesus, ask him to show you and remind you of the work he has begun in your heart and life.
Paul says that God has given us “this wonderful message of reconciliation” and made us “Christ’s ambassadors.” What is an ambassador? If you really understood yourself as an ambassador for Christ, how would that change your life? Also, more fundamentally, what does it mean that the message entrusted to you is a message of “reconciliation”?