[This is a children's sermon for Galilee Methodist Church Promise Land next Sunday. They are going to be partnering with us on Cheonan Migrant Shelter, so I said yes when they asked me to preach for their kids' program. They assigned this text.]
Revelation 1:17-18 ... Jesus “said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever!’”
Do I look fat? Maybe not now, but when I was a kid, I was fat. Some of the mean kids in my school sang a song about me when they passed me in the hall. Have you ever heard the Batman song? They changed it for me: “Fatman, na-na-na-na-na, Fat-man!”
For some strange reason, I decided to be on the track team. One week I heard that our team didn’t have enough guys to run the 800 meter race. (That’s 2 times all the way around the big track at Cheonan Stadium.) I volunteered. My coach looked at me ... looked at my stomach ... and said, “800 meters? Have you even run that far before?”
I said, “Sure, sometimes I go jogging with my dad.” I didn’t know that jogging with my 50 year old father is completely different from racing around a track with a bunch of fast, skinny kids.
When I was stretching out for the race, the other guys on my team were giving me advice. One of them said, “The thing about the half-mile is you have to go kind of slow around the track for the first time. Then, the second time, you just run as fast as you can. You feel like your heart is going to explode. You feel like you’re going to die, but you just keep going as fast as you can.” That should have been my first clue something was wrong.
We lined up for the race, and I was proud to be wearing my school’s red shirt. There were 20 skinny kids - and me. I waved to a few cute girls. Then, the starting gun sounded, “BAM!”, and we started running. I stayed with the group for about the first 200 meters, and I thought, “Man, this is easy. I can do this.”
As the first lap finished, I was definitely drifting toward the back of the pack, but I thought, “Hey, that’s no problem. I knew I wasn’t going to win this thing. I’m still doing all right.”
On the second lap, all of the other runners started running as hard as they could. But I just kept jogging, just hoping I could finish.
As I rounded the last turn, I felt like a big gorilla had climbed onto my back. I started slowing down and breathing heavier. (Wheezing sounds.) About that time, I felt like just slowing to a walk and drifting into the field where kids from different schools were walking around. “No one would ever know,” I told myself. I was afraid of being teased. I was afraid of what the coaches would say. I was afraid of what those cute girls would say. I was afraid I would hear the mean kids singing, “Fatman, nanananana, Fatman!”
Instead, I heard a strange sound. I heard screaming, “Whooooooooo!” Then, I heard something even stranger: “Whooooooooo! Josh!” Then, I saw my Dad’s face. He was standing at the finish line. He was screaming and clapping his hands like a wild man, like I had just won a gold medal in the Olympics. “Whooooooo! Josh! Whooooooooo! Josh!” When I finally crossed the finish line, my Dad said, “Josh, I’m so proud of you.”
“Why?!” [wheezing sounds] “I was dead last!”
My dad’s face was shining with pride, “Because you didn’t stop. It would have been so easy to stop, to just give up, but you didn’t. You finished, and I’m so proud of you!”
God loves us like that! Nothing – not even failure, not even coming in dead last, not falling flat on our faces in a dance recital, not getting an F on a test, not getting fired from our job, not being teased by our classmates – nothing at all can ever separate us from God’s love that we see in Jesus.
Jesus is the First and the Last. Jesus is the Beginning and the End. Jesus has come in last. He was killed on the cross. He died like a criminal. You can’t really get more last place than that. But God raised him from the dead. Now, he is first - at God’s right hand, the Living One, who is alive forever and ever.
Don’t give up. Don’t be afraid. Jesus is the First and the Last. No matter what, God loves us. Jesus is the Beginning and the End. From the beginning of your life to the end of your life, God loves you. God always has loved you, and God always will love you - no matter what - forever and ever. Hold onto Jesus. He loves you, and he is the First and the Last.
Jesus “said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever!’”
Revelation 1:17-18 ... Jesus “said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever!’”Do I look fat? Maybe not now, but when I was a kid, I was fat. Some of the mean kids in my school sang a song about me when they passed me in the hall. Have you ever heard the Batman song? They changed it for me: “Fatman, na-na-na-na-na, Fat-man!”
For some strange reason, I decided to be on the track team. One week I heard that our team didn’t have enough guys to run the 800 meter race. (That’s 2 times all the way around the big track at Cheonan Stadium.) I volunteered. My coach looked at me ... looked at my stomach ... and said, “800 meters? Have you even run that far before?”
I said, “Sure, sometimes I go jogging with my dad.” I didn’t know that jogging with my 50 year old father is completely different from racing around a track with a bunch of fast, skinny kids.
When I was stretching out for the race, the other guys on my team were giving me advice. One of them said, “The thing about the half-mile is you have to go kind of slow around the track for the first time. Then, the second time, you just run as fast as you can. You feel like your heart is going to explode. You feel like you’re going to die, but you just keep going as fast as you can.” That should have been my first clue something was wrong.
We lined up for the race, and I was proud to be wearing my school’s red shirt. There were 20 skinny kids - and me. I waved to a few cute girls. Then, the starting gun sounded, “BAM!”, and we started running. I stayed with the group for about the first 200 meters, and I thought, “Man, this is easy. I can do this.”
As the first lap finished, I was definitely drifting toward the back of the pack, but I thought, “Hey, that’s no problem. I knew I wasn’t going to win this thing. I’m still doing all right.”
On the second lap, all of the other runners started running as hard as they could. But I just kept jogging, just hoping I could finish.
As I rounded the last turn, I felt like a big gorilla had climbed onto my back. I started slowing down and breathing heavier. (Wheezing sounds.) About that time, I felt like just slowing to a walk and drifting into the field where kids from different schools were walking around. “No one would ever know,” I told myself. I was afraid of being teased. I was afraid of what the coaches would say. I was afraid of what those cute girls would say. I was afraid I would hear the mean kids singing, “Fatman, nanananana, Fatman!”
Instead, I heard a strange sound. I heard screaming, “Whooooooooo!” Then, I heard something even stranger: “Whooooooooo! Josh!” Then, I saw my Dad’s face. He was standing at the finish line. He was screaming and clapping his hands like a wild man, like I had just won a gold medal in the Olympics. “Whooooooo! Josh! Whooooooooo! Josh!” When I finally crossed the finish line, my Dad said, “Josh, I’m so proud of you.”
“Why?!” [wheezing sounds] “I was dead last!”
My dad’s face was shining with pride, “Because you didn’t stop. It would have been so easy to stop, to just give up, but you didn’t. You finished, and I’m so proud of you!”
God loves us like that! Nothing – not even failure, not even coming in dead last, not falling flat on our faces in a dance recital, not getting an F on a test, not getting fired from our job, not being teased by our classmates – nothing at all can ever separate us from God’s love that we see in Jesus.
Jesus is the First and the Last. Jesus is the Beginning and the End. Jesus has come in last. He was killed on the cross. He died like a criminal. You can’t really get more last place than that. But God raised him from the dead. Now, he is first - at God’s right hand, the Living One, who is alive forever and ever.
Don’t give up. Don’t be afraid. Jesus is the First and the Last. No matter what, God loves us. Jesus is the Beginning and the End. From the beginning of your life to the end of your life, God loves you. God always has loved you, and God always will love you - no matter what - forever and ever. Hold onto Jesus. He loves you, and he is the First and the Last.
Jesus “said, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever!’”
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