Gospel: John 15:9-17

Script

Pastor: Good morning boys and girls! Welcome! Let’s say good morning to our friend Sammy and see if she is there. Ready? One, two, three: Good morning, Sammy!

Sammy: Good morning, everyone! Pastor, are we friends?

Pastor: Sammy, you are my very special friend.

Sammy: Really, Pastor?

Pastor: Yes, really, Sammy.

Sammy: Really?

Pastor: Yes.

Sammy: You’re sure?

Pastor: Yes, Sammy. If you ask me again, I might change my mind.

Sammy: Pastor, would you die for me?

Pastor: Well, why do you ask?

Sammy: Jesus says in the gospel reading that the greatest love we can have for each other is to be willing to lay down our lives for our friends. So would you die for me?

Pastor: You are my friend, Sammy. If you needed me to lay my life down for you, I would.

Sammy: Pastor, you make me feel really loved and safe.

Pastor: That’s good. Jesus calls us to love each other just like he loves us. That means that we take care of each other, protect each other, and demonstrate a love that is self-sacrificial, which means that we give up something for someone else.

Sammy: Boys and girls, who shows you Jesus’ love in your life?

[Allow time for responses]

Pastor: Great answers, everyone! Remember that Jesus laid down his life for each one of us because he loves us. He took on our sin, went to the cross, died, and rose again because he loves you. And he’s coming back one day because he loves you.

Sammy: That’s a whole lot of love!

Pastor: Yes it is! Let’s pray. Can we please fold our hands and bow our heads? Dear Jesus, thank you for laying down your life for us. We love you. Help us to love each other and you as you first loved us. Amen.

Sammy: Bye Pastor!

Pastor: Bye Sammy!

 

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25)

What control do you have over tomorrow?  None, not one, has control over what tomorrow will look like.  So why do you worry?  Life is more than the physical things that are experienced.  Life is in and of the Lord.  He who created you calls you into His life so that you may be made complete.

Complete is the better translation for the word when we say, “Perfect.”  Jesus taught us to become complete even as the Father is complete.  He who knows us will complete us.  We are not yet what we will be, but this we know, we are to be transformed to the image of Christ.  Come then and live into the life for which Christ paid the ransom on the cross.  Come and be made whole in Him, for this is what He has come to do.

Lord Jesus, You know exactly where I struggle and the things that need to happen in order that I might live in the righteousness You give by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Lead me. Lord, so that now and always, I look to You as the whole and complete source of my faith and life.  Guide me by faith to seek the righteousness You give that I may live into the life for which You are preparing me.  Amen.