As well as playing in the church band I play in another band called New Life. Today our band took the service at Howard Memorial Church in Cardington. Somehow I ended up doing one of the talks and the following are my notes from today’s talk – some bits might not make sense because I did actions with them or asked the congregation.
Who can tell me what starts on Ash Wednesday?
Each year since I was about 16 or 17, that’s about 7 years as I’m 25 on Wednesday. I’ve given up something for Lent – one year I gave up meat and this year I gave up chocolate.
*open egg* Easter Sunday is the end of Lent which means today I can eat chocolate again. *eat*
But why do I give up chocolate?
There are various reasons why people fast for Lent but I do it to remember the forty days Jesus spent in the desert preparing himself and the huge sacrifice he made on Good Friday.
We celebrate Easter every year and sometimes it can become too familiar and we can forget what happened.
There’s a couple of verses in Philippians 2 that says
“[Jesus] Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross.”
Jesus arrives in the Christmas story being born to Mary and Joseph and then 30ish years later takes his place on the cross.
Jesus died on the cross but not only that he rose again on Sunday morning. To me, as a believer, he took my sin and the wrong things I’ve done to the cross and he dealt with them. In a way, he took the death warrant that had my name on it – crossed it out with the chunkiest marker pen he could find and wrote his name in its place. His death on the cross and his resurrection mean that just like the next song I have had my sins washed away and I’ll have eternal life with God after I die.
But it isn’t just for me – it’s for you and you and everyone else – just like it says in John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
To me, that is a big deal! Jesus didn’t just come on a field trip from heaven he was sent by God on a rescue mission to bridge the gap between us and God so that we may have that eternal life – hands up if you want that?
If you’re not sure or have questions grab one of us from the band at the end or one of the other leaders and we’ll be happy to chat.
*Pray*
So our next song is……….
Happy Easter Everyone!
Don’t Eat Too Much Chocolate!
1 comments
Comments are closed.