Last night my wife and I had the privilege of serving together at a homeschool graduation here in Omaha. It was interesting because none of our children were involved with the proceedings. It was such a joy to serve alongside of Christie in this way. She did the MC’ing and I did the preaching (she was the good cop and I was…the preacher).
The event was held at a church in Omaha that I would not typically have an opportunity to preach in and the attendees were from a broad religious background (everyone from Catholic to Baptist to Pentecostal to Methodist) it was going to be fun.
I got up there to preach and asked the kids if they wanted the good news or the bad. They were mixed, so I gave them the bad news: Before going onto the next grade they needed to understand justification by faith alone. The good news: I was going to teach them.
I love doing this teaching for kids. I explain the will of God in creation by handing out a clean sheet of white paper. I then explain that God desires worship, pleasure, and obedience…but instead we rebel. This is shown by marking up the paper with errant marks of magic marker.
We then talk about how God requires perfection and that this paper (our heart) is not perfect but instead it is dirty. I ask for solutions and the kids are eager to help. I give them new pens (different colors) to demonstrate various moral works they could do, a chalk-board eraser to represent baptism, and other little handouts to help them remove the markings. One kid reached the intended point of frustration with his baptism eraser saying, “It is only making it worse!!”
Another bright kid asked for another piece of white paper. He was thinking!! He needed alien righteousness (Phil. 3).
I then explained to them that Jesus Christ became sin for sinners so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5.21). I explained substitution in simple terms and then using the staple of faith affixed the new alien piece of white paper to the marked up piece.
This was such a good time to talk about the gospel in simple terms and trusting God to water his word to their young hearts as well as their parents. I thank God that it was clear, as one gentleman was completely honest and unrestrained as I was teaching and exclaimed, “I don’t need to hear this! I’m leavin’!!” I really appreciate his attentiveness and honesty but cringe at his hard heart.
It was a great encouragement to talk with folks afterward about what I said, some seemed open others gave me the crook eye. Thankfully my wife is pretty and she smiles a lot. It was a great time and we were so greatly encouraged.