I made the Gospel Presentation during Week 3 of SonShine Day Camp. The theme of the week was Noah.
***
Back in the days of Noah, all of the people on the earth were really bad. They did many things that were evil in the eyes of the Lord. But we have learned already that there was a man named Noah, and his family, who were the exception.
But God grew tired of all of the bad things that people were doing, and so He decided to do something. He’s going to destroy the world! But God remembered Noah, and decided that he was going to be saved. So God talked to Noah, and told him to build him a big Ark.
God told Noah exactly how long, how wide, and how high the ark was going to be. And Noah obeyed God.
Noah began building the ark with his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet.
All of the people were laughing at Noah, because he was building this ark on land that was very far away from water. Noah did not listen to them, though, and continued on with his work.
Finally, when the Ark was completed, Noah gathered two animals of every species, and entered the ark with his family.
Soon God shut the door to the ark, because the rain and the floods were about to begin.
It rained, rained, and rained. It rained for forty days, causing a great flood to come and destroy everything.
The ark began to float, and soon, all Noah could see was water. But, the people and animals inside the ark remained safe.
Just like in Noah’s time, there are many many bad people in the world today! In fact, the bible says that we are all bad people, because we are all sinners.
All of us are born sinners. Me, Chico, Astro, Miso, Mr. Boy… We can’t help it, really. Sometimes we can try to be good, but a lot of times it doesn’t work.
Can you remember the last time that your mom or dad asked you to do something, and you didn’t do it? Or you took a really long time to do it? I bet it wasn’t very long ago when that happened.
Because of our sins, we are all separated from God. Just like the people in Noah’s time, we all have to be punished for our sins. God just cannot help it. Because He is so holy – which means, He is sinless, and He is perfect, He cannot stand sin to be around Him.
But guess what, here is the wonderful news! God has a rescue plan! Because God loves us so much, He wants to save all of us!
In the story that we have been learning this week, God’s plan to save the human race was Noah, his family, and his ark. Imagine, if Noah didn’t build the ark and was destroyed with everyone else, then would we be here today?
For us, it’s a little different. God’s plan to save the Human Race is through a man who lived about 2000 years ago. His name was Jesus!
It’s different for us, because God didn’t ask Jesus to build Him an ark. God asked Jesus to do something much harder than that! Noah’s ark saved the human race temporarily! But what Jesus did for us will save us forever!
Just like Noah, people laughed at Jesus. They mocked Him, and made fun of Him. Yesterday, we watched a movie here at b-towne right? Do you remember what it was called? Has anyone from B-Mount seen this movie?
Do you remember what happened when Evan finally told everyone that he was building the ark? And what happened when he was trying to get everyone to go inside his ark? People were really mean to him right?
Well imagine that, but about a thousand times meaner! That’s what they did to Jesus. Because people didn’t stop at laughing and making fun of Jesus. They also beat him up really really badly.
But they didn’t even stop there! Eventually, after beating Jesus up really badly. They killed him! They crucified him. Does everyone know what that means?
But guess what? This is exactly what God was planning to happen! That’s because Jesus was different from all of us. Remember what we said before? We are all sinners! But Jesus, he wasn’t a sinner. Just like God, He is also sinless, He is perfect! But wait, why is it then that Jesus died?
That’s God’s rescue plan for us. Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life, but still died on the cross. The Bible says that “God put the wrong on Him who never did anything wrong, so that we could be put right with God.” What happened to Jesus is that he was being punished for our sins!
So Jesus was punished – he was beaten, and made fun of, then he was crucified on the cross. But three days later, Jesus rose again! This completes God’s rescue plan for us! Because he rose from the dead, we know that He has defeated sin, and can do the same for us!
Isn’t that wonderful? God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to save us! But wait, it’s not really *that* easy! God has done all of the work of saving us, but we have to do something too! It says in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
This is the only thing God is asking us to do. He is asking us to proclaim that Jesus is Lord, and believe that he can save us!
Do any of you believe this? Do you think that Jesus really died on the cross, and rose again for your sins? Everyone eyes close please…