Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Best Surprise Ever 7: Surprising Life


This is Part Seven in a seven-part series of family devotions leading up to Easter.  Here is Part OnePart TwoPart ThreePart Four, Part Five and Part Six if you need to catch up.  
Verse to Remember: God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. – John 3:16 (NIrV)
Big Idea:  Jesus died to set me free.  
Have you ever tried to sell something you owned?  Maybe a baseball card or a comic book or even an old toy at a garage sale?  Or maybe you set up a lemonade stand on a hot, summer day and tried to sell drinks to your neighbors?  
If you’ve ever sold something, how did you decide what the price would be?  Did you ask your parents to look online to see how much your comic book was worth or ask a friend what they would charge for lemonade?
At the end of the day, though, it doesn’t really matter what you charged.  What mattered was how much someone was willing to pay. You could have said your baseball card was worth a million dollars, but if no one was willing to pay that price, it wouldn’t really be worth it.  
2,000 years ago, Jesus showed us how much we are worth to God.  He paid the ultimate price for you and me. He didn’t pay for us with money.  He paid for us with his life.
After Jesus was arrested and taken to Pilate, he was sentenced to die.  He hadn’t done anything wrong, but his enemies were jealous of him. They didn’t want the people to follow Jesus.  They wanted people to follow them.
So Pilate turned Jesus over to the soldiers who beat him and took him to a hill outside of the city.  They nailed Jesus to a wooden cross. Then, the one man who had never done anything wrong, the perfect Son of God, took the punishment for the sin of the world.  
But this was all part of God’s plan.  Jesus had come to earth for this very reason.  He came to earth to pay the price for the bad things you and I have done, so we don’t have to.  He died on the cross so we could be forgiven and free.
Now we can be friends with a perfect God even though we’re not perfect.  Now God’s power can change us to be more like Jesus each day. Now we can be a part of God’s family because Jesus paid the price for us.  
Want to know how much you’re worth to God?  Just look at the cross. Look at Jesus. Remember the price he paid for you and remember you are loved.  
Prayer:
Jesus, you are my Savior.  Thank you for paying the price for the wrong things I’ve done so that I can be a part of your family forever.  I love you, Jesus. Amen.
Talk About It:
  1. What’s the coolest gift you’ve ever received?  Who gave it to you? How did that make you feel?
  2. What gift did Jesus buy for you on the cross?
  3. How can we show Jesus we’re grateful for his gift this week?
 Don’t miss the next devotion in the Best Surprise Ever series.  Subscribe here.

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