Video “Children’s Sermon Lesson: Transformed by Christ Romans 6:1-14”:
“Hello children of God. What do I have here? It’s kind of hard to tell. These are tortilla chips, well they’re sort of turning into the crumbs of tortilla chips now, but you get the idea. The delicious chips that you could dip in salsa or sour cream or make nachos or have with tacos or something like that. But where did tortilla chips come from? What were they before they became chips? Well, if you said tortillas, you’re absolutely right. Sorry, no product placement here, but prior to becoming a chip, this was just a tortilla. Now, can the chip turn back into a tortilla? No, of course not, because this is soft, this is the before stage, and this is the after. There’s nothing this delicious satisfying chip could do to go back to being a soft little tortilla.
Well, that might have been obvious, but here’s one that is a little more exciting. What is this? A pickle, a very delicious pickle. But where do pickles come from? What was that before it became a pickle? Believe it or not, that was once a cucumber, probably a smaller kind of cucumber than this, but yes, mind-blowing though it may seem, the great delicious pickle was once a lowly cucumber. So see, if your mom tells you to eat more vegetables, just throw some pickles on your burger. Not really, vegetables are important, you should have fresh vegetables, very delicious. But what did the cucumber have to go through to become a pickle? Well, it kind of soaked in this juicy stuff for a while with some different spices and seasonings and everything, and over time it became a pickle, kind of like a baptism in a way, but we’ll get to more on that in just a little bit.
Now, snack foods are not the only things that go through changes and transformations and become new. For instance, we see this all around us with animals. For example, what did a frog used to be? A frog used to be a tadpole, a silly little swimming around tadpole. Now, would this frog go back to being a tadpole? Of course not, no, I don’t want to now, it’s a frog, hopping around, done landing water, our great awesome amphibian. It wouldn’t want to go back to being a silly little tadpole. Or how about a beautiful butterfly? Can a butterfly crawl back in the cocoon and turn itself back into a caterpillar? No, and again, why would it want to? If you can fly and be gorgeous and zooming around in the air, why would you want to go back to crawling around on a leaf? Silly to even think of. These things go through changes, become something new, something that’s transformed and different, that would never go back to the old way of things.
But did you know that the same thing happens just that we have been transformed and made new? The Book of Romans tells us that we share in the identity of Jesus, that we in our baptism die to our sins and rise again, that just as Jesus died and came back to life, we die and come back to life too. And since we’re dead to our old sins, why are we going to go back to that way of living when we know Jesus and his power and his transformation, the things that he has done in our lives? It gives us freedom, freedom from sin. See, when we are sinning, well, it’s kind of like being a slave. We’re chained to those sins,
painful, it’s not what we want to do or what we should do, but we can get into these habits and patterns. Now, of course, we always make mistakes, but it’s important to remember who we are in Jesus, that we’re no longer slaves to those sins, we are freed from them, we’re not in that bondage anymore. And because of that, that’s in the past, that’s our old sinful self that we get to put away, and we get to remember that now we have Jesus.
May we realize how much better he is, how much more wonderful and blessed the way of life of living in Jesus and through his Spirit, how much greater those things are. Well, I wouldn’t want to go back to crawling around like a caterpillar or just being a cucumber, nothing wrong with cucumbers, but you see what I mean. We make mistakes, we still sin every day, but that is not who we are. Those sins don’t define and don’t identify us anymore. The bad stuff doesn’t identify us, we are with Jesus.
We remember, if you’ve been baptized, that we have had that death and resurrection moment, and if we love Jesus and honor and serve him, we remember that we follow him now and not those old sinful ways. And even when sometimes we do slip into sin, we remember that Jesus is more powerful, so we can turn to him and remember we’ve been forgiven once and for all. Our past, present, and future sins have been wiped clean, and Jesus has made us new and given us freedom. We don’t want to do the bad things anymore when we know Jesus gives us wings, in a sense, he sets us free from all that.
In this life, yes, we’ll still have trouble, and sins will still tempt us, but he has released us from that slavery. We don’t have to do it anymore. We can look to Jesus and cling to him, and we know that our identity is in him. We have new life, salvation, and forgiveness because of what Jesus has done for us.
So remember, if you mess up, or if you want to go back to sinning, or if you think you might want to do something wrong, life with Jesus is so much better. Always trust in him first. Why don’t we say a prayer and thank God for the transformation and new life we have in Jesus?
Dear God, thank you for our new lives. Thank you that we can be transformed by your power. Thank you for giving us Jesus. Help us remember that we are free from sins and that life with you is the greatest thing we can have. Thank you for your love. We love you, God. Thank you for your son, Jesus. In his name, Amen.
We have new life, you have new life, so go share that with your children and your ministry, wherever and with whomever that might be. And join us again for more messages, crafts, and lessons every week. Hopefully, this helps you communicate the powerful truths of Romans chapter 6. Now, what are you waiting for? Go make some disciples. Have a great week. See you next time.”