I just want to speak to the boys
and girls for a few minutes and ask you a question. Who are you? Who are you? Who am I? You know, we've been
thinking a little bit in the past few weeks about the Bible,
and we've been reminding ourselves that it's God's book. It's God's
book, and it tells us the truth. It teaches us about God, and
it tells us about the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've learned how
God made the world in six days, and we've learned how that on
the sixth day, he made man. And that's very important that
we remember that God made us. Who am I? And who are you? We are creatures that God has
made. We are his creatures. And the
Bible tells us that God made us for a purpose. Our lives are
important. Your life is important. The lives
of the people here in church are important. The lives that
God has given us have to be taken care of. And that means that
we recognize that someday we are going to be answerable to
God for the things that we have done. Our life is God's gift
to us. And someday we will all have
to stand before God as our creator and tell him what we did with
the life that he gave us. Now, I know that most of the
time you want to be good. But I also know, because I was
once a little boy, that it's not easy to be good all the time. In fact, it's very hard to be
good all the time. And you know that, and I know
that, and your mums and your dads know that too. In fact, everybody knows. that it's not easy. It's impossible
to be good all the time. And the Bible tells us why this
is. It tells us it's because we are
sinners. In our life, in our heart, is
a desire to do things that please ourselves. And even although
we know that we are doing something that we shouldn't do, that desire
to please ourselves is so strong that sometimes we do it anyway,
even when we know we shouldn't. We sin in our thoughts, in our
words, in our actions. When God made Adam and Eve, the
first people, he put them in a beautiful garden. He gave them
everything that their hearts could desire. And he said that
it was all very good. But they did not stay good for
long. They wanted what they couldn't
have. They wanted to be like God. They were envious of God. They desired more. They weren't
satisfied. God had given them so much, but
they still wanted more. Jealousy and envy is a deep-rooted
sin. And the devil came to them one
day, and he promised that they could be like God, if they would
do what he said and they would go against what God had said. And that was a lie because the
devil is the father of lies. And Adam and Eve made a mistake
that day. They believed the devil rather
than believe God. They fell into sin. And we call
that the fall. When Adam and Eve fell into sin,
we call that the fall. And because of the fall, all
of Adam and Eve's children and all of Adam and Eve's children's
children and everybody in this whole world that ever was born
are sinners because of the fall. It's easier to be naughty than
to be good. And because of the fall, we try
to do what we want and not what God wants. So really, being a
sinner and because of the fall means that we are not as God
originally designed us. In fact, being a sinner is like
being broken. And the truth of the matter is
that because we are broken, we can't fix ourselves. We need
to go back to the maker. We need to go back to the one
who originally designed us, our creator, in order to get made
anew. Who is the creator? God is the
creator. Who made us? The Lord Jesus Christ
made us. And he is the only one that can
fix us. Sometimes boys and girls think
that Jesus is for big people, for mums and dads and for adults. Well, Jesus' disciples thought
that too. And they sent the little children
away from the Lord. And when Jesus saw that happening,
he was not pleased. And Matthew and Mark and Luke
all recount the fact that Jesus said, Suffer little children,
allow little children to come to me. Don't forbid them, for
of such is the kingdom of heaven. How do we come to Jesus? We trust
him. We believe in him. We love him. And that is impossible for us
to do by ourselves. but God gives us help and strength
to come to the Lord Jesus, even little children. Adam and Eve
were cast out of the garden because of the sin and because of the
fall, but when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. Our Lord Jesus Christ is
a loving, merciful, good and kind saviour. When he died on
the cross, he did everything needed to take away our sin. He is a great saviour to great
sinners and to little sinners too. May he grant us grace to
go to him as needy sinners and find him to be an able saviour. Amen.