Session #3- Becoming One of Aslan’s.
John 1:10-12; Rom. 8:38-39- promises
TLTWATW: Ch. 7 pg. 67- Children hear about Aslan for the first time and all of them react differently
This sermon attempts to address the following questions:
What does it mean when we say “Aslan is on the move? Or Jesus is on the move.”
What does it mean to be one of God’s? (Go beyond going to heaven)
Can anyone be saved on their own?
Why does God save us?
Why might this be difficult?
Is following Jesus easy or hard? Is it simple or complicated?
What makes being a Christian simple? What makes it complicated?
So we’ve talked about who Jesus is, and we’ve talked about some of the dangerous parts of following Jesus, really following Jesus. We’ve talked about the fact that it will require something of us. Now I want us to talk and think about what it means to say we’re a Christian. I mean, the first things we have to wrestle with are who Jesus is and what’s this going to cost us. But if we come through all of that and still decide that we want to be a follower of Jesus, that we want to be one of his, then I think we should talk about what that means.
I want to read another short part of the book LWW to you. In this section, Edmund, Peter, Susan and Lucy meet Mr. and Mrs. Beaver and they hear about Aslan for the first time. Listen: Read Chapter 7, pg. 67- “They say Aslan is on the move…”
We just had Christmas, so you all remember what it’s like to go to bed the night before Christmas right? Tell me what you feel. (get responses) Why do you feel like that? What makes it hard to sleep? How about the night before a test? How do you feel then?
Lot’s of people think that following Jesus will make them feel a certain way or that they’ll automatically want to read their bibles more and will love to go to church. Well, here’s the thing about a relationship with God, at times you might feel totally in love with God, like a little kid the night before Christmas, and sometimes you might feel scared and alone and abandoned. You might wonder where God is. You might feel more like someone who has a big test the next day. But no matter how we feel about God, it will never change the way God feels about us. How do I know this is true about God? Well, first of all, one of my favorite parts of the bible tells me this. Romans 8:38-39 says: Nothing can separate us from God’s love. I believe the bible.
But I also know this is true because I’ve experienced God’s unconditional love first hand. I’ve had lots of the same experiences you’ve probably had. I’ve done some great things and I’ve done some pretty horrible things, too. I’ve laid awake at night thinking about how small I am, and how big the world is. Remembering all of the bad stuff I’ve done and the good things that I should have done but didn’t. And then I remember what these verses say, that NOTHING separates me. And I remember to pray, I remember that God is always listening. So I pray, and I tell you what, I don’t get some sort of magical response or some warm fuzzy feeling from it, but I am reminded that God is bigger than even my biggest problems, my biggest mistakes.
I think this is what the book means when it says, “Aslan is on the move.” Jesus is on the move, for us…for our benefit. We have this tendency to think that God worked on the earth about 2000 years ago when Jesus came, but God is still working, He is still on the move in each of our lives, and we have to be looking and listening for Him. And just like how each of the kids in the LWW have a different reaction to the name of Aslan, and each of them have a different journey into Narnia, each of us will have a different journey with God. God will be speaking to each of us in a different way, presenting us with different opportunities and helping us thru different obstacles. But the thing that will never change is that God’s promise to love us will never end.
Listen to this in John 1:10-12 (read)
John says that we become God’s children, and not children born naturally into God’s family, and not through human decision or thru any choice or doing of ours, but brought into God’s family by God’s seeking us out, by His pursuing us. We become God’s children because God is on the move for us.
