Sunday School 14 June 2020

When I was a boy I used to play a lot of games with my twin brother.

Whoever won would sing a song:

“I am the winner, you are the loser”

It always felt horrible to be the loser.

The world we grow up in often sorts us out into winners and losers.

Have you got money, popularity, power? Are you athletic and clever? Do you get what you want?

Are you a winner in the game of life?

Jesus understood that we all run after these things but told us that we should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. (Matthew 6 v 33 )

He also said that the person who loses his life, who lays it down for others is really the winner of life

and that in the the end the first shall be last and the last shall be first. (Matthew 20 v 16 ).

In the desert Jesus was tempted to change the world through power, popularity and provision.

(Matthew 4)

But instead He chose a life of service and kindness that ended with a humbling death on a cross.

In the eyes of the world He was a failure.

A loser.

Those that hated him were alive and well and still in power.

Yet His life, death and return to life again has changed the world and everyone in it forever.

We know that in the end Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13 v 8).

We can serve and care for one another and not be losers but winners.

And even when we fail and do wrong things and when we are wronged and hurt by others, we can come to Him for healing and forgiveness.

Father, thank you for sending your Son to die for us.

We bring to Him our lostness and our hurts.

Heal us from the pain of loss and sin.

Help us to gain our lives anew in this world and the life to come.

In the victorious name of Jesus

Amen.