DIY Devotions - Don't Get Locked Out

(You will need a lock, preferably one with a combination, but if not, one that takes a key will work)

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. - Matthew 7:7

Show your children or the group the lock - What is this?  That’s right, it is a lock.  Why do we use locks?  (You will get different answers and affirm them all, but you are looking for to keep people out).  We use locks to keep people out of place that they should not be.  When you were little, your parents might have put locks on cabinets to keep you out of things that can hurt you.  Sometimes when you pass a place where they are building a new building, they will lock it up at night, because there are a lot of tools, wood, and nails that could hurt you.  So, locks can be helpful.

Well, in the Bible we learn that sin is like a lock, but it actually keeps us out of somewhere we were made to be.  It keeps us away from God. 

Adam and Eve brought sin into the world when they ate from the one tree God told them not eat from and when they did they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, because a good and perfect God can’t be around sin.  It is kind of like if you put on an all white suit or dress to head to church, you wouldn’t go play in the mud first would you?  No, of course not.  The mud would ruin your clothes and that is why a holy God can’t be around sin, because it would make him not holy and that can’t happen. 

So, they were kicked out of Eden and it brought death into the world.  God did not make us to die.  If Adam and Eve wouldn’t have eaten the fruit, they would have lived forever, but sin leads to death. 

Sin, like a lock, kept Adam and Eve away from God and kept them from living forever.  Do you think God wants to be away from his people?  Of course not, he loves us too much.  He wants to be with us.

What do you need to open this lock or key?  A combination.  That’s right.  God sent us the combination in Jesus Christ.  Jesus loved us so much that first, he lived a sin free life.  He never did anything wrong (Put one number in the combination).  Second, on the cross he took our punishment and died for our sins (put the second number in the combination) and finally, did he stay dead?  No, he rose again to open Heaven to anybody that believes Jesus Christ is the only Son of God that died to take away our sin (put the last number in and open the lock). 

Now, as you know, there is only one combination or key that will open this lock.  Jesus is the only way we can have our sins forgiven, be back in relationship with the Father and get to go to heaven one day forever and ever.