The Pumpkin Patch Gospel
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Welcome to Family Sunday.
I love family Sunday’s. I love seeing our youth up here leading us in worship and our kids able to come in and worship with us and for believing kids to participate with us as we commune together with the Lord. It is exciting to be together.
I know many of our kids are not only excited to be here, but also to go around getting candy this afternoon.
Last week we talked about participating in some of the events surrounding Halloween from a biblical standpoint and in regard to the freedom we have in Christ. If you missed last week, you might want to check that out online and hear why it is ok from a biblical standpoint to “trick or treat” but how we want to be cautious in regards to what we allow our kids to dress up as well as a few other things related to a Halloween.
Today, however, we are going to do something a bit different in honor of all the kids being with us. Today we want our kids, as well as our adults, to be able to hear the gospel in a way that may be easier to understand and retain as we communicate it through the Pumpkin Patch Gospel.
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How many of you know what this is? (hold up pumpkin)
Around this time of year a lot of people carve pumpkins and make faces on them and make pumpkin seeds and pumpkin pies and pumpkin bread.
How many of you have carved a pumpkin this year?
Our family did last week.
Show picture
Did any of you go out to the pumpkin patch to pick your pumpkin?
When you get your pumpkins from the pumpkin patch often they have a lot of dirt on them.
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You pick them and you have clean them off when you get them home and then they start to look nice on the outside. But even though they look nice on the outside, if you have ever carved a pumpkin you know that they have all kinds of yucky gunk on the inside still, don’t they? (open up pumpkin and pull out gunk)
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We are a lot like a pumpkin.
We can put on nice clothes and get all gussied up but that is only really cleaning up our outsides. What is it we look like on the inside, in our hearts, in our spirits?
The Bible tells us we have bad stuff inside us.
It says our hearts are wicked
Jeremiah 17:9 - The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
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Romans 3:10-12
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good, not even one."
We want things
Have you ever seen something that you would like to have like money or a toy or something that to you was valuable and the thought comes into your mind, “I could just take that!”
We may not do that, because we then think to ourselves that it would be wrong, but that thought entering in shows us that our heart is a lot like the insides of this pumpkin…kind of disgusting.
So here we are all cleaned up on the outside, but with all this yucky stuff on the inside.
What do we do?
Well the sad truth is, is that we can’t clean our insides up by ourselves.
Because our insides our gunky and full of sin, we need someone who isn’t all gunky on the inside and full of sin to be able to do it for us.
We need Jesus to clean out the gunk and sin in our lives.
But, we have to open ourselves up to Jesus.
(Take top off of pumpkin)
Jesus says in
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Revelation 3:20 - Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Are you open to Jesus coming into your life and cleaning out the gunk, the sin in your life that makes you dirty on the inside?
Do you believe that Jesus is able to clean you?
The Bible tells us that when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9)
Do you believe that?
Are you willing to open yourself up to Jesus and let Him clean you?
If you are, the Bible tells us that
Isaiah 1:18 - "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow”
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Jesus removes the seeds of sin
Jesus will clean you our and remove the gunk of sin that is in you.
He will remove the seeds of doubt, the seeds of hate, the seeds of Jealousy and selfishness, but you have to be open to Him coming into your life and cleaning you out.
The Bible tells us we have to receive Him into our lives by believing in who He is and what He has done.
(Remove all the gunk in bag)
John 1:12 - Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— NIV
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When we receive Jesus as our Savior, he cleans us out on the inside.
(Show inside of pumpkin)
Dirty hands
Now while it is great to get a pumpkin cleaned out, one of the problems with it is that you have to get your hands dirty to do it.
Well, for Jesus to clean us out required Him to get his hands dirty.
Jesus who is God, had to come down from heaven, where it was perfect in every way.
Can you imagine having to leave your house and go live on the cold and dirty streets of the city?
That is basically what Jesus did but in a way far more sacrificial than we could imagine.
He left heaven and came to this cold and dirty world and he put on skin and bones and became a man while still being God.
And He lived here for 33 years in this world and he never did anything wrong.
Because he never sinned, Jesus was the only one that could pay for our sin, clean us out.
But he had to trade his life for ours.
He had to die so we could live as a child of God in heaven.
So that is what Jesus did.
He loved us so much that He was willing to die for you and for me. And since He did, He is the one who can clean out all the gunk in us and make us into something new.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (NIV)
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(Show pumpkin happy face)
Jesus makes us new.
He cleans up the gunk of sin on the inside of us and makes us a new creation.
But He not only removes the gunk and sin that is in us, but He himself comes and indwells us through the Holy Spirit and we get His eternal life.
John 1:4 - In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (NIV)
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(Light candle)
When he comes and lives in us, He becomes that light that shines in us and through us and He brings the fullness of life to us.
Jesus said
John 10:10 - I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (NIV)
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That full life is the source of our joy and it shines from within us as He fills us.
That light can bring warmth and joy and continue to shine no matter what is going on outside of us.
Jesus, when He is shining in us, enables us to experience
joy in the midst of hardship,
peace when there is uncertainty, and
hope when things seem desperate.
We can have his light in us and experience this fullness when we receive Him.
We receive Him by believing in him and confessing to God our belief that Jesus is the Lord, that He really is God, and that He died for you and that he rose from the dead.
And then after we have received Jesus, we are supposed to share that light He has given us with others.
Jesus says
Matthew 5:14-16
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14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (NIV)
As people see the light of Jesus in you, they too, will see what it is that we all want, to have Jesus clean us and fill us and to be the light of our life.
Conclusion
Kids, some of you are here today and maybe you haven’t really ever had the gospel explained in a way that you understand it. I hope today that you see what Jesus wants to do in your life if you have not ever received Him or believed in Him as your Savior.
No matter if you are a kid or an adult, we are going to give you the opportunity to receive Jesus and have Him clean you, and change you, and fill you.
The Bible tells us that all we have to do is truly believe and confess our belief that He is God.
Romans 10:9
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“if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NIV)
If you want to become a child of God and have Him make you into a new creation then do what the Bible says.
If you would like to do that, then just pray along with me as I lead you in a prayer.
Pray
Kids if you prayed that prayer and confessed Jesus as your Savior today, then tell your parents that.
Adults, if you did that for the first time today or if you have done it in the past and never told anyone about it, tell someone else so we can rejoice with you and help guide you in your next steps like baptism.
We are going to close by singing Salvation is Here.
And if today you have received Christ as Savior, salvation has come to you today.
And no matter what goes on around us, God is able to shine his light in you and make things ok.
Part of the lyrics to the song say
God above all the world in motion
God above all my hopes and fears
I don’t care what the world throws at me now
It’s gonna be alright
’Cause I know my God saved the day
And I know His word never fails
And I know my God made a way for me
Salvation is here
Let’s stand and worship.
