Epic Fail

At church in our kids service, we’re focusing on the theme Epic Adventures for the month. It’s all about joining God in the adventure He’s designed for us. Last Sunday we talked about the most epic fail of all time: the original sin. This sin is what prevents us from living in God’s epic adventure. I posed the challenge that holiness is the epic adventure. On the surface, it doesn’t seem very epic or very adventurous. But when we break it down into the great themes of Scripture we find that it truly is.

Consider this: God, this uncreated, all-powerful, all-knowing, everlasting and holy being, speaks and the perfect universe comes into existence. Part of this perfect universe is a teeny little man and a teeny little woman. Both created perfect and with great value. Both designed to live in amazing relationship with their Creator and for thrilling adventures exploring the world He made.

Now consider this: Man, the created, weak and limited little being, takes things into his own hands and rebels against His Maker. Not smart. We could call that an unholy decision. He has now brought death, destruction and pain into his world. Time is running out. He will die and the Earth will be destroyed. All is lost…unless there is a rescue plan.

Jesus, God in human flesh, is that rescue plan. God who is holy, became man, thus becoming the only perfect and holy human in all of history. He is sacrificed of His own will taking the punishment for our unholiness. By doing this, He offers us His holiness, making right what is wrong, fixing what is broken, mending what is torn, healing what is wounded, rescuing what is being destroyed and restoring what is junked.

Is this feeling a little more epic now? A little more adventurous? Apart from a loving God putting our punishment on His Son Jesus, we are doomed to destruction. But by His grace, we can be restored and there will be a new heavens and a new earth. This restoration is not just for looking pretty later but for living in holiness now. We can live like Jesus and show His restorative grace and holiness to the world.

I’m gonna brag on Kim, a girl from our church. I was asking some kids what holiness looks like everyday. Not an easy question to answer. We had to work it through a little. Then Kim suggested that we imagine Jesus standing beside us. I was blown away to hear such a cool answer! Brother Lawrence wrote a book called The Practice of the Presence of God. Kim already knows this stuff! If we could imagine Jesus standing next to us, our moment by moment decisions would radically change! When someone is being insulted, how would Jesus step in? When anger boils inside, how would Jesus harness that energy for right choices? When I’m bored, how can thinking of Jesus guide my entertainment decisions? Jesus makes us holy. Apart from Him, we are stuck in our unholiness and left to misery and never-ending “epic fails.”

Each day, HIS-story is being written. God is writing an epic adventure and He wants you to be a part of the restoration! Don’t be like everyone else seeking to numb the pain with every kind of selfish pleasure. Get off your butt, change your thinking, and embrace holiness. Be set apart for something epic, be holy.