Back in March I wrote a devotion that began this way.

I have a 4-year-old grandson – Simon – that is quite a character. He has the ability to immerse himself in things totally. He gets a lot of joy out of just being a kid. His wide range of facial expressions crack me up. But he can also be a little pill at times. On a recent trip, we were on a hiking trail with him, his sister and his parents. At one point, he was tired of hiking and started whining, complaining and misbehaving. His dad told the rest of us to go ahead so he and Simon could have a “conversation.”  They caught up to us a few minutes later. Simon was not happy, but was behaving himself better after their “conversation.”  Later that day, at the dinner table, Simon was acting up a bit again, and his dad asked, “Do you and I have to have another conversation?” Simon looked down and said in a whiny voice that was loud enough for everyone to hear, “I hate conversations!”

Yesterday I was the guest preacher at his church, where his dad is pastor. At their late service, the children are dismissed for “Kid Time” during the sermon, where their Children’s Minister shares a message with them. It was also Simon’s fifth birthday, so we stayed for the party.  After the meal and the presents and the cake, we were all talking and it came up that I had shared the sermon that day. Simon was at “Kid Time,” so he did not hear me preach. But he said, “A sermon is like a conversation!”

Wow! In some ways, he nailed it. A sermon often tells people things they don’t want to hear. It points out sin that is deserving of punishment and condemnation. It confronts people with things that can make them uncomfortable. That is the Law doing its job. But if that is all that is in the sermon, the preacher has not done his job.

In every message I share, my goal is to point people to the cross and the empty tomb. The message that needs to predominate is not Law, but the Good News of salvation as a free gift that we have for Jesus’ sake. He paid our debt. He accomplished our forgiveness. He opened heaven for us. He did it all. And He did it for everyone.

We need to hear the “conversation” part, because It reminds us what a wonderful thing Jesus has done for us all. It helps us see what a tremendous gift we have in being declared “not guilty” as a free gift from God because we believe in Jesus as our Savior. Our response to that should be living a life a gratitude that seeks to conform to God’s will. Paul put it this way:

Ephesians 2:8–10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.