A Father's Love

Children’s Sermon

Reformation Sunday, 26 October 2025

Hey, guys. How are you doing? Did you enjoy that long MEA weekend?

Today I’d like to tell you the story of a man named Martin. He lived a long time ago, and he accomplished quite a number of things. He was a monk, and a pastor, and a professor, all at the same time. Busy guy.

But you see, his dad didn’t want him to be any of those things. His dad had hoped that Martin would go into the family business, make some good money that way. So, for all of Martin’s accomplishments, he felt like a disappointment to his dad.

And that made Martin afraid that maybe God was like his dad; that God wasn’t happy with him; that God was disappointed. That made Martin very worried. He wanted God to love him. He worked very hard at it. He just wasn’t quite sure how.

So the head of Martin’s monastery—who was a kind and loving man—told him to go read the Bible, to read the letters of St Paul. And there Martin learned that God’s love isn’t something that we have to earn. It’s a gift. It’s grace.

God loves us not because of anything that we do, but because of who God is. God is love. And in Jesus, God loves us so much that He was willing to die in order to save us, to forgive us, to heal us and bring us all home.

This was a great relief to Martin, Good News indeed. And he wanted everyone to understand the love of God in this way. So he told everyone, every single day.

Later, when Martin became a father, he absolutely adored his children. He loved them more even than he imagined that he could. Now he had some idea of how much God loves us. Now he knew that God isn’t a stern and disappointed Father, but a Father who forever loves His children, and will never stop.

And that’s what today is about. That’s what we mean by Reformation Sunday. We can’t earn the love of God—but thanks be to God, we don’t have to. God loves us anyway. God loves us always. God wants what’s best for us, and will never let us go.

Sound good? Okay. Let’s pray.