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Baptism sermon idea using a ‘million pound cheque’

This is a brief outline for a Baptism sermon: God gives us a gift today – what will we do with it?

A million pound cheque always gets folk’s interest and it seems to help people think about why they are in church that morning and what happens now!

Bible Reference: can be made to work with many, if used it with: Galatians 5:16-25 (fruits of the spirit), John 14:15-21 (Ascension), Acts 1 (Pentecost), Matthew 25:14-30 (Talents)

Address notes:

  • What would you do if I gave you a cheque for a million pounds today?
  • You could take it home, put it in a frame and hang it on the wall, you could look at it occasionally and say ‘do you remember the day when X was baptised, and the vicar gave us this million-pound cheque. Wasn’t that nice of her, I really like the idea of a million pounds, doesn’t it look nice, I’m happy that we have this cheque, but I’m not going to do anything else with it because it might change me, I might need to think hard about how I live my life with a million pounds, I might even need to consider the needs of other people, so I’m going to leave it there.’
  • Or, you could take the million-pound cheque, and cash it and use to help X as they grow up to give them a helping hand along the way and to help them have the best possible future they could have; in doing that you might invest it and enjoy the returns, you might share it with those close to you and give some away to charities and let others benefit from it too.
  • Well baptism is just like that, today as you make promises for X they will be welcomed into the body of the church, the family of God; because of that they have access to the riches of God’s kingdom and the Holy Spirit to live with them and help them to live lives for God.
  • It would be a shame if today remained a memory that you looked back on and simply thought it was nice, if the Christian faith became something you liked the idea of, and looked nice, like a framed million-pound note.
  • A better way is to cash in and enjoy the gifts God has for you and for you and or X, to use God’s love, to invest in it by learning more about it and by enjoying the rewards of eternal life starting now, to share it and let others benefit from God’s generosity and with it to live the best possible life with God at the centre.

Shanthi Thompson