Stolen Motorcycle

Hi kids, welcome to Big Camp! Tell Somebody is our theme this weekend, and I want to encourage you in this storytime to tell someone that Jesus has taken their place. When my dad was a teenager and was in high school, he had a motorcycle. It wasn't just a normal motorcycle, it was called a moped. Now, you may have seen a moped. It was kind of like what we have today that we call e-bikes. There were pedals and you could pedal it, but but there was also a motor, but it wasn't electric. It had petrol and you would fill it up with petrol and it would make a lot of noise as it went down the street. And so my dad had this that he rode to school when he was in year 11 and 12. And what he would do is after school, he would get on his moped and he would ride it home and he lived a fair ways away from the school. But one day each week, he had a job and that job was halfway home and it was working in a bank. And he had to go up a number of flights of stairs or use the elevator to get up there. And then he would sit at his desk and he would do whatever work they asked him to do for that day. And then he would go down and get on his motorcycle and go home. But this day that the story revolves around, he came out of class to go to his work and he found out that his motorcycle was in the rain. It was pouring rain. And he thought, "Oh." They didn't have to wear helmets back then. And he thought, "I don't want to wear, ride my motorcycle across." this town in this rain and get all drenched. And but I have to. And then a friend pulled up in a car and said, hey, are you going to work today? And he said, yeah, yeah, I was just gonna head there. So, well, why don't you hop in the car? No use getting covered in rain. And he said, yes, yes, thank you so much. So he hopped in the car with his friend and they drove across town and his friend dropped him outside the bank. They went in the bank and as he was coming into the foyer of the bank, his manager was walking out and he said, hey Paul, it's good that you're here. I'm glad that I caught you. Today we have a bunch of filing that needs to happen down in in the filing basement. If you could just go down there and start filing, that would be fantastic. And so my dad said, "Sure, I could do that." So he got in the elevator and went down instead of up, and he stayed down there for his 3 or 4 hours of work. And then at the end of the day, he came out, it was still raining, and he realized he had a problem now. He had to get back to school to get his motorcycle and then back home in the rain. So he started the trudge and he walked and he walked until he got to school. And when he got to school, there was the spot where his motorcycle was supposed to be, but it wasn't there. He thought, that's weird. I know I left it there. I know that there's no way— I didn't ride it anywhere. Where did it go? And then he thought, maybe somebody's playing a prank on me and they've moved it around the back side of the school. So he walked around the school and he looked all around the school and he couldn't find it. And so he decided, I guess somebody's stolen my motorcycle. So he pulled his coat over his shoulders and zipped it up really tight, and he started walking home. And he walked and he walked and he walked. Well, at home, it had been hours since he left school, and the police had come and knocked at the door of my dad's parents' house. And my grandmother was home, his mom, and she came to the door and she answered it and she saw these two police and she said, "Yes, officers, what is it?" And she said, "Well, we're just wondering if you have a son who owns a motorcycle." And she said, "Yes, I do. Paul, he owns a motor— it's a moped." "Yes, yes, could you possibly tell us what the registration number is?" And she said, "Oh, it's probably here somewhere." And they said, "Is it this?" And they said it and she said, "I think that's it." And they said, well, ma'am, we have some really horrible news for you. And they actually asked first, what was he wearing today? And back then they didn't have school uniforms where my dad went to school, but all the men, all the boys wear jeans and a white t-shirt. And then if they had the school coat, they wore that. And so he was wearing his school coat and he was wearing white shirt and jeans. And she said, well, he went what he usually wears, jeans and a t-shirt and his school coat. And they said, "Ma'am, we have some really— well, we're hoping that it's not him, but your son's motorcycle has been involved in a fatality today. The rider's died, and we need someone to come down and identify him. There was no identification on the person who was riding the motorcycle, and we just need somebody who knows what Paul looks like to come down and say, 'Yes, that's Paul.'" And my grandmother said, "I can't go," and she was crying by now, and she said, "I just can't do it." And so she went to the phone, and she called her brother who lived nearby, and he came over, and he said, "I'll go." And so my dad dad's uncle went, and he got down there to the police station with the police, and they said, now we need to prepare you for this. He's not really recognizable because he was hit by a big semi-truck and it went right over the top of him. And we were just hoping that you'll be able to give us an ID, a positive ID. And so he walked in and he had a look, and he saw the boy who had been hit by the motor— hit on the motorcycle by the semi-trailer, and he couldn't really tell whether it was my dad or not. And so he just said, well, I mean, who else would it be? It must be him. He's wearing the same clothes. He's the same size, from the same school. And so my uncle, my dad's uncle, went back home and he walked in the door to my grandmother's house and said, he just nodded his head. And she was on the couch already. And now my dad's sister was home and his dad was home and they were sitting around together in the lounge room and they all started crying together. Because Paul was dead. A few hours later, walking in the rain, my dad finally got home. And as he walked up to the front door, he didn't knock because it was his own house. He just started turning the knob of the front door, and he opened the door, and the hallway was directly in front of him, and his sister was coming out of the kitchen, and she was looking down the hallway as the door swung open. She was probably wondering, "Who's opening our door without knocking?" And the door opened, and there stood my dad, alive. And my dad's sister, just her face dropped, and she said, "Paul, you're alive!" And he was so upset already because his motorcycle had been stolen and because he'd had to walk home in the rain that he thought, "This is not a funny joke. Of course I'm alive. What in the world are you talking about?" And she said, "But your motorcycle!" And he said, 'How do you know about my motorcycle?' And she said, 'Paul, it was— my motorcycle got stolen. How do you know my mo— did you take my—' 'No, Paul.' 'So, oh, it wasn't you. Oh my goodness.' And she ran into the lounge room. And so my dad, now he's following his sister going, 'What's going on?' And he walks into the lounge room after his sister has said, 'Paul's alive.' And the first thing that my grandmother said back to her is, That is not a funny thing to talk about. Don't make fun of this. She said, I'm not kidding at all. He, he really is. And then Paul walked into the room and he said, what's going on in here? And his mother stood up and she ran to him and she threw her arms around him and she held him and she said, oh Paul, you're alive! And he said, of course I'm alive. What is everyone talking about? My motorcycle was stolen. And she said Stolen? Someone else was on your motorcycle? And he said, yeah. She said, well, your motorcycle was involved in a fatality, Paul, and that other young man— we thought it was you, but that other boy, he's dead, Paul. And then my grandmother started to cry again, and my dad hugged her and said, don't cry, Mom, it's okay. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. And she said, "Oh, Paul," when she could finally stop, "I'm not crying now because of you. I've been blessed by having you come home to me. But I'm crying now because there's another mother out there who has to hear that her son, her son has lost his life tonight. And already one mother has suffered for this death. It's just so sad to think that someone else has to go through this death and loss and pain." which we've already felt. Do you know when Jesus took our place, he did it on purpose? That young man did not steal my dad's motorcycle thinking, "Ooh, this motorcycle will probably get me in a traffic accident." He stole it because he thought it would be fun to take it and it could be his, and he could, he could have a motorcycle without having to pay for it. But Jesus knew what was going to happen to everyone who sinned on this planet. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. God knew that. He knows that sin causes death. The consequences of evil is death. And so Jesus, knowing that we had a rendezvous with death— we had our motorcycle was headed to that intersection. Our motorcycle has no choice. We are riding to death. But Jesus stepped in, and he didn't steal our motorcycle, but he took our place. He stepped in and he took that death for us so that we could live. You know, the end of that verse, the wages of sin is death, is, but the gift of God is eternal life. Jesus's death on the cross was a gift. It's not something we earned. We've earned death, but we've been given the gift of eternal life, a gift of having Jesus as our Savior, the one who's replaced us, the one who said, now you can live and live life to the full. Don't you want to tell somebody? I'd invite you to do just that. Tell somebody that Jesus took their place. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for taking our place. We know it wasn't a motorcycle that you took, but it was our destiny that you took. The wages of sin is death, but the gift you gave us is eternal life. Thank you for taking our place. Thank you for dying for us so that we can live with you. In your name, amen.