Opening Prayer

Dear Jesus, thank you for this morning. You are alive, and nothing can change that. Help us hear your Word today. Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love lasts forever.

The LORD is my strength and my song. He has saved me!

Listen! Shouts of joy and victory come from the tents of the righteous: “The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!”

I will not die. I will live! And I will tell everyone what the LORD has done.

The stone that the builders threw away has become the most important stone of all — the cornerstone. The LORD did this, and it is amazing to see.

This is the day the LORD has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it!

What This Means

Imagine you’re building something with blocks. You pick up each one and decide: does this fit? You keep the good ones and toss the ones that look wrong — cracked, too small, funny-shaped.

Now imagine that one block you threw away turns out to be the most important piece. Without it, the whole thing falls down. You look in the reject pile and there it is — the one you didn’t want.

That’s what happened with Jesus. The people in charge — the religious leaders, the rulers, the crowds — they looked at him and said, “We don’t want this one.” They rejected him. They nailed him to a cross. They put him in a tomb and sealed it shut.

But God had a different plan. On Easter morning, God took the stone everyone threw away and made it the cornerstone — the foundation stone that holds everything together. The cross that looked like the end was actually the beginning.

And here’s what’s wild: the psalm we just read? Jesus sang this. The night before he died, at his last supper with his friends, he sang these very words — “I shall not die, but live.” He sang about the rejected stone knowing he was about to become that stone. And he sang it anyway, because he knew his Father would raise him up.

That’s why the psalm ends with that big, ringing line: “This is the day the LORD has made!” Easter is that day. The day death lost. The day the rejected stone became the foundation of everything.

Let’s Talk About It

Eberley: Jesus sang this psalm the night before he died. Why do you think he could sing about not dying when he knew the cross was coming? What did he trust that we sometimes don’t?

Eberley: The builders rejected the stone because it didn’t fit their plans. Can you think of ways people today reject what God sends because it doesn’t look the way they expect?

Sonja: If you were building with blocks and threw one away, how would you feel when you found out it was the most important one? What would you do?

Sonja: The psalm says “I will not die, but live!” Who is saying that — and what happened to prove it was true?

Dahlia & Freddy: Did the builders want the stone or throw it away? But what did God do with it?

Dahlia & Freddy: What day did the LORD make? Are we glad about it?

Remember This

God took the stone everyone threw away and made it the most important one of all.

Closing Prayer

Thank you, Lord, for Easter. Thank you that you took what the world rejected and built your kingdom on it. Help us trust you even when your plans look different from ours. We are glad for this day that you have made. Amen.

Memory Verse

“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” — Psalm 118:24