Material:
– 2 different canned fruits/vegetables
– tape
– New Testament (Galatians 5:22-23)
Preparation:
Carefully tear away the labels of both cans. You will use only one can during the sermon. Temporarily tape one label to the can. Prepare the other label with tape for use during the sermon.
The Message:
Good morning! I’m glad to see you all this morning. Can anyone tell me what this is? (Hold up the can as the children respond: “Peaches!”) Well, how do you know it’s peaches? (Children respond, “It says so on the can!”) Oh, yeah, I guess it does say that on the label. What if I took the label off? (Remove label) Now, what’s in here? (Children respond: “It’s still peaches.”) Well, what if I put this label on the can (Attach second label). I guess now it’s pears. (Children respond: “No! It’s still peaches!”) Still peaches? No, it’s not. I put the pears label on the outside, so it’s pears now, right? (Older children will put up a good argument, so try to control the noise!) So, what you’re trying to tell me is no matter what it says on the outside, the ingredients stay the same on the inside? Oh, okay, I get it now. So we shouldn’t make fun of people just because they wear glasses or braces or have freckles? I know a good Bible verse that goes along with that. Help me find Galatians chapter 5, verse 22. Paul gave us nine ingredients that really matter: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Those ingredients are on the inside of people. We shouldn’t care about what’s on the outside because everyone’s different in some way.But we all should remember these nine things: love – we need to show love to everyone, joy – we should be happy because Jesus loves us! peace – don’t pick fights, patience – I need to work on this one! kindness – be kind to everyone you meet, goodness – be good for your parents and teachers, gentleness – be gentle with everyone, faithfulness – we need to have faith that Jesus always is there for us, and self-control – we need to control our tongues sometimes and our actions other times. Let’s pray that God will help us work on these traits.