Children’s Sermons

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Matthew 12:34-35 (KJV)

Use a LARGE glass, and two cereals that have no sugar (i.e., Cheerios and Wheat Chex).

You can get kids to help you pour the cereal into the glass when it is time.

Ask the children if they have ever spilt anything. Let them know that you have too. Ask what the mom and dad’s reaction was. Were they happy or mad? Probably mad. Why? Because something spilt out that shouldn’t have, and it needs to be cleaned up.

What if you spill over a glass and a $100.00 bill came out?!?!? Would your parents be mad?? Mine wouldn’t!!

After gaining their attention in this way, read the verse and pray for God’s help in the message.

With this line of questioning – and other questions of your own added – you can make the children realize that at some point in time they are going to have a “spill” and that what spills depends on what is put in the container (the glass andor their minds). Have a child pour a cereal into the glass. If they spill it – all the better! If they are extra cautious, ask if you can help them and pour out some yourself. Be sure to over flow the glass spilling plenty on the table.

Then, I take the glass and carry it while I continue to illustrate the point. Pretend to stumble and throw (“spill”) the cereal all over the crowd of kids!! This really gets their attention.

Now you can talk about what fills their mind as the other cereal is poured into the glass. Point out the you can’t spill what is not in the glass. You can’t spill Cheerios if the glass is full of Wheat Chex! If they fill their minds with the things of God, the things of the world won’t be there to spill.

You can transition this by asking how they begin to get the things of God in their minds. Then go into the plan of salvation in a way that you think they’ll understand.

Materials: 50ft Clothesline rope cut into 30″ pieces. Adjust length of rope according to number of participants.

Instruction: Have children/youth pair up for a three-legged race. There is to be one leader and one follower. The leader is to give instructions on how to run the race. The follower is in charge of tying the rope around the legs. The children/youth will run their race. If there is enough time switch roles and run the race back.

Once the participants have finished the race the speaker will explain that they just ran a race with God and the Holy Spirit. The leader was “God” instructing us the best way to go through life and the less we struggle with God the easier our lives will be. The string tied was the Holy Spirit which is our direct connection to God. If the string was too loose then so is our connection to God. If it was too tight, well we can never be too close to God. But we have to remember that God allows us to live our lives but we have to remember to live it according to His commandments. But in all things we do we should first acknowledge God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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.

Need:
– New white kitchen rags (Wal-Mart 10 for $5.)
– Bucket of Oxi-clean

Hand one rag to each kid and have them take the rags out and dirty them with dirt. Let them go at it, my kids actually enjoyed and had fun dirtying their rags. Then you call them in and read Isaiah 64:6 it explains that we are as filthy rags. The rag represents our flesh and the dirt our sins. Now take a bucket of clean water, as if the rags were to be baptized. Pour in some Oxi-Clean meaning we can’t clean ourselves, we need some powerful detergent (Jesus) to help in the cleaning process. We then dip our filthy rags in the water, swish them around a bit (Jesus working on us) and then after a few minuets rags come up clean.

John 15:5, Philippians 4:19

Preparation: None

Visual Aids: checkerboard, floppy disk, headphones

Good morning, boys and girls. How are you? This morning I want to play a good game of checkers. Would someone like to play with me? [Wait for volunteer, then present the empty checkerboard and place it between you and the volunteer.] OK, you go first. [Wait for the look on the young volunteer’s face to be obvious to all.] Oh, hmm. It seems I have forgotten the checkers. We can’t play checkers without checkers, now can we? OK, well, I have something else we can do. [Take out floppy disk.] I have a really neat computer game here on this disk, and I’d like to show it to you this morning. Can you see it? [Hold up the disk and wait for the children to say no.] Why can’t you see it? [Wait for response.] Hmm, we can’t very well play the game without a computer. OK, how about this? I have a really good song I want to listen to this morning. [Put headphones on. Wait for children to point out that you have nothing to listen to.] Oh, I don’t have a radio or tape player or CD player, so the headphones don’t do me much good, do they? [If time allows, continue with one or two more of your own examples.] Well, kids, what was wrong with all of the things I wanted to do with you today? [Wait for responses.] There was something missing. Without checkers, you can’t play checkers. Without a computer, a floppy disk is no good. Without something to plug into, headphones are useless. And you know, without God we are nothing. Did you know that? Without God, we can do nothing. Can you say that with me? “Without God, we can do nothing.” But with God, we can do all things. Say that with me. “With God, we can do all things.” Let’s pray that God would help us remember that without Him, we can do nothing, but with Him, we can do anything.

The discussion was opened up by asking the children how they felt about rainy days. Rainy days can be very troublesome. Our clothes get soaking wet, our hair gets wet, cars splash the water onto the sidewalk where we walk. Then we used an unmbrella, and even a raincoat or poncho can be added for demonstration purposes. If we have that umbrella with us, it is symbolic of God and his covering grace. No matter what kinds of storms we face in life, no matter what the trouble is, God covers us through them all. He will protect and keep us together.

Materials Needed: small ball (little sins), large ball (large sins), several plastic cups, small box to put the cups into (represents God surrounding us with protection)

In this fun, active children’s lesson, the students will learn that with God’s help they will not be “bowled over” by sin.

First, set-up several plastic cups in the bowling triangle. Then ask the kids what will happen to the cups if they rolled a small ball or a large ball at the cups (They will fall over). Roll both balls at the cups to show that the kids were right.

Then ask the class what will happen if they placed the cups inside of a box. (Students might say that they will still fall.) Then try this method and see what happens. The cups are still standing.

This story can be related to David and Goliath. Without God’s help David would have fallen to the enemy. Then tell the class that with God’s help they will not be bowled over by the world of sin and temptation, but that they can stand strong in His protection.