Advent lesson

 Being awake to God     - Ready for the coming of Christ

 

Advent Children's Lesson: themes: John the Baptist, Advent, Wake up, Repentance, Be alive to God, Be ready for Christmas, Be ready for the return of Christ.

 

Children's Sermon -- object lesson Summary: Discuss waking up in the morning and that it’s helpful to have an alarm or some other means to wake us up. As Christians we need to wake up to God too.

 

Objects needed: A box or bag containing various items used to wake us up. An Alarm Clock, a whistle, a paper bag that can be popped, some pot lids, a cold wet washcloth, etc.

 

Full Children's Sermon / object lesson:   Good morning children. How are you this morning? I hope you are all wide awake, because that’s what I’m talking about this morning –being awake – awake to God!   How are you when you first wake up? Do you jump right up out of bed and say “Let’s get going!” (Interact with the children about how difficult it is sometimes to wake up and get out of bed.) What do you do when you first wake up? Do you stretch? Do you yawn? Show me how you get up. Is it easy? No, it can be very hard because we are so sleepy. Here are some things you might use to help us wake up. Here is an alarm clock –listen to beep. (Option: Give the items to the children and let them give the wake up sound)  Here is a whistle. Listen to how loud it is. Would that wake you up? Or if someone was really tired you could bang these pot lids together like this. Would that wake you up? That would blast me right out of bed.   It’s important to have something or someone wake us up because otherwise we might sleep in and miss all kinds for fun things. Some people even “sleep walk.” They walk around while they are actually asleep. They really need to wake up! Well the Bible says that we can also be asleep to God. We can go about the day never listening to God or praying to God or thinking about what he wants us to do in our lives. It’s like we are asleep to God. The sad part about being asleep to God is that we miss out on all the wonderful things God has for us. We miss out on some wonderful adventures that God has for us. So if you feel like you are asleep to God we need to wake up. Let’s hear those wake up sounds again. Now those things will help us to wake up from bed but to wake up to God we need to do some other things. We can pray, and listen when we pray.   God can also speak to us though reading the Bible. One good way to be awake to God is to start the day praying “Lord, fill me up with your Holy Spirit today and show me how I can live for you today.” Then we need watching for ways that God might be leading us through the day. (You could give some examples here). So children, I hope that you have a good way of waking up in the morning and that you also have a good way of waking up to God. That way we won’t miss out on the wonderful life adventures that God has for us through his son Jesus Christ.

Children's prayer:   Lord God.   Thank you for the wonderful adventures that you have for us in life. Help us always to be awake to you and to your son Jesus.