Basic bible story idea:

I’m going with the idea that there is actually a way that 1 plus 1 equals 3! Where there are two or more Christians gathered Jesus is there too. Show two pieces of coloured glass. Bring them together and show them how there is a third colour where they overlap. Show the children 4 small cut out triangle. Piece them together and show how pieced together the 4 triangles make a 5^th large triangle. (Like all analogies this is does not describe perfectly how Jesus is present in our midst.) Explain how when believers gather there is actually an extra person present – Jesus.

 

Complete Children’s sermon:

 

Good morning children!  I have a question for you. What does one plus one equal? Right. However, I’m going to show you a way that one plus one equals three! This morning I have two colourful pieces of glass with me. I have this pretty piece of blue glass (hold it up for them to see), and I have this piece of yellow glass. Therefore, you can see that I have two colours in total, blue and yellow. Watch carefully. I’m going to put there two colours together. Look what happens when I put the two colours together. What colour do you see here in between? Right. There is a third new colour, green! Two pieces of coloured glass and a third new colour. I’m going to show you something else. Look at these 4 small triangles. (It might be easiest to place these on a felt board or stick them one by one on cardboard. Show them how you can fit them together in the shape of one big triangle.) There, I have 4 small triangles here but look carefully. These 4 actually make another big triangle when they are all together. When they are all together, there are actually 5 triangles. That’s pretty amazing. This reminds me of something that Jesus taught his disciples. In Matthew 18 Jesus said that where two or more believers gathered that he was there too. Now, we know that Jesus is with us always, but in some special way Jesus is right here with us when we come together. We can’t see Jesus but he said he would be right here with us. Let’s count how many children are up here now. (Count together) Great! There are ten of us. However, we know that there are really 11 of us because Jesus is here too. Let’s pray.

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, Thank you for this wonderful miracle that when we gather Jesus is right here with us too. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

 

Copyright 2011 Sundaychildrensfocus.com Andrew Hewlett Feel free to use this at your Sunday morning church service. Please consider placing a link to this site. A.H.

 

Sunday School Sermon idea: Have a bag filled with different types of weeds along with small flowers or plants. Making two piles, have the children decide which are the good plants and which are the weeds. After this hold up cut out pictures of people (from a magazine). Ask them if they can decide who are the good people and who are the bad people. After seeing the pictures and realizing it cannot be done, explain how it’s not really our job to go around separating good people from bad people. Our job is to show love and care to all people.

 

Object lesson items: Some weeds; some small flowers or plants; Pictures of people cut out from a magazine.

 

Complete kids sermon: Good morning children! Have any of you helped plant things in the garden or helped pull weeds? I haven’t done a lot of gardening and I find it hard to tell the difference between the weeds and the flowers. Look at this bag here. It’s full of weeds and its full of flowers. Let’s see if you can tell the difference. I’ll make two piles on this tray; one for the good plants and one for the weeds. OK. What about this one? Is it a weed or a flower? How about this one? (Some may be easy to recognize and some difficult. Have some fun with this.)

 

I think you did pretty well. However, sometimes it was hard to tell the difference, especially when the plants had not yet produced pretty flowers. Now I want you to look at these pictures here. They are pictures of people I cut out of a magazine. Why don’t we try to put them in different piles: We’ll have one pile for good people and one pile for bad people. (Hold up the pictures and ask the children to decide by looking at the people.) Hmmm. I don’t think this is working. I don’t think it’s really our job to put people into “good people” and “bad people” piles. In our bible reading today from Matthew chapter 13 Jesus makes it clear that it’s not really our job to try to decide who are the good people and who are the bad people in the world. God knows who are his friends and who are his enemies. Our job is to show the love of Jesus to everyone. 

 

Prayer for the Children: Dear God, help us not to worry too much about who is good and who is bad. Help us to show the love of Jesus to everyone. In Jesus’ name – Amen

 

Copyright 2011 Andrew Hewlett – Sundaychildrensfocus.com  Feel free to use this but consider linking to this site. Blessings, A.H.

Kids sermon idea: Explain how Jesus had the power to wake up even the dead. Demonstrate different ways of waking up people; alarm clock, clapping hands, singing, banging pots and pans, etc. We can wake up people when they are sound asleep but with the command of his voice Jesus can wake up the dead. (Explain this or act it out with a volunteer “Lazarus.”)

 

Object lesson props: Various noise makers: alarm clock, bell, rolled up paper megaphone, pots and pans etc.

 

Children’s sermon: Good morning children! Do you find it easy to wake up in the morning? Hmmm. Well, some people wake up easily and others find it hard to wake up. I have some different ways of waking people up. Many people use an alarm clock like this. Listen to the ring. That would wake up some people. Other people wake up when the birds sing outside. Can you make the sound of a bird chirping? That’s good. There are other people who sleep very soundly. They need to be woken up with something like this. (Bang the pots and pan lids.) We can wake up just about anyone if we make enough noise. However, no matter how much noise we make I don’t think we could wake up someone who had died. That would be impossible. But did you know there is someone who can even wake up the dead. His name is Jesus. In chapter 11 of John’s gospel we can read about how Jesus’ friend Lazarus died. By the time Jesus got to his house he had already been dead four days. Of course, no one else could bring him back to life. But Jesus called out, “Lazarus come out!” Let’s call that out loudly together, “Lazarus come out.” Immediately Lazarus came back to life from the dead. That’s amazing that Jesus has power to raise people from the dead.

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God. Thank you the Jesus has the power to wake up people from the dead. Help us to follow him and trust that nothing can separate us from his love and power. In Jesus’ name – Amen.

 

Copyright 2020 Andrew Hewlett (Sunday Children's Focus) feel free to use this 5 minutes children's sermon but please "Like" this on facebook (see link top of main page) and link to this web site. Blessings, A.H.

 

Children’s Sermon / object lesson idea: Demonstrate the difference between building on sand and building on rock.

Get a cookie tray with high edges. Place a flat topped rock on one side and mound of damp sand on the other side. Place a small toy house on these two “foundations.” Pour water over each house. The house on sand will tip over and fall as the sand washes away. The house on the rock will stay upright.

(When I did this I actually covered (hid) the rock with a small layer of sand.)

 

 

Children’s sermon: Good Morning! Look what I brought in to church this morning. (Bring out your tray with the sand, the rock and the two toy houses.) Do you see these two houses? They both like nice sitting there. Wouldn’t if be fun if we could make ourselves very small and go inside…

Look what I have here. It is a pitcher of water. Let’s pretend there is a big flood of water from a storm. I’ll pour this water over the houses and see what happens. Uh oh! One of these houses fell over and washed away. But this house is still standing. Why didn’t if wash away? That’s right. The first house here was build on top of sand and it washed away. But the second house here is sitting on a rock. It’s very strong and the water won’t wash it away.

 

In our Bible lesson from Matthew chapter 7 Jesus said that some people listened to what he taught but never actually did it. They listened but didn’t live the way Jesus wanted them to life. Jesus said that those people were like this poor house here that was built on the sand. Jesus said that people who followed Jesus’ teaching would be like this house built on the rock. They would be strong and stand.

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, with the Holy Spirit help us to learn about Jesus and also to do what he taught us to do. That way we can be strong like this house built on a rock. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

 

Copyright 2011 Sundaychildrensfocus.com Andrew Hewlett – Feel free to use this kid’s sermon on Sunday morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider linking to this site

 

(--Note: I’ll proof read this story tomorrow. It’s 11:45pm on Saturday and I’m falling asleep at my computer. A.H. )

 

Children’s Sermon idea: I’m doing this “Love your enemies” passage the Sunday after Valentines Day.

Explain how it’s fun to hand out valentines to your friends. Give (red cut-out hearts) to each child. Part way through ask two other individuals (adults or teens) to come up and pretend to be enemies. (You could ask them to look angry and clench their fist.) Ask the children if these enemies should receive valentine hearts from you. Explain how Jesus said to love our enemies. Give the “enemies” a heart and see how they react.

 

Object lesson items: Enough red cut out “hearts” for each child.   

 

Children’s sermon / Bible lesson introduction:

Good morning children. Did you have fun on Valentines Day? Did any of you get a valentine? Did any of you give a valentine to someone else? That’s wonderful. Giving a little red valentine heart to someone is a nice way of showing your love and care. I’m going to give each of you one of these little red hearts because you are my friends. (Start handing them out.) Oh, I just remembered that I wanted to bring up some other people. Bill and Frank, would you come up here? I want you to pretend that you are an enemy and don’t like me. Let’s see you both make a mad face at me. Wow! That’s scary. Why don’t you clench your fist and hold it in the air. Oooo. That looks very mean. Now, let me keep on giving out my valentine hearts. (Keep handing out your hearts to your friends and then stop when you come to your two enemies.) Hmmm. What should I do now? These two people are my enemies. Do you think I should give them a valentine heart? (Some children will probably say No and so will say yes.) We might think that we shouldn’t because they are our enemies and they don’t like us. But do you know what Jesus said? He said that as Christians we should love our enemies (remind your actors to keep looking mean!) as well as our friends. That wouldn’t make sense to most people but Jesus said that our love was to be a very special type of love. The love of Jesus is to go out to all people – not just our friends. (Consider reading the text from Matt 5.) So, let’s give our enemies here a valentine’s heart and see what happens. (They will probably smile.) Wow. Did you see that? He smiled a bit. We want to show love to everybody because Jesus has shared his love with us. If we do, perhaps that love will help make them a friend some day.

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, we know you want us to learn to love all people, even our enemies. That’s pretty hard to do so please fill us up with your Holy Spirit and help us to know your great love.

In Jesus’ name – Amen!

 

Copyright 2011 Sundaychildrensfocus.com Andrew Hewlett Feel free to use this lesson on Sunday Morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider linking to this site. Thank you! A.H.

 

Luke 21:5-19 “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name claiming, “I am He, “…do not follow them.”

 

Children’s Sermon idea: Have three people hidden behind a partition. Have the children listen to various responses and have them pick the real Jesus. The real Jesus would respond with well know bible texts and the other two imposters would answer with “worldly wisdom.” (Have fun with the answers.)

 

Object Lesson preparation: Three individuals seated behind a partition or other barrier out of site from the children. Prepare a simple script for each individual. Have the real Jesus answer the question with scripture. You may need to ask the children to hide their eyes as your actors get into place.

 

Children’s Sermon / Sunday school lesson introduction:

Good morning children! In the bible reading that we have for today Jesus warned his disciples that there would be many people that would pretend to be Jesus. He warned his disciples not to be fooled by them. I’ve made a little game to see if you are good at telling the difference between the real Jesus and people just pretending to be Jesus. I’m going to ask some questions to the people behind that barrier over there and I want you to guess which one sounds like the real Jesus. (Of course we don’t have Jesus actually behind the curtain but I want you to pick out which one sound closest to the real Jesus.)

 

Jesus number 1. If I’m feeling worried and upset what should I do?

ANS: “Sorry Bud. I can’t do much for you there. Life’s just like that sometimes. Just take some pills or something.”

 

Jesus number 2. If I’m feeling worried and upset what should I do?

Good question. The key is making more money. If you make more money you’ll be happy and then you won’t worry so much.

 

Jesus number 3. If I’m worried and upset what do you think I should do?

Trust in me. Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest

 

Well children. You’ve heard the responses. Put up your hand if you think Jesus number 1 was the real Jesus. Put up your hand if you think Jesus number 2 sounded like the real Jesus. Put up your hand if you think Jesus number 3 sounds like the real Jesus.

 

Let ask one more question…. (You get the idea)

 

Conclusion: You were pretty good at picking out the real Jesus. Let’s have the congregation give you a cheer! Jesus warned his followers that there would be people that would claim to be a saviour but were really just fooling people. We need to be careful not to believe everyone who claims to be sent from God. On way to help us recognize the voice of the real Jesus is to read the bible. As we read about the real Jesus in the Bible we will be able to recognize people that are trying to fool us and lead us astray.

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, help us to know your son Jesus more and more each day as we read your Word, the bible and fill us with your Holy Spirit so that we would have your wisdom and understanding. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

 

Copyright Sundaychildrensfocus 2019   Feel free to use this on Sunday - Please share this link and do whaterver you can to support this work. Thank you - A.H.

 “Everyone who exalts himself with be humbled.” Luke 14:1, 7-14 – spontaneous drama

 

Children’s sermon / drama idea: Act out this teaching of Jesus. Have several chairs up front including one that is very big and fancy. Before the service ask 3 or 4 teens / adults to help you out by squabbling over who should to be in the best chair. (Alternately, use one adult “plant” and have the children fill the rest of the chairs) Note: The idea of “humbling” and “exalting” is probably a difficult concept for children to grasp. I’ll give it my best shot by staying with the drama / parable that Jesus actually used.

 

Object lesson / drama props: a number of regular chairs and one that is bigger and fancier than the rest.

 

Children’s Church skit: Good morning children! Our bible lesson today is from the Gospel of Luke. In this bible passage we hear about how Jesus was invited to eat at the house of an important religious person. We are going to do a little drama to show you what happened. Now, I’ve ask Judith, Jonathan, Carol and Mr. Jones to help me out this morning. Will you come up front here please and take a seat.

(Then stand back and watch with the children; it will be fun for your chosen actors to argue why they should have the most important place.) “Jonathan, I think you should let me take the best place. I’ve been at this church longer than you and besides those smaller chairs don’t match my colour coordinated suit… No Mr. Jones, I think you should let me be in this place because my great grandmother donated a stained glass window this church… ” (They’ll get idea. When they are seated in the chairs explain to the children how this is a little like what happened that day at the Pharisee’s house) that was a bit of a silly argument wasn’t it children. But that is what happened that day when Jesus visited the house of the religious leader. They people were so concerned to pick the most important places at the dinner table. Jesus then told them a little story called a parable. I’ll show you what Jesus said to them. (Go over to the person who managed get the most important chair). Mr. Jones, I just realized that there is someone else that should have this chair. Would you please go and sit there on the floor. (Escort them out of the big chair and sit them down on the floor. Approach one of the children sitting on the floor.) Betty, you are new to this church I think you should come and sit up here in the place of honour!

On that day at the Pharisee’s house Jesus taught the people not to worry about being in the most important place. If we always try to take the best place we will probably end up being embarrassed because we might be sent to a lower place. However, if we don’t worry about trying to look important we may be honoured by being asked to move up higher. Jesus said that if we tried to make ourselves look important we will end up being in the least important place. If we try to honour others and don’t worry about looking better than others we will some day end up in the better place.

 

Children’s prayer: Dear God, help us not to worry about looking like the most important person. Thank you that all of us are important to you. Help us to do what pleases you and not worry about trying to impress others. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

 

Copyright 2010 Sundaychildrensfocus.com   Andrew Hewlett - Feel free to use this drama on Sunday morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider placing a link on your church web site. Blessings, A.H.

 

Children’s Sermon / Sunday school lesson idea: Bring in a wall calendar and discuss with the children the various chores you do on each day of the week. Include a day of rest. Explain that even though you like to keep to your schedule, any day (even the Sabbath) would be a good day for helping someone who was really in need. Tell the children how Jesus upset some people because he healed a crippled woman on the day of rest.

 

Object lesson items: A wall calendar or day timer.

 

Good morning Children. Do you know what I have here this morning? Yes. It’s a calendar. See, it has the days of the week written across the top here. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday…Each day of the week has a little square. You might be able to see some of my writing inside some of these little boxes. On the various days of the week I’ve written in the special chores that I need to do for that day. On Monday, I’ve written in the words, “do the laundry today.” On Tuesday it says “take the dog for a walk.” (Continue to discuss the various days of the week.) Now this day here is Sunday – that’s today! It says “Go to church” and it also say “Rest and relax today.”

You might think that there should be a special day for helping people in need. What days of the week should be set aside for helping a person in need or in trouble? (Interact with the children.) Hmmm. The problem with setting aside special days for helping someone in trouble is that we don’t know when that might happen. What if someone needed to be taken to the hospital and we said, “Sorry, this is not my helping day?” That wouldn’t be very kind. Even if someone needed help on my day of rest I think it would be good to help the person.

 

In our bible reading today from the gospel of Luke there is a story about how Jesus healed a crippled woman on a special day of rest called the Sabbath. Some people were upset at Jesus doing this on the day of rest. But Jesus knew that everyday was a good day for helping people in trouble. Like us, Jesus needed to take time to rest, but he was always ready to help people in need or trouble.

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, help us to be ready to support people in trouble no matter what day of the week it is. Thank you that you are always there for us. In Jesus name – Amen!

Copyright - 2010 Sundaychildrensfocus.com - Andrew Hewlett   Feel free to use this on Sunday morning but please give credit to sundaychildrensfocus and consider linking your web page to this site. Thank you!  A.H.

 

Kids Sermon idea: (or Introduction to a Sunday School lesson) Lead the children around to various members of your congregation and ask them to teach you how to do some task. Point out individuals (You need to know their trade or vocation.) suggesting that they could teach us what they know. Who would be the best person to teach about prayer? Explain how the disciples said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Pray the Lord’s Prayer together and tell them that Jesus can help teach us to pray.

 

Preparation: Be aware of members of the congregation you can visit or point out. Pick individuals / vocations that will be understandable to children. (I.e. Cook, painter, carpenter, etc.) It’s also very helpful to use a roving microphone.

 

Children’s sermon: Good morning children! When you are growing up we need people to teach us how to do things. I can remember asking my mother, “Mom, please teach me how to tie my shoe laces.” Then she took the time to teach me how to do that.  (Go into the congregation with a wireless microphone.) If we wanted to learn how to bake a cake we might go over here (lead the children) to Mrs. Graham who works at a bakery. We could say, “Mrs. Graham, please teach us how to bake a cake.” If we wanted to know how to paint a house we could go over here to Mr. Jacobs and say, “please teach us how to paint.” Or, we could chat with Mrs. Grace and ask if she would teach us how to speak Spanish. What if we wanted to learn how to pray? Who would we ask to teach us how to pray? Well yes, there are a lot of people here this morning that might be able to teach us to pray. But I think it would also be to learn from Jesus. In our bible reading today we are told that the disciples wanted to learn how to pray. They went to Jesus and said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus then taught them a simple prayer that we call the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a prayer that includes important things like giving thanks, asking forgiveness, and asking God our Father to help us live the way He wants us to live. Let’s pray that prayer together now. (Lead the children in praying the Lord’s Prayer.)

We can pray that same Lord’s Prayer but we can also ask Jesus to teach us to pray. If we ask him I’m sure he will help us.

 

Children’s Prayer: Heavenly Father, we know that your son Jesus taught the disciples how to pray. We pray that you, your son Jesus and the Holy Spirit will help teach us to pray too. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

 

Copyright 2010 Andrew Hewlett Sundaychildrensfocus.com   Feel free to use this story during a Sunday morning service but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider placing a link to this site. A.H.

Children’s sermon idea: Place a chair up front and ask the children to imagine that Jesus came in person to visit. Lead the children off to the side and explain all the wonderful things you could cook and prepare for Jesus. (Have kitchen items there: egg beaters, mixing bowls, etc.) Then explain that it might be even more important to just sit and be with Jesus. Lead the children back to the chair and all sit down at the feet of Jesus. Tell them the biblical account of Mary and Martha and then lead the children in prayer.

 

Object lesson items: A chair, some cooking implements,

(Optional: Have “robe” that you can place on one of the children in order to be Jesus.)

 

Good morning children. This morning I want you to imagine what we would do if Jesus actually came and sat right down in this chair. Wouldn’t that be wonderful! Think of all the things we could do for him. Follow me over here to the side to this little table. Look at these cooking tools. We could make Jesus and wonderful cake. We could mix up the eggs with this egg beater…(continue to interact with the children.) Well, this is a lot of fun but I think something is wrong. We would have left Jesus all alone in that chair. Let’s go back and sit down around this chair. (Lead the children back to the chair and sit down “at the feet of Jesus.” There, I think that’s better. It’s wonderful to do things for Jesus but I think it is even more important to just spend time with him. There is a story in Luke’s gospel about two women named Mary and Martha. Jesus came to visit and Mary sat at Jesus’ feet talking to him. Her sister Martha spent time running around preparing things for dinner. She was so busy she hardly had time to talk to Jesus. Jesus said that it was Mary who was doing the most important thing at that moment. Mary wanted to just spend time with Jesus and Jesus wanted to spend time with Mary. It was certainly nice that Martha was doing all that work preparing dinner but Jesus wanted to spend time with her too. It’s good for us do things for Jesus but sometimes it’s more important to just sit quietly and remember that he is with us and loves us. We can’t see Jesus but he promised us that he is with us wherever we go. When we read the bible it’s a bit like spending time with Jesus because the bible is God’s word or message. Praying is also like spending time with Jesus. When we pray, God the Father and his son Jesus really do listen to us. They really do love us and care for us. They can also speak to us through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. Let’s pray:

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God. We really do want to do many things for you. But help us not to get so busy we forget to spend time with you and forget to enjoy the wonderful love you have for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

 

Copyright 2010 Sundaychildrensfocus.com Feel free to use this on Sunday Morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider linking to this site. A.H.