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Children's object lesson - Parable of the weeds and the wheat    Matt 13: 24-30, 36-43  
-- For Sunday school, youth group or children's church --

 
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.

Sundaychildrensfocus - Childrens Biblical Lesson: John 11:1-45 Lazarus come out - wake up               

 Jesus Raises Lazarus from the dead

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.”)
 Jesus raises 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.

Kids Gospel Sermon

 

Build your house on a Rock – not sand  (Matthew 7:21-29) 

 
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 – Spiritual Blindness   John 9: 1- 41  

 Spiritual blindness
Kids sermon idea: Show the children a pair of dark welding goggles and let them try them on. They can`t see things that would normally be easy to see. Explain how some people in the bible could not “see” or understand the light and love of Jesus. It was like they were wearing dark sunglasses making them blind to the things of God. Thank God that although we can’t see Jesus physically he has helped us to understand, know and “see” the real Jesus.
 
(I realize the idea of spiritual sight will not be grasped by all the children.)
 
Kids Object lesson props: Welding goggles or very dark sun glasses (used for mountain climbing)
If you can’t find any you could get an old pair of sunglasses and darken them up with paint or a felt pen marker.
 
Children’s Sermon: Good morning children! Look at these special glasses I brought in this morning. They are special glasses used by people who work with very bright fire. Would you like to try them on?
Great! They look good on you Sally. Now, I’d like you to look over there on the front row. Can you tell me what colour sweater Mrs. Jones is wearing? No. It’s very hard to tell because the glasses are so bright. When you wear these glasses it’s almost like being blind. (Let some other children try.)
 
In our Bible reading today from John’s gospel there were people who just couldn’t understand Jesus and his love and power. Even when Jesus did something wonderful like healing a blind man some people became very angry at him. They did not want to believe in him. It was like they were blind to understanding Jesus. Yes they could see him with there eyes but it was like their “understanding eyes” were blind as if they were wearing these dark glasses.
 
The good news is that although we cannot see Jesus today with our eyes we can know his love and his life. The Holy Spirit of God has helped us to know Jesus so that we are no longer blind to his life and love.
 
Children’s Prayer: Dear God, thank you that we are no longer blind to Jesus and his love. Help us to know him more and more each day. In Jesus’ name – Amen!
 
Copyright 2011 Sundaychildrensfocus.com Andrew Hewlett   Feel free to use this story on Sunday morning but please give credit to Sunday Children’s focus and consider linking and / or donating to this sight. Thank you. A.H.

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