Children’s sermon on the Parable of the Wedding Banquet / Feast -

Matthew 22: 1-14

Kids talk idea: Ask the children to use their imagination to pretend they invited their friends to a party and ask them how they would feel if everybody was busy. Play to them a series of (pre-recorded) excuses on a phone answering machine (with the standard “beep” after each excuse). Read out a paraphrase of the parable of the Wedding Banquet and explain how God would feel if we never had time for him. (You could flesh this out by saying in the end you might invite others you didn’t know quite as well.)

Prepare: Arrange to have 4 or 5 friends to phone in a short excuse to your home answering machine (Best to do this all at one time). You could have some fun with the excuses. Then record the series of answers on your cell phone or a voice recorder so that you can play it back to the children on Sunday morning. (Use well known people in the congregation and make sure the excuses are pretty pathetic!)

Full Children’s Sermon:

Good morning Children! How many of you have ever had a party and invited friends and family to come? (Allow time for response) Did you send out invitations or phone people to see if they could come? How would you feel if you were planning a really special party and when you invited them to come they all had an excuse why they couldn’t come! How would you feel? Would you be sad? Would you be angry? Now, I have something I would like you to listen to. Imagine I was planning on getting married and was going to have a big party to celebrate. Imagine I sent out messages to all my friends to come and celebrate at my party.  Imagine how I would feel if I heard responses like this on my answering machine: (Play the fun responses you have recorded.)

How would you feel? (Interact with the children) That’s right, I would feel very sad and I might even feel mad!

In our bible reading this morning from Matthew chapter 22 Jesus tells a parable about how God wants us to come to Him and be a part of his wonderful family and Kingdom. Jesus tells us that this is like a wonderful party! (Read a simple paraphrase of the parable) Isn’t that sad. Jesus is telling us that God wants us to follow him and join him in a wonderful celebration but most people are too busy with other things! Children, I know you have many important things to do in life. However, I hope and pray that you always have time for God (the Father) and Jesus His Son! If we miss out on following God and being a friend of Jesus it would be like missing out on the best party of all!

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, Thank you that you love us and want us to be a part of your great family and family celebration. Help us to never be so busy that we put other things before you or your son, King Jesus. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

Copyright 2017 Sundaychildrensfocus  Feel free to use this but please consider linking to this site and “Like us” on facebook. Blessings, A.H. 

Church unity - Working as a Team! -

Paul planted Apollos watered but God made it grow  1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Basic lesson idea:  Have a pot of soil and cue up two adult helpers; one to plant a seed in the pot and another to poor water on the planted seed. Then show the children what this might look like when it grows but holding up a beautiful plant. Ask the two individuals (planter and waterer) who had the most important role. Let them argue it out. Let them do some fun boasting. Explain how each had an important part but that it was God who did the most important part in making it grow. (This could stand alone but you can make the connection to how we all work together as a team (as we grow in the church) but God is the one whole helps us to really grow as Christians.

(Alternatively you could get children to help plant the seed and water the seed and just explain how silly it would be to argue who had the most important role)

Children’s sermon:

Good morning children! Look at this small flower pot that has some soil inside. I’m going to ask Mr. Brown to help plant this seed. (Mr. Brown comes over, take the seed from your hand and pushes it into the soil) Now, Mr. Jones, would you help out by watering this seed? (Mr. Johnson pour a small amount of water on the seed).

Now children, we would have to wait a long time for this seed to grow. So, I have a beautiful plant here to show you what it might look like when it is fully grown. It is a very beautiful plant. Now, who do you think had the most important part in growing such a plant? Mr. Brown or Mr. Jones? Let’s ask them. Mr. Brown who do you think had the most important part to play in making this plant grow? Response: “Well, it’s me of course because the seed is the most important thing. Did you see my special wrist action I used when I pushed the seed in the ground?” Then ask Mr. Jones what he thinks. “No no, I had the most important role because without water…” (Let do some fun arguing) Ask the children what they think. They may say God made it grow. If not, explain how each person had an important role to play but the most important part was done by God. God made it grow! It would really be silly to argue about who was the greatest because it was God who did the miracle of making it grow!

Explain how we have pastors, youth workers, organists etc in the church. We also have gifts that we can use in building up the church. Everyone has an important role to play. However, God has the most important role to play because he the one who really makes us grow in faith as Christians. We are all part of the church team and God has the most important job in helping us grow.

Copyright 2017 Andrew Hewlett and Sundaychildrensfocus.com.  Feel free to use this at church but consider linking to this page or click the LIKE button to the left of the page.  Thanks  - A.H. 

Imitating Christ’s Humility  Kids sermon on Philippians 2: 1-13 -

Basic kids story idea: Have fun getting the children to imitate some people in the church (How Bill plays the bass guitar, how Nic plays the drums or how Bud probably drives his car. Explain that the apostle Paul said that we should all do our best to imitate Jesus Christ. (You might highlight the way he showed loved and made himself as servant.)

Full Children's sermon: Good morning Children! Do you know what it means to imitate someone? That’s right. It means doing the same things that another person in doing. We never want to imitate someone to make fun of them or embarrass them. That would be unkind. However, this morning I asked some people if it was alright for us to imitate them. Bill said it was ok for us to imitate him playing the bass guitar. Let’s do that now. (Have some fun with this.) Great! I also asked Nic if we could imitate him playing the drums. Ok, let’s see how you can imitate him playing the drums. That’s very good. I also asked Bud if we could imitate the way Bud probably drives his car. Let’s do that. That is very good children! You really are able to imitate different people well.

This morning we have an important Bible message from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians. He tells Christians that they should do their best to imitate Jesus Christ! We should do what we can to live the same way Jesus did. One of the most important things about Jesus was that he showed love to people. Even though he God’s son and was a King he spent his time serving others. He would even help and serve people that were very poor or were considered by others to be unimportant.

What are some of the ways we can imitate Jesus? (Have a short discussion about things that Jesus did that we can also do to others.) Yes, those are all good ways of imitating the life of Jesus.

Children’s prayer:  Dear God, thank you for the many ways Jesus loved and served others. Help us to imitate him by showing love and kindness to others. In Jesus’ name – Amen!