Sermon for kids on the love of Jesus

Ephesians 3:18 “How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ?”

Children’s sermon idea: Ask the children if they know how big the love of Jesus might be. Show various measuring devices (Start with a small ruler, a small measuring tape and then extend a large surveyors tape measure) Read out a paraphrase of Ephesians 3:18. Explain how the love that Christ has for us is so great it’s impossible to measure. We need to ask for God’s supernatural power to help us understand how great and wonderful his love is.

Object lesson items needed: Ruler, tape measure, etc.

Full kid’s sermon: Good morning children! One of this morning’s bible readings, from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, is about the wonderful love of Jesus Christ. I want you to think about this question: How big is the love that Jesus has for us? – For you and me? (Let the children respond. Then hold up a ruler). Do you know what this is? Yes. It’s a ruler. We use it to measure things. If I could measure the love of Christ how big would it be? Maybe it is so big that we would have to use a tape measure like this one. (Extend the tape as wide as your hands can go) Do you think Christ’s love for us is this big? No, it’s even bigger than that. Extend the tape out all the way. Is it this big? No, it’s even bigger still. (If you have one extend a surveyors tape the whole length of the church). Is the love that Jesus has for us this big? No, it’s even bigger! The love of Jesus is so big and wonderful that it’s almost impossible to measure and fully understand. In our bible reading today the apostle Paul said that he needed to pray for supernatural wisdom, from the Holy Spirit, in order to understand this amazing love. I believe it’s important for us as well to try to understand how big this love is. So let’s pray:

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, we know that it’s impossible to measure your love with a ruler or tape measure. Give us special (supernatural) wisdom through your Holy Spirit to try to understand your great love that you have for us. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

Sundaychildrensfocus Mark6 - Come away with Jesus to a quiet place - Spending time with Jesus

In Mark 6:31 Jesus said: “Come away with me to a quite place and get some rest.” (Rough Draft)

Summary: Gather the children up front and tell them you have some important things to tell them / read to them. Prearrange to have a number of people interrupt you with various distractions. (Prayer requests, your cell phone going off, people asking for various things. Have some fun with this.) Explain how it’s not working very well with all the noise and distractions. Tell the children about the Mark chapter 6 where Jesus was tired and exhausted by all the people in need and how he asked his disciple get away with him to a quiet place. Explain how we all need time to withdraw from the crowds and spend some quiet time with Jesus.

Full children’s message for the text this week: (Pre-arrange to have various people interrupt you and distract you.) Good morning children! I want you to gather around me while I read out a very important words from the bible (I’m going to read out some special Jesus sayings from the gospel of John). Begin reading in a soft voice as the interrupting people come forward with various requests. Be friendly but make it clear that your quiet time with the children is not working very well with all the disruptions.

Debrief: Well children, I’m not sure if you heard those important words from the bible with all the people bothering us. In the Gospel of Mark (chapter 6) it says that Jesus and the disciples were healing people and doing wonderful things. However, there were so many people in need they were getting exhausted. Jesus encouraged the disciples to come away with him to a quiet place where they could get some rest.

In our lives we can become so busy and bothered that we need to get away and spend time alone with Jesus. In fact, I think we should find some time ever day just to be alone with Jesus. We don’t need to go far. It might be in a quiet room in the house or your favourite spot outside in the yard.(Just make sure you tell your parents where you are.) It just needs to be some place that is quiet. We could read our bible, pray or just be rest quietly. You might think of Jesus and the wonderful things he did or listen for his still small voice of love and assurance. Jesus wanted to spend time alone with the disciples and he also wants to spend quiet time with us as well.

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, thank you that Jesus wanted his disciples to come away with him to be together and find rest. Please help us to set aside some time in our busy day) to rest with you and your Son Jesus. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

Copyright Andrew Hewlett (and Sunday Childrens Focus) Feel free to use this on Sunday but please facebook "like" this page (on left side of menu) and consider linking your web site. Thank you! A.H.

Jesus with children

“The Riches of God’s grace that he Lavished on us” Ephesians 1:8 -

Gospel idea: Demonstrate visually what it means for God to “lavish” his grace and goodness on us. Show the children a serving tray with a plate, bowl and cup. Demonstrate how a very stingy person might give a very small portion. Then have fun filling everything to overflowing and explain that is how God lavishes is grace and love to overflow on us, his children.

Objects needed: Plate, bowl and cup (and perhaps a tray underneath to catch any overflow) and some appropriate food items.

Full Children’s Message: God morning children! One of our bible readings this morning is from the book of Ephesians (NIV or ESV). In verse 8 of chapter 1 Paul says that God “lavished” his grace and goodness on us. That is a word you may or may not know. To lavish means to be super generous. It means to give to overflowing. Let me show you what I mean. (Pull out your tray with the plate, bowl and cup). Now, if you came over to my house for dinner and I gave you a very small portions like this (very carefully place a little bit of food /water in the containers.) How would you feel about that?

Now, let’s see what it would look like if I decided to “lavishly” dish out the food. (Have fun pouring large quantities of food out. Make sure you really fill things up till they overflow.) To lavish a plate with food is to make it overflowing so there is more than enough.

Now the bible says God “lavished” his grace, forgiveness, love and goodness on us. He has given us these things in abundance so that they can overflow in our lives.

All of us have times when we feel sad and alone. However, if you are feeling that way remind yourselves that God’s love for us is lavished on us to overflowing. His grace (unmerited favor) towards us full to overflowing too.

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, thank you that you are not stingy with your forgiveness, love and grace. Thank you that you lavish these on us so that they overflow from our lives into the lives of others. In Jesus’ name, Amen! Feel free to use this on Sunday morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus.com and please "like" this page.

Grace lavished illusration

Children's lesson - Come to the Light of Jesus Christ -

John 3: 21 “Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light…” Lent 4

Overview of the spontaneous drama: Ask the children if they have ever played “Hide and Seek”. Have the young children pretend to hide from God in a dark hidden place close by. (Do this up at the front of the Church or in your home. You could dim the lights to add to the effect.) Hold up a candle or other light and explain how this reminds us of Jesus who is the light of the world. Ask them to come out of hiding and walk towards the light (as you hold up the lit candle for all to see). Explain that the life and love of Jesus is like a light shining out into the world and that we need to come to that wonderful light.

Full drama: Good morning children! Have you ever played a game called “hide and seek”? It really is a fun game where you do your best to hide from the leader. However, you might not know that some people actually try to hide from God! They might not be living the way that God wants so they think it’s best to try to hide from God. Do you think a person can hide from God? No. You are right. It’s impossible to hide from God. Now, just for fun, I want you to pretend to hide from God just up front here in our church. I’ll count to 10 to give you time to hide – just close by in this area. (If possible dim the lights a bit to make the light stand out.) Ok, I hope you can still hear me as you are pretending to hide from God. Now in a few seconds I am going to light a candle. This candle reminds us of Jesus Christ who is the light of the world. This light reminds us of his life and love that is shining out into a dark world. Now I am going to hold up the candle. I want you now to peek out from where you are hiding and look at the light. When you see that light I want you to now come out and walk to this light. That’s right, come out from your hiding place and come to the light. (When the children are all together close to you and the candle ask the congregation to give a cheer!)

You did that very well children. (Ask them to be seated.) That little drama reminds us that we shouldn’t try to hide from God. We should come out from hiding and come to the light of Jesus Christ. His life and love is like a warm and bright light shining out into the world. We want to come close to the wonderful light and not try to hide from him. We can come close to the light of Jesus Christ by living the way he wants us to live. We can come close to Jesus by telling him (in prayer) that we want to follow him and know him more.

Prayer: Dear God, thank you that Jesus is like a wonderful light shining out into the world. When we are tempted to hide from you, help us to remember your life and love is shining out to us like a guiding light. And help us to come near to you so we can know you better each day. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

(Later at home you might want to discuss ways that we hide from God. You might also want to discuss ways that we can draw near to Jesus and welcome him in our lives and hearts.)

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