“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. 

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. 

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.)

Copyright 2018 Sundaychildrensfocus  Andrew Hewlett - Feel free to use this on Sunday morning but please give me credit and click on the facebook "Like" on the life side of the page.  Thank you! A.H.