“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.

Idea for Children’s sermon: Show the children a flashlight and demonstrate how important it is to have batteries inside. The flashlight needs the power from the batteries to make the light shine and do its job. In the same way, the Holy Spirit in us gives us power to shine the light of Jesus Christ and do what God wants us to do.

 

Object lesson items: A flashlight and batteries.

 

Complete children’s talk:  Good Morning Children. Do you know what special day it is this Sunday? This is Pentecost Sunday. It’s the time when were remember that Jesus / the Father sent the Holy Spirit to live inside believers. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come into the lives of those who followed him. Many years ago followers of Jesus gathered together on a special day called Pentecost. Then all of a sudden the Holy Spirit of God came upon the people and they received new life and power to shine the light of Jesus in the world. That same Holy Spirit can give us power today to live for Jesus. This morning I want to show you how important the Holy Spirit is. Do you see this flashlight? How many of you have flashlights at home? What do you think will happen if I turn on this small switch? OK. Let’s try. Hmmm. Nothing is happening. Can you make it work? (Give the flashlight to the children.) What do you think is wrong? (Someone will mention that there are no batteries.) Open up the flashlight and look inside. You’re right. It’s empty inside. Do you think it is important for a flashlight to have batteries inside? Right. The batteries give power to the flashlight to make it shine. Without that power inside the flashlight just doesn’t work. Even though batteries are not a living person like the Holy Spirit, batteries still remind me of the power of the Holy Spirit. In the same way a battery gives power to make a flashlight shine, the Holy Spirit gives power to believers to shine the light of Jesus. The bible says that by ourselves we can’t love people very well and we can’t live the life that God has for us. By ourselves we are like this empty flashlight that has no power. But Jesus said he would send us the Holy Spirit who would give us power to live for God and to shine the light of Christ.

Let’s see what happens when I put these batteries inside the flashlight. Yeah! It works! We want our lives to shine like this flashlight so let’s ask God to fill us with his Holy Spirit.

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, thank you that you have sent us the power of the Holy Spirit. Please fill us up each day with the Holy Spirit that we would have the power to live for Jesus and let his light shine in our lives.

Copyright 2010 sundaychildrensfocus.com Andrew Hewlett   Feel free to use this on Sunday morning but please give credit to SundayChildrensFocus.com and please consider linking to this site.  -- A.H.

 

Children’s Sermon idea: Explain to the children a time when you went away and entrusted a pet animal to someone else to look after. Describe your love for the animal and how you asked them to feed your pet and look after it. Tell the children how Jesus asked Peter to “feed my sheep” and “take care of my sheep.” As Jesus’ sheep, encourage the children to think of ways they can “feed” and “take care” of one another.

 

Object lesson Props: Items for taking cared of a household pet. (Bowl, brush, leash, treats, medicine, etc)

 

Children’s Sermon: Feed my Sheep – Take care of my Sheep

Good morning children. How many of you have a pet? Did you know that we once had a dog named “Deacon?” He was a very special dog and we loved him a lot. Here are some of the things we used to take care of him. Here is the brush we used to brush his hair. We would feed him by putting his food in this dog bowl. Here is the soap we would use when we would give him a bath. He was very special to us so we made sure we showed our love by taking good care of him. One day we had to go away on a trip and we had our neighbour look after Deacon. As we were preparing to go away we brought Deacon to our neighbour’s house along with all these things. We showed them how to feed Deacon. We showed them how to brush his hair. We gave our neighbour the leash and showed where Deacon enjoyed going for a walk. We wanted to make sure that our neighbour took care of our very special dog!

In our bible reading today from John’s gospel, Jesus said to Peter, “feed my sheep” and take care of them. Jesus wasn’t talking about the kind of sheep that have wool and go bah bah bah. Who do you think these sheep were that he wanted Peter to look after? Right! He was talking about his followers. When Jesus was talking about “my sheep” he was thinking about the people who followed him and loved him. They were people like you and me. If we are followers of Jesus we part of that flock of sheep. Jesus was going to go back to his heavenly father and he wanted to make sure Peter would feed and care for that flock of people who loved and followed Jesus. Jesus wanted to know that they were going to be fed and looked after by leaders like Peter. Our Pastor is a leader like Peter and his/her job is to look after us, feed us, and lead us in the right direction. In fact, all of us need to do what we can to care for one another. If we are Jesus’ sheep how can we care for one another? (Let the children respond) Those are some good ideas. Let’s always do what we can to take care of one another. That’s something Jesus would want us to do.

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, help us to feed and take care of our pets and animals. As your sheep, help us to “feed” and take care of one another just like Jesus asked Peter to do. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

Copyright Sundaychildrensfocus.com  Feel free to use this story on Sunday morning but please give credit to sundaychildrensfocus and consider linking to this site. - Blessings, A.H.

 

 

– Children’s message for Sunday School or Children’s church  - John 12:1-8  

 

Children’s sermon idea: Explain to the children how Mary and Martha at Bethany showed their love to Jesus by serving him and offering their best. For visual aids have a plate with a meal (representing Martha’s gift to Jesus) and a fancy bottle of perfume (representing Mary’s gift to Jesus). Discuss with the children the fact that each child can show their love for Jesus in their own unique way.

 

Object lesson items: A fancy looking bottle of perfume; a tray with a dinner plate and food. (Idea: You could bake a cake and then serve it during coffee hour.)

 

Full Kids Sermon:

Good morning children! I want to show you some things I brought in this morning that remind us of our bible reading. First of all, look at this cake. It looks pretty tasty doesn’t it? How many of you like chocolate cake? I do too. Well, in our bible reading form John chapter 12 it says that there was a special dinner held in honour of Jesus. The passage says that Martha served the meal. It may of may not have been a cake like this but I’m sure that she was a good cook and wanted to give her very best to Jesus. This story in the bible says that Mary showed her love for Jesus with some very expensive perfume. Look at this beautiful bottle here. It has some wonderful smelling perfume. I’ll take the lid of and let you have a smell. That’s pretty nice isn’t it? The bible says Mary poured this very expensive perfume all over Jesus’ feet and the beautiful fragrance filled the whole room. Some people thought it was a waste of expensive perfume but Jesus new it was Mary’s way of showing how much she loved him. I like that story in the bible because it shows that there are different ways of showing our love for Jesus. Martha showed her love to Jesus by serving a wonderful meal in his honour. Mary showed her love by giving Jesus some very expensive perfume. I want you to think about how you could show your love for Jesus. (Sunday school lesson idea: You might want to discuss the children’s unique gifts, abilities and talents and how they might be used to serve and show love for Jesus.)

- Perhaps you could use your voice to sing a song in church.

- Perhaps you could make some beautiful drawing to honour Jesus.

- You can also show your love for Jesus by helping out others in need.

- Or, you can simply pray to Jesus and his Father and tell them how thankful you are for the great love that they have for you.

There are many different ways of showing our love for Jesus!

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, it’s wonderful to read about how Martha and Mary showed their love to Jesus. Help us to remember that we can give thanks to you and to Jesus in our own special way. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

 

Copyright Sundaychildrensfocus.com Andrew Hewlett   Feel free to use this story on Sunday morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider linking to this site. A.H.

 

Children’s sermon / Sunday School lesson intro:   
 

This story focuses on the father’s words: “This is my son…Listen to Him.” Give a short overview of the transfiguration. Have everyone in the congregation call out at the same time and give some “advise” to the children sitting up front. It’s confusing and chaotic. Explain to the children that it’s most important that we “Listen to Jesus” in the study of the bible (that contain the life and teachings of Jesus) and in prayer.

 

Objects needed: None.

 

Full Children’s Sermon: Good morning children. Today’s bible reading from Luke chapter 9 is called the Transfiguration. It is about a special day when Peter, James and John went up on a mountain with Jesus to pray. When they were there two other great leaders, Elijah and Moses, miraculously appeared beside Jesus. All three of them glowed like dazzling while lights and they began to speak to the disciples. It was quite an experience! Peter didn’t know what to do. He started running around in a fluster not knowing what to do or say. Then a voice from heaven said “This is my Son, whom I have chosen, Listen to Him.” God the Father was saying that Peter needed to slow down and listen to Jesus. I think that is also pretty good advice for us today. There are many people telling us what to do and how to live our lives. I think it is so important that we Listen to Jesus. If we try to listen to everyone we will just get confused. I’ll show you what I mean. Let’s think of a question we can ask the congregation. Here’s a question. Let’s ask the congregation how we should live and what we should do with our lives. Members of the congregation when I count to three I want you to call out together how you think these children should live and what they should do with their lives. Ready? Listen closely children. 1, 2, 3 Go. (Let the children listen to the chaos for a few seconds and then give a “time out” gesture to the congregation.) Well children. Was that helpful? No? Why not? You’re right. It was a very confusing trying to listen to everybody. It was crazy!. I think this teaches us something important. Sometimes it can get very confusing trying to listen to everyone’s advice. Sometimes everyone we talk to has a different idea of what we should do or not do. We need to remember what our Heavenly Father said to Peter up on the mountain of transfiguration when he was confused. He said to Peter, “This is my Son whom I have chosen, Listen to Him!” Listening to God’s Son Jesus is so very important. Getting ideas and suggestions from other people is important but it is most important that we listen to Jesus. We can listen to Jesus by reading about the life of Jesus in the bible. We can read what he said and taught and we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand too.

 

Children’s Prayer; Heavenly Father, thank you for reminding Peter to listen to your son Jesus. Help us to listen to Jesus as well. Life can get pretty confusing trying to listen to everybody’s advice. Through your Holy Spirit help us to hear and know your son Jesus more and more each day. Amen!

Copyright Sundaychildrensfocus.com  Andrew Hewlett  - Feel free to use this lesson on Sunday morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider putting a link to this web site. A.H.

 

Sunday school talk / Sermon idea: Luke 5:1-11   Fishers of Men

Show the children a large fishing net or use a blanket as a pretend fish net. Explain how they used to fish with nets and how Jesus said his disciples were to be “fishers of men” or “fishers of people.”

Have the children take a corner of the “net” and move about “catching” some people and bringing them in to your group. (Alternative: Consider making a “net” by having some of the kid’s link arms together.”)

 

  

Objects needed: a large piece of netting or a blanket that you can use as a pretend fishing net.

 

Complete children’s sermon / Sunday school lesson introduction: Evangelism

 

Good morning children! The bible reading that we have for today is about Jesus telling his disciples that he is going to make them “fishers of people.” One day Jesus met some fishermen named Peter, James and John. After doing a wonderful miracle of catching many fish, Jesus called them to follow him. He said that he would change their jobs from being fishers of fish to being fisher on men /people! Instead of catching fish Jesus wanted them to start catching people! He wanted them to tell others about Jesus and bring them along as followers. Instead of bringing fish into the boat he wanted them to bring people into the church and into the Kingdom of God. I want to show you what I mean. I need a few of you to come over here. (Have some of the children stand a little ways away from the group.) Let’s pretend that you don’t know anything about Jesus and his love. OK. Now let’s have some more of you stand over here. (Have another little group stand off to the other side) Let’s pretend they don’t know about Jesus and his love either. Now the rest of us here will be the “fishers of men.” Some of you can take the corners of this blanket. Perfect! Now let’s go and do some fishing. Follow me. Hey! Look over here. These people look a little lost. I think we need to bring them into the Kingdom of God. Let’s come around them and bring them into the church. (Scoop them up and bring them front and center.) Great. However, there are still some more people over there that look like they are on the outside. Let’s go and fish for those people. (“Net” these people and bring them in so you are all together as a big group.) You did a good job being fishers of people.

Although we don’t use a real net to bring people to Jesus he does want us to go out and “catch” people and bring them in the Kingdom. There are many things we can do to be good fishers of people. We can show love and care to other people. We can tell them about Jesus and his wonderful love. We can pray for them. And we can invite them here to church where they can experience some of the love and joy of the family of God. With the Holy Spirit’s help they just might decide to be followers of Jesus, just like the rest of us fish!

 

Children’s Prayer: Dear God, as followers of Jesus help us to be good fishers of men. Help us show your love by our words and by our actions so that many people would be brought into your Kingdom. Help us to be good fishers of men like Peter, James and John. Amen!

Copyright Sundaychildrensfocus.com  Andrew Hewlett  Feel free to use this talk on Sunday morning but please give credit to sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider linking to this site. Blessings, A.H.

    1 Corinthians 12:12-31 The Body of Christ
 

Sermon / object lesson: Prior to your talk, have a child lie down on a large piece of cardboard so that you can trace the outline of his/her body. Then cut cardboard body part pieces into a simple “body puzzle.” During your kids talk hold up various cardboard “body parts” and discuss how all alone they are not much good. Get the children to each hold a body part and see if you can quickly hold them in place to make the whole body complete. Congratulate the children and explain how when the body is together it is alive and effective. Explain how each of us, with our different gifts is a part of the body of Christ. We need each other and we need to be together in unity if we are going to be effective in “being Jesus” to a broken world.

 

(As a Sunday school lesson you could go into much more detail about use of gifts, how we need each other, and the idea that we are the “hands and feet” of Jesus. We are the church, the physical manifestation of our risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.)

 

Objects Lesson items: Large cardboard body part “cut outs” made out of cardboard. I would suggest about ten body parts (left hand, right hand, head, left foot, etc.)

 

Children’s sermon: Good morning children! One of our bible readings this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. In his letter Paul encourages the believers to all work together as one unit. He said that in the same way a body is made up of many parts, each of us is like a part of the body of Christ – his church. I’ll show you what I mean. (Bring out your cardboard body parts. Hold up some individual parts.) What this? Yes, it’s a hand. If a hand was all by itself would it be much good? Right. It wouldn’t. What’s this? Yes, it’s a foot. Would a foot be much good all on its own? Etc.

It’s pretty easy to see that each part of the body needs each other. Let’s see if we can put the parts of the body together into a whole body. (Hand out the different parts and help hold them in place (upright) so that everyone in the congregation can see. After you have all the parts in place give the children a cheer to congratulate them.) That’s wonderful. Please keep holding the body parts in place for a moment. Now all the parts are together and this person could do all kinds of good things. (You could give some examples.) Each one of us has different and special gifts and talents. Trying to use our gifts alone doesn’t really work. We need other people’s gifts and talents and other people need our gifts and talents. God made us to be together like different parts of the same body.