following Jesus

  • Advent Children's Sermon - Be Ready for Christ's Return


    Advent – Ready for Christ’s return      Luke 21:25-36
     
     Be ready for the second coming of Jesus!     
     
    Children's sermon idea for churchor Sunday school: The Bible tells us that Jesus could return any time and that we need to be ready. With the use of various cleaning utensils discuss how we would want to have our house and ourselves clean and in order if we knew an important person was going to visit us. To prepare for the return of Jesus we need to make sure our hearts are in order (Luke 21:34) and that our lives are pleasing to him.
     
    Object Lessonitems: Various items used for cleaning the (1) House – Window cleaner, feather duster, etc.   (2) Ourselves – Nail brush, tooth brush, comb, etc.
     
    Full Children’s Sermon:
    Good morning children. In our church we call this the first day of Advent. It is the time if year when we remember promises about the first coming of Jesus, that we celebrate at Christmas, and also the second coming of Jesusthat is still to come one day in the future. I want you to imagine that the Queen (or President) phoned you up one day and said they were coming over to your house for a visit some day soon! Wouldn’t that be exciting? How would you prepare for the Queen to come over? (Discuss some things you could do.) I brought some things with me to show you what I would do. Do you know what this is? Yes, it’s a feather duster. I would want to make sure all the dust was cleaned up so that everything looked nice. Do you know what this is? Yes. It’s a scrub brush to help me get everything nice and sparkling clean. Do you know what this is? It’s a nice clean table cloth. We use this on special occasions. (Add:, window cleaner, large bag to pick up all the clutter, nail brush for cleaning fingernails etc.) If the Queen was coming over I would certainly want to have the house clean and everything in order. That would be especially important if I didn’t know the exact time she was coming. Imagining that the Queen is coming to our house helps us to think about this important season of Advent. The season of Advent is when we remember that Jesus said that he would return one day to earth so that we could actually see him. We don’t know when that day will be so it’s important for us to have our lives clean and in order. We don’t want our lives to be like a messy, cluttered house. We want to make sure our lives are cleaned up of all bitterness, greed, selfishness, and that we are living lives that are pleasing to God. That way, we can be excited about the fact that Jesus is returning and know his life and joy while we wait for that day.

    Children’s Prayer:    Thank you God for the promise that Jesus will someday return. Through your Holy Spirit, help us to be ready for that day by living lives that are pleasing to you and please forgive us when we do things that are wrong. That way we will be ready to welcome King Jesus and we’ll share in his joy. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

    Copyright sundaychildrensfocus.com   Andrew Hewlett  - Feel free to use this object lesson on Sunday morning but please give credit to sundaychildrensfocus.com  and consider making a link to this web site. Thank you!  A.H.

     

  • Children's sermon on Interpreting the Times and Seasons

    Children’s Sermon on Interpreting the Times – Luke 12: 49-57

    Idea for the kids talk on Sunday morning:  Jesus talked about interpreting the weather and interpreting the times. Bring up various items related to different weather conditions. (ie Sun glasses, umbrella, rubber boots, sweater, etc)  Describe different weather conditions and ask the children tell you what item would be appropriate for each type of weather. Give a short overview of Luke 12:9-57 and explain that interpreting the weather is important but it is even more important to understand the times and seasons of life. Conclude by telling the children that it is always the right time and season to follow Jesus.

    Object lesson props:  Unbrella, sweater, rubber boots, sun glasses, sun tan lotion, jacket.

    Full Children’s sermon based on the Lectionary Gospel reading: Good morning Children! Look at some of these things I brought with me this morning. (Alternately, you could come out wearing some of the items!) Do you know what all these items are? Have you ever put on any of these items? Ok, now I want to see if you know when you would wear these items. What if it was a really sunny day with no clouds in the sky? What would be good to wear? That’s right. Putting on the suntan lotion would help prevent a sun burn. Yes, wearing the sun glasses would make it easier on your eyes. Now, what if it was a little bit of cloud with cold wind blowing? Yes, I think it would be a good idea to put on this sweater or wind breaker. Ok, what would I wear before going outside if I looked out and saw big, dark clouds? What should I wear with that type of weather? That’s right, it might be wise to put on a rain jacket because the dark clouds might be a sign that it is going to rain. Well done! You are all very good at interpreting the weather and knowing how to prepare.

    In our bible lesson from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus talked about the importance of “understanding the times”. He said that people can look at the weather and understand how to prepare and what to do.  But for some reason the people didn’t understand Jesus and the need to follow him! They could understand what to do when the sun came out but they didn’t know what to do when God sent His son Jesus! God sent his son Jesus so we could know Him and discover his love. And we know that Jesus is alive and wants us to follow him and to discover his wonderful life.

    So…When you go outside I hope you will remember to check the weather and put on the right clothing. I also hope you will remember that it is always the right time to follow Jesus (to live the way he wants us to live) and discover all we were meant to do and be!

    Children’s Prayer: Dear God, help us to be wise and understand that it is always the right time and season to follow Jesus. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

    Copyright 2016 Sunday Children's Focus - Andrew Hewlett.  Feel free to use this kids lesson on Sunday Morning / Sunday School but please give credit to SundayChildrensFocus.com and consider linking to this web site. Thank you! A.H.

  • Come away - Resting in Jesus

    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

     

  • Jesus feeds the five thousand


    Children sermon on the feeding of the five thousand (5000)
     

    Loaves and fishes – John 6:1-21    fish
     
    Interactive Drama for Church or Sunday School
     
    Props: 2 small baskets, lots of paper cut outs of loaves and fish
     
    Basic idea:  Using a basket and paper cut outs, show how Jesus miraculously multiplied the loaves and fish. Let the children hold the multiplied “loaves and fish” and get them to help you count them all.
     
    Full Story:
    (Cut out a large number of “loaves” and “fish” out of paper and place them in a basket. Take another basket and place the initial "5 loaves and 2 fish" into that basket)
    Good morning children. I want to tell you about how Jesus did a wonderful miracle by feeding 5 thousand hungry people. You can read about this in chapter six of John’s gospel. A large crowd had been following Jesus. The people were so excited about what he had to say that they forgot about eating! It was getting late and they were starting to get hungry. A young child was willing to offer his five loaves of bread and two fish but of course that wasn’t enough for everybody. (Hold up the first basket) To show you what Jesus did I made up some fish and bread out of paper. (Pull out the 5 loaves and 2 fish so that they can see.) Of course this wasn’t nearly enough to feed everybody but Jesus asked them to sit down on the grass. Then he took that small amount of food the the child provided, (Take the 5 loaves and 2 fish and put them in the second basket. Hold the basket up high), Gave thanks to God and then distributed the food. This is when things got pretty exciting. I’ll show you what happened. Please hold your hands out in front of you so I can distribute the food. I would also like you to count out loud each time I give out a fish or a piece of bread. "One, Two, Three, Four..."(Get some other adults in the first row to help count if you think the children will be too shy. Start distributing the “multiplied” fish and bread into the children’s hands helping them count as you go. Go quickly and make sure every child gets a good handful of fish and bread. I'd keep going until you are up at around 50 or so. For special effect you could ask them to hold out their hands for you to up-end the basket and dump the rest of the "food" out.) Wow! You all have lots of fish and bread. That’s what happened with Jesus. My story uses fish and bread made out of paper, but Jesus did a miracle with real bread and real fish. As Jesus and the disciples distributed the food it just kept coming, and coming and coming until the whole crowd of people had more than enough food to eat. In fact, there was so much that there were twelve baskets of food left over. This showed the people that Jesus had God’s power. It also showed the people that Jesus could provide for their every need. It also showed how important it was for that one small child to offer to Jesus what little he had.
     
    Pray: Thank you God for this miracle that Jesus did. He truly is more wonderful than we can imagine. He really is a wonderful Saviour. Thank you that he provided food for the people and that he loves us and can provide for our needs as well.
     
    Copyright 2009 Andrew Hewlett and Sundaychildrensfocus.com   Feel free to use this story on Sunday morning but please give credit to Sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider linking to this page. A.H.