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Choose from the following children's sermons:

• Hide And Seek, John 1:29-42, by Rev. Randy Quinn
• God Chooses Us First, Isaiah 49, by F. Schaefer
• God Knows Your Name, Jeremiah 1:4-10, by Frank Schaefer

For Martin Luther King Jr. Day:

• Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth? MLK, children's sermon, by Janet in MD
• God Can Use You Too, MLK, by Rev. Randy L Quinn
• A Reader's Theater with seven kids, MLK.  by HW in HI

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Hide And Seek
John 1:29-42
by Rev. Randy Quinn

How many of you have ever played “Hide and Seek”?  (I’m sure they all have!)

How do you play it?  (I’ll let them explain the rules, pretending that I’m not sure how to play it.)

So, if I were to hide, what might be a good hiding place?

Have you ever tried to use the same hiding place over and over again?  People find you easier the next time, don’t they?

What if I find such a good place to hide that I never get found?  That would be a super good hiding place.  Do you think I should tell people where I was hiding or should I keep it a secret so I can use it again?

Some people think God hides from us.  But do you know what?  God came out from hiding when Jesus was born.  God came and lived among us and showed us that the best place for God to hide is right here, in our hearts.

Only, it’s not a secret hiding place.  They can’t see God there, but when they see how we live, they will know he is.

Let’s pray: God, come live in our hearts.  Hide there – but not like we’re playing “Hide and Seek.”  Hide there so people will see your love when we love them.  Help us to live so people will know you are alive in each of us and all of us.  We pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

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God Chooses Us First
A kids' talk based on Isaiah 49
by Rev. F. Schaefer

Isaiah 49:1: "The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me."

Props: your baptism certificate (or, if your tradition is adult baptism: your birth certificate)

Greetings, my little friends.  Today, I want to read to you a wonderful sentence from the bible.  (Read Isaiah 49:1b).  Isn't that something?  A prophet, or preacher, by the name Isaiah says that God had already chosen him before he was even born.

I brought something with me today that I want to show you.  This is my baptism (birth) certificate.  Let the children see / read it.  You know what is so amazing about this document?

 

For baptism certificate continue here (skip the green-printed part if you brought a birth certificate):
This is proof that I was baptized on _________.  I know what you're thinking, but...no, it wasn't that long ago.  Do you have a baptism certificate like this?  I'm pretty sure that most of you have one.  Perhaps you can ask your mom and dad to show it to you later.

Anyhow, this certificate is very important to me.  And you know why?  Because this piece of paper says that I was baptized into the church of God even before I was able to speak or even think.  I certainly didn't know about God when I was ___ months old.  And yet, God already accepted me into his church.

My parents brought me to the baptismal font and they promised to raise me in the faith.  But it was God who made me a child of God that day.  It was God who chose me, long before I could choose him.  And you know, this is true for you too.   Isn't that good to know?  Even before you knew it, God already chose you to be his child.

 

For birth certificate continue here (skip the red-printed part if you brought a baptism certificate):
This is proof that I was born on _________.  I know what you're thinking, but...no, it wasn't that long ago.  Do you have a birth certificate like this?  I'm pretty sure that all of you have one.  Perhaps you can ask your mom and dad to show it to you later.

Anyhow, this certificate is very important to me.  And you know why?  Because this piece of paper says that I was given the right to be a citizen of this great nation even before I was able to speak or even think.  Other people try to get citizenship in this country and they cannot get it; still others can get it, but they have to pay a lot of money for it.  And I, just by the fact that I was born here, got all the rights of a citizen for free.

In our Bible lesson, Isaiah says something very similar about God. He says that God already chose him, that God already claimed him to be his servant--even before he was born.  And we believe the same thing about us.  We believe that God is calling us first, all of us. God loved us even before we knew about him.  God has been inviting us to come to him from the minute we were conceived in our mother's belly.

It is God who chooses us, long before we can choose him.  And you know, this is true for you too.   Isn't that good to know?  Even before you knew it, God already chose you to be his child.

 

That's the kind of God we serve:  a God who goes by grace and love and not by what we have done or what we haven't done.  I think we need to let God know today that we really appreciate him.  We ought to let him know that we are grateful that he chose us first--that he loved us even before we knew anything about him.

Let us pray: "Dear God, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts that you have loved us even before we knew you. Thank you for making us your children and for blessing us the way you did.  We give you all the praise and glory on this day and ask you to continue to watch over us.  In Jesus' name. Amen."

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God Knows Your Name
a kids talk based on Jeremiah 1:4-10 (can be adapted for Isaiah 49)
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Props: picture(s) of yourself as a baby or small child

Greetings to you, my faithful troopers, please grab a seat on the altar steps around me.  I am so excited to show you some pictures from my family photo album.

(Pass picture[s] around) Now, isn't that a very cute little baby?  Who do you think this cute little baby is?  (Let them guess).  How did you guess it was me?  Because I'm still cute, right?

What do you think my mom and dad used to call me?  By what name did they call me?  (Share with them your nick-name or baby name or simply your first name)  They called me _______, not pastor _______, or Mr. _________, or Rev. ________.

What do you think, did God know my name when I was a baby? (slightly nod your head to encourage a yes answer) That's right, God knew my name, just as God knows your name as well.  Now, if someone knows your name, they must already know quite a bit about you, don't you think? Children are very special to God and the Bible tells us that he watches out over the little ones, and God surely knows their every name.

I must tell you something very amazing.  Listen to this: you know, in one of our bible lessons this morning--from the prophet Jeremiah-- God says something interesting.  He says that even before Jeremiah was born, God already knew him.  God already knew his name, and he already knew what Jeremiah was going to be like as a person many years before he lived.

Do you think that's amazing?  Maybe it is not so amazing if you think about it.  After all, God knows everything.  Even the things that have not happened yet.  God knows they will happen.

And also, God knows every person because he made the soul of every person.  Now we don't know how exactly God joins the soul to the body, but we know that it happens.  Perhaps God does it some time when we're in our mother's wombs.

But the important thing I want us to understand today is that God actually knows you and me--all of us-- by name.  Even though there are so many people living in this town and in this country and this entire world, you are not just a number or a faceless person to God.

No, God knows you very well, he knows your name, and he knows what you look like, he knows what kind of person you are.  God knows everything about you!    That's how much God cares for you and how much he loves you.  Isn't that good to know?  Doesn't that make you feel special?  Let us say thank you to God for his great love and care for us:

Prayer: "Dear God, we all want to thank you for caring so much for us that you make it your business to know everything about us--even our name.    Thank you that you have made us and that you are always watching over us.    Thank you for loving us and caring for us. Amen."