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Choose from the following Children's Sermons:

• Recipe from Heaven  John 6:35, 41-51
  by Rev. Randy Quinn
   

• When You're Angry--Remember God Loves You
  Ephesians 4:25-5:2, by Michelle
   

• We Know Who You Are! John 6:35, 41-51
  by Rev. Frank Schaefer

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Recipe from Heaven
John 6:35, 41-51
by Rev. Randy Quinn

I have a few things here I want you to see.  (I have three bowls; one with dry ingredients; one with liquid ingredients; one with activated yeast.)  Does anyone have any idea what this is?  (If no one can guess, I’ll try to give them clues like smelling them or tasting them.)

Actually, when you mix these three bowls together, you can make bread.  I’m not sure it would taste good like this, though, do you?  I did bring a finished loaf for you to see – and taste.  After all, the scriptures tell us to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8).

What if I told you that if you ate a piece of this bread you wouldn’t need to eat lunch ever again?  Would you believe me?  No.

That’s because food is fuel for our bodies and we use that fuel throughout the day – so we need to eat meals every day.  And what we really need are things that are “good for us” so our bodies will grow properly.

(Have you ever noticed that some things that are not good for us taste really good; and some things that are good for us don’t?  It’s confusing at times, but it is important to remember to eat things that are good for us.)

In our scripture today, Jesus is going to tell us something that sounds impossible.  He’s going to say that he is the bread of life; and if we eat that bread, we’ll never be hungry again (Jn. 6:35).  In fact, he says, if we eat that bread we will have eternal life (Jn. 6:51).

I don’t want you to be confused when I read that, though, so I thought I’d tell you now that he isn’t talking about eating him like we eat bread.  He is telling us that our souls need to be fed – and what our souls need is God.  With God in our hearts, we have all we need.  But without God, nothing can completely satisfy us.

Let’s pray:

God:  sometimes we get confused.  Things that look good for us are not and we don’t always want what’s good for us.  Today, though, we remember that the best thing we can do is to let Jesus live in our hearts.  So, God, today we ask you to fill our souls with Jesus who is the bread of life.  Amen.

 

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When You're Angry--Remember God Loves You
a children's sermon based on Ephesians 4:25-5:2
by Michelle

I am thinking about using a white board, and putting a circle on it with a smiley face. This is what "happy" looks like. Then give a marker to a child and ask them to draw what "angry" or "mad" looks like.

Then say, "When we are mad or angry, we often want to respond to that by screaming and crying, sometimes we want to strike out at others to make them feel as bad or as angry as we feel. Our Bible reading (Ephesians) today tells us that being angry is not itself bad. We can't help what we feel, at least not right away. We can help what we do about it, though.

"We can decide not to hurt other people. We can decide to try to help other people to feel better. And when we refuse to take our anger out on other people, pretty soon we find that our anger goes away, too.

" 'Be angry, but do not sin,' is what is says in our lesson. I want you to remember that it is okay to feel angry, and God does forgive us when we sin, so next time you're really mad for some reason, remember that Jesus loves you. God loves you, and will keep you in that love forever, through the anger, and through good times...always!"

 

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We Know Who You Are!
a children's sermon based on John 6:35, 41-51
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

John 6:42: They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"

Beginn by asking the children what they want to be when they grow up. You may want to interview two or three of the ones who raise their hands. Tell them that it is good to have dreams and goals and commend them on their enthusiasm.

Read to them John 6:42: They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"

Jesus got ridiculed when he shared about his dream. But Jesus believed in his dream, he knew what God, the Father, had called him to be.

Conclude with a story shared by Robert Schuler (relayed to him by a colleague):

"In the third grade, we were asked to stand up in front of the class and say what we wanted to be when we grew up. Now, I went to a fairly strict school, and every time you were asked to stand before the class, it was a pretty serious matter. I remember very distinctly one girl who stood up and said, 'I'm going to be a movie star.' As I remember, there wasn't anything special about this girl. She wasn't very pretty. Her grades were average, some of them were even below average. She didn't come from a wealthy family. In fact, the only thing I really remember about her was the class laughing at her. The whole class laughed at her. And I remember she just stood there smiling, as if she knew something the rest of us didn't. I don't remember ever seeing that girl again in school. Now I see her all the time. She's one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Every time I sit in the movie theater and watch her up there on the silver screen, I think, 'She was always so proud of who she was. She had a dream she always held onto.' Back then," he concluded, "they laughed at her. Now they pay to see her. I'm glad I didn't laugh."

God has called all of us to be someone important and to do something important in this world.  What can we learn from today's lesson?  Never ridicule someone's dream or goals, because they might just come true.  You too are important to God and God has some wonderful plan and calling for you as well.  Isn't that wonderful to know?

Prayer: "Thank you, dear God, for dreams and goals.  Thank you that you think  of us as very important and that you have a plan and a purpose for each one of us.  Help us to grow strong in our purpose in life and watch over us along the way.   Amen."