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Choose from the
following children's sermons:
- Jesus is the Light, John 3:14-21
by Rev. Randy Quinn (see
below)
- Growing in Faith, Numbers 21:4-9
by Rev. Frank Schaefer (see below)
- Three ideas by DPSers (please scroll down)
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Jesus
is the Light
a children's sermon based on John 3:14-21
by Rev. Randy Quinn
Let me ask you a question. Have you ever sat in a dark
room? Maybe you were playing “hide and seek” and were in a closet? Maybe you
were in your bedroom at night when the power went out and there were no lights
anywhere?
Do you remember what it was like?
OK, good. Now, close your eyes and pretend you are in that dark room again. It’s
dark, very dark. You can’t even see your hand in front of your face, can you?
What would happen in that dark room if you turned on a flashlight? Would it
still be dark? How much light would you need to be able to see?
OK. You can open your eyes.
It’s light in this room, isn’t it? Now, look at my hands. (I have them cupped.)
Inside my hands there is some darkness. There is no light in there, only
darkness. Take a peek. See?
What would happen if I open my hands? Would the darkness in my hands make it
dark in here the way a small light brings light to a dark room?
How much darkness do you think I would need to make this room dark?
There is an ancient story about a conversation between a cave and the sun. The
sun invited the cave to come out and see the light. The cave was impressed; but
when he invited the sun into the cave to see the dark, guess what happened?
There wasn’t any darkness because the sun brought light with him!
Jesus is like the light. It doesn’t matter how dark our world is, he is there.
And there isn’t enough darkness to take that away from us – ever.
Let’s pray:
God, we know that Jesus is the Light of the World. We also know that he asks us
to also be a light to the world. Help us shine in a way that helps other people
see you in us and around us. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Growing in Faith
a children's sermon based on Numbers 21:4-9
by Rev. Frank Schaefer
props: picture of a snake (click here for a close-up picture of a
cobra), a snake skin (if you cannot lay a hold of a skin, you may just want to use a
picture on one)
Welcome, my little friends, I have something exciting to show
you...well, some people are kind of scared of the creature that I brought a picture of.
Show the picture of the snake. This, of course, is a picture of a .
. . That's right, a snake. Does anybody know what kind of snake this is? . . .
Is anybody here afraid of snakes, or grossed out by them, perhaps?
Well, in one of our bible lessons this morning, the people of God were in
the wilderness when poisonous snakes attacked them. Perhaps they looked a little
like this snake. People were dying from the bites and they ran to Moses for help.
And what do you think Moses did? He prayed. God told him to make a shape of a
snake from metal and put it on a pole and have people look at it. So Moses made a
snake out of bronze, and put it on a pole; and whenever a snake bit someone, that person
would look at the snake of bronze and live.
That's pretty amazing, isn't it? In other words, God wanted people
to have faith that when they looked at the snake of bronze, the real snakes couldn't hurt
them? Would you have looked at the snake of bronze? Or would you have tried to
suck the poison out of the bite wound?
The lesson we can learn from this is that God wants us to have faith in
Him, and in his Son, Jesus Christ who was also put up on a pole--on a cross. God
wants us to have more and more faith in him, so that when God asks us to do something that
we just trust him and do it. Even if what God asks us to do, may not make a whole
lot of sense to us sometimes (like looking at a metal snake on a pole).
Have you ever wondered why God wanted Moses to make a metal snake for
people to look at and be healed? Perhaps it's because of this amazing ability of snakes to
never stop growing. Did you know that? From the day snakes hatch from their
egg until the day they die, they grow.
In fact, they grow so fast that they constantly need new skin. I
also brought you a (picture of a) snake skin to look at. You see, as snakes outgrow
their skin, they just shed it and grow new skin. They go hide some place for a few
days and shed their old skin. It's a little like a caterpillar who spins himself
into a cocoon and comes out as a butterfly. Only that a snake will do it over again
and again--and they don't grow wings =)
Just like a snake never stops growing, God wants us to grow in faith every
day. How do we grow in faith? By doing spiritual things. By reading the
bible, by praying to God, by trusting God to protect us, by keeping God's commandments, by
going to Sunday school, church, etc. Those are all spiritual things that help us
continue to grow in faith.
Let us pray: "Dear God, please nourish us with spiritual food
every day of our lives so that we grow in faith until the day we die. We want to get
closer and closer to you until we can put our trust in you completely. Thank you for
watching over us as we grow in you. Amen."
Three ideas by DPSers:
Idea #2: If you can get a picture of the EMT's purple 6-armed
cross, used on ambulances, with either one or two snakes wrapped around
a caduces, as you'd find on any EMT's uniform, that's a symbol of
healing taken right from today's lesson. Got an EMT in the
congregation?? How about a physician who will also have caduces
symbology sitting around his/her office?? If so, you're off and
running... -Al, Lexington, KY
Idea #2: I'm doing a series on different kinds of crosses for
my lenten children's time. I used the Maltese Cross (EMT, firefighters)
last week and found good background info at
http://www.fireweb.com/maltese_cross.htm and at
http://pks.org/maltese_cross/maltese.html (with pictures) Love those
kids and hope you inspire them with healing grace. Fisherfolk in OH
Idea # 3: I wanted to hand out snakes, after telling the
story of the serpent on the pole, but couldn't find what I needed at the
toy stores--the difficulties of small towns! I'm giving out gummy worms
instead.
