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Choose from the following Children's Sermons:

• Three Times, You're Out? Not with God
  Luke 13:1-9, by Rev. Randy L Quinn  (see below)
   

• Trusting God in the Wilderness, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13,
  by Rev. F. Schaefer  (see below)
   

• God Loves Us All the Same, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 ,
  Luke 13:1-9, by Michelle  (see below)
   

• Telling the Gospel Story, Luke 13:1-9
  anonymous  (see below)
   

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Three Times, You're Out? Not with God
based on Luke 13:1-9
by Rev. Randy L Quinn

Do you know how to play baseball?  (Most of them do.)

How many times can you swing at a ball when you are batting?  (Three.)  What happens if you miss all three times?  (You’re out.)  And how many people can get “out” before the other team gets to try and bat?  (Three.)

Why do we get three chances?  Why not just make it one out or one strike?  (Because everyone makes mistakes and everyone misses some times.  It gives them a second and third chance to make a hit or make a play.)

How many chances to you think God gives us to do things right?  (I think I’ll let the kids try to answer this one, even though I know my own answer is “lots”.)

I think we hurt God’s feelings when we do wrong things.  I think God is sad when we hurt other people or lie to them or don’t help someone who needs help.  We call those things “sin.”  It’s when we do something wrong or when we don’t do something right.

But God keeps giving us more chances.  All we have to do is admit our mistakes.  We call that “confessing” our sin.  Then we decide not to do the same thing again, and we call that “repenting” of our sin.

God gives us lots of chances to confess and to repent – in fact, God gives us another chance every day.

And for that, I’m thankful.

Let’s pray:

God we all know we make mistakes.  And we are glad that you don’t just give us three chances to do the right thing.  But we also know that when we do things that are wrong you are the one who is sad.  Help us make good choices so you will be happy.  And when we sin, remind us to do two things:  tell you we’re sorry and decide not to do the same thing again.  Amen.

 

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Trusting God in the Wilderness
kids talk by Rev. F. Schaefer
based on 1. Corinthians 10:1-13

Props:  A basket filled with crumbs of white bread

Do you know what a wilderness is?  Another word for wilderness is  "desert." What's it like in a desert?  (allow kids to make points and confirm their answers)

Have any of you ever been in a wilderness?  What do you think it would be like to be stuck in a desert?  Fun?  Maybe for a short while.  But soon, we would feel the pain of hunger, and thirst, and the torching heat.

That's what God's people--the Israelites--had to endure. They were wandering through the wilderness for a very long time.  Why do you think God had his people go through the desert?  One of the reasons was that God wanted his people to learn to trust him.

God gave them food and water in the desert.  Sometimes, God even had little pieces of bread--manna--rain out of the sky.    I imagine it was a lot like these bread crumbs (show them).  The bible says they came out of the sky like so (throw a few crumbs in the air only if you think your trustees won't give you a hard time for doing so =)

What a party that was.  There was enough to eat for everyone, and that manna was soooo good! (offer them a piece of the crumbs that remained in the basket).

But sometimes God didn't give them food--at least not right away.   And do you know why?  Not because God is mean, but because God wanted to test them.  God wanted to see if they would still trust him even though they were a little hungry.

What do you think?  Did the Israelites pass God's test? (shake your head slightly to encourage the no answer) No, most of the time when God tested them they did not trust God.  Instead of trusting God, they started to complain.  And that made God very sad.

Do you think God gives us tests sometimes? (nod slightly to encourage a yes answer)  You better believe it.  Sometimes, we find ourselves in a situation when we lose something or we don't get what we think we need, or when something bad happens to us, like an accident, and when we get hurt.   That's when God is testing us.

Next time something bad happens to us, I (or: St. Paul) want(s) us to think about the Israelites in the desert.  Remember that sometimes God allows bad things to happen to test us; to see if we really trust God.

So, when something bad happens to us, do you think that God wants us to whine and complain like the Israelites?  No, instead of whining and complaining, what do you think we could do?  We also could pray to God to help us.  Praying is a great way of showing God that we trust Him.

How about if we pray right now? Let's bow our heads:
"Dear God, help us to remember that when you allow bad things to happen that you may be testing us.  When that happens, help us, Lord, to remember to trust you and to pray.  In Jesus name.  Amen."

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God Loves Us All the Same
based on 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 , Luke 13:1-9
by Michelle

Bring a game like "Hi, Ho, Cherrio" that has a spinner, and might be familiar event to the youngest children who come forward. Ask if they know the game, if they do, have them explain it.

Have each one spin the spinner. Ask if the one who ended up with a better spin is a better person than the one who ended up with a worse spin. (NO) In life, sometimes not-so-good things happen to us, but that doesn't mean God doesn't love us. Sometimes, really-good things happen to us, but that doesn't mean God loves us more than other people.

God loves us all, and wants us to be saved. God will gather us in and love us when bad things happen, and God will rejoice along with us when good things happen. In the end, the only ones who lose are those who quit and walk away.

Next time you play a game like "Hi, Ho, Cherrio," remember that either winning or losing the game doesn't make you a good or bad person, playing is where the fun is. In life, Jesus takes care of the winning for all of us, so we can live in God's love, and share the joy of God's love with everyone who will receive it without quitting, and walking away.
 

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Telling the Gospel Story
a children's sermon based on Luke 13:1-9
anonymous

Do you ever get punished? Parents or teachers have different ways of punishing. I remember when I was in school, if you did something bad you often got a detention, you had to stay after school. Some teachers made you write out a page from a big dictionary as punishment. Or maybe, like Bart Simpson, you have to write over and over that you will not do, whatever it was that you did wrong. Parents have different punishments too. Sometimes you get grounded, so that you can't play with your friends after school. Maybe you get a time-out, or you have to go to bed early, or you don't get to watch TV or play video games for a few days. The way it works is, that if you do something wrong you have to pay the price, that's what punishment is about.

Jesus taught the people about punishment. He heard about some people who were in the temple giving sacrifices and Pilate, the governor of that area gave orders to kill them. He also talked about a tower that was being built that fell on some people killing 18 of them. People thought that it must have been punishment for those people to die that way. But Jesus said no. They weren't any worse than anyone else. But he said we should all turn to God and live our lives with him.

Then Jesus told them a story: "A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard. One day he went out to pick some figs, but he didn't find any. So he said to the gardener, ‘For three years I have come looking for figs on this tree, and I haven't found any yet. Chop it down! Why should it take up space?' "The gardener answered, ‘Master, leave it for another year. I'll dig around it and put some manure on it to make it grow. Maybe it will have figs on it next year. If it doesn't, you can have it cut down.'"

I think Jesus told that story to say that God doesn't just sit and punish people for bad things and reward them for good things that they do. God wants us to do good but even when we do bad things we don't just get cut down and thrown away. God's love is patient and waits and forgives and gives us more and more chances to change our lives and live the way Jesus taught us to live; lives of love and doing good for each other.

Let's fold our hands, bow our heads, and pray together: Loving God, we thank you that you don't just punish us for everything we do wrong, but you forgive. Help us to be like a tree that grows lots of good fruit so that we can show lots of love to everyone. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.