Multiplied

Description of the Children's Sermon Idea
Jesus took a small boys lunch and fed a BIG crowd of 5000 people. Jesus can take whatever we give him, even if it is small, and make a BIG difference in the lives of others.

Scripture Text for the Children's Sermon
Matthew 14:13-21; 26:26-30

Materials for the Children's Sermon

• A large deep basket, filled with loose cloth/ towels. A picnic basket with a cover flap on each side is ideal. You can put the small item in one side and open the other side to remove the larger items. (A large box could also be used) Make sure your basket or container is large enough to hold items use you choose for this activity, yet hide them from view.
• Locate several objects of which you can find both a small and large size examples that look alike (such as a small spoon and a matching large one). If your class is small, you might consider collected one object for each student. Possibilities are: spoon, fork, plate, knife, napkins, bags of potato chips, cups, salt and pepper placed in different size ziplock bags, etc. Only be sure that they look alike. Food related items might be best in theme with a picnic idea, but you can also use paper clips, screw drivers, etc. Include among the items a small bread roll and a similar shaped large loaf bread. As well as 2 small fish and 2 large fish
• 50 of any object - marbles work great!

The Children's Sermon Message - What to do and say:

• If you have chosen an object for each child, allow each to choose one object as they enter the room.
• "In today's lesson, Jesus went on a picnic. While on the picnic he did something very special. He took a boys lunch, and multiplied it to feed 5000 people. Let me show you an example of what Jesus did."
• "I'll take this small spoon and put it in this basket." [Wait a few seconds then take out the large spoon.]
• "Here's a small bag of chips." [Place it in the basket and pull out a large bag of chips.]
• "One boy brought Jesus his lunch. And Jesus made his little lunch so big that 5000 people could eat and there were still leftovers. [Put in the small bread loaf and take out the Big loaf. Give everyone a slice of bread. Then put in the two small fish and take out the two large fish."
• "But Jesus didn't just feed a small class of students... and the little boys lunch didn't just become a little bigger. The little boy's lunch fed 5000 people! 5000 is a lot of people. [Show them the large loaf and 2 fishes...]
• Pull out the small loaf and the two small fishes again and ask, "How many people do you think this could feed?"
• "Probably not very many.. And these were people of all ages... Moms and Dads too!"
• [Show them the 50 objects... in a basket... then help them image what 100 of them would look like.. (would they cover the whole floor of the room?]
• "Jesus fed 5000. Jesus can take anything you give to him and do big things with it!"