Monthly Archives: February 2006

Children's Sermon

Following the Way

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Materials
You’ll need three or four blindfolds and several objects to set up a small obstacle course.

Preparation
Ask one or two adult assistants to help you set up the course. Alternatively, blindfold everyone and lead them about the church. As you begin your message, have your assistants set up an obstacle course in front of the area where the children sit.

Activity
1. Has anyone here ever gone through an obstacle course? Let children respond. We’ve set up a little obstacle course here today. Describe the course you’ve set up.
2. Could I have three or four volunteers to try my obstacle course? Choose three or four children. Let them begin the course and then stop them.
3. Oh, I forgot to tell you. You have to do this obstacle course blindfolded. But don’t worry, I’ll lead you.
4. Have the volunteers hold hands. Then lead them through the obstacle course.
5. Other children may call out directions or encouragement.
6. When children have completed the course, remove their blindfolds and have them sit down.
7. Congratulations! Lead children in applause for volunteers.

Discussion
1. What would have happened if the blindfolded volunteers had to go through the obstacle course without a leader?
2. Without a leader, they might have stumbled and fallen.
3. The Bible says Jesus is the way. He shows us and guides us to God. He is the only way to reach God. Without him we are lost forever, stumbling in the dark.

Scripture Text
John 14:5-14


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Food for Thought

Sacrifice

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Sacrifice yourself for once for God’s will. It will not be in vain. Sacrifice yourself for truth, for justice. Sacrifice yourself for once against all human sense for something that is truly good. Sacrifice yourself for Christ in all things, and seek the kingdom of God. There is great strength in this- Stand for something: then your joy will be unbroken and lasting.

C. F. Blumhardt

Object Lessons

Jesus is the Key

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keys.jpg
Object
Lots of different kinds and sizes and shapes of keys: old-fashioned keys, keys on quirky key rings, a two-footlong honorary key (as “a key to the city”), hotel keys (both the traditional kind and the plastic card kind with the electronic code), etc. Also have a lock which can be opened by one of the keys.

Object Lesson
Each of these keys suggests an appealing quality. This key lets you into an ornate hotel room…this old key is itself ornate…this one hangs on a key ring you could never lose…this one promises shelter…this one is a ticket to a prestigious vehicle. (Explain the fantastic places and opportunities that each key offers.)
Then explain that only the one key will fit this lock.

Application
Some people judge their lives by the keys they possess. An education is the key to a good job, a good job is a key to power and wealth, a car key to a new sports key shows you are going places, a key to a large house reveals security and comfort.

But according to scriptures there is only one destination that is important and one key that will open that destination to you. That final destination determines where you will spend your eternity and the only key to open the way to heaven is Jesus Christ.

Some say there are many different ways to God, and many ways to experience God. There are many ways to get to different places, but if your destination is God, there is only ONE WAY! This is what Jesus meant when be said, “I am the way.”

He made claims about himself that no other leader has made. Jesus didn’t say he pointed to the way, or that he knew the way, or even that he could teach the way. He said he is “the way.”

Scripture
John 14:5-14

 

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Food for Thought

Bridges to Happiness

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bridge.jpg

Only the person who never gives up in life, who persists with his wish to find and fulfill the promise of himself, makes this truly self-liberating discovery: those places that he once mistook as being impassible barriers to his happiness
become as bridges to the same, but only if he learns to welcome them as part of his journey.

Guy Finley

Humor

He’s Right

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scoreboard.jpgFour ministers had a series of theological arguments, and three were always in accord against the fourth.

One day, the odd pastor out, after the usual “3 to 1, majority rules” statement that signified that he had lost again, decided to appeal to a higher authority.

“Oh, Lord!” he cried. “I know in my heart that I am right and they are wrong! Please give me a sign to prove it to them!”

It was a beautiful, sunny day. As soon as the minister finished his prayer, a storm cloud moved across the sky above the four. It rumbled once and dissolved.

“A sign from God! See, I’m right, I knew it!”

But the other three disagreed, pointing out that storm clouds form on hot days.

So the pastor prayed again: “Oh, God, I need a bigger sign to show that I am right and they are wrong. So please, Lord, a bigger sign!”

This time four storm clouds appeared, rushed toward each other to form one big cloud, and a bolt of lightning slammed into a tree on a nearby hill.

“I told you I was right!” cried the minister, but his friends insisted that nothing had happened that could not be explained by natural causes.

The Pastor was getting ready to ask for a *very big* sign, but just as he said, “Oh God…,” the sky turned pitch black, the earth shook, and a deep, booming voice intoned, “HEEEEEEEE’S RIIIIIIIGHT!”

The minister put his hands on his hips, turned to the other three, and said, “Well?!”

“So,” shrugged one of the other pastors, “now it’s 3 to 2.”

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Food for Thought

Power of a Decision

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There is something about life that, little by little, makes us forget all that is good. This can happen to anyone…and so we must look for a cure against it. Praise be that such a cure exists: the act of quietly making a decision. A decision stirs the mind from the slumber of monotony. A decision breaks the magic spell of custom and the long row of weary thoughts. A decision will bring blessings upon even the weakest beginning. A decision is an awakening to the eternal.

Soren Kierkegaard

Food for Thought

Is It Right

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On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?”
Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?”
And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?”
But Conscience asks the question, “Is it right?”
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Object Lessons

Jesus is the way

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compass.jpgMaterials
A compass

Learning Activity
1. As a small game, stand in the center of the room and let students arrange themselves in lines next to you to form a cross “+”.
2. Designate one line of the cross as “North.”
3. Designate the remaining three lines the other directions of the compass (East, etc)
4. Then using the compass, let youth / children rotate themselves so that the correct line is facing north. Ask them to freeze.
5. Move to another place in the room.
6. On your signal they are to reform the compass at the new location you have selected, pointing themselves in the correct directions of the compass. (To make it more difficult, stand in a doorway, next to a wall, squat under a table, etc.)
7. First line of the cross to get in the correct position wins, making sure they are all facing their respective directions of the compass.

Application
Ask the children to point to north at a given signal. Check who is right with the compass. Then try to confuse the youngsters by turning round, going to a corner or standing on a chair and asking where north is from those positions.

Whatever position we are in, a compass will direct us accurately to north.
And whereever we are, Jesus points us toward God.

Scripture Text
John 14:5-14

 

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
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Food for Thought

Every Human Heart

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The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. Even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained; and even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil. It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.

Source: The Gulag Archipelago
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn