Children's Sermon

Five Finger Prayer

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  1. hand.jpgYour thumb is nearest to you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is, as C.S. Lewis once said, a “sweet duty.”
  2. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.
  3. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president, leaders in business and industry, and administrators. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion. They need God’s guidance.
  4. The fourth finger is our ring finger. Surprising to many is fact that this is our weakest finger; as any piano teacher will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.
  5. And lastly comes our little finger; the smallest finger of all. Which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the Bible says, “The least shall be the greatest among you.” Your pinky should remind you to pray for yourself.

By the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively.


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Humor

Letter from Camp

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Dear Mom & Dad:

We are having a great time here at Lake Typhoid. Scoutmaster Webb is making us all write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and worried. We are OK. Only 1 of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Chad when it happened. Oh yes, please call Chad’s mother and tell her he is OK. He can’t write because of the cast. I got to ride in one of the search & rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would have found him in the dark if it hadn’t been for the lightning. Scoutmaster Webb got mad at Chad for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Chad said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn’t hear him. Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas can will blow up? The wet wood still didn’t burn, but one of our tents did. Also some of our clothes. John is going to look weird until his hair grows back. We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Webb gets the car fixed. It wasn’t his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked OK when we left. Scoutmaster Webb said that a car that old you have to expect something to break down; that’s probably why he can’t get insurance on it. We think it’s a neat car. He doesn’t care if we get it dirty; and if it’s hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the tailgate. It gets pretty hot with 10 people in a car. He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrolman stopped and talked to us. Scoutmaster Webb is a neat guy. Don’t worry, he is a good driver. In fact, he is teaching Terry how to drive. But he only lets him drive on the mountain roads where there isn’t any traffic. All we ever see up there are logging trucks. This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out in the lake. Scoutmaster Webb wouldn’t let me because I can’t swim and Chad was afraid he would sink because of his cast, so he let us take the canoe across the lake. It was great. You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood. Scoutmaster Webb isn’t crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn’t even get mad about the life jackets. He has to spend a lot of time working on the car so we are trying not to cause him any trouble. Guess what? We have all passed our first aid merit badges. When Dave dove in the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works. Also Wade and I threw up. Scoutmaster Webb said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken. I have to go
now. We are going into town to mail our letters and buy bullets. Don’t worry about anything. We are fine.

Love,
Cole

P.S. How long has it been since I had a tetanus shot?

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Teaching Illustrations

The Window

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Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation. And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside. The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline
could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band, he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window.

The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it for himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.

It faced a blank wall.

The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

Epilogue
There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled. If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can’t buy.

 


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Humor

Where is God?

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In a certain suburban neighborhood, there were two brothers, 8 and 10 years old, who were exceedingly mischievous. Whenever something went wrong in the neighborhood, it turned out they had a hand in it.

Their parents were at their wits’ end trying to control them. Hearing about a minister nearby who worked with delinquent boys, the mother suggested to the father that they ask the minister to talk with the boys. The father agreed.

The mother went to the minister and made her request. He agreed, but said he wanted to see the younger boy first and alone. So the mother sent him to the minister. The minister sat the boy down on the other side of his huge, impressive desk. For about five minutes they just sat and stared at each other. To impress upon them that God was everywhere and saw everything they were doing, the minister pointed his forefinger at the boy and asked, “Where is God?” The boy looked under the desk, in the corners of the room, all around, but said nothing.

Again, louder, the minister pointed at the boy and asked, “Where is God?” Again the boy looked all around but said nothing. A third time, in a louder, firmer voice, the minister leaned far across the desk and put his forefinger almost to the boy’s nose, and asked “Where is God?” The boy panicked and ran all the way home.

Finding his older brother, he dragged him upstairs to their room and into the closet, where they usually plotted their mischief. He finally said, “We are in B-I-I-I-I-G trouble now!” The older boy asked, “What do you mean, B-I-I-I-I-G trouble?” His brother replied, “God is missing and they think we did it.”

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Food for Thought

Freedom and Security

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After the Western ideal of unlimited freedom, after the Marxist concept of freedom as acceptance of the yoke of necessity—here is the true Christian definition of freedom. Freedom is self-restriction! Restriction of the self for the sake of others!

-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Camps

Sealed Orders

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Try this idea, the next time you have a youth camp or overnight retreat

  1. Before breakfast, require each youth to find a quiet place where they can be alone outside with their Bible.
  2. For the “Sealed Orders”, type up personal devotions for each morning and give youth a one page sealed personal devotion.
  3. Youth must read the scripture passage, the text on the paper and then answer the open ended questions in the devotion. They get 30 minutes and they must use this entire time to have their devotion and listed to God.
  4. After breakfast and clean up they come together in pre-defined small groups with a leader and talk about their devotions (all devotions are the same), this set time is also 30 minutes.
Resource Reviews

Decision Making

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spiritual_leadership.jpgDecision making…

  1. “…must be based on sound premises.” (83)
  2. “Procrastination and vacillation are fatal to leadership. A sincere though faulty decision is better than no decision. Indeed the latter is really a decision, and often a wrong one. It is a decision that the status quo is acceptable.” (85)
  3. The leader may be “obliged either to greatly modify or lay aside projects which were sound and helpful but met with determined opposition, and so tended to create greater evils than those which might have been removed or mitigated by the changes in question. Later on, in answer to patient continuance in prayer, many of such projects..[may be] given effect to.” (100)
  4. “No small dissident or reactionary element should be allowed to determine the policy of a group, when the concensus of the spiritual leaders is in the opposite direction.” (168)
  5. “Spiritual ends can be achieved only by spiritual men who employ spiritual methods” (40)
  6. “A leader must be able to invision the end result of the policies or methods he advocates. Responsible leadership always looks ahead to see how policies proposed will affect not only present, but suceeding generations.”(78)
  7. He must never be swayed by considerations of personal reward. (56)

Source: J. Oswald Sanders “Spiritual Leadership”


MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

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Icebreakers

One Word

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Materials
None

Icebreaker Description
In this icebreaker / crowdbreaker, youth will communicate things about themselves using single words..

Preparation
Prepare a list of questions or topics for discussion. Some examples:

  • a favorite food
  • a favorite sports team
  • a favorite song
  • a dream
  • a goal
  • a fear
  • a dream
  • a recent accomplishment
  • a recently solved problem
  • a strength
  • a weakness

ETC.

Icebreaker Activity

  1. Form pairs.
  2. Have pairs sit on the floor and talk to each other by speaking one-word messages back and forth.
  3. Suggest one of the above topics for their one-word-at-a-time discussions.
  4. Optional: Change pairs and repeat the process.

Optional Debrief

  • What does this activity tell you about communication?
  • How did you communicate without words?
  • Read John 1:1-9. How did God communicate to us through Jesus Christ?

Conclusion
A single work can communicate a lot. A lifestyle can communicate even more. Jesus is the Word become flesh. God communicates to us through the scriptures, but Christ is God with us, the living word.

Application
What words might people use to describe your life?
What can you do this week to become more like Christ, to reveal God to the world more clearly?

Scripture
John 1:1-9

Get Icebreakers ebookIcebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!

Creative Youth ideas: 1700+ Resources for youth leaders, pastors, ministers to help plan camps, retreats, and meetings using games, illustrations, Children's Worship, Bible Studies, object lessons, sermons, creative ideas,creative activities