Children’s Sunday Sermon
June 5, 2016
Good morning boys and girls. Today I want us to think about some of the “shapes” that we can see in nature — shapes that we see in the world around us. Can you name some of those shapes? That’s right! Mountains sometimes have a triangular shape. With their high peaks that form a point at the top and their wide base at the bottom, they do look like a triangle.
How about a farmer’s field? With corn or other vegetables planted in neat rows the farmer’s field does form the shape of a square or a rectangle. How about when you look far out at the ocean or a big lake? There you will see a straight line that forms the horizon.
And now comes the best shape — the circle. That’s right! The sun and the moon and the earth all look like a circle. And so do many flowers and seeds and other wonderful creations of God. The circle is my favorite shape. And unlike the triangle or the square or the rectangle, or the straight line that all have distinct points, you can’t find a beginning or an ending point of a circle, can you? It just goes ‘round and ‘round and ‘round!
You know what boys and girls, our Christian community is kind of like a circle. Each one of us, joining hands together form a great big circle — and the inside of our faith circle is overflowing with God’s love for us. And each one of us in the circle is very important! If just one person in the circle lets go, we wouldn’t have a circle anymore, would we?
Let’s all get up right now and join hands and form our own circle to show God that we are thinking of him today. And don’t let go! Now this week, as you look up at the sun and at all of the wonderful flowers I want you to think of God’s Circle of Love made up of all of his children joining hands. And that’s a good reminder for us every day boys and girls to keep on practicing the Bible Lessons that we learn here each week!
Children’s Sunday Sermon
June 12, 2016
Good morning boys and girls. Today we read in our Bibles that Jesus said to a woman who was in trouble, “Your faith has saved you, go in peace.” What does it mean to have faith? What is faith? One of the meanings is the belief in something without being able to prove it. Another meaning is trust. Of course the most important meaning for us is our belief in God — our trust in God. And we can prove it!
For us members of the Christian family it can be easy to trust in God. We see signs of God everywhere. In the miracles of the plants and animals and all of the good things that God created on earth; in the love that we have for each other. But sometimes it’s not easy to have faith.
Boys and girls did you know that the radio was invented just a little more that 100 years ago? And television an even shorter time ago. And the radar that helps planes fly through the sky an even shorter time ago? And all of those inventions have one thing in common. They use invisible radio and other kinds of “waves” to transmit music and pictures and other important information through he air.
The remote control that you use everyday for your TV uses invisible “waves” to work. Amazing, isn’t it! Believe it or not these “waves” were first discovered by a teenager named Giuglielmo Marconi who believed that this invisible energy existed, and he wanted to prove it.
At one end of a table he placed something like a doorbell, and at the other a switch. He pressed the switch and electric sparks flew into the air and the bell rang at the other end of the table — and there were no wires connecting them! Amazing, isn’t it! Marconi had discovered that he could use invisible “waves” in the air to transmit things.
Boys and girls when you turn on the radio at your house you know that music will come out of the speakers. But when Marconi pressed the switch and expected the bell to ring he had faith that it would work. He believed that these invisible waves did exist. And because of his faith in his experiment he made the invention of so many wonderful things we have today possible.
And so it is with our faith. Through our faith in God all things are possible. We can’t see God exactly but we can see Him through His miracles — the miracle of the birds and the bees and the mountains and the moon and the stars. And the biggest miracle, the biggest proof of all is the miracle of you! Oh, one more thing boys and girls. God also created radio waves. Amazing, isn’t it!
Children’s Sunday Sermon
June 19, 2016
Good morning boys and girls. Will everyone here who is perfect please raise his or her hand. No one? Well of course no one here is perfect and no human being is perfect. We all have flaws and we all make mistakes, and hopefully, we learn by those mistakes. But even though we are not perfect, we are all special in the eyes of God. Each one of us has special talents and abilities that make us who we are. Some of you may be great spellers. Others good at math, or science, or sports, or art, or building things, or taking things apart. Believe it or not, some of the greatest inventors and scientists that ever lived were not very good at schoolwork!
I want to share an old story with you about two pots that were used to store water. One of the pots was smooth and shiny and never had any leaks. It was perfect. The other was rough looking and had small cracks that let out some of the water. After a big storm the pots would both fill up to the top with fresh water. And the next day, when the town’s people would come by to take a drink the perfect pot would always be full, while the rough one would be half empty. And the people would criticize the pot and laugh saying, “look at that cracked pot. It can’t even do it’s job holding our water. Maybe we should get a new pot to replace it.” But soon, people started paying more attention to the cracked pot. They noticed how beautiful it was becoming. Now everyone forgot about the cracks in the rough pot and they liked it best.
Did you figure it out boys and girls? That’s right! The cracked pot leaked the life-giving water and many beautiful flowers began to grow around it. And as the flowers began to bloom, beautiful butterflies and birds appeared. And all of this created a beautiful garden full of life around that old pot. And the perfect pot sat nearby on a dry plot of dirt! So now you see boys and girls that even cracked-pots can be special.
That’s a nice story that reminds us that we should look for the special talents and abilities in all of our brothers and sisters. You might not notice at first. But if you open up your eyes and your ears and especially your heart, soon you will see the things that make them special!
Children’s Sunday Sermon
June 26, 2016
Good morning boys and girls. Just like we do every Sunday today we will talk and think about God. Today we will talk and think about the Lessons that Jesus has taught in the best recipe book ever — our Bibles. But let me ask you boys and girls: “Is today the only day of the week that we need to be thinking about these things?” Of course it isn’t boys and girls.
Not just on Sunday, but everyday we should be thinking about our Bible Lessons. And not just everyday, but every hour we should be doing our “homework” — we should always be practicing the Lessons that Jesus has taught us. You see boys and girls these are not Lessons to be learned and then to be forgotten. No! These are Lessons that we must be practicing every day of our lives! And that goes for children and adults too!
Suppose you had a spelling or math test this week. What would you do? That’s right, you would study your lessons at school, and you would do your homework assignments later that day. You would practice your spelling words or your arithmetic until you got it right. And then, hopefully, you would do well the next day when you took your exam. But it wouldn’t end there, boys and girls would it? No of course not. The words that you learned to spell will be used during your entire life — many of them every day. And you would need to be able to add and subtract and multiply and divide numbers every single day. At school or at work or at the grocery store or the gas station these are all things that you would need to know in order to live well. And the same is true with your Bible Lessons. You come here each Sunday and study, and then during the week you must practice, practice, practice the things that you have learned. But for all of us, the big test won’t come next week boys and girls. The big test won’t come until each of us takes his or her place in the Kingdom of heaven just as God has promised. And then God will tell us if we passed our test. God will decide if we not only learned His Lessons, but also lived His Lessons here on earth. So now you see boys and girls we have a lot of work to do. Let’s all get busy this week and practice, practice, practice!
