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Choose from the following Children's Sermons:

• Sharing Gifts Makes God Smile
  by Rev. Randy Quinn
  God's Protection, Matthew 2:13-23, by Rev. Frank Schaefer

• God's Real Gift to us => LOVE, by Rev. Frank Schaefer

• The Colors of the Season spell "Christmas"
  a children's sermon seed, anonymous

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Sharing Gifts Makes God Smile
by Rev. Randy Quinn

Did you have a good Christmas?

What was the best part of it?  (I suspect it will be the presents, though I am occasionally surprised by the responses I've heard children give to this question.)

Tell me something, what do you remember about Christmas -- A YEAR AGO?  What was your favorite part of THAT Christmas?  (Most of them won't remember any details . . . except maybe a special present they received.)

You know, I can't remember much about most Christmas Days, and I've seen a lot of them.

But God remembers them.

God remembers every good thing that has ever happened to us, and God remembers every time we've cried about something, too.  Every single time.

That's why Christmas is so special to God.

It's a day filled with lots of memories of people smiling and laughing and enjoying gifts.

Maybe we should make EVERY day that way for God.

What do you think?  Let's try and make God happy every day so God has more happy memories to remember.

Let's pray:

God, thank you for loving us.  Thank you for giving us gifts.  Thank you for giving us Jesus.  Help us to find ways to smile and share your love this year, because we want to make you as happy as you've made us.  Amen.

 

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God's Protection
a children's sermon based on Matthew 2:13-23
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Good morning, my little friends, today's gospel reading is fascinating.  It's about God's protection.  Who remembers what happened on Christmas?  Baby Jesus was born? Where? In a barn.  And the shepherds came and, later, the wise men came to look for him. They came from far away and they visited with the king of Israel to find out where they might find the new-born king. Of course, when king Herod heard about a new born king, he became nervous and he tried to do harm to Jesus.

Today the story continues. God sent an angel to Joseph--Jesus' father.  The angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said: you must leave to another country for king Herod is looking for Jesus to do him harm.

Just imagine you'd have a dream in which an angel tells you something.  Would you have done what the angel said in the dream?  You know, I have had dreams before where I heard God's voice and I did what God told me and it turned out to be the right thing to do.  Sometimes God gives us dreams to direct our steps.

Well, Joseph was a devout believer and he was obedient to God's word for him.  He told Mary about the dream and the two took Jesus and escaped to Egypt-just in time because Herod's soldiers were already coming to Bethlehem to look for the Jesus child.

The lesson we can learn here is that God protects his children.  That is good to know isn't it?  And sometimes God goes to incredible length to warn us and to guide us.  So whenever you get an impression that God is talking to you either through a still voice in your heart, or through a dream, or perhaps through someone else and it seems to be a good thing to do, do it.  It may just be God's way of protecting you.

Let's pray: "Thank you God for loving us so much. Thank you for protecting Jesus and thank you for protecting us too.  Help us to always listen to your voice. Amen."

 

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God's Real Gift to us => LOVE
a children's sermon  for the first Sunday after Christmas
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Props: if you feel comfortable sharing, bring in a gift you received for Christmas.  Get your music people to accompany the singing of "Jesus Loves me this I know."

Greetings my little friends, today I would really like to find out what you all got for Christmas.  What is your favorite gift?  Who'd like to share?

How did it feel when you opened one of your presents and found your favorite toy?    Really good? Excitement? Joy? Why do you think gifts make us feel so good?

If you brought a gift for "show and tell" share it with them and what it means to you.

Maybe because they surprise us?  Maybe because they tell us that someone thought of us, that someone loves us?

Do know why we get gifts on Christmas in the first place?  To imitate Jesus.    Because Jesus gave us a very, very big present; You all know this: Jesus came down from heaven and he was born as a baby, as a human person and later he showed us a new way to God.

Jesus gave the greatest gift anybody could ever give: he gave himself. And do you know what that gift of Jesus means to us?  It means that Jesus loves us very much.

Jesus loves you and he loves me. We know it's true for sure, because the bible tells us that he was born in a stable in Bethlehem--and that's what we celebrate in this season of Christmas.

I'd like to sing a song with you that you all know--I think.  It's not a Christmas carol, but it says exactly what I have been trying to tell you just now--that Jesus loves us.

Let us sing (you may invite the entire congregation) "Jesus Loves me this I know."
 

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The Colors of the Season spell "Christmas"
a children's sermon seed for the Christmas season
anonymous

White, gold, and silver are the colors for the Christmas season in the church's year. Why are the church's colors different from those our culture associates with the season--red and green? What significance do these colors have in light of the Christmas story?

Direct the children's attention to the white, gold, and silver in the vestments and the cloth hangings in the church. Hand out ribbons of these colors to be worn throughout the season.