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Choose from the following Children's Sermons:

1) Loosing Stuff for Jesus?  John 4:5-42, by Rev. Randy Quinn (see below)

2)  God Blesses us to Bless Others,  Genesis 12:1&4a by Rev. Frank Schaefer
 (scroll down)

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Loosing Stuff for Jesus?
a children's sermon based on John 4:5-42
By Rev. Randy Quinn

Have you ever forgotten where you put your shoes or your coat or a favorite toy? (Of course they have!)

How do you find it? (Some look from room to room, others ask if anyone has seen it, still others try to remember where they were when they last saw it.)

If your shoes or your coat or your toy is so important, why do you leave it someplace other than where it belongs? (Because something more important has come up – either a chance to do something more fun or your mom or dad has called you to eat or a friend comes to visit.)

In our Bible story today, a woman goes to get some water. In those days, you couldn’t go into the kitchen and turn on the faucet. She had to go outside with a bucket and draw water from a well.

But when she gets to the well, Jesus is there! She gets so excited that she leaves her bucket and runs around telling her friends about Jesus!

I don’t know if she’ll ever remember where she left the bucket, but she doesn’t seem to care anymore.

People leave things at the church all the time. A coat. A pair of glasses. We usually put them in the “lost and found” box. Do you know what I found in that box this week? A bottle of water.

I don’t know if the person was so excited about meeting Jesus here that they left it, but I don’t think they’re going to remember where they left it.

I hope you get excited about meeting Jesus here, and I hope you’ll tell your friends all about him so they can come and learn about him, too.

Let’s pray:

God, the woman at the well didn’t know you very well – she just met you. But she knew that you loved her and she wanted to share that love with other people. Even if we don’t know you very well, help us to share your love, too. Amen.
 

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Living Water in our Heart
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Props:  a dried up plant (or at least one that has some brown leaves)
and a pitcher of water.

Welcome my little friends.  Today, I brought this plant with me.  Do you think that it is a healthy plant?  No, you're right, this plant is in a pretty poor state.  What do you think it needs?  Yes, water!

You know, today's bible lessons are about water, too.  In the first lesson, we read about the people of Israel wandering in the desert.  As you know, the desert is a pretty hot place; and what happens when you're trapped where it's hot?  That's right, you get thirsty.  Well, the people of Israel got thirsty, and after a while they started to complain to Moses, their leader.

And God heard their concerns and gave them some water out of a rock.  It's an amazing story.  God provided his people with what they needed, even though they were complaining and quarreling.

If this plant could talk, it probably would be complaining too.  That's why I brought some water with me.  Who wants to give this poor thirsty plant some water?   (Let a child volunteer and water the plant).

This kind of reminds me of our gospel lesson today in which Jesus says to the woman at the well: "I will give you living water."  The kind of water Jesus gives us is not like this water, but it is just as refreshing and nourishing.

Jesus wants to water our heart--our inside--so that we can be happy and have peace in our lives.  To have peace and joy in our hearts, I think, is just as important than having fresh water nourish and replenish us.  Can you picture Jesus taking your heart and water it?

Let's bow our heads for a little prayer: "Dear God, we thank you for giving us water.  Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us living water--for giving us joy and peace inside, even when we have to face problems. Amen. "