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Choose from the following children's sermons:

• Father Abraham Has Many Kids, Romans 4:13-25 (& Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16)
  by Rev. Randy Quinn    (see below)
   

• God Blesses us to Bless Others  Genesis 17, by Frank Schaefer (see below)
   

• 2) How Can I Know You? Mark 8:31-38, by Frank Schaefer   (see below)

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Father Abraham Has Many Kids
Romans 4:13-25 (& Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16)
by Rev. Randy Quinn

How many of you know the song, “Father Abraham”? (My guess is that most of the children know it.). How does it go? I’ll let them sing a part of it with my help.

Father Abraham had many kids, many kids had Father Abraham.

I am one of them and so are you, so let’s all praise the Lord.

Wait a minute. What does that mean? Who is Father Abraham and how are we his children? (This is one I don’t think they’ll know.)

Abraham lived a long, long, long, long time ago. He was born before your moms and dads and grandparents. In fact, Abraham died a long time before Jesus was born! We’ll hear some of his story in a few minutes, so I want you to listen carefully.

One thing you’ll hear is that God promised Abraham he would have so many children that his family would have more people in it than there were stars in the sky! Do you have any idea how many that is? I don’t, either. I just know it’s more than I can count.

Some of us know that George Washington is sometimes called “the father of our nation.” Well, God said Abraham would be like a father to many nations!

What made Abraham special was his trust in God. He believed the promises God made. And whoever believes in the promises of God is acting like Abraham – and that makes us his children. Well, we’re his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren (with a whole bunch more “greats” in there)! But our faith in God makes us part of his family.

Let’s pray:

God: like Abraham, we trust your promises. We believe what you say. We pray that you would bless us like you did our ancestor Abraham. But more importantly, we pray that you will help us treat others as our brothers and sisters – our cousins – because of your love that you promised to Father Abraham. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

 

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God Blesses us to Bless Others
by Frank Schaefer
Props: a game set for two or more people, such as a badminton set (you can pick up a cheap basic kit in some dollar stores), two walkie-talkies, etc. This kids' talk uses the badminton set.

Illustration Outline: at the beginning of the time with the young church, pick out an attentive child and give him/her a gift (the badminton set).    Then ask him or her what s/he will do with the gift.  Steer the ensuing conversation to bring out that the gift is really only a blessing if it is shared with someone else.  If it is shared two people can have a lot of fun with it; if not, the gift becomes useless.

So it is with the gifts that God gives to us.  They only become fully realized blessings when we share them with others.
Read a portion or all of the Genesis Scripture lesson.

You know, Abraham is actually our father as well; Abraham's descendants (children and children's children) became the nation of Israel; and Christianity came out of Israel--in fact, as Christians we are a part of the spiritual people of Israel.

Notice how because God blessed Abraham and Sarah, all of us are blessed through him.

What are some of the ways in which God has blessed us?  (More than enough food, stuff to wear, toys, friends, gifts and talents...)  And how can we turn around and bless others with what God has given us?  (Share our resources, like food, money, and toys, use our spiritual gifts of patience, kindness, peace, joy to bring to others and bless them).

Let us pray:  "Dear God, we thank you for the many gifts we have received from you.  Help us, Lord, to understand this lesson that you bless us so that we can bless others around us. Amen."

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How Can I Know You?
a children's sermon based on Mark 8:31-38
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

props: none

Open with a bunch of questions to the kids concerning who they are and how people know them:

• Who are you? What kind of person are you? What makes you you?

• Do people know who you are?  Do people know you the right way?  Or do some people just think they know you?

• Do you think you know who I am as a person?

There are a lot of different things that make up the "who" of a person.  What kind of things can you know about a person:

• looks -- hair / eye / skin color, style of hair, clothing,

• personality -- adventurous, cautious, inquisitive, sharing, happy, funny, thoughtful, sensitive....

• how people live in community -- big or small families, dorm room, religious community, military, etc.

• what people do -- job, hobbies, volunteer work, projects, community service, etc.

What are some of the things you want people to know about you? e.g. hobby, favorite color / food, what kinds of friends you have, etc.

Are there things that you don't want people to know about you?  (I won't ask what things =)

In today's bible lesson, Jesus asked his disciples: "who do you think I am?"  and spending a lot of time with Jesus, Peter knew.  And so he answered: "you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God."

Just imagine Jesus would walk into our sanctuary this morning and ask us the same question today: "who do you think I am?"  What would we say? What would you say?

What do we know about Jesus?  How do we know things about Jesus?

The thing is, if you want to really know a person you must spend a lot of time with the person.  And you have to learn things about the person.

If we really want to know who Jesus is, then we need to spend some time with him.  Spending time with Jesus is also called prayer.

And we need to spend time learning about Jesus life and personality.   We can do that best by paying attention in Sunday School when our teachers talk about Jesus, and of course, by reading the bible which have a lot of stories about what Jesus did and what he taught.

Prayer: "Dear Lord Jesus, we want to know you better.  Help us to pay attention in church and in our bible readings so that when you ask us one day: "who do you think I am?" we can answer from the bottom of our hearts: "you are the Christ--son of the Living God."  Amen."