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Choose from the following Children's Sermons:

• God Makes Everything New, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
  by Rev. F. Schaefer   (see below)
   

• Amazing Grace, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
  by Rev. F. Schaefer   (see below)

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God Makes Everything New
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
by Rev. F. Schaefer

2 Corinthians 5:17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

Props: Bring a wooden doll or truck that is broken.

Good morning, my little friends. When I was a little girl (boy), sometimes my toys would break and I would take them to my parents crying because my toy was broken. Many times my parents would assure me that we could fix that, and they'd get out the glue, and very carefully fix the toy that was broken." (Do so, if you have the glue to fix the toy.) Ask, "Have you ever had a toy that broke? Could you fix it?

"You know, sometimes we get broken, too. Have you ever been broken? Do you know anyone who's ever had a broken arm, or a broken leg? How do we fix those? Do we use glue?

"Sometimes, we get broken inside, and we're sick, or very, very, sad, and our hearts are broken. How do we fix broken hearts and sick bodies?

"Just like we go to our parents with our broken toys, we can go to God with our broken hearts and bodies. God will fix them. They may not be fixed quite the same as they were before they were broken, but they will be fixed.

Isn't that good to know?  No matter what happens to us in life, no matter how many mistakes we make or how bad we sin, God says that we can always start over, that God will forgive us so that we can move on. 

I have another  question for you: when God fixes something, do you think you can see that it was broken before?  No. You're right.  When God fixes something it is like brand-new. That's why St. Paul can say that God makes everything new in us if we are broken.

But there is a part we have to do; we have to give our life to Jesus. And how do we do that?  Easy:  all we have to do is pray to God and ask him to forgive us and invite Jesus into our hearts.  We can do that right now:

Prayer: Dear God, please forgive all my sins;  I want Jesus to live in my heart.  Please help me to always do your will and please protect me from bad things. Thank you in Jesus name.  Amen.

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Amazing Grace
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
by Rev. F. Schaefer

Props: none

Good morning my little friends.  Today, I want to talk about grace.  What do you know about grace?  What is grace?  Grace is when someone forgives you something you have done wrong.  Grace is when someone shows you love even though you may have disappointed them.  Have you ever received grace?

In today's lesson we learn about God's grace.  And  God's grace is so unbelievably great that people are talking about God's "amazing grace."  In today's lesson, we hear a story of God's amazing grace from Jesus himself.

Retell the story of the prodigal son in your own words or read from a children's bible.

You see, that's a story of God's amazing grace. Sometimes God does something unusual, something really amazing, to save us or forgive us.  We may expect God to punish us and instead he just tells us that he loves us. And when that happens, we know that God loves us so much.

Let us pray: "Dear God, you are a God of amazing grace.   Thank you for saving us and thank you for watching over all of us every day.  Thank you for forgiving us always, and for giving us new life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen."