___________________________________________________

Choose from the following Children's Sermons:

• Are you ready?
  a children's sermon seed based on Luke 12:32-48
  anonymous 

• Kingdom Suitcase
  a children's sermon seed based on Luke 12:32-48
  Cindy in MD 

• Where Your Treasure is... Luke 12:32-40
  by Rev. Frank Schaefer 

___________________________________________________
 

Are you ready?
a children's sermon seed based on Luke 12:32-48
anonymous

Welcome the children. Have a Koosh ball in your hands, and toss it without warning to one of the children. If it is caught, praise the child, saying, "You were ready for that, weren't you?" If it is not caught, reassure the child by saying, "That wasn't really fair, because I didn't tell you to get ready. Are you ready now?" Take the ball again and toss it to the child. Give each child a chance to catch the ball.

"Jesus wants us always to be ready for him to come again. That doesn't mean we have to look up into the sky and watch for him, like we watch to catch the ball. Instead, it means that whatever we're doing, we do it remembering that Jesus is standing right there with us, and that when he comes at the end of the world, we'll be ready to receive all that he has to give."

---

Kingdom Suitcase
a children's sermon seed based on Luke 12:32-48
Cindy in MD

So what would our "kingdom suitcase" look like? What would we choose to have "packed" and ready? Usually our lay readers do children's messages, but I get to do them this week, so think I'll bring in some examples - a plastic grocery bag, a wallet, a tote bag with my knitting, a cooler - nested like the Russian dolls - and let them reject them all until we get to just our hands.

This is what God in Jesus asks of us - that we use our hands (and feet, and hearts and minds) in such a way that we ourselves are the kingdom suitcase, if we have lived the kingdom values, walked the Jesus Way, even in advance of the knock on the door. The only thing we get to take with us is that relationship, if we have chosen to live within its values - kingdom values.

---

 

Where Your Treasure is...
A children's sermon based on Luke 12:32-40
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Props: a "treasure" box filled with some jewelry, coins, or other objects that symbolize value.

Good morning boys and girls. Today, I brought a little treasure box from home. What do you think is in this box? Do any of you have a treasure box? I have...(show them the content and explain)...in my treasure box. What do you have in your treasure box / or what would you put in your treasure box if you had one?

Now, we can all agree that whatever we put in a treasure box is worth a lot to us. I have another question for you: given the many valuable things in my box where do you suppose I should keep it? I must find a safe place to put it or else I may lose it, or someone might take it. What do you think? Should I hide it under my bed? Or what about digging a hole in my backyard and burying it there? Or how about locking it in a closet or in a cabinet?

There are lots of places we can hide a treasure box. But even if I could find the best hiding place for my treasure box, I will still lose it one day. That's because I will leave this earth and go to heaven one day and I cannot take anything like this with me.

Jesus once said: "where our treasure is there will our heart be also." I think that means that we should always remember that we can touch, whether it be money, our favorite toys, things to wear, or beautiful things, are not that important. What is more important are the things that we can take with us to heaven; the things that we cannot touch, like loving God, our family, and our neighbors, helping others, and living good lives. For those things, Jesus says we will get treasures in heaven. So by doing all these things we can actually collect treasures in heaven--and that is the safest place to keep anything.

Let us bow our heads and pray: "Dear God, please help us to remember that all the flashy and beautiful things we can see and touch are only with us for a little while. Teach us how to collect treasures in heaven, by doing good things and living good lives. Amen."