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Choose from the following Children's Sermons:

• I Want to be the One,  Luke 17:11-19
  by Rev. Frank Schaefer
   

• Traditions, 2 Timothy 2:8-15
  by Rev. Frank Schaefer

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I Want to be the One
a children's sermon based on Luke 17:11-19
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Good morning, my little friends, today I would like to tell you a story--true story--that happened in Jesus' ministry.  He and his disciples were traveling from town to town. While they there were walking through a small town, one day, a number of unclean people shouted something to Jesus.

They were not unclean because they forgot to wash their hands, but rather, they had a contagious skin disease.  Because of the disease they had to stay clear of people. People back then didn't have the medicine we have today to heal people with skin diseases.

So, these ten people stood back and from a distance they asked Jesus if he could not heal them, because they had probably heard that Jesus healed many people from all kinds of diseases.

What do you think Jesus said?  Did he make them heal?  You bet! Jesus always had compassion on those who suffered and healed those who asked him.

What do you think? Did the ten lepers get healed from their skin disease?  Yes, all ten got healed.  And then they went on their way to show themselves to the priest-doctor, so they could be declared healthy again.

Do you want to hear something sad? Only one out of the ten that got healed went back to Jesus to thank him for what he had done for him--only one.  If you had been one of the ten people that Jesus healed, would you have gone back to thank him?  I bet you would.

You know, Jesus was a little sad that the other nine did not come back to thank him.  And I have a feeling that sometimes we don't say thank you to God when we really should.  We have so much to be thankful for.  What are some of the things?  (let the kids talk)

Let us never be like the nine lepers who never came back to say thank you.  Let us always, every day, remember to give thanks to God.  Let's do it right now:

"Dear God we thank you from the bottom of our heart for the many blessings in our lives; for this church, for our homes, for our family and friends, for a warm bed at night and enough to eat every day, we say: thank you!!  Let us never forget to say thanks for the blessings you give us each new day. Amen"

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Traditions
a kids' talk based on 2Timothy 2:8-15
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Objective: To reinforce the importance of traditions in everyday life and in the church.  Faith traditions, like hymns, prayers, doctrine are being passed from one generation to the next (e.g. apostle Paul to Timothy)

Props:  Prepare little papers with a bed-time prayer on it and roll them into little scrolls (use a piece of yarn to hold in place).

Sample Prayer (Adapted from a prayer by D. Bonhoeffer):

Dear Lord,
I thank you for the day you gave me.
Thank you for watching over me.
Forgive all the wrong I have done today;
and help me to forgive all who have done wrong to me.
Take good care of my family and all my loved ones.
Let me sleep in peace in your tender care. Amen.
 

Greetings my little friends, today I would like to talk about "traditions."  We all have traditions.  There are very good traditions and some are not quite so good.  Some of our good traditions are:

• Celebrating birthday with cake and candles
• Going to church on Sundays
• Gifts under the Christmas tree
• Saying grace before dinner
• Bed-time Prayers

In my family we had our own traditions, like story time most every night; we ate fish on Fridays and we watched Star Trek every Saturday.

Do any of you have family traditions (let the kids talk)?

Do you think we have traditions here at church?  You bet we do.  What are some of the traditions?  Hymns, prayers, sermons, offering...

Traditions can be very meaningful to us. Some traditions--like the hymns of the church--are very old. Other traditions are new.  Sometimes we make new traditions.    But in order to survive, traditions need to be passed on from the older generation to the younger one.

In one of our bible lessons this morning, an old pastor (St. Paul) passed on important words and traditions to a young pastor (Timothy).  Besides important words he passed on an ancient song.

So, today, I--being an older Christian--, would like to pass some tradition on to you--who are younger Christians.  I would like to give each of you a prayer that you can use as a bed-time prayer (pass out the scrolls you have prepared).

Now you could even start a new family tradition by praying this prayer every day.    Let's pray it right now. Prayer.