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Choose from the following Children's Sermons:

• Stubborn Prayers,  Luke 18:1-8
  by Rev. Frank Schaefer
   

• Praying Everywhere Luke 18:1-8
  by an anonymous DPSer
   

• Words to Live By
  based on Jeremiah 31:27-34, 2Timothy 3:14-4:5
  by Rev. Frank Schaefer

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Stubborn Prayers
a children's sermon based on Luke 18:1-8
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Have you ever been so scared or sad or so frustrated that you prayed and prayed for a long time?  Yes?  How did you feel when you prayed? Do you remember whether you felt better? Did God answer you prayers?  Did God make you less afraid or sad or frustrated?

Today's story is about a woman who knew how to ask a judge again and again.  You know, sometimes when you really want something you ask for it again and again, driving your mom and dad nuts in the process.

Well this woman asked this judge in town over and over again to help her; she said: please, judge, please consider my case; I was done injustice? Can't you restore justice to me?  And she went on and on, so much so that the judge finally granted her justice, just because he couldn't hear it anymore.

Jesus told this story and when he finished telling this story he said to his disciples, This is how you guys should pray to God; just like that woman  who never gave up asking the judge, you should ask God again and again when you pray.

What are things we should pray for again and again?  Loved ones to get healed from illnesses, for the church, for the pastor?  For our parents, for our school teachers? For our government for the poor in our community and in the world, for starving children in Africa and Asia. (Let the children list more)

All these are good things to pray for again and again.  Do you suppose that we can also pray for ourselves?  You bet.  Let's do it now; allow me to pray for all of you that God will bless you......Prayer

 

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Praying Everywhere
a children's sermon seed based on Luke 18:1-8
by an anonymous DPSer

Today teach that we can pray in all places. Before the worship service begins, have a pastor lead the children in a prayer in the narthex. Read the prayers of the day from various locations in your sanctuary: at the back of the church, near the font, at the lectern, from a balcony, from the center of the sanctuary, and so on.

Another possibility is to sprinkle readers throughout the congregation. After the service, have the pastor lead the children on a prayer journey. Pray in the church nursery, in a classroom, outdoors, and in fellowship hall. At the end of the journey, give each child a little sticker that say "pray" to place on a light switch plate at home. Each time family members turn on or off the light they can be reminded to pray.

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Words to Live By
based on Jeremiah 31:27-34, 2Timothy 3:14-4:5
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Props: a pine cone and a children's bible

Greetings, my little friends, today I brought something with me that you may recognize from your backyard.  Do you know what it is?  That's right, it's a pine cone.

Pine cones make nice decorations and craft thingies, but they are also great weather forecasters.  Did you know that when a pine cone closes up its scales that means that it's going to rain?  And when it is open (like it is now) it means that the weather should be fair.

So, a pine cone is something really useful.  It can help us make decisions about how to dress and what kind of plans to make for activities.

But we need to first pay attention to the pine cone and look at it, and read it right.  And sometimes that's not so easy, because the scales may just be opening a little bit, but not all the way.  And at other times we don't know whether they are in the process of opening or in the process of closing--so we need to know whether they were open or closed yesterday.

In that way, a pine cone is a lot like the bible (show children's bible).  The bible helps us to make important decisions too, like how to live peacefully with one another, how to find happiness in this life, how to get to heaven, and how to become a better person.

In one of our bible lessons today, the apostle Paul says that we need to carefully read the bible.  That's just like with the pine cone.  Sometimes it is a little hard to know what exactly the bible means--just like it can be hard to read a pine cone at times.

In our OT bible lesson, the prophet Jeremiah says that one day, God will write his laws on our hearts.   So both, the NT and the OT lesson are telling us that we need to spend some time reading the Bible.  For to know something by heart means that you need to memorize it, read it over and over again.

So it is important to read our bible often, not just every once in a while.  Who of you has a children's bible?  (Consider getting a children's bible for the ones that don't have).  And who of you read their children's bible, or have someone read from it to you?

Let us pray:   "Dear God, thank you for giving us the gift of the bible.  Remind us to read our bibles often so it can help us to live a good Christian life. Amen."