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• Listen...God may talk to you too! (see below)
  a children's sermon based on 1 Sam 3:1-10
  by Rev. F. Schaefer
   
•   God's Rules Are Good  (see below)
  a children's sermon based on Mark 2:23-3:6
  by Rev. Frank Schaefer

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Listen...God may talk to you too!
a kids talk based on 1 Sam 3:1-10
by Rev. F. Schaefer

Props: a portable phone (or cell pohone)

Greet the children and tell them today's lesson is about listening to God.   Tell them that we are so used to speaking when we pray that we sometimes forget to stop talking in our prayer time and just to listen.

Hold up the telephone and ask them if they thought it would be nice if we could just call God's hotline and talk to him directly. What do they think God's voice sounds like?  What would God tell them.

Retell the story of Samuel in the temple; don't miss to tell them that he was about their age when God spoke to him during the night.  Put some significance on the fact that Samuel had trouble recognizing God's voice.

It is not easy to  recognize God's voice with so much noise going on in the world.  In what ways do you think God speaks to us today?  Let the children share.  If they don't suggest the following: through reading the bible, through meditatin and prayer times, through words and actions of other people, through events like miracles and healings, through the preacher...

Prayer: "Dear God, thank you that you still speak to us today.   Help us to listen and to recognize when you speak.  Be with us always and draw our hearts closer and closer to you.  Amen."

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God's Rules Are Good
a children's talk on Mark 2:23-3:6
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

props: a can with a warning label (such as bug spray, paint, oven cleaner) stating something like: "do not swallow" or "keep out of reach of children" etc.

Good morning my little friends.  Today we want to talk about "God's rules." They're sometimes also called God's laws in the bible.  In our bible lesson, some people accused Jesus of breaking one of God's laws. And that law was called the law of the sabbath.

Now, you heard me say before that I believe that all of God's laws are good rules and that, if we live by them, they keep us safe and out of trouble and happier. So, this  law that they accused Jesus of breaking was actually a very good law for us too. I want to call that law, the day off law.

Just like the label that is good to us if we do what it says (or don't do what it says we shouldn't do), the sabbath law was good for people to listen to. It told people to get some rest. To enjoy the weekend, to enjoy life.

But these people accused Jesus of breaking the law. You know why? Because he and his discipes were hungry and they picked some grain from the field to eat.  They said they were doing work, they were harvesting the field.

But that's kind of silly, isn't it? They were just picking some food, cause they needed to eat.

And you know what Jesus said to these people?  He taught them, and all of us, that God didn't make us for the rules, but that the rules were made for our own good. So, he was saying that the rules are not supposed to make our lives bad, God gave us rules so that we can enjoy life better and won't get into trouble.

Now you know where I got that idea from when I always say that God's rules are good for us.

Let us thank God for giving us good rules to live by and let us see them in that light. Amen!