Category Archives: Grace

Includes sermons about God’s free gift of grace

Easter C

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Day: Easter C

Lectionary Passage: Luke 24:1-12

Scripture Focus: Luke 24:6

Object: Basket with several plastic eggs, jelly beans, and a rubber band

Preparation: Fill the basket with several plastic eggs with jelly beans inside, you may want to have enough for each child to take one home. Place one empty plastic egg in the basket – be sure you can easily identify this egg. Fill a small plastic egg with jelly beans and attach it to a rubber band. It is very important that this egg fit up your sleeve and is fully concealed. The key to the trick is simple: when you shake the empty egg with one hand, it will sound like it’s full of jelly beans because you have the egg up your sleeve. But when you shake it with the other hand, it will not make any sound, which allows you to reveal the empty egg.

Good morning everyone! Well, as you can see I’ve got a basket full of Easter eggs. I love Easter eggs, especially the surprise inside. (Pick up an egg with jelly beans inside and shake it) It sounds like this one is full of jelly beans. (Open the egg to reveal the jelly beans to everyone before putting it aside). 

(Pick up your empty egg) Of course, Easter isn’t really about eggs and and jelly beans (shake with the appropriate hand to make the jelly beans rattle). It’s about Jesus. It’s about the amazing truth that God became human just like me and you in order to save us (rattle the egg). On Good Friday, Jesus died on the cross and was buried in a tomb (rattle the egg). Some people probably thought that was the end of the story, but it wasn’t. (Transfer the egg to your other hand) On Easter morning, some of Jesus’ friends went to the tomb and discovered (shake the empty egg) it was empty. The stone was rolled away and Jesus was not there (open the empty egg). 

Jesus wasn’t there because God had raised him from the dead! On Easter we celebrate God’s amazing power and love. The empty tomb proves God wins!

Let’s pray together: Thank you God for sending Jesus Christ to love us. We are so glad the tomb was empty on Easter because that means your love wins! Amen.

Lent 4C

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Day: Lent 4C

Lectionary Passage: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Scripture Focus: Luke 15:22-24

Object: Party Hat, optional

You know, there is nothing more fun than a great party. And there are all kinds of reasons to have a party. You can have a birthday party. Lots of people have parties around Christmas time. I’ve been to parties for Valentine’s Day and Saint Patrick’s Day. You can pretty much have a party for any reason.

In our Bible story today, a father is throwing a big party to celebrate the return of his son. You see, the son had decided to leave home and go off into the world all on his own. His dad didn’t want him to leave but he gave him some money anyway and off the son went. But after a little while, he had spent all his money on silly things and he was lonely and hungry. Finally, he decided to go home. He expected his dad to be angry because the boy hadn’t listened to his father. But instead his dad was so happy to see him home again that he decided to throw a really big party to celebrate his return.

And you know, I think that’s exactly what God does every time someone becomes friends with Jesus. God celebrates! God is so happy that people become friends with Jesus that God forgets all the bad stuff that happened in the past and just celebrates that we’re Christians now. It’s like God throws a big party!

Let’s pray: God, thank you for always welcoming us to be your followers and for sending Jesus to help show us the way. Amen.

Pentecost 10B

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Day: Pentecost 10B

Lectionary Passage: John 6:24-35

Scripture Focus: John 6:35

Object: Loaf of sandwich bread

Good morning everybody! I bet you’ve all seen this stuff at home. It’s good old sandwich bread. I usually like mine with a lot of peanut butter and just a little grape jelly. But, if I was really hungry, I think a plain slice of bread would do the trick. When you get really hungry, even a plain piece of sandwich bread tastes good and stops your hunger. But this bread doesn’t keep us from getting hungry again sometime later.

Every day we get hungry. We need food. That’s just a fact. It would be great if food fell from the sky. You know, that actually happened one time! Way back in the day, God fed the Israelites by sending bread from heaven. It literally rained bread! They would collect the bread and eat it so they were no longer hungry.

That happened a long time ago. But did you know that God has sent us, me and you, bread from heaven, too? In our Bible story, Jesus says he is the true bread from heaven. He didn’t mean that he was like this sandwich bread. He wasn’t talking about the kind of bread that stops our tummy hunger. He is the kind of bread that stops our spiritual hunger. You see, we’re all hungry for God’s love, kindness, care, and grace. When we have Jesus in our lives, then we are no longer hungry for those things because he fills us up! When Jesus is in our hearts, we aren’t hungry anymore because we are full of his love for us.

Let’s pray: Thank you Jesus for being the true bread of life that fills us up with God’s love. Amen.

Lent 4B

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Day: Lent 4B

Lectionary Passage: Ephesians 2:1-10

Scripture Focus: Ephesians 2:8

Object: A favorite gift

Good morning everyone! I brought with me one of my favorite gifts of all time (show the children the gift and describe how it was wrapped up and presented to you on a special occasion, be sure to emphasize its tangibility). I will always treasure this gift.

In our Bible story today, we learn that God has given us a gift, too. It’s not like this. It’s not something we can see or hold or touch. We can’t even wrap it up in pretty paper. But it is a very precious gift. It is called grace. Grace is God’s special gift to us.

God gives this grace to us when we believe in Jesus Christ. This grace is powerful stuff because it wipes away our sins, that the bad stuff we’ve done. Without God’s grace, we would be in big trouble, like eternal time out! But, thankfully God loves us and gives us this amazing gift of grace. Of course, we don’t have to pay for this gift and we can’t do anything to earn it. All we need to do is believe in Jesus Christ and God will give us the gift of grace.

We may not be able to wrap it up in pretty paper, but God’s gift of grace is the best gift we can ever receive!

Let’s pray: God, we are so thankful that you give us the gift of grace. Amen.

Lent 1B

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Day: Lent 1B

Lectionary Passage: Genesis 9:8-17

Scripture Focus: Genesis 9:13

Object: Rainbow science experiment (if you don’t have time for the experiment, then bring a picture of a rainbow)

Preparation: Practice making your own rainbow. Fill a glass of water (almost to the top) and place it at the very edge of a table. Place a sheet of plain white paper on the floor a few inches away. Put two pieces of masking tape over the front of a flashlight so that the light comes out of a slit about 1/8 inch (0.3 cm) wide. Shine the light across and down into the water at an angle to hit the paper to reveal a rainbow.

Good morning boys and girls! Today we are going to do a quick science experiment. Your job is to watch what happens on that white piece of paper on the floor while I shine the light through this glass of water… (let the kids take notice of the light spectrum). Do you see it yet? It’s a rainbow! We’re created a rainbow right here in church!

I love rainbows because they are a reminder of God’s promise to us and all living creatures after the great flood. God promised that God loves all creatures and that God would never again cover the world with water. This was a promise to Noah, but it is also a promise to us. God loves us very much and God wants to be first in our lives.

Rainbows are a special promise to all of us. And whenever we see one after a storm, it reminds us that God loves us and cares for us.

Let’s pray: Thank you God for visible reminders like a rainbow in the sky that you love and care for us. Amen.

Advent 2B

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Day: Advent 2B

Lectionary Passage: 2 Peter 3:8-15

Scripture Focus: 2 Peter 3:14

Object: Bowl of water, tablespoon of black pepper, and liquid dish soap

Preparation: For this lesson you will conduct a simple science experiment the power of soap. Fill a large, clear bowl with water. Prepare the black pepper and liquid dish soap.

Good morning! Today we are going to conduct a science experiment to learn about the power of being clean. I brought a bowl of water with me and we’re going to add some pepper (sprinkle black pepper onto the water). The pepper is everywhere. Now, watch what happens when I add just a squirt of soap (add a drop of liquid dish soap to the middle of the bowl of water). Whoa! The pepper instantly scurries away from the soap! Now wherever the soap hit, the water is clean and spotless!

That reminds me of our Bible passage. It talks about being spotless and pure, which is kind of like saying we need to be clean. Of course, the Bible isn’t talking about being spotless on the outside. It’s talking about being spotless on the inside. That means we can’t use soap to help us. We’ve got to use something much, much stronger…. we need to pray! Prayer makes spots caused from sin scurry away. Sin is that bad stuff that we do from time to time, like not listening to our parents, or lying, or being mean to others. Just like that black pepper covered the water, sin can cover everything. But when we pray to God to say we are sorry for sin, then we are made clean and spotless. Prayer is soap for our souls to keep us spotless and pure.

Let’s pray: Thank you God for giving us the power to pray because we want to be spotless and pure every day. Amen.

Lent 3A

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Day: Lent 3

Lectionary Passage: Romans 5:1-11

Scripture Focus: Romans 5:1-2

Object: None

Raise your hand if you have ever been put in time-out. (Let the children raise their hands and you raise your hand, too) Wow, all of us have been put in time-out! That’s because at one time or another we did something we weren’t suppose to. Like the time that I colored a picture on the living room wall… I was in time-out for a very long time. I did something wrong and so I had to pay the price!

But today I want to tell you about something wonderful that changes all that! It’s called grace. Grace means you are forgiven even when you don’t deserve to be. That means you are forgiven even when you do something wrong. And that’s what God does for every single person who believes in Jesus. When we believe that Jesus is our Savior, God gives us grace so that we are forgiven for all the things we’ve done wrong. There’s no punishment! Even though we deserve to be punished, God’s grace forgives us. And that’s a really good thing because we’ve all done bad stuff and without God’s grace we would be in time-out forever!

Let’s pray: God, we are so thankful that you forgive us even when we do something wrong. Your grace is amazing! Amen.

Lent 2A

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Day: Lent 2

Lectionary Passage: Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Scripture Focus: Romans 4:4-5

Object: None

I have a question for you: When you get a birthday gift, do you pay the person for it? (Let the children answer no) Well, of course you don’t because it is a birthday gift. What about when you get a Christmas gift, do you pay for that? (Let the children answer no) You don’t have to pay because it is a Christmas gift. What about when you get a gift just because some loves you, do you have to pay for it then? (Let the children answer no) No, of course not because it is a gift!

Whenever we get a gift it is free for us. We don’t have to worry about paying for it. And that reminds me of our Bible story. It’s talking about God’s gift to all of us. It is the gift of salvation. And like all gifts, it is free! God doesn’t expect us to pay for it with money. God doesn’t even expect a payback by us doing good things. All God wants in return for this amazing gift is our faith. Faith means believing in God. When we believe in God, when we have faith in God, we are given the amazing gift of salvation. We don’t have to pay for it. We didn’t earn it. And there is nothing we have to do for it. That’s what makes it a gift! And God wants everyone to have this amazing gift.

Let’s pray: Thank you God for the amazing gift of salvation. We know we didn’t earn it and we can never pay for it, so we are so thankful that you have given it to us for free. Amen.