Childrens Sermon Service

If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. (v. 8)

Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.'' (v. 22)

Good morning, boys and girls! Do you know what this is? (hold up flashcard) That's right -- a math problem! How many of you have learned about math? Can you add one plus one? Good job! Do you know what the answer to this math problem is? (point at flashcard) No? It's hard, isn't it? The answer is 77. Have you ever had 77 of anything?

SHARING THIS WEEK'S GOSPEL THEME AT SUNDAY SCHOOL AND AT HOME

Materials:
Envelope
Markers, pencils, colored pencils
Stickers, stamps
Recipe cards with Forgotten Cookie recipe printed on them
Forgotten cookies (already baked)

Directions:

1. Pass out one or two Forgotten Cookies to each of the children. Explain how the cookie gets its name. Allow the cookies to be eaten as they work on the project.

2. Have the children write "God Forgives and Forgets our Sins!" on their envelopes (younger children may need help).

3. Let the children decorate their envelopes with markers, stickers, or stamps.

Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times." (v. 22)

Good morning, boys and girls! How are you this morning? (allow answers) How many of you have used a calculator before? (allow answers) We use calculators to do math for big numbers so that we don't make mistakes. What are some big numbers you know? (allow answers) Those are some pretty big numbers!

Our gospel today has some big numbers in it too. The gospel is about forgiveness. When we forgive someone, we decide not to be angry with them for bad things they have done. We decide to forget about their bad actions and focus on their good ones.

SHARING THIS WEEK'S GOSPEL THEME
AT SUNDAY SCHOOL AND AT HOME


Materials:
A calculator for each student

*For this activity, numbers are turned upside-down and equated with letters as follows:

1= "I"; 2= "z"; 3= "E"; 4= "h"; 5= "s"; 6= "g"; 8= "B"; 9= "G"; 0= "o"


Directions:
Have the children put the following equations into their calculators and see what words they end up with. See if they can come up with any other calculator words. Afterward discuss how, although numbers are often important to us, in Jesus' lesson today they stood for the idea of "very many" -- not as an actual number. Talk about how numbers can mean things other than amounts.

Equations:

The Point: We forgive because Jesus forgives us.

The Lesson: Good morning, children. Thank you for sharing this special time in worship with me.

...how often should I forgive?....seventy-seven times...(v. 21b, 21b)

Good morning boys and girls,

I'm really glad to see you this morning. I hope and I know that you will have a wonderful day today. I have a surprise for you. It's in this box. (shows box)

First, I am going to teach you about what's in this box. It's about the most important word in the entire bible, and in life, next to the word love. Have you heard of the word “forgiveness?”

Sure you have. Forgiveness is like deleting something on your computer. It's like erasing a word or a drawing on a white board. Forgiveness means “to let go.”

Sometimes it means saying “I'm sorry,” or “I apologize.”

His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. (vv. 29-30)

Note: You might want to practice your role of telling each child what to say. The instructions will explain who you are to be speaking to. Most of all, have fun with this!

Object: This message is created as a role-playing activity. You will need one child to play the role of the businessperson, another to be the first servant, and a third to be the second servant. If you have enough children, another one or two could play the role of the police officers, or if you don’t have enough children, you can tell about the police without role-playing them.

You will also want to create two IOU certificates. I printed each one on 8 ½ x 11-inch paper, so they were large enough to see. In bold print, one IOU says $1,000, and the other says $1.00.

Good morning! Did anyone feel this week like someone else was present even though you couldn't see or hear him? If you did, it was me. I thought and prayed about all of you this week, and I tried to tell each one of you how much I love you. When praying, I tried to picture you in my mind. I pictured Sally with her long hair and Mike with his big muscles. (give more examples) You seemed so real when I was praying that I thought maybe you knew I was right there with you.

Good morning, boys and girls. Here we are to celebrate another great Sunday. I am so happy you are here that I asked the organist to play something special just for you. (have the organist play a short fanfare) Wow! Now do you believe how happy I am to see you? Sunday is a very special day for all of us.

Do you know why we come to our church on Sunday? (let them answer) Do you remember that Jesus died on a Friday? That's right, it was a Friday around noon that Jesus was put on the cross and he hung on that cross until he finally died around 3:00 in the afternoon. But what happened on Sunday? (let them answer) That's right! Jesus rose from the dead and greeted people in many places. That's why we have chosen Sunday as our special day to honor the Lord.

Good morning! I'd like to ask you this morning about the
kinds of work you do around your house. Do your parents have
certain jobs that they expect you to do on a regular basis? (Let
them answer.) Let's suppose that your parents gave you a list
like this of things they wanted you to do around the house
tomorrow. (Show the list.) At the end of the day, they would look
around and see if you had done all that they had asked you to do.
If you had not done the work, there would probably be some
consequences, that is, something bad might happen to you because
you had failed to do what they expected you to do. We have a word
we use to describe this situation when somebody is responsible

Good morning! Look what I brought for all of you today.
(Show the candy.) Would any of you like to have some of this?
(Let them answer.) I would be glad to give you some, but this is
very expensive candy. In fact, as we look at the price tag we see
that the price for this candy is $100! Do any of you have that
much money? If you do, are you willing to pay that much for this
candy? (Let them answer.) No, I didn't think so. That would be a
terrible price to pay for candy. But, I know you would all like
to have the candy, so I'm going to cancel this price and give you
the candy. I'm not going to make you pay for it. (Give the
children the candy.) How do you feel about that? (Let them
answer.)

Teachers or Parents: The essence of Christianity is
forgiveness -- God's forgiveness for our sins and our forgiveness
of each other. The sooner we can teach our children about the
wonderful healing power of forgiveness, the better off they will
be in this world.

* Write on the board or easel the current saying, "I don't
get mad, I get even." Ask the children to talk about this
statement and tell what's wrong with it. Lead them to see that
having this attitude about conflict will lead to more and more
conflict without any healing of relationships.

* Ask the children if there was anything they did this week
that might have offended somebody. Then talk them through what

This morning I heard a rumor that the lights are tired of shining on us. They say, "We sit here nice and cool and then people come along and turn us on. Why? What do we get out of it? What purpose does it serve?" So this morning I heard that the lights are going to stop shining on us. (At this point have the lights turned off.)

One day Peter came to Jesus and said, "How many times should I forgive someone who does me wrong?" What do you suppose Peter wished Jesus might say as an answer? (Let them answer.) I can imagine Peter wishing Jesus would have said, "Get even with those who do you wrong. If someone hurts you, hurt them back. If someone steals from you, take from them." But Jesus didn't say that. Who knows what Jesus said to Peter? (Let them answer.) Jesus said, "Don't forgive a person seven times, but 77 times." In other words, keep on forgiving.

Teachers or Parents: Who is worthy of teaching about forgiveness? Surely it is a most difficult thing to do. Revenge and carrying a grudge are far more natural responses to an injury.

*Ask the children for examples of hurts from other children: a broken toy, a broken promise, a hit, breaking a favorite video game, and so forth. Now ask, "How often should I forgive a person who has hurt me?" Continue by saying, "In Jesus' day they said you should forgive someone who has done you wrong seven times." (Count out seven objects.) "Then, when they have hurt you an eighth time, you can get even with them." But Jesus said we should keep on forgiving people long after seven times. We should forgive over and over, because God forgives us over and over.

Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you like to eat jelly beans? (Hold up your jar and let them answer.) I happen to love jelly beans. I know that some people like certain colors better than others. I like jelly beans so much that it doesn't matter which color I'm eating. Which colors do you like? (Let them answer.)

Different colors have different flavors, but they are all fun to eat. Jelly beans also make me think of this morning's Bible story. Jelly beans make me think of Christians. Christians have different colors and different ideas about what is important when they worship God. Even so, all Christians belong to God.

(If you use the crushed flowers, start with this.) Good morning, boys and girls. I want to show you some flowers that look like someone ran and stomped on them.

(If you use the ball, start with this.) I brought a ball with me this morning because it reminded me of this morning's lesson.

Our lesson is about forgiving someone. Can anyone tell me what it means when someone forgives someone? (Let them answer.) When you forgive someone it means that whatever it was that happened is forgotten. Both of you may start over. No one is mad at the other.

Teachers: This lesson is about forgiveness. Jesus said to forgive someone 77 times. This means to keep on forgiving. Tell your students the story about Peter asking Jesus how many times someone must forgive someone else. Jesus' reply was to never stop forgiving someone else, by using the number 77. Talk with your students about the word "forgiveness" and what it means.

Use this experience to create forgiveness certificates. Depending on your students' ages, the students may create these with your help, or you can create them for the students to decorate.

Materials
Ribbon or cording, 22 inches for each child
Beads, 2 heart-shaped beads and 7 pony beads for each child
Safety pins
Glue gun, for instructor to use

Instructions
1. Jesus wants us to forgive people as many times as needed, just as he does for us. Use this pin to remind you that forgiveness never should end.

2. Take a length of the cording approximately 22 inches long and fold it in half.

3. Tie an overhand knot in the top, using a pencil for a spacer.

4. Slide both ends through a heart bead.

5. Tie a square knot close to the end of the heart bead.

6. Now take the ends of the cording and string through the hole in the first pony bead, from opposite sides.