Awards!
Children's sermon
He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed — only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. (vv. 22-28)
* * *
Object: A trophy or award of some type.
* * *
Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have a story for you today. Are you ready? (Let them respond.) Great.
This is a story about the day Jesus went back to visit his hometown after he was baptized. I wonder if anyone remembers a part of that story? (Let them respond.) Well, after Jesus was baptized, he started traveling around teaching people about God, and doing things to show them how much God loved them all. And one day, they all went to the synagogue and asked Jesus to read the scripture for them. Jesus got up and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me.” And when someone said the Spirit was with them, it meant they were trying to do what God wanted them to do. When he finished reading, he looked around at everyone and he said, “Today I tell you that from now on I am going to try and do what God has asked me to do and show everyone how much God loves everyone one of us, no matter where we are.”
When he finished talking, everyone was all excited. They were excited that God had chosen someone from their little town to be so important.
One of them said, “Isn’t he Joseph’s son? They are neighbors of mine.”
Someone else said, “Did you know that I taught him to read.”
And someone else said, “Well, I helped him learn to cut wood and help his dad in the shop.”
They were all talking about how special Jesus was, and how exciting it was that they lived right there in Jesus home town. And they thought, “If Jesus is doing so many great things for people over in Cana, and Capernaum, and places like that, just imagine what even greater things he is going to do for us right here, after all of the things we did to help him grow up!”
They were all excited because they believed God would give them some kind of special award since Jesus was from their town and they knew him. (Show the award.)
Jesus heard what they were saying and he shook his head.
He looked at them and told them the Old Testament story about a guy named Elijah. He was a prophet. Can anyone tell me what a prophet was? (Let them respond.) A prophet was someone who told people about God, and what God wanted them to do. The prophet Elijah had a tough job. There was a king whose name was Ahab, and he was a pretty lousy king. His wife’s name was Jezebel, and she was even worse than Ahab was. They believed they were really special, and just ignored the things that God wanted them to do. They thought they were better than everyone else. Some other prophets had tried to tell Ahab and Jezebel what God wanted them to do, but Ahab and Jezebel just had them killed. And when Elijah came, Ahab sent his men to capture Elijah so he could be killed too.
Do you know what happened? (Let them respond.) God woke Elijah up one morning and told him what Ahab was doing, and told him to go away and stay in a place called Sidon, which was across the river in the wilderness. Now, Sidon was kind of a scary place. The people there were different than back home. They spoke a different language. They had different religions. They looked different. Even worse, they were enemies of Israel, where Elijah was from. But that is where God told Elijah to go, so do you know what Elijah did? (Let them respond.) Yep, he went to Sidon.
When Elijah got to Sidon, he didn’t have any place to stay and didn’t have anything to eat. He didn’t know that God had already told a woman in Sidon to take care of Elijah. She wasn’t special at all. She wasn’t from Israel and she didn’t worship God, but God didn’t care about that, and she didn’t either. When Elijah got to the gate of the city, the woman was there to meet him. She was a very poor woman, and she told Elijah that she didn’t have enough food for herself and her little boy. All she had was a little bottle of oil and a little bowl of flour, but she trusted God and made Elijah a little loaf of bread and went home. Since she had done what God asked her to do and helped Elijah, God fixed it so her little bottle and bowl never ran out of oil and flour. A few days later Elijah went to her house and found out that her little boy had gotten sick and died. Elijah went into the house and when he came back out he was carrying the little boy in his arms. And the boy was alive!
Now, I have a question for you. Does anyone have an idea why Jesus told the people the story about Elijah? (Let them respond.) I’ll tell you why I think he told them that story.
The people in Nazareth thought they were really special since they knew Jesus, didn’t they? (Let them respond.) And they thought that since they were so special, God would do special things for them, didn’t they? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we think that way, don’t we? Sometimes we think that if we follow Jesus, we are going to win some kind of award. (Show the award.) It’s like we follow Jesus because that makes us special, or maybe even better than people who don’t follow Jesus, and we will get a reward.
But Jesus reminded the people in Nazareth that’s not how God does things. God didn’t take care of the woman and her son because she was special. God helped her because she did what God asked her to do. And we don’t take care of other people because we will get some kind of reward for doing it. We take care of other people because that’s what God asks us to do. If we are following God, we aren’t worrying about ourselves. We are thinking about how to help others.
When Jesus told the people that, they got so mad at him they chased him out of town! They were thinking about what they might get, but Jesus told them they ought to think about what they can give to others.
I hope you will remember how much God loves you, and how much God wants us to love other people and do the best we can to help take care of those other people and make sure they know how much we love them — even if we don’t get some kind of award. (Show award.)
Let’s have our prayer and ask God to help us remember to do the things God wants us to do to take care of each other.
Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us. Please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.
All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed — only Naaman the Syrian.”
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. (vv. 22-28)
* * *
Object: A trophy or award of some type.
* * *
Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have a story for you today. Are you ready? (Let them respond.) Great.
This is a story about the day Jesus went back to visit his hometown after he was baptized. I wonder if anyone remembers a part of that story? (Let them respond.) Well, after Jesus was baptized, he started traveling around teaching people about God, and doing things to show them how much God loved them all. And one day, they all went to the synagogue and asked Jesus to read the scripture for them. Jesus got up and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me.” And when someone said the Spirit was with them, it meant they were trying to do what God wanted them to do. When he finished reading, he looked around at everyone and he said, “Today I tell you that from now on I am going to try and do what God has asked me to do and show everyone how much God loves everyone one of us, no matter where we are.”
When he finished talking, everyone was all excited. They were excited that God had chosen someone from their little town to be so important.
One of them said, “Isn’t he Joseph’s son? They are neighbors of mine.”
Someone else said, “Did you know that I taught him to read.”
And someone else said, “Well, I helped him learn to cut wood and help his dad in the shop.”
They were all talking about how special Jesus was, and how exciting it was that they lived right there in Jesus home town. And they thought, “If Jesus is doing so many great things for people over in Cana, and Capernaum, and places like that, just imagine what even greater things he is going to do for us right here, after all of the things we did to help him grow up!”
They were all excited because they believed God would give them some kind of special award since Jesus was from their town and they knew him. (Show the award.)
Jesus heard what they were saying and he shook his head.
He looked at them and told them the Old Testament story about a guy named Elijah. He was a prophet. Can anyone tell me what a prophet was? (Let them respond.) A prophet was someone who told people about God, and what God wanted them to do. The prophet Elijah had a tough job. There was a king whose name was Ahab, and he was a pretty lousy king. His wife’s name was Jezebel, and she was even worse than Ahab was. They believed they were really special, and just ignored the things that God wanted them to do. They thought they were better than everyone else. Some other prophets had tried to tell Ahab and Jezebel what God wanted them to do, but Ahab and Jezebel just had them killed. And when Elijah came, Ahab sent his men to capture Elijah so he could be killed too.
Do you know what happened? (Let them respond.) God woke Elijah up one morning and told him what Ahab was doing, and told him to go away and stay in a place called Sidon, which was across the river in the wilderness. Now, Sidon was kind of a scary place. The people there were different than back home. They spoke a different language. They had different religions. They looked different. Even worse, they were enemies of Israel, where Elijah was from. But that is where God told Elijah to go, so do you know what Elijah did? (Let them respond.) Yep, he went to Sidon.
When Elijah got to Sidon, he didn’t have any place to stay and didn’t have anything to eat. He didn’t know that God had already told a woman in Sidon to take care of Elijah. She wasn’t special at all. She wasn’t from Israel and she didn’t worship God, but God didn’t care about that, and she didn’t either. When Elijah got to the gate of the city, the woman was there to meet him. She was a very poor woman, and she told Elijah that she didn’t have enough food for herself and her little boy. All she had was a little bottle of oil and a little bowl of flour, but she trusted God and made Elijah a little loaf of bread and went home. Since she had done what God asked her to do and helped Elijah, God fixed it so her little bottle and bowl never ran out of oil and flour. A few days later Elijah went to her house and found out that her little boy had gotten sick and died. Elijah went into the house and when he came back out he was carrying the little boy in his arms. And the boy was alive!
Now, I have a question for you. Does anyone have an idea why Jesus told the people the story about Elijah? (Let them respond.) I’ll tell you why I think he told them that story.
The people in Nazareth thought they were really special since they knew Jesus, didn’t they? (Let them respond.) And they thought that since they were so special, God would do special things for them, didn’t they? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we think that way, don’t we? Sometimes we think that if we follow Jesus, we are going to win some kind of award. (Show the award.) It’s like we follow Jesus because that makes us special, or maybe even better than people who don’t follow Jesus, and we will get a reward.
But Jesus reminded the people in Nazareth that’s not how God does things. God didn’t take care of the woman and her son because she was special. God helped her because she did what God asked her to do. And we don’t take care of other people because we will get some kind of reward for doing it. We take care of other people because that’s what God asks us to do. If we are following God, we aren’t worrying about ourselves. We are thinking about how to help others.
When Jesus told the people that, they got so mad at him they chased him out of town! They were thinking about what they might get, but Jesus told them they ought to think about what they can give to others.
I hope you will remember how much God loves you, and how much God wants us to love other people and do the best we can to help take care of those other people and make sure they know how much we love them — even if we don’t get some kind of award. (Show award.)
Let’s have our prayer and ask God to help us remember to do the things God wants us to do to take care of each other.
Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us. Please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.
