Better than trophies
Children's sermon
Object:
a collection of trophies and ribbons and a single cross
Good morning! I brought along some things this morning that I worked or played very hard to get. (show your trophies and tell a little about each one, such as: This is a golf trophy I received when I won a tournament. Here is a plaque that I received for being the president of Rotary. This is a first prize ribbon for the best photograph in a photography contest. This is a special prize. I received this beautiful vase for the most beautiful rose grown in my hometown.)
I have more trophies and so do others in this church. You receive these kinds of prizes for being special, for being the best or the second best or even for third place. When you get a prize like this you know that you are good.
Do any of you have prizes? (let them answer) Have any of you won the spelling bee in your school? Or did you get a special prize for having good grades? Did your mom or dad ever give you a prize for being a really good boy or girl?
Saint Paul told the Christians in Philippi about how good he used to think he was. He told them that he was a really good Jewish man. He had really good parents and he was a very learned man. He went to school for a long time and people thought he knew almost everything. He was a special teacher and he was very enthusiastic about his church. He was also tough on people who disagreed with his church. If people did not agree with his thinking, he would hunt them and make them pay. Paul won a lot of different kind of trophies before he met Jesus and followed him.
Paul told the people in Philippi that all of his trophies were not as important as the cross. He said that nothing he did in his entire life made him as good as what Jesus did for him. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, he gave Paul more than all of the other things that other people gave him.
And I feel the same way. All of these trophies put together are not as important as knowing that Jesus died for my sins and promises me eternal life. That's why I live for Jesus. I don't live to get more trophies. I live to tell other people what Jesus has done for me. That is what you will learn as you grow up. There is nothing as important as Jesus and our God. We live for him because he died and lives for us.
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, because you are more important than everything else. Amen.
I have more trophies and so do others in this church. You receive these kinds of prizes for being special, for being the best or the second best or even for third place. When you get a prize like this you know that you are good.
Do any of you have prizes? (let them answer) Have any of you won the spelling bee in your school? Or did you get a special prize for having good grades? Did your mom or dad ever give you a prize for being a really good boy or girl?
Saint Paul told the Christians in Philippi about how good he used to think he was. He told them that he was a really good Jewish man. He had really good parents and he was a very learned man. He went to school for a long time and people thought he knew almost everything. He was a special teacher and he was very enthusiastic about his church. He was also tough on people who disagreed with his church. If people did not agree with his thinking, he would hunt them and make them pay. Paul won a lot of different kind of trophies before he met Jesus and followed him.
Paul told the people in Philippi that all of his trophies were not as important as the cross. He said that nothing he did in his entire life made him as good as what Jesus did for him. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, he gave Paul more than all of the other things that other people gave him.
And I feel the same way. All of these trophies put together are not as important as knowing that Jesus died for my sins and promises me eternal life. That's why I live for Jesus. I don't live to get more trophies. I live to tell other people what Jesus has done for me. That is what you will learn as you grow up. There is nothing as important as Jesus and our God. We live for him because he died and lives for us.
Prayer: Thank you, Jesus, because you are more important than everything else. Amen.
