Childrens Sermon Service

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (vv. 15-16)

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Who remembers what season we are celebrating in the church right now? (Let them respond.) This is the Third Sunday of Advent. And who remembers what the word ‘advent’ means? (Let them respond.) It is from the old word “adventus”, and it means “coming.” So, Advent is when we remember what happened when Jesus came to be with us on that first Christmas. Are you ready for today’s story? (Let them respond.) Great!

Today’s story is about the man God sent to tell everyone that Jesus was coming. His name was John, and he was doing a good job of telling people about Jesus. When he went somewhere to preach, there was always a BIG crowd of people who came to hear him. People came from all around the country, and some of them were really important people, too. They didn’t have internet then, but if they would have had it, I’ll bet people would have put John on Facebook, YouTube, Zoom, and TikTok, and all of the other places — and he would have had a bunch of followers. John started out as just a man who lived in the desert but had become famous, hadn’t he? (Let them respond.)

The people were so excited about John, that one day, some of them came to him and asked him if he was the one that God had sent to save the world.

I wonder if John had to stop and think about that for a minute? He started out as nobody very important and now he had become really famous and was getting a lot of attention. And sometimes it can feel pretty good to get attention, can’t it? (Let them respond.)  

It does feel good to be important, doesn’t it? (Let them respond.) If we do something special and get praise for it, and people say nice things to us and want to be around us, that is kind of nice, isn’t it? (Let them respond and show your driver’s license or ID card.) I wonder if John had to get out his driver’s license and look at it to remind himself who he really was? (Let them respond.) Yeah, I’m just kidding you. They didn’t have driver’s licenses back then. But, you know, if it happened to me, I might have to do that.

Sometimes when I don’t feel very powerful or important, I wonder what it would be like to be someone else; someone more special and important. Do you feel like that? (Let them respond.) Yeah, sometimes we make things up and pretend to be someone we aren’t because it makes us feel more special, and more important, don’t we? (Let them respond.) And sometimes I need to stop and remember who I really am. (Show your driver’s license or ID card.)

But John remembered something very important. John believed that God created him for a very special reason — to tell everyone about Jesus. And sometimes I need to remember that God created me to be me for some very special reason and created you to be you for a very special reason, too. Sometimes I’m not sure what that special reason is, but I know that God doesn’t make mistakes!

So, John said, “Nope, I’m not the Messiah. I am just here to make sure you are ready for him so you pay attention to him and hear what he has to tell you.” John wasn’t the Messiah, but he turned out to be pretty special anyway. John lived over two thousand years ago and we are still talking about him today. That is pretty special, isn’t it? (Let them respond.)  

So, even if we sometimes don’t think we are very special, remember that God created you to be you, just like you are. And if we love God and do our best to do the things God wants us to do, God can use us to do some pretty amazing things.

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent, the season we remember how God surprised everyone and used a simple man named John to do something really amazing! I hope you will remember how much God loves you, and how much God wants us to love other people and do as much as we can to help take care of those other people.

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.