God's Surprises! Part 5
Children's sermon
Object:
One of those “Grabber Reacher” tools, or ‘reach extenders’, the ‘hand on a stick’ things people use to reach and pick-up things they can’t reach themselves.
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (Luke 2:16-20)
* * *
Hello, everyone! (Let them respond). Who can tell me what I have here? (Show the grabber tool.) It’s for picking things up, isn’t it? (Let them respond.) And when do we usually use one of these tools? (Let them respond.) We use them to help pick up things we can’t usually reach, don’t we? (Let them respond.) Can you think of times we might want to use one of these? (Let them respond and have some fun with it.) Maybe something rolled under the couch, and we can’t reach it? Or maybe there is a box of cookies up on a high shelf we can’t reach? Or maybe we are cleaning our room and find a stinky old sock under the bed, and we just don’t what to have to touch it? Sometimes it is great to have some help like this, isn’t it? (Let them respond.)
Well, today’s story is about a time that God needed some help to reach something, but God didn’t use one of these (Show the grabber.) God wasn’t trying to reach a ball, or cookies, or even a stinky old sock. God was trying to reach people. And God had an even bigger surprise to help get the job done. Are you ready to hear the story? (Let them respond.) Great!
One night, just after the baby Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, God was trying to figure out how to make sure everyone knew that baby Jesus was there. God wanted to reach out and tell everyone and was trying to figure out how to do that. Today, if we wanted to tell everyone about something really important like that, who knows some ways we might be able to do that? (Let them respond.) Maybe we would start calling people on our phone and tell them to call and tell all of their friends too? Or maybe we could call the TV station, or newspaper? Or better, maybe we could just post it on FaceBook? Or maybe make short video to put on TikTok?
Well, God needed a way to tell everyone about the baby, but there were no phones, or TV, or Internet to use. But maybe God could use some of the big important people in the city who could make big speeches to start telling everyone. Or maybe God could use some of the famous leaders or kings to tell everyone about the baby? Or maybe God could just shine the bright lights on every town in the world and have the angels tell everyone about the baby.
So, who remembers how God reached out to tell everyone about the baby Jesus? (Let them respond.) Let’s remember what happened.
It was nighttime, and really dark. A bunch of shepherds were sitting on a hill out in the country, telling stories, and looking up at the stars. They were really tired. They had spent the whole day taking care of a bunch of sheep, guiding them up the hills to food, and down the hills to water, and trying to protect them from all kinds of things that were dangerous for sheep. I’ll bet most of the shepherds were ready to get some sleep, don’t you? (Let them respond.) But then something happened.
I wonder if one of the shepherds looked up and said, “Hey Joshua! What the heck is that up there? I thought it was a star, but now it’s moving.”
“That’s really weird,” Joshua said. “And it’s getting bigger! What the heck is it?”
Then a bunch of other lights showed up, and the whole hillside lit-up like a parking lot at the grocery store. The shepherds were pretty scared because they had never seen anything happen like that before! The lights turned out to be angels, and they told the shepherds that God wanted them to go into town and see the baby, and then start telling everybody about the baby Jesus being born. The shepherds were going to be God’s grabber tool (Show the grabber again.), and they were going to go and grab some people!
They weren’t famous people, or rich, or powerful. They were just ordinary shepherds sitting on a hillside in the dark. They were just people, like us. But God was able to use them to reach out to everyone around and tell them the good news.
At Christmas, we remember how God used some ordinary shepherds to start telling the world about the baby Jesus coming to show everyone how much God loves us all! 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.
* * *
Hello, everyone! (Let them respond). Who can tell me what I have here? (Show the grabber tool.) It’s for picking things up, isn’t it? (Let them respond.) And when do we usually use one of these tools? (Let them respond.) We use them to help pick up things we can’t usually reach, don’t we? (Let them respond.) Can you think of times we might want to use one of these? (Let them respond and have some fun with it.) Maybe something rolled under the couch, and we can’t reach it? Or maybe there is a box of cookies up on a high shelf we can’t reach? Or maybe we are cleaning our room and find a stinky old sock under the bed, and we just don’t what to have to touch it? Sometimes it is great to have some help like this, isn’t it? (Let them respond.)
Well, today’s story is about a time that God needed some help to reach something, but God didn’t use one of these (Show the grabber.) God wasn’t trying to reach a ball, or cookies, or even a stinky old sock. God was trying to reach people. And God had an even bigger surprise to help get the job done. Are you ready to hear the story? (Let them respond.) Great!
One night, just after the baby Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, God was trying to figure out how to make sure everyone knew that baby Jesus was there. God wanted to reach out and tell everyone and was trying to figure out how to do that. Today, if we wanted to tell everyone about something really important like that, who knows some ways we might be able to do that? (Let them respond.) Maybe we would start calling people on our phone and tell them to call and tell all of their friends too? Or maybe we could call the TV station, or newspaper? Or better, maybe we could just post it on FaceBook? Or maybe make short video to put on TikTok?
Well, God needed a way to tell everyone about the baby, but there were no phones, or TV, or Internet to use. But maybe God could use some of the big important people in the city who could make big speeches to start telling everyone. Or maybe God could use some of the famous leaders or kings to tell everyone about the baby? Or maybe God could just shine the bright lights on every town in the world and have the angels tell everyone about the baby.
So, who remembers how God reached out to tell everyone about the baby Jesus? (Let them respond.) Let’s remember what happened.
It was nighttime, and really dark. A bunch of shepherds were sitting on a hill out in the country, telling stories, and looking up at the stars. They were really tired. They had spent the whole day taking care of a bunch of sheep, guiding them up the hills to food, and down the hills to water, and trying to protect them from all kinds of things that were dangerous for sheep. I’ll bet most of the shepherds were ready to get some sleep, don’t you? (Let them respond.) But then something happened.
I wonder if one of the shepherds looked up and said, “Hey Joshua! What the heck is that up there? I thought it was a star, but now it’s moving.”
“That’s really weird,” Joshua said. “And it’s getting bigger! What the heck is it?”
Then a bunch of other lights showed up, and the whole hillside lit-up like a parking lot at the grocery store. The shepherds were pretty scared because they had never seen anything happen like that before! The lights turned out to be angels, and they told the shepherds that God wanted them to go into town and see the baby, and then start telling everybody about the baby Jesus being born. The shepherds were going to be God’s grabber tool (Show the grabber again.), and they were going to go and grab some people!
They weren’t famous people, or rich, or powerful. They were just ordinary shepherds sitting on a hillside in the dark. They were just people, like us. But God was able to use them to reach out to everyone around and tell them the good news.
At Christmas, we remember how God used some ordinary shepherds to start telling the world about the baby Jesus coming to show everyone how much God loves us all! 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.
