How big is your faith?
Children's sermon
Object:
We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing. (v. 3)
Object: some small pumpkins and some very large pumpkins
Good morning, boys and girls. I brought some pumpkins with me today. (show them the pumpkins, some small and some big) Do all of these pumpkins look the same? (let them answer) No, some of them are small and some are very big. If you could have your own pumpkin, which one would you choose? (let them answer) I like the big ones.
These pumpkins all grew in the same field. They all received the same amount of rain and sunshine. But some of the pumpkins are much bigger than the others. Do you know why? (let them answer) I don't know either.
This reminds me of a Bible story. Saint Paul wrote it when he wanted to thank the Thessalonians. Can you say "Thessalonians?" (Let them repeat it several times. Tell them they are the people who lived in Thessalonica and ask them to repeat that) Paul noticed that the people in Thessalonica had great faith, and they just kept growing as Christians. Paul and his friends even bragged about them. Does anyone brag about you being a Christian? Does anyone brag about how kind and loving you are and how much you care about other people? (let them answer)
Paul said the people in Thessalonica must have developed such great faith because they had been tested so many times. The people often had to believe that God would help them even though they had no proof. Soon the people were no longer afraid of danger, hunger, or bad weather. They just believed that God would protect them, feed them, and care for them. That is called faith. Paul said the people had faith abundantly. That means they had a whole lot of faith. They were tested over and over again and they finally decided to trust God for everything.
Do you have faith? Do you have a lot of faith? (let them answer) Do you believe that God cares about you? Do you believe that God will protect you? (let them answer) Some people are full of faith. They are like the big pumpkins. Some people have only a little bit of faith. They are like the small pumpkins. The big-faith people trust God in every way. The small-faith people like to take care of things themselves and get discouraged easily. They are always looking for someone to blame and they feel sorry for themselves. They don't understand why the big-faith people seem to enjoy life so much.
The next time you see some big pumpkins remember the people from Thessalonica. They were big-faith people and Paul even bragged about them.
