Ignerint
Children's sermon
Object:
a dictionary
"But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." (vv. 13b-14)
Good morning, boys and girls! How many of you have heard the word "ignorant" before? (allow answers) Does anyone know what it means? (allow answers) If you don't know what a word means, where should you go to look up its meaning? (allow answers) You would look in a book like this one. This book is a dictionary. How many of you have used a dictionary before? (show of hands) Dictionaries have long lists of all the words in our language. We use dictionaries to look up words we don't know so that we can find out what they mean. For example, we could look up the word "ignorant" in the dictionary to find its meaning. The word "ignorant" means "unaware" or "uneducated." If you are ignorant of something, you don't know about it. In fact, we were ignorant of the word "ignorant" before we looked it up in the dictionary!
We often look down on people who are ignorant. We sometimes like to think that only educated people are worthwhile. We don't want to hang out with people we call stupid. Can you think of someone who might be ignorant? Don't tell us out loud -- just think of that person. How do you feel about that person? (allow answers) There is something we all have to remember: being ignorant is not permanent. I have an example of someone who was ignorant but was still very worthwhile.
Annie Oakley, a sharpshooter from the 1800s, became famous for her ability to shoot almost anything with a gun -- even tiny, far away targets. She is known as one of the first woman superstars in America and although she accomplished great things in her lifetime, she started out ignorant. She grew up poor in Ohio and rarely went to school. Later she would get more education, but she started unable to read or write: ignorant.
Our Bible verse talks about ignorance, too. Saint Paul talks about "acting ignorantly." Do you know the story of Saint Paul? (allow answers) Saint Paul hurt many Christians because he was ignorant of God's love. He didn't know about it! In our verse today, Saint Paul talks about how God showed him (Paul) mercy. God knew that ignorance was no reason to write off Paul. Once Paul learned about God's love, Paul became one of the greatest preachers in church history!
Next time you meet someone who you think is ignorant or worthless, think for a moment about Paul. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of information for a whole new person to shine through. Amen.
Good morning, boys and girls! How many of you have heard the word "ignorant" before? (allow answers) Does anyone know what it means? (allow answers) If you don't know what a word means, where should you go to look up its meaning? (allow answers) You would look in a book like this one. This book is a dictionary. How many of you have used a dictionary before? (show of hands) Dictionaries have long lists of all the words in our language. We use dictionaries to look up words we don't know so that we can find out what they mean. For example, we could look up the word "ignorant" in the dictionary to find its meaning. The word "ignorant" means "unaware" or "uneducated." If you are ignorant of something, you don't know about it. In fact, we were ignorant of the word "ignorant" before we looked it up in the dictionary!
We often look down on people who are ignorant. We sometimes like to think that only educated people are worthwhile. We don't want to hang out with people we call stupid. Can you think of someone who might be ignorant? Don't tell us out loud -- just think of that person. How do you feel about that person? (allow answers) There is something we all have to remember: being ignorant is not permanent. I have an example of someone who was ignorant but was still very worthwhile.
Annie Oakley, a sharpshooter from the 1800s, became famous for her ability to shoot almost anything with a gun -- even tiny, far away targets. She is known as one of the first woman superstars in America and although she accomplished great things in her lifetime, she started out ignorant. She grew up poor in Ohio and rarely went to school. Later she would get more education, but she started unable to read or write: ignorant.
Our Bible verse talks about ignorance, too. Saint Paul talks about "acting ignorantly." Do you know the story of Saint Paul? (allow answers) Saint Paul hurt many Christians because he was ignorant of God's love. He didn't know about it! In our verse today, Saint Paul talks about how God showed him (Paul) mercy. God knew that ignorance was no reason to write off Paul. Once Paul learned about God's love, Paul became one of the greatest preachers in church history!
Next time you meet someone who you think is ignorant or worthless, think for a moment about Paul. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of information for a whole new person to shine through. Amen.
