It was THIS BIG!
Children's sermon
Object:
a picture of a fish
Good morning, boys and girls. I brought a picture of a fish today. How
many of you have caught a fish before? (Wait for show of hands.) How big
was it? (Let them show everyone.) Some of your fish were pretty big.
When you tell people that your fish was bigger than it really was, and your
hands go out a little further than they should (demonstrate) we sometimes
call that a "fish story." In the Bible there are lots of stories about fish.
Some of them were stories of what happened when people told "fish
stories" or decided that they were going to do things their way. One story
was about a man named Jonah. God told Jonah to go tell the people of
Ninevah that God wasn't pleased with how they were living. But Jonah
didn't want to go there. So he got on a ship and went the other direction.
But a storm came up and Jonah knew he was in big trouble. So he was
thrown overboard and swallowed by a big fish. After three days the fish
spit him out and Jonah decided to do what he was told. That's a really big
"fish story!" Jonah thought he was so good. But he was quickly humbled!
Humbled means knowing that other people might know more than you. It
means not trying to be better than everyone else by how you act and talk.
In another fish story we hear about a little boy who was humble. He shared his small amount of bread and fish with a whole crowd of 5,000 people. In our story today we also read about two men praying. One man acted like Jonah. This man prayed about how terrific he was. He acted better than everyone else and that's what his prayer said. The other man was very humble. He went into a corner and told God how badly he felt because he couldn't do everything right. Jesus said the humble man felt much better after he prayed. He didn't brag in his prayer. He told God just how he felt. God doesn't want to hear how terrific we are. God doesn't want us to brag in our prayers like we were telling someone a "fish story." God wants us to be humble and tell how we really feel in our prayers. If we do this, we will really feel better like the humble man in the story.
In another fish story we hear about a little boy who was humble. He shared his small amount of bread and fish with a whole crowd of 5,000 people. In our story today we also read about two men praying. One man acted like Jonah. This man prayed about how terrific he was. He acted better than everyone else and that's what his prayer said. The other man was very humble. He went into a corner and told God how badly he felt because he couldn't do everything right. Jesus said the humble man felt much better after he prayed. He didn't brag in his prayer. He told God just how he felt. God doesn't want to hear how terrific we are. God doesn't want us to brag in our prayers like we were telling someone a "fish story." God wants us to be humble and tell how we really feel in our prayers. If we do this, we will really feel better like the humble man in the story.
