Childrens Sermon Service

Good morning, boys and girls. I brought a yardstick today because I want to talk about measuring things. What kinds of things do you measure with a yardstick? (let them answer) You can measure the size of rooms, how long a table is, the size of furniture to see if it will fit through a door, and how big windows are. Do any of you keep a chart on a door or wall of how tall you are? (wait for a show of hands) Some of you have a chart on a wall or door. How tall are you? (let them answer) How often do you get measured? (let them answer) Some people get measured once a month or maybe every two or three months. Are you disappointed when you are still the same and haven't grown at all? (let them answer) Most children want to grow taller. How tall do you want to be? (let them answer) Some of you might get as tall as you want. When you want to be a certain height, we call that a goal. Once there was a little boy and he had a goal to jump higher each day until he could finally touch the ceiling. He put a chart on the wall. Each day he jumped to see how high he could jump and then he marked it on the chart. His goal was to touch the ceiling. Every few months he could jump higher and touch a little bit closer to the ceiling. As he grew taller he could jump higher and touch higher on the chart. After a few years, he was tall enough to jump and touch the ceiling. He reached his goal.

Our lesson today is about trying really hard to reach goals. The person in our lesson had a goal, too. It wasn't to be very tall or to jump and touch the ceiling. His goal was to follow Jesus and teach other people to love God and to love each other. Each day he got a little closer to his goal. He knew that following Jesus and trying to be like him was a very good goal to have. It was probably the best goal in the world.