The rules aren't enough
Children's sermon
Object:
a picture of the Ten Commandments
How many of you have rules that you have to follow? Rules are everywhere: at home, in church, in school -- even rules for how we ride our bicycles in the street. Tell me some of the rules that you know. (Get responses.) Rules are important for us, and we have them for lots of reasons. They make us good citizens, keep us safe, and make it easier for us to live with one another.
This is a picture of the Ten Commandments. They are rules that were given to God's people many, many thousands of years ago. These rules told the people the best way to live and how to behave the way God wanted. All they had to do to find favor with God was follow these rules and do the things that pleased him.
Many centuries later Jesus was born, and he taught people a new way to live and find favor with God. This new way was different from the old way that the people had been taught, and in some ways it was much harder. Jesus taught that rules, although important, are not the way to find and know God. Being a good citizen isn't what is most important to God. God wants something else. The only true way to God is to love him with your whole heart and to depend on him to be the most important thing in your life.
It is a wonderful thing to follow the rules and do what's right, but that's not what makes you a Christian. Being a Christian means following Christ: trusting him, depending on him, and living your life the way he did. He must mean more to you than anything else in the whole world. Living this way is really hard to do. It would be much easier if we could follow the rules, do the right things, and have that be enough to please God. Don't get me wrong: those things do please God, but he asks for more. He wants to be the most important thing in your life because you are the most important thing in his. Pay attention to the rules, but love God most of all.
Prayer: Thank you, God, for how much you love us. Help us give our lives to you and make you more important to us than anything else in the whole world. Amen.
This is a picture of the Ten Commandments. They are rules that were given to God's people many, many thousands of years ago. These rules told the people the best way to live and how to behave the way God wanted. All they had to do to find favor with God was follow these rules and do the things that pleased him.
Many centuries later Jesus was born, and he taught people a new way to live and find favor with God. This new way was different from the old way that the people had been taught, and in some ways it was much harder. Jesus taught that rules, although important, are not the way to find and know God. Being a good citizen isn't what is most important to God. God wants something else. The only true way to God is to love him with your whole heart and to depend on him to be the most important thing in your life.
It is a wonderful thing to follow the rules and do what's right, but that's not what makes you a Christian. Being a Christian means following Christ: trusting him, depending on him, and living your life the way he did. He must mean more to you than anything else in the whole world. Living this way is really hard to do. It would be much easier if we could follow the rules, do the right things, and have that be enough to please God. Don't get me wrong: those things do please God, but he asks for more. He wants to be the most important thing in your life because you are the most important thing in his. Pay attention to the rules, but love God most of all.
Prayer: Thank you, God, for how much you love us. Help us give our lives to you and make you more important to us than anything else in the whole world. Amen.
