Second chance
Children's sermon
Object:
a branch from a fruit tree
Good morning! Today I have a branch from an apple tree (or
other fruit tree). Do you see any apples on it? Not yet. It's not
the time for apples. But these buds will turn into flowers and
the flowers will turn into apples. I believe it.
But what if the apple tree just sits there and even when warmer weather comes, the flowers that bring the fruit don't come? Is it doing me any good? Not really. Apple trees are planted to produce apples. If the apple tree doesn't do anything for several years, then I might just cut down the apple tree and plant a new one in its place -- one that will bear apples.
Before I do that, though, I want to help this apple tree. I'll put fertilizer on it and I'll spray it with spray to keep some of the bugs from destroying the apple blossoms. I want to do everything I can to make sure the apple tree gets enough water and sunlight so that it can produce many apples.
God also gives us all that we need to do good things with our lives. God gives us parents to provide food and drink and a house to live in. God gives us Sunday school and church to teach us what is right and is wrong. God wants us to be good, productive people.
Sometimes we fail -- just as this apple tree might not give me any apples this year. But I want to give it a second chance. God also gives us another chance today to do what is right. That is why we always want to do what is right. We want to please God and do what we were created to do.
Jesus told a similar story -- but he used the example of a fig tree. It explained to people that they are supposed to do right, but that God does give us a second chance.
But what if the apple tree just sits there and even when warmer weather comes, the flowers that bring the fruit don't come? Is it doing me any good? Not really. Apple trees are planted to produce apples. If the apple tree doesn't do anything for several years, then I might just cut down the apple tree and plant a new one in its place -- one that will bear apples.
Before I do that, though, I want to help this apple tree. I'll put fertilizer on it and I'll spray it with spray to keep some of the bugs from destroying the apple blossoms. I want to do everything I can to make sure the apple tree gets enough water and sunlight so that it can produce many apples.
God also gives us all that we need to do good things with our lives. God gives us parents to provide food and drink and a house to live in. God gives us Sunday school and church to teach us what is right and is wrong. God wants us to be good, productive people.
Sometimes we fail -- just as this apple tree might not give me any apples this year. But I want to give it a second chance. God also gives us another chance today to do what is right. That is why we always want to do what is right. We want to please God and do what we were created to do.
Jesus told a similar story -- but he used the example of a fig tree. It explained to people that they are supposed to do right, but that God does give us a second chance.
