Childrens Sermon Service

Object: The lying game. You have probably played this game but called it something else. The idea is that you will ask a child a question, have them either answer truthfully or with a lie, and then have everyone else try to guess if they are telling the truth or not. After everyone has guessed, ask the child if they told the truth or not so everyone knows if they were right and then either congratulation the child for tricking everyone, or congratulate the others for guessing correctly. I suggest asking an older child first, so everyone sees how the game works and then ask as many children as you have time for. I will give you a few sample questions, and you may add more of your own if you want. Have fun with the game!

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! Let’s get started! And we are going to start our story by playing a game.

You may have played a game like this before and called it something else, but I call it “The Lying Game”. It works like this. I am going to ask one of you a question and when you answer it, you can either tell me the truth or tell me a lie. It’s up to you. Then the rest of us have to guess if you are telling us the truth, or if you are lying to us. Are you ready to try the game? (Let them respond.) Great. Let’s try it. (Select your first child to play.)

I’ll ask you the question, and you can either tell me the truth or not tell me the truth, okay? (Let them respond.) Have you ever ridden in an airplane? (Let them respond.) Now, what does everyone think? Is he/she telling the truth? Have they ever really ridden in an airplane before? (Let them respond, and after they respond, as the child if they told the truth or did not tell the truth.)

Okay, let’s try it again. (Select another child to play.) Have you ever gone swimming in the ocean? (Let them respond.) What does everyone think? Is he/she telling the truth? Have they ever really gone swimming in the ocean before? (Let them respond, and after they respond, as the child if they told the truth or did not tell the truth.)

Let’s play one more time. (Select another child to play.) Have you ever touched a cow? (Let them respond.) What does everyone think? Is he/she telling the truth? Have they ever really touched a cow before? (Let them respond, and after they respond, as the child if they told the truth or did not tell the truth.)

Have you ever played that game before? (Let them respond.) It’s a fun game to play, but sometimes, it isn’t any fun at all if someone doesn’t tell us the truth. The problem is that if we know that someone ever lies to us, we don’t really know if they will lie to us again, do we? (Let them respond.) If we lie to someone, it will be really hard for them to ever trust us again, because they will wonder if we are just lying again. And that is what our story is about this morning.

Jesus was talking with his friends about what God was going to do for them when he went away. His friends were all worried about what would happen when Jesus wasn’t with them. He had always told them the truth, but lots of other people had told them things that weren’t true at all. Some people told them that God would not like them if they ate certain foods or talked to certain people or touched certain people, or did anything those people didn’t want them to do. But Jesus told them that all that God really wanted them to do was to just take care of each other. Those other people told them they had to follow all of their rules, but Jesus said those people weren’t telling the truth, didn’t he? (Let them respond.) So, Jesus’ friends didn’t know if they could ever trust those people again, and if Jesus wasn’t there, they didn’t know who they could trust at all. So, I’ll bet they were pretty scared, don’t you? (Let them respond.) It is kind of scary if we don’t know if we can trust anyone, isn’t it? (Let them respond.)

Let me ask you another question. Why do you think people tell lies? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we tell lies so we don’t get into trouble, don’t we? (Let them respond.) Maybe we did something someone didn’t want us to do, and we didn’t want to get into trouble, so we lied and said we didn’t do it. And sometimes we tell a lie to make ourselves look cool, don’t we? (Let them respond.) And sometimes we tell a lie to trick other people and get them to do something we want them to do, don’t we? (Let them respond.) That’s what the people did who lied to Jesus’ friends, wasn’t it? (Let them respond.) They wanted them to do what they wanted, so they told them that if they didn’t do what they said, God would hate them. And that was a lie, wasn’t it? (Let them respond.)

So, Jesus told his friends that they didn’t have to worry even when he wasn’t with them.  He said they didn’t have to worry because God was going to send someone to be with them who never lie to them and would only tell them things that God had told them to say. They would never say something that wasn’t true just to trick them, or to make them do something, or to make themselves look special. God would send Jesus’ friends someone who would NEVER EVER lie to them, so they could always believe and trust them.

And when Jesus left, God sent us something we call the Holy Spirit, just like Jesus said God would do. The spirit is something we can’t see, but it lives inside each one of us and it always tells us the truth. Have you even thought about doing something you knew you should do, or thought about telling someone a lie, but heard a little voice inside saying, “You really shouldn’t do that, you know!”? That was probably the voice of God’s spirit reminding you that you should do it, wasn’t it? (Let them respond.)

So, if God wants us to always tell the truth, let me ask you a few more quick questions and see what you think. If we are always supposed to tell the truth, do you think we should tell people that God does not like some people and we need to make them go away so they aren’t around us anymore? (Let them respond.) That isn’t the truth, is it? (Let them respond.) Do you think we should ever tell people that rich people are more special than people who aren’t rich? (Let them respond.) That isn’t the truth, is it? (Let them respond.) Do you think we should ever tell people that if they won’t do what we want them to do, God wants us to hurt them? (Let them respond.) That isn’t the truth, is it? (Let them respond.)

Sometimes, telling a lie might be fun in a game like the one we played. But I hope our story will help us remember that Jesus said that we should always tell the truth that God wants us to take care of each other, didn’t he? (Let them respond.)

Let’s pray and ask God to remind us that Jesus loves every one of us and wants us to follow him and take care of each other the way God takes care of us.

Prayer
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us and for forgiving us when we forget that. And please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.