Childrens Sermon Service

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (vv. 5-6)


Hi, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have two things I want to show you today. Are you ready? (Let them respond.) Great! Here is the first one. (Show the empty grape cluster.) it looks kind of sad, doesn’t it? (Let them respond.) Now, what about this one? (Show the full cluster of grapes and let them respond.) They are both branches that grapes grow on, aren’t they? But this one (show the full cluster) looks a lot better than the other one, doesn’t it? (Let them respond.) What makes it better? (Let them respond.) It has grapes on it, yes! Grape vines and branches are supposed to grow grapes, so a cluster that doesn’t have grapes is kind of sad looking.

One day Jesus was talking and said that people are a lot like grapevines. He said that some people are like this bunch of grapes (show the full cluster) and do the things that God wants them to do. Jesus said it was like they produce a lot of fruit. But he said that some other people are more like this cluster (show the empty cluster) and don’t do the things God wants them to do, and just don’t produce very much fruit.

Now, I have another question for you. This one is about grapes. How do these grapes grow? These little vines are connected to something else, aren’t they? (Let them respond.) They are connected to the bigger branches of the grape vines that get the water from the ground to make the grapes grow. So, the little branches here need the big grapevine to grow their fruit, right? (Let them respond.) Jesus said that is the secret for us to be able to grow fruit for God, too. He said we need to remember that he is the big vine that can help us do what God wants us to do and grow fruit. He said that he is the vine, and we are the branches, and if we stay with him, we will produce fruit for God. Pretty cool, huh? (Let them respond.)

And he even told us what we need to do if we want to stay with him. He said that if we want to follow him and be with him, we need to take care of his sheep. And who are Jesus’ sheep? (Let them respond.) Yes. We all are. Jesus wants us to take care of each other, and help each other, especially those people who might really need our help. And if we do things to show people we love them, we will end up looking like this (show the full cluster) and not like this (show the empty cluster).

I’ll tell you the truth, I would much rather be this branch (show the full cluster) than this branch (show the empty cluster).

OPTIONAL: And I’ll tell you why. Because I REALLY like grapes (Pick and eat a grape.) Does anyone else like grapes? (Let them respond and give a grape to each child that wants one.) Yes, it is good to produce fruit, isn’t it? (Let them respond.)

I hope you’ll remember how much God loves you, and how much God wants us to show everyone around us how much we love them, too.

Let’s have our prayer and ask God to help us remember.

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us. 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.