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Changing In The Spirit

Children's sermon
2 Corinthians 3:12--4:2
Wesley T. Runk
The Giant Book Of Children's Sermons
Matthew To Revelation
Object: 
a heating pad
Good morning, boys and girls.

How many of you have a heating pad? (let them answer) Aren't they great? I think a heating pad when you are sick is one of the best things that I know. As a matter of fact it seems to make you feel better than all of the medicine. Do you remember the last time you had a cold and you felt just terrible? Shivering one minute and so very hot the next that you knew something had to be wrong. After your mother gave you medicine she might have asked you if you would like the heating pad.

The best part of the heating pad is the little switch that comes with it. Sometimes you put the pad on your cold feet and sometimes you like to lay it under you, but you always hold on to the switch. Do you remember what the switch looks like? (let them answer) That's right; it usually has colors and one of them is hotter than the rest. You can have it on warm, pretty warm, or hot. You can change it by degrees. Most people start out with "hot" and then change it to pretty warm and then back to nice, plain warm. You keep changing the heat by degrees with that little switch. How many of you remember that switch? (let them answer)

Did you know that Jesus is changing you by degrees just like you change the heating pad by degrees? Did you know that his Spirit was changing you everyday so that you will be a little more like him all of the time? That's right. God is working on you through the Spirit to change you a little bit by a little bit so that you are becoming more like him every day. Isn't that great? We are changing by degrees. Do you remember the heating pad and how you would push the switch and you would never know when it got a little cooler or a little hotter but it just all of a sudden was not as hot or not as cold as it was before you moved the switch? That is the way the Spirit of God is working inside of you. Everyday that you learn and practice the things Jesus teaches you, you find that you are becoming more like Jesus. I think that is wonderful, and I am sure that you think so too.

The next time you take a look at your heating pad, look at the switch and see what I mean. Turn it on to warm first, and then move it up. You will not know when it got hot, but pretty soon you will feel the difference. You have changed the heat by degrees. The Spirit of God is changing you and making you more like the Lord Jesus every day. That is one of the ways God works, and I think it is one of the best.

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