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The Great Picnic

Children's sermon
The Giant Book Of Children's Sermons
Matthew To Revelation
Object: a basketful of pieces of broken bread


Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have heard of the time that Jesus fed 5,000 people with just a couple of loves of bread and some fish that a little boy had in his basket? (let them answer) We call that happening a miracle. No one else could have done this, except for Jesus, and he did it several times. We can't explain it and we don't even try to. All we know is that a lot of people were with him one day at supper time and no one had anything to eat. The disciples wanted to send the people away, but Jesus told them that they should invite the people to stay and be fed. It seemed impossible to feed that many, but they knew that Jesus could do some amazing things, so they invited the people to sit down and wait for something to happen.

Jesus sent the disciples out to find whatever little bit of food they could and bring it back to him. They found one little boy whose mother had packed him a lunch of bread and fish. When the disciples came back with it, Jesus took the bread and fish and thanked God for it and then broke it up into little pieces. Each disciple was given some of the pieces to give to all of the people who were there. Each person thanked the disciples and then ate all that he wanted. Some of the people took more than they could eat at first because they were afraid that there might not be enough. But as the disciples kept going to each group of people and giving them the bread and fish, there was more than when they started. Pretty soon everyone had enough to eat and still there was some left.

Jesus told the disciples to take and basket and collect the leftovers. They went out and people started putting back what they could not eat. Do you remember that they started with only five loaves of bread and two fish? When the disciples came back, there were twelve baskets full of bread and fish left over. What a picnic! No one had ever been to one like it before. Can you imagine what it must have been like to have been there that day with Jesus? You would never forget it, would you? (let them answer)

The next time you sit down to your table and you see bread in a basket, perhaps you will think about the day that Jesus showed the power of God with a great picnic lunch.
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In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the people how they could be blessed by God and experience God's kingdom. In our worship today let us explore the Sermon on the Mount.

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Jesus, sometimes I'm full of pride instead of being poor in spirit.
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* * * * * * * *


Child Sacrifice
Sandra Herrmann
Micah 6:1-8

SermonStudio

Stephen P. McCutchan
For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles....
-- 1 Corinthians 1:23-24

Russell F. Anderson
BRIEF COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS

Lesson 1: Micah 6:1--8 (C, E, L)
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The other day I stumbled onto a Discovery Channel show about underwater archaeology (not basket weaving). The archaeologist described the process of identifying the probable location of an underwater wreck site, the grueling work involved in beginning the process, and the same kind of methodical work that characterizes all scientific archaeology. But then her eyes twinkled as she described the joy of uncovering the first artifact, or recognizing a significant discovery. And that of course is what it is all about, the final product of discovery.
Tony S. Everett
Late one night, Pastor Bill was driving home after spending the past 23 hours in the hospital with his wife, celebrating the birth of their son. It had been a glorious day. His wife was peacefully resting. His extended family was ecstatic. His son was healthy. Surely God was in heaven and all was right with the world.

Linda Schiphorst Mccoy
When I'm teaching a class, and want to get a discussion going, I often begin with something that's called a sentence stem. I start a sentence and let the participants complete it. This morning, if I were to ask you to complete this sentence, what would you say? "Happy are those who...." What would you use to complete the thought?
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E-mail
From: KDM
To: God
Subject: Demands On God
Message: All these demands don't make sense, God. Lauds, KDM
R. Glen Miles
What does God want from us? The answer is simple, but it is not easy to put into practice. What God wants is you. What God wants is me. God wants our whole selves. The prophet Micah makes it fairly clear that ultimately God does not care too much about religion and the things that come with it. Religion isn't a bad enterprise. It is okay as a way of reminding us about what God wants, but in the long run being good at religion is not what God desires. What God requires is us. It is simple to understand but not necessarily the thing we would offer to God first.
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Amy C. Schifrin
Martha Shonkwiler
Prayer Of Dedication/Gathering
P: Our Lord Jesus calls each of us to a life of justice, kindness, and humility. We pray that in this hour before us our defenses would fall and your love would be set free within us.
Father, Son, + and Holy Spirit, your mercy knows no end.
C: Amen.

Intercessory Prayers

Emphasis Preaching Journal

David Kalas
We have a prejudice in favor of things complex. Not that we necessarily desire complexity, but somehow we trust it more. We figure that complexity is the prevailing reality in our world, and so we feel obliged to be in touch with it. We would love to hear that this thing or that is really quite simple, but doctors, politicians, futurists, ethicists, economists -- and even some preachers -- keep discouraging us. It's actually quite complicated, we are told, and there is no simple answer.
People tend to say in times of personal or community disaster, "God works in mysterious ways." The point they are making is that when we can't figure out any logical answer to a situation, it must be the work of God. It is one way of making sense out of an inexplicable event.
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In 1993 brothers Tom and David Gardner began a financial information service they named The Motley Fool. Dressed in their trademark court jester hats, the motley fools can be seen and heard offering their advice and warnings concerning the stock market on a variety of talk shows and financial news channels.

CSSPlus

Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have spent time around babies? (let them answer) Babies are so cute when they are happy but hard to please when they are upset. Babies can't talk, can they? (let them answer) So when they don't get what they want they cry. When they are hungry they cry. When they are sleepy they cry. When a stranger tries to hold them they cry. How do we know if babies are sick, hungry, or tired? (let them answer) Most of the time a baby's mom can figure out what's wrong even when we can't.
Teachers or Parents: Have the children sit on the floor and pretend that they are on a mountaintop and learning at Jesus' feet. Ask: "How is this classroom different from classrooms you have seen?" "How is it like them?" Read various portions of the "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5-7) that they might understand (such as Matthew 7:7-11 -- prayer; 7:12 -- the Golden Rule; 7:15 -- being true). Be careful -- many parts of the Sermon on the Mount are difficult for children to understand and may lead to great misunderstanding and perhaps fear.

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