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Someone you can trust

Children's sermon
Object: 
a bowl and two eggs (one hard-boiled egg, one not hard-boiled)
Good morning, boys and girls. Do you know what a hard-boiled egg is? (Let them answer.) I brought two eggs with me this morning. One is hard-boiled. When I crack its shell I can eat it. The other is not hard-boiled. It's like Humpty-Dumpty. When I crack it, it will break. Sometimes your parents may give you a hard-boiled egg for lunch. When they do, you trust them that it is really hard-boiled. Your parents wouldn't give you an egg like Humpty-Dumpty, would they?

It is very important that you can trust your parents. When you trust people you know that they won't play tricks on you. We trust that drivers will stop at red lights so that we may cross the street safely. We trust that our doctor will help us get well when we are sick. We trust that our teachers are telling us how to read and write correctly. When our parents prepare a meal we trust that the eggs are hard-boiled.

There is someone else that we must trust. That person is the reason we come to church. Who is that person? (Let them answer.) That person is Jesus. This morning's lesson is a story about trusting Jesus. The disciples are in a ship and a storm is raging. They are very afraid. Jesus does something that amazes them. He is on the shore watching their boat. He walks out to the boat "on the water" as he does Peter sees him. Peter calls to Jesus and steps out into the water. Then, suddenly Peter loses his trust in Jesus. He sinks into the water. Jesus reaches out to Peter and pulls Peter from the water to save him. In this story, the water is like our life. Our life is full of good times and bad times. We must remember that in the bad times we should continue to trust Jesus. Jesus is always present when we need him. He is there for us to trust. Just like our parents and hard- boiled eggs, which we trust our parents will give us -- we can trust Jesus to help us. Now let's see which one is hard-boiled and which is not. (Break both eggs, one at a time, in a bowl.)
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NOTE: This is a simple role-play story. You will need one boy to play the role of Jesus, and one girl to play the role of Mary. Since these are not speaking roles, this may be an opportunity to have a child help who might be hesitant to do a more involved role.

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