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(Children's Sermon Service...Plus)

Good morning! Let me share with you a little story. Johnny was playing outside. He pretended he was a mighty ninja warrior. He was having lots of fun, but it was getting darker and darker. Then he heard his mother call from the back door: "Johnny. It's time to eat." But Johnny didn't feel hungry. He was having way too much fun to worry about eating. He would much rather defeat the enemy he pretended was on the other side of the shrubbery alongside his house.

Good evening! How come we're in church tonight? Does anyone
know what day this is? (Let them answer.) Today is Ash Wednesday,
the first day of Lent. As we begin this season of Lent, we are
supposed to think about our sins and ask God for forgiveness. I
thought I would give you a demonstration of how you might think
about that.

I will pick one of you to illustrate this problem of sin.
(Pick the smallest, weakest child.) __________, you see this
stack of books I have here? Let's pretend that each one of these
books is a book of your sins. Every time you have sinned, the sin
is written in a book, and here we have a whole stack of your
sins. Do you think your sins would fill that many books? (Let the

And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. (v. 16)

Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know how to make a funny looking face? (let them show you their funny faces) Some of those faces were not very funny but kind of scary. I want to see a face that makes me smile, maybe even laugh if it is funny enough. (let them try again) That was much better. Only a couple of scary faces that time.

Now I am looking for an ugly face. I want the ugliest face that you know how to make. (let them try that) Those are pretty good ugly faces. Can you just sit

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (v. 21)

Good morning, boys and girls. Has anyone ever talked to you about sin? (let them answer) Can you tell me what is sin? (let them answer) Do you know what sin does to you? (let them answer)

Sin is really bad. Sin is so bad that it causes us to break away from God. God has no sin and we are filled with sin. This is what causes our break up. Sin causes us to hurt sometimes, it causes us to hide sometimes and it can even make us sick enough to die. That is how bad sin is for us.

I want you to see what sin can do so I brought along some paint to help us better

SHARING THIS WEEK'S GOSPEL THEME AT SUNDAY SCHOOL AND AT HOME

Materials:
Craft foam
Small clay pots
Heavy glue
Rye grass seed or other grassy-looking plant seed
Potting soil
Shovel

Directions:

1. Give each of the children a clay pot and some craft foam.

2. Tell each of the children to form a mouth, eyes, ears, and a nose from the foam.

3. Have the children glue their "faces" onto the pot using the heavy glue. Encourage them to be creative and have some things like the ears stick out from the pots.

4. Using the shovel, put potting soil into each pot.

5. Give each of the children a few seeds to plant in their pots.

SHARING THIS WEEK'S GOSPEL THEME
AT SUNDAY SCHOOL AND AT HOME


Materials:
Oven
Break and bake cookies or other food that children can help prepare


Directions:
Have children help prepare cookies or other food to take to a local shelter or soup kitchen. Lead a discussion about why we should be thankful for our food and how we can show that thankfulness to God or to others.

What do you think of when you see a beautiful present (let kids respond) Maybe birthdays...

Let's imagine that it is your mom's or dad's birthday and you want to give them something very special. We are often anxious for them to open our gift first and to notice our amazing gift and kindness. But in our Bible lesson today it says in Matthew 6:1, Be careful not to do your "acts of righteousness" (or acts of kindness) before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven."

Lent can be an odd time for church kids. They are intuitive and can sense that something has changed. If we do not seek to explain why the mood and tone of the community has changed it can be a scary time. We talk more about death, especially Jesus dying, so we need to prepare kids for what is coming.

Say something like:

Today is an important day for churches. That’s why we are here on a Wednesday which is not something we do too often. Today is called Ash Wednesday. This day starts a 6-week time period where we focus on the sacrifice Jesus made for us when he died on the cross. These 6 weeks are called Lent.

Object: Create cards for a game of Charades. I usually keep them very simple, like “Playing baseball,” “Jumping rope,” “Eating,” or other pretty obvious activities. Have one card say, “Following God” but keep it until the end and do not give it to one of the players. Have a child draw a card and stand up to act out their activity while the others guess what it is. I usually only have three or four children play because of time, but you can do as many as you like. Most of all, have fun with it.

* * *

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! Let’s go!

Good evening! It's not often I get to say good evening
because we're usually here in the morning. Why are we all in
church tonight? (Let them answer.) Yes, this is Ash Wednesday,
the first day of Lent. Lent is a time when we spend time
thinking about our sins and what Jesus did for us to take those
sins away. It's a time to think about what is most important in
our life.

How many of you have ever played Monopoly? (Let them
answer.) Here are some deeds from a game of Monopoly. Which of
these properties is the most valuable? (Show the deeds and let
them pick out Park Place and Boardwalk.) Park Place and Boardwalk
are the most valuable. If you have these two and you have hotels

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (v. 1)

Good morning, boys and girls. I brought some colored markers so that you and I can think about the devil. What do you think the devil looks like? Do you think he has a round face or a long face? (let them answer) What kind of eyes and ears does he have? (let them answer) Does he have long arms or short arms? (let them answer) Do you think he wears a tie or a turtleneck shirt? (let them answer; continue the process until you have a picture of the devil)

Not many people want to meet the devil because he is bad. You can't trust him and he hates God. Every day the devil plans how to do really bad things to people and to God.

SHARING THIS WEEK'S GOSPEL THEME AT SUNDAY SCHOOL AND AT HOME

Materials:
Paper plates (not styrofoam)
Scissors
Markers or crayons
Stickers and other decorative materials
Brads (fasteners)

Directions:

1. Give each of the children two paper plates.

2. Have the children cut one-fourth of the plate out of one of their plates. This cut should be like cutting away one-fourth of a pie.

3. Instruct the children to place this plate to the side and throw away the one-quarter cutout piece.

4. Using markers or crayons, have the children divide their other plates into quarters, and write a different prayer topic in each of the quarters.

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him. (v. 11)

Good morning, boys and girls! How are you this morning? (allow answers) How many of you have ever seen a cartoon where the main character has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other? (allow answers) What do the angel and devil say to the character? (allow answers) The angel gives the character good advice; the devil gives the character bad advice. The character has to choose which shoulder he wants to listen to. He has to choose whether to make a good choice or a bad one. Even though both the angel and devil are giving him advice, he can only listen to one of them.

"Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all." (v. 18)

Good morning, boys and girls! How are you this morning? (allow answers) Who can tell me what these are? (show dominoes; allow answers) These are called dominoes. How many of you have ever played with dominoes? (allow answers) Dominoes are a very old game. Your parents or grandparents probably played when they were your age! Dominoes are kind of like playing cards: with one set of dominoes, you can play many different games.

SHARING THIS WEEK'S GOSPEL THEME
AT SUNDAY SCHOOL AND AT HOME


Materials:
Flashlights (one per child)


Directions:
1. Give each child a flashlight.

2. Turn off all the lights in the room. The room should be in total darkness. If the room has lots of windows, relocate somewhere dark for this activity.

3. Discuss how sin makes us live in the dark. Have the children tell you what they think it means to live in the dark.

4. Have the children take turns confessing something that they are sorry for -- something for which they repent. After each child repents, instruct him or her to turn on his or her flashlight.

How many of you like to play soccer?  How many of you like to be on the winning team?  Our lives are sort of like a soccer game.  Each day we get to choose who is going to be the winner.  Do we give God a free kick or Satan the free kick?

Jesus had to make some hard choices too.  He was like us.  Satan came to him and tried to persuade and tempt him to sin and do wrong things.  Satan told him to worship him instead of worship God. But Jesus got the goal for God and said "Away from me Satan!  For it is written, "Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." (Matthew 4:10) 

Jesus sets the bar high by resisting temptation even from the imagination of the devil. To show just how amazing that accomplishment is this lesson will put temptation in each kids’ hands. You may have seen the videos of kids in a room alone with a marshmallow. They are challenged to not eat the marshmallow then left alone in the room. The kids obviously struggle with the temptation to eat the marshmallow. For this lesson you can use marshmallows or Oreos, both are relatively allergen free. If you use marshmallows I recommend getting the big roasting kind.

Object:  A cookie, a trophy or award of some kind, and a pair of socks.

* * *

Good morning, boys and girls. I brought a bottle of (name of brand) with me this morning. Do any of you have this at your house? (Let them answer.) This is medicine. Why do we take medicine? (Let them answer.) That's right. We take medicine when we don't feel well. If we have a headache, and maybe a high temperature, taking some of this medicine will help us feel better. Sometimes you begin to feel better just by knowing that mom or dad is getting ready to give you some. Does that ever happen? (Let them answer.)

This bottle of (name the brand) reminds me of today's lesson. In the lesson Paul is preaching about sin. Sin is when people do things that are wrong. He says that sin came into the world and sin brought death. Death spread to all people because all people

Jesus spent 40 days in the desert and for 40 days he did not eat! It was a hard time for him. Imagine how hungry he must have gotten. Forty days is a long time to go without food.

I brought along a yardstick to kind of measure off what those 40 days would be like. If each inch were like a day, we would go from 1 to 7 and have the first week (Count the "days" on the yardstick.)

In this hard time of 40 days, Jesus was tempted, which means that the devil tried to get him to go against God. "God wouldn't want you to be hungry," maybe the devil said. "Why not eat something?" Or, "If you really are God's son, why not make a big impression by getting up on a high place and throwing yourself down and then saving yourself at the bottom?" The devil might

Good morning! Jesus once spent forty days in the desert
without eating anything. Have any of you ever gone forty days
without eating? (Let them answer.) No, of course not. None of us
have done that, but if you did that, do you think you would be
hungry? (Let them answer.) Yes, you would be, and Jesus was
hungry, too. The devil came to Jesus and tempted him. The devil
showed Jesus some stones like these (show the stones) and he
said, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become
loaves of bread." He was tempting Jesus to do something wrong.
Jesus was the Son of God, and he didn't need to do tricks to
prove it. How do you think Jesus answered the devil when he