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Doing What God Wants

Children's sermon
The Giant Book Of Children's Sermons
Matthew To Revelation
Object: a list of chores, like doing the dishes, setting the table, caring for the pets, cleaning a room, mowing the grass, and so on


Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk a little bit about belonging to the family of God. This is really something important, but we don't talk very much about it. We talk a lot about the things that God does for us, and we should because he has done and continues to do everything for us. But we want to talk about what it is like to belong to the family of God, and about some of the things that we should do.

Let me explain. If you live in a family, you do certain things. Your father works, maybe your mother works, so that you have money to buy the things you need such as clothes, food, and a house. There are a lot of other things that your parents do for their family. They make the meals that we eat and repair the things that break and help us with our problems.

But you have things to do also. I have a list of chores, or jobs, that maybe you do around the house. When you do them, the family is happy. I suppose you know how it is when you forget to do them. My list has things like doing the dishes and taking care of the pets. I also think that a lot of children take care of their rooms, set the table, help mow the grass, take out the trash, and a lot of other things. Do any of you do things like this? (let them answer) Good. A lot of you do chores or jobs. Do you ever forget to do them? (let them answer) Does anyone get unhappy when you do forget to do them? (let them answer) I know that kind of unhappiness. But I also know how happy the home is when everyone is doing what they are supposed to do. It makes a good place to live.

The Bible teaches us that the same thing is true about the family of God. We all know what God has done for us. That is great. But we also know that there are some commandments that God gave us to keep. It is very important that we keep doing the things that God told us to do, like loving our God and loving our neighbor. We should do things that make others happy or help them when they need help. We should worship God every day of our lives and come together at least one day a week to worship as a big group. We should visit the lonely and help people who have done wrong to try again to do right. There are a lot of things that we should do to make the family of God a very happy family. When we forget that there are others, then we also forget that we are a family.

So, remember the commandments of God, just like you should remember to do the things that are asked of you at home, and we will all have wonderful families and God will bless us with great love.
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