Free Access

The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. -- Ephesians 4:11

Materials Needed
Three potatoes
Card stock printed with scripture reference and verse

Telling The Story
I'd like to show you something. Does anyone know what this is? (Show a potato. Let the children answer.) That's right. It's a potato! I love potatoes! Potatoes taste good. They're full of vitamins and minerals that help us stay healthy, and there are many different ways we can cook potatoes.

One of my favorite ways to eat a potato is to bake it. I love baked potatoes. I bake it at 425 degrees for an hour, split it open, and top it with (list your favorite potato toppings). Mmm ... that sounds good. In fact, it sounds so good that I think I'll take this potato home and bake it for supper. (Set the potato aside, where the children can see it.)

I'd like to you show something else. (Show the second potato.) Does anyone know what this is? (Let the children answer.) That's right! It's a potato! I love potatoes. They taste good, they're full of vitamins and minerals that help us stay healthy, and there are many different ways we can cook them.

One of my other favorite ways to eat a potato is to mash it. I peel the potato, boil it in water for twenty minutes, drain off the water, add a little milk and a little butter, and then mash the potatoes with my hand mixer. Sometimes I eat mashed potatoes with gravy and sometimes I eat them plain. Usually I cut up my meat and dip each bite in the mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes are so good. In fact, that sounds so good that I think I'll take this potato home and make mashed potatoes for supper tomorrow. (Set the potato next to the first potato, where the children can see both.)

I'd like to show you something else. (Show the third potato.) Does anyone know what this is? (Let the children answer.) That's right! It's a potato! I love potatoes. They taste good, they're full of vitamins and minerals that help us stay healthy, and there are many different ways we can cook them.

Another way that I like to eat potatoes is to make hash browns. Now, hash browns aren't quite as good for me as baked potatoes and mashed potatoes. Hash browns have to be fried in grease or vegetable oil, which adds a little fat to them. But I still like to eat them. In fact, hash browns sound so good that I think I'll take this potato home and make hash browns for supper the day after tomorrow. (Set this potato by the other two, where the children can see them.)

Here we have three potatoes. Do you know what the amount of food you eat at one time is called? (Let the children answer.) It's called a "serving." Probably that name came from the fact that when someone gives you some food, they serve you, but there's another way we could think of it. Remember the vitamins and minerals that I said are in the potato. We could think of the potato as serving whoever eats it. It serves you or me by giving us the nutrition that we need. The potato is serving me when I eat it for supper.

How are people like potatoes? (Let the children offer some answers.) All those are good ideas, but there's another way.

Remember the potato? It serves me by giving me nutrition, but it can do that in many different ways. I could bake it, mash it, fry it, and I can cook the potato in other ways, too. There are many different ways the potato can serve me. Potatoes serve people, and people serve God. But guess what? There are many different ways that we can serve God. Who has some ideas? (Let the children suggest ways that people can serve God.) That's great! You've thought of a lot of ways we can serve God. Those ways are all different, but they're all important, and they all ultimately serve God.

(Hold up the card stock with the scripture reference and verse printed on it.) Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, gives us some ideas, too. In Ephesians 4:11, he wrote, "The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers." These are just some of the ways that Paul says we can serve God. They're all different and they all ultimately serve God.

Now, how are people different than potatoes? (Let the children offer some answers.) Very good! Those are all ways we are different than potatoes, but there is another very important way.

Remember the potato? It can only serve one person, one way, and only one time. After I eat this potato, it'll be gone. I can never eat it again. But people aren't like that. Each one of us can serve God many times and many different ways. In fact, God will probably ask you to serve him different ways at different times in your life. The important things to remember are that:

1. Everyone is able to serve God -- so never think that you can't.

2. God is never "done" with you. God is always able to use you, even when you think you don't have any abilities, even if someday you think you're too old, or too tired. Even if you think you've sinned so badly that God won't ever want to hear from you ever again, he still loves you and will still use you if you let him.

So always be alert for ways that you can serve God and always be listening for God's directions, and then you can serve God, like a potato!

Prayer
Dear Lord,

Thank you for this beautiful day, and thank you for making potatoes that give us some of the nutrition we need. Please help us to remember that we can serve you in many different ways and help us to see how you want each of us, as individuals, to serve. Thank you for guiding us.

In Jesus' name. Amen.