Black And White
Children's sermon
From a Mustard Seed
Children's Sermons
Object:
Each child will need a sheet of white paper and a black crayon
Message: How many of you are good at coloring? I know you do a really good job because I've seen some of the work you have done in your Sunday School classes! I was really impressed by the beautiful choices of colors in those pictures!
This morning we are going to do a little bit of coloring during the service here. I brought along a piece of paper for each of you. Each piece is blank. And I also brought a crayon for each person and I'll pass these out right now. Did you notice that all the crayons are black? That probably doesn't seem like it will make a very great picture, but that is all I had today.
Now I want everyone to place his or her crayon right in the middle of the paper and make a dot. From there I want you to start going in wider and wider circles out from the middle until you are making a circle around the other circle. Continue that all the way out until you have reached the edge of the paper. Then using the same crayon I want you to fill in that picture. Color up and down, sideways, every way you can so that most of that paper is filled up with coloring.
All right. Now show us what you did. Hey, that is great! Good circle ... good filling in between the lines. You did everything I wanted you to do. Now I want you to do just one more thing. Erase everything you just did on that paper so that it is as clean as when you started. You can't do that, can you? None of us can do that because even if we could get some of that crayon off, there would still be a lot of shading left so that it wouldn't be as white as when you started.
That is exactly what the Bible tells us is the problem with our lives and the times we sin. When we do bad things, and hurt others, and don't obey God, we are filling up our, lives with black marks, just like you filled up this paper. That is not something we can fix in ourselves. However, that is something God can fix! He says that if we confess our sins to Him and ask Jesus to forgive us, He will make us as clean as this new sheet of white paper (show an uncolored sheet). That is how powerful God is! We need to ask Him to fill our lives with that forgiveness each day!
This morning we are going to do a little bit of coloring during the service here. I brought along a piece of paper for each of you. Each piece is blank. And I also brought a crayon for each person and I'll pass these out right now. Did you notice that all the crayons are black? That probably doesn't seem like it will make a very great picture, but that is all I had today.
Now I want everyone to place his or her crayon right in the middle of the paper and make a dot. From there I want you to start going in wider and wider circles out from the middle until you are making a circle around the other circle. Continue that all the way out until you have reached the edge of the paper. Then using the same crayon I want you to fill in that picture. Color up and down, sideways, every way you can so that most of that paper is filled up with coloring.
All right. Now show us what you did. Hey, that is great! Good circle ... good filling in between the lines. You did everything I wanted you to do. Now I want you to do just one more thing. Erase everything you just did on that paper so that it is as clean as when you started. You can't do that, can you? None of us can do that because even if we could get some of that crayon off, there would still be a lot of shading left so that it wouldn't be as white as when you started.
That is exactly what the Bible tells us is the problem with our lives and the times we sin. When we do bad things, and hurt others, and don't obey God, we are filling up our, lives with black marks, just like you filled up this paper. That is not something we can fix in ourselves. However, that is something God can fix! He says that if we confess our sins to Him and ask Jesus to forgive us, He will make us as clean as this new sheet of white paper (show an uncolored sheet). That is how powerful God is! We need to ask Him to fill our lives with that forgiveness each day!
