Do You Know His Voice?
Children's sermon
The Giant Book Of Children's Sermons
Matthew To Revelation
Objects: some blindfolds
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you think that you know the voices of other people? I wonder if you would know your mother's voice or your father's voice, or even my voice if you could not see me. Would you like to try? (let them answer) I have some blindfolds that I want you to put on and wear for a few minutes. While I am helping you put on your blindfolds, I want to invite some of your parents to come up front with us. We are going to let them talk to one another while you are blindfolded, and when you hear your mother or father speak, and you are sure that it is your parent talking, then you should walk toward them and hold out your hand. We will see if you know their voices as well as you think you do. (help them put on their blindfolds; invite the parents to gather around and begin to talk about anything; suggest that they talk about what they did this morning before they came to church; it might help if you took each child by the hand and walked him close to the parents; when they have all found their children, or their children have found them, you can invite them to remain for the rest of the sermon)
That was a lot of fun, and we really learned something. Most of us really do know the voices of our parents, don't we? We did this experiment for a very good reason which I am going to share with you right now.
Jesus liked to talk about himself as being a shepherd. He thought that this was a good way to explain how God and people worked together. God is the shepherd, and we are like the sheep. A shepherd takes very good care of his sheep, but the sheep are allowed to do a lot of things on their own. A good shepherd is so close to his sheep that the sheep recognize the shepherd's voice. If there were a lot of sheep and a lot of shepherds together, the sheep would always know the voice of their shepherd, and gather around him.
That is the way it is with Christians. Jesus is our shepherd and we belong to him. When Jesus speaks, we should hear his voice and do what he tells us to do. We should also follow him and behave ourselves in the way that we know that Jesus would behave himself. The voices of the people whom we love are very important to us, and we like to hear them because they make us feel safe and loved.
Jesus has a voice like that, and, though we cannot hear it in the same way, we are sure that he speaks to us in our prayers and through the Bible. That means that we must pray and listen to the Bible; and when we do, we know that Jesus will be just like a shepherd.
The next time that you hear the voice of someone whom you cannot see, I want you to think about today and remember that Jesus speaks to us in many ways to show us how much he loves and cares for us.
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you think that you know the voices of other people? I wonder if you would know your mother's voice or your father's voice, or even my voice if you could not see me. Would you like to try? (let them answer) I have some blindfolds that I want you to put on and wear for a few minutes. While I am helping you put on your blindfolds, I want to invite some of your parents to come up front with us. We are going to let them talk to one another while you are blindfolded, and when you hear your mother or father speak, and you are sure that it is your parent talking, then you should walk toward them and hold out your hand. We will see if you know their voices as well as you think you do. (help them put on their blindfolds; invite the parents to gather around and begin to talk about anything; suggest that they talk about what they did this morning before they came to church; it might help if you took each child by the hand and walked him close to the parents; when they have all found their children, or their children have found them, you can invite them to remain for the rest of the sermon)
That was a lot of fun, and we really learned something. Most of us really do know the voices of our parents, don't we? We did this experiment for a very good reason which I am going to share with you right now.
Jesus liked to talk about himself as being a shepherd. He thought that this was a good way to explain how God and people worked together. God is the shepherd, and we are like the sheep. A shepherd takes very good care of his sheep, but the sheep are allowed to do a lot of things on their own. A good shepherd is so close to his sheep that the sheep recognize the shepherd's voice. If there were a lot of sheep and a lot of shepherds together, the sheep would always know the voice of their shepherd, and gather around him.
That is the way it is with Christians. Jesus is our shepherd and we belong to him. When Jesus speaks, we should hear his voice and do what he tells us to do. We should also follow him and behave ourselves in the way that we know that Jesus would behave himself. The voices of the people whom we love are very important to us, and we like to hear them because they make us feel safe and loved.
Jesus has a voice like that, and, though we cannot hear it in the same way, we are sure that he speaks to us in our prayers and through the Bible. That means that we must pray and listen to the Bible; and when we do, we know that Jesus will be just like a shepherd.
The next time that you hear the voice of someone whom you cannot see, I want you to think about today and remember that Jesus speaks to us in many ways to show us how much he loves and cares for us.
