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Choose from the following children's sermons:

• God Can Use You Too John 1:43-51
  by Rev. Randy L Quinn  (see below)
   
• Listen...God may talk to you too! 1 Sam 3:1-10
  by Rev. F. Schaefer (please scroll down)
   
• Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
  based on John 1:43-50
  by Janet in MD        (see below)

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God Can Use You Too
a children's sermon based on John 1:43-51
by Rev. Randy L Quinn

Do you know who this is? (Some will recognize the picture of Martin Luther King, Jr.) Martin Luther King died before you were born. So how did you know who this is? What else do you know about Rev King? (He was a pastor; he was a national leader; he was from Atlanta; he was assassinated in 1968; etc.)

Sometimes we recognize someone because we have seen them or pictures of them so often. Other times it helps to get some clues, such as: what they are wearing, what they are doing, or who is with them.

In our scripture today, Philip brings Nathanael to meet Jesus. Nathanael is surprised and amazed that Jesus recognizes him and seems to know so much about him. You recognized Martin Luther King because you’ve seen his picture before and have heard about the preaching he did. Jesus recognizes Nathanael both from sight and by the kind of person he is.

Jesus says that Nathanael is an honest man. If Jesus were to describe us, what would he say? What are the things about us we would want Jesus to recognize?

There are lots of things I know I would want Jesus to remember about me. If Jesus came to visit us, I’d want him to know I like to sing and I like to laugh. I’d want him to remember that I do the best job I can as a pastor – and I like being a pastor. What about you? Name some things that you would want people to know about you to help them know who you are.

Nathanael became one of Jesus’ disciples. He joined up with Jesus to help him spread the good news to others about God’s plans for the world. Nathanael wasn’t perfect, but Jesus knew Nathanael could help in the church. Jesus can take what is best in us, too, and make us people who will help to make this world a better place.

We are not perfect, but God loves us and sees the best in us. And then, because we love God, we try to let our best sides show most of the time.

 

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Listen...God may talk to you too!
a kids talk based on 1 Sam 3:1-10
by Rev. F. Schaefer

Props: a portable phone (or cell pohone)

Greet the children and tell them today's lesson is about listening to God.   Tell them that we are so used to speaking when we pray that we sometimes forget to stop talking in our prayer time and just to listen.

Hold up the telephone and ask them if they thought it would be nice if we could just call God's hotline and talk to him directly. What do they think God's voice sounds like?  What would God tell them.

Retell the story of Samuel in the temple; don't miss to tell them that he was about their age when God spoke to him during the night.  Put some significance on the fact that Samuel had trouble recognizing God's voice.

It is not easy to  recognize God's voice with so much noise going on in the world.  In what ways do you think God speaks to us today?  Let the children share.  If they don't suggest the following: through reading the bible, through meditatin and prayer times, through words and actions of other people, through events like miracles and healings, through the preacher...

Prayer: "Dear God, thank you that you still speak to us today.   Help us to listen and to recognize when you speak.  Be with us always and draw our hearts closer and closer to you.  Amen."

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Excellent Martin Luther King Day kids sermon from the DPS archive:

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
based on John 1:43-50
by Janet in MD

I have a Bible story for you today, about a guy who made a mistake. There was a man named Philip, who met Jesus and decided to follow him. Philip talked to Nathanael, and told him "I have met the one that Moses and the prophets told about! He is Jesus, from Nazareth." Well, Nathanael didn't know Jesus, but he knew Nazareth -- it was just a sleepy little town, nothing much exciting there. Nathanael just laughed and said "Hah! Can anything good come from Nazareth?"

Can you guess what Nathanael's mistake was? (let them guess). See, he thought that he knew all about Jesus just by knowing where he was from. And since he thought Nazareth wasn't very good, he thought Jesus couldn't be very good! What a huge mistake!

But then he met Jesus, and talked to him, and very quickly realized that Jesus is the Son of God, the King of Israel. Something really good had come out of Nazareth!

It is easy for us to make Nathanael's mistake. A lot of times we think we know about people because we know where they live, or what kind of car they drive, or what school they go to, or the shape of their bodies, or the color of their skin, or the language they speak. But none of those things tell us what a person is really like inside; none of those things help us see people the way God sees them.

Do you know what tomorrow is? Tomorrow is the day we remember Martin Luther King Jr. He was a strong Christian and a great leader who helped change some very bad laws we used to have in this country -- laws that separated people because of their skin color. You know what? I am sure that there were people in Martin Luther King's time who looked at him and said "Hah! Can anything good come out of Montgomery, Alabama? Can anything good come out of the mouth of a black man?" They didn't stop to listen to what he had to say, or get to know him. They made Nathanael's mistake.

Nathanael fixed his mistake by getting to know Jesus. We need to make sure that we take the time to get to know people too -- not just judge them by where they live or their skin color or their clothes. Because God can make something good come out of anybody, from anywhere, at anytime.