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God’s Good Gifts

I have a delicious-looking [cupcake] here. Would anyone want to ask me for a bite of it? (Let kids respond.) You may think you want this [cupcake]; it looks good, doesn’t it? But I’m not going to give you a piece. I know something that you don’t. Let me cut the [cupcake] open so you can see what’s inside. (Cut the cupcake open on the cutting board to reveal the inedible insides.) Do you see why I didn’t give you what you asked for? God wants us to pray to him whenever we want anything, but we have to remember to trust that God knows what is best and will give us only things that would be good for us.

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Distracting Details

Having Jesus come to your house and then not even taking time to listen to him is like getting all ready for church and then not going to church. Even if we do come to church, sometimes we start thinking about all kinds of things that take our mind off Jesus, and we may forget to listen to what Jesus is trying to teach us. For the rest of the worship service today, I want you to try hard to keep your mind on Jesus. When you join in the songs and prayers and really listen to the sermon, it’s like sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to what he has to teach you!

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Who Is Your Neighbor?

Now I’d like to ask you: which kid was a good neighbor to the hurt boy? (Let children respond.) Our friends are our neighbors, and so are the people who live near us. But Jesus wants us to be good neighbors to anyone who needs our help and friendship—even those people we don’t usually play with.

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You Reap What You Sow

In the book of Galatians, the Bible says, “Don’t be misled. Remember that you can’t always ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow!” Every day, each one of you is planting seeds—some are good and some are bad. The things you plant will either help to make you a better person or a worse person. I’ll tell you what kinds of seeds I’m talking about.

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Don’t Look Back

It’s not always easy to follow Jesus. But it always helps to keep our eyes on him, to watch and pray so we see where he wants us to go. When we take our eyes off Jesus, when we forget about him, that’s when our lives start to go crooked.

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The Weight of Sin

The woman who washed Jesus’ feet was carrying a heavy weight of sin. She knew she had sinned a lot; she knew what other people thought about her. But she also knew that Jesus loved her and forgave her and took that weight of sin away. And the woman wanted to show Jesus how happy she was. The important man didn’t think he had many sins. He thought he was much better than the woman. But he was wrong. All of us have sinned, and none of us is better than anybody else. Jesus forgives us all. And we should all be as thankful as that woman who washed Jesus’ feet.

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Stronger than Death

Is there any way that any of us could make this little bug live again? Can we bring this bug back to life? (Let children comment.) No, this isn’t something anybody on Earth can do. We aren’t stronger than death. In reading the Bible, we learn about two sons who died. One son lived back in the time of Elijah the prophet, and the other lived while Jesus was walking around on Earth. Both of these boys were their mothers’ only children. And both of the mothers were widows—their husbands had died. These mothers and sons had only each other in the world. When their sons died, the mothers had no one left. The pain of losing their only children was causing the mothers’ hearts to break.

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Impressing Jesus

Today’s Gospel reading tells about a man who really did impress Jesus. He was an officer in the Roman army who was respected by the Jews because he did many good things for them. One of the servants in this officer’s house was very sick, and the officer cared very much for him. When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent a message to him. “I am not worthy to receive you in my house or even to come and meet you. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed” (Luke 7:6-7 NLT). When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. The Roman officer believed that Jesus was so powerful he could heal the sick servant just by speaking some words.

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Mysterious Transformation

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The chrysalis is a little bit like the tomb where Jesus was buried. When Jesus was laid in that tomb and the big stone was rolled in front of the entrance, everyone thought that was the last they’d see of Jesus. No one expected life to come out of that place of death. But after three days, God raised Jesus to new life. A transformed Jesus came out of that tomb, more alive than he had ever been before.

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Strong Wind, Strong Branches

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Holy Trinity Sunday; 1st Sunday after Pentecost From “Scolding the Snakes” Scripture Reference:Â Rom. 5:1-5 Â

 

Preparation: Bring in a tree branch—preferably one that has fallen in a storm or been trimmed—to illustrate your talk.

I brought a tree branch with me this morning. (Hold up branch and let children guess where it came from.) After a big windstorm, you might find a lot of branches scattered around on the ground. Have any of you seen the mess that strong wind can make

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