Children's Sermon August 5th, 2012 Pentecost 10

Scripture Focus: Ephesians 4: 1-16

Preparation: Find a Mr. or Mrs. Potato head with all the pieces.

Faith + Open: gather the children to where they will have room to move around a bit.

Faith + Share: Say “so many of you know what this is! I think we all had one when we were kids (if you did not then share that!). It is fun to put him/her together isn’t it? You can put in the eyes, the hat, arms, legs, nose, mouth. Be putting it together as you speak. What if I put the eyes where the arms go and the arms were the legs go? Would that work? What if your feet were where your ears were!? How silly is that! (make a silly potato person) No our arms and legs are where God wanted them to be so that we could walk and do many things easily.

Paul talks about how all of us together are like one body. Just as legs are very good for walking but not for hearing and arms are great for carrying and hugging but not for seeing, so each of us has something that we are good at that no one else is. What are you good at? Accept all answers. God gave you those special gifts to show God’s love to someone else. While we sometimes wish we could do something that someone else can do like being a fast swimmer or a good drawer, we can be happy about all the things We are good at. That doesn’t mean that we don’t try fun things and draw and swim but we know that we have special gifts from God that no one else does. So when we are bigger that means that some of us may be teachers, or computer people, or writers or doctors or lawyers whatever  you want! But does a teacher work in a hospital? No in a school, does a doctor work at a school? No in a hospital. So it matters where we are and how we use our special talents! A doctor in a school would have a harder time teaching math than a teacher and a teacher would have a hard time doing surgery! God makes sure that we are exactly where God wants us to be to show God’s love to the world. God is good!

Faith + Close: Prayer: Wonderful God, we are so glad that none of us are exactly alike! Thank you for our special talents and gifts! We want to use them to love you! Amen

Faith + Blessing:  May your eyes be opened to see all the amazing works of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.