Free Sermons For Kids is a blog that provides free sermon ideas for pastors, preachers, and teachers to use in their teaching and preaching. The website was created by a pastor who loves children and knows how hard it can be to come up with creative ways to teach them the Bible. This article discusses creative children’s sermons.
The site features free sermons or outlines that are ready-made for you to use in your own church or classroom setting. It also has resources such as Bible studies, prayers, songs, crafts, videos, and more. These resources can be used by teachers who want to teach children about different topics related to the Bible without having to spend hours preparing lessons on their own. You’ll also see message to preach in children’s services in this treatise.
Free Sermons For Kids
Story of the prodigal son
The parable of the prodigal son is one of my favorite stories in all of Christianity. It’s not just because I love a good story, but also because it teaches me something important about God and his love.
In this parable, there are two brothers: one who stayed home with their father and another who left home to find something new out in the world. In terms of our own lives, we can look at these two brothers as representing our old selves (the one who stayed) and our new selves (the one who left). Like any good story, there are lessons to take from both characters!
The first lesson is that God never stops loving us even when we’ve gone away from him–and that he wants us back no matter how far away from him we’ve wandered off into sin or laziness or whatever else might be keeping us from knowing him better! He doesn’t even care if you leave for years on end; he still loves you just as much when you come back as well as when your brother did (even though they were only separated for one day)! That’s pretty special if you ask me 🙂
Lost sheep
If you are familiar with the Bible, then you know that Jesus is referred to as the good shepherd, the great shepherd, and the chief shepherd. In this sermon series on lost sheep we will explore what it means for Jesus to be a good shepherd.
We all have felt lost at one time or another in our lives. We may have felt like a lamb separated from its mother or we might have experienced some other type of loss that caused us to feel alone and afraid. When this happens we need someone who can find us and bring us home safely back into God’s fold!
The Pharisee and the tax collector
You may recall from Sunday School that there was once a Pharisee who prayed this way: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.”
The tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and said, “God be merciful to me a sinner!”
I tell you this so that you will have hope in God’s presence. For we do too often stand before him in our own righteousness and think that we are good enough for him. But the truth is that we are sinners who need forgiveness every day.
The thief on the cross
As you read the story of Jesus on the cross, it’s important to remember that he was crucified with two thieves. In this story, one thief is saved and one is not. The man who was saved had faith in Jesus and believed that he would be forgiven for all of his sins by God. The other thief didn’t believe in Jesus or want to be forgiven for his sins; he only wanted to die so he could leave this world behind him as fast as possible.
The thief who believed in Jesus was told by Jesus that they would both be together in Paradise after their deaths (Luke 23:39-43). This shows us how much God loves us and wants us to come into His kingdom when we die so we can spend eternity with Him!
Zacchaeus, a thief and a tax collector
As you read this story to your children, talk about their reactions. Did they feel sorry for Zacchaeus? Did they understand why Jesus told him to come down from the tree? How did Zacchaeus feel when he found out that Jesus wanted to have dinner with him at his house?
After reading the parable, ask your child: What do you think it means that God cares about people like Zacchaeus who have done bad things in the past? Do you think God wants us all to repent (turn away from sin) and become like Jesus? Why or why not?
King David as a young shepherd boy
You may have heard of King David, who was one of the most famous kings in all of ancient Israel. But did you know he was also a shepherd boy?
David, as a young shepherd boy, had his first great victory against Goliath when he was just 15 years old. The Philistines were invading the land that belonged to Saul and his people—the Israelites. More than anyone else in his village, David wanted to help fight against the enemy so they wouldn’t take over their homes again. As soon as he found out there would be another battle with these Philistines, he decided to join forces with King Saul’s army and offered his services as an archer (someone who shoots arrows).
When King Saul saw how bravely David fought against their enemies during battle after battle for many years afterward until eventually becoming king himself due to this bravery alone; however some people questioned whether or not David should’ve been allowed into such high ranks since he wasn’t born into royalty like most other leaders from history would have been back then which makes perfect sense given today’s standards but yet there are still those who question whether or not someone like yourself could achieve greatness without having access
The wise and foolish builders
The wise man built his house on a rock.
The foolish man built his house on the sand.
Rain came down, and the floods rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. But when people heard this parable, they asked Jesus to explain what he meant by “rock.” He replied: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand instead of rock.”
You can find online sermons to share with your kids
You can find online sermons to share with your kids. Sermons for kids are short and easy to understand, which makes them perfect for young minds. You can find free children’s sermons online, as well as Bible-based ones. Use these in Sunday school or at home!
While some people might think that children’s sermons are too simplistic for their more mature tastes, this is not necessarily the case! A well-written sermon will actually be quite enjoyable for an adult audience because it will explore complex topics from a childlike perspective—it may help us understand things better ourselves.
Creative Children’s Sermons
Sermon for Kids: Joseph Is Visited by an Angel (Matthew 1:18-25)
Do you enjoy the holiday season because of the beautiful decorations? Multiple angels, as well as bells, candles, stars, and a plethora of colorful bows and bow ties, can be seen.
(Show the kids the angel ornament for Christmas.)
How come there seem to be so many angels around Christmas time? (Delay the answer until the children have a chance to respond.)
The appearance of angels to announce the birth of Jesus to the shepherds is probably the first thing that comes to mind when we see angel decorations on Christmas trees. But long before Jesus was born, angels were already a part of the Christmas story. So, how well-versed are you in the subject of angels, exactly? (Delay the answer until the children have a chance to respond.)
Angels are characterized, in part, by their ethereal wings. Let me tell you what happened, and whenever I use the word “angels,” I want you to make a wing motion with your arms. Ready?
The angel from heaven makes an appearance in today’s Bible lesson (pause). There was talk of a wedding between Joseph and Mary. Just think about what went through Joseph’s mind when he learned that Mary was pregnant before they were married. As he stood there, he probably wondered, “What do I do now?” Since Joseph was an upright man, he decided to end the engagement privately rather than publicly shame Mary. He was pondering this when an angel suddenly appeared to him in his dream.
After a brief pause, the angel said, “Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife.” “The Holy Spirit was responsible for the conception of the child she is carrying. Whenever she gives birth to a son, you are to call him Jesus, because he will deliver his people from their sins.”
Joseph obeyed God after hearing God’s will from the angel (pause) of the Lord. There was no need for him to know the specifics of what was going to take place. There was no point in caring what other people thought of him. Joseph believed God and did what He said.
Both you and I have probably been in situations where we were completely stumped. We may wonder, like Joseph did, “What do I do now?” God will tell us what to do if we just listen to him. Perhaps not through an angel (pause), but certainly in Scripture! We must take responsibility for ourselves and do as we are told.
Thanks be to God, our hearts are overflowing with joy because of the invaluable insights we have gained by believing in Jesus. Please guide us as we read your Word and hear your answers to the questions we have about living. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Message To Preach In Children’s Services
One, it is statistically more likely that a child will become a fully devoted Christian.
But why is that the case? What is it about kids that God loves so much? Why are they the best candidates to enter heaven? Is it that they’re so naive? Kids aren’t innocent, as anyone with experience with them can attest. What causes them to obey? Not even the most cooperative child is always respectful. How come they seem so enthused? How naive are they? What is it? Jesus tells us, “Whoever humbles himself like this little child…”
They rely on their parents for everything. They stand out as smaller and younger than the rest of the group. They are aware of their limitations and are not reluctant to seek assistance. Asking, “Grandma, can you make me some lunch?” “Professor, please tell me the spelling of civilization.” Can I get some help from Uncle Bob with my bike? “Ma, can you please take me to the mall?” Their tongues seem to be preprogrammed to make those requests. In contrast, these also accomplish the same goal: Pray with me, Lord, and help me to have courage. Pray for my friend’s health, God. A sinner prays, “Jesus, will you forgive me?”
Children have a natural understanding of what they require. In other words, they are self-aware of their limitations. When they need assistance, they don’t try to hide the fact. According to Jesus, this group has the greatest potential for repentance and faith. The first and most compelling argument for the significance of evangelizing young people is that they are the demographic with the highest likelihood of becoming devout Christians.
Four out of five young people have expressed a desire to have a personal relationship with God, according to our sources. They tell us that roughly three quarters of all adult Christians accepted Christ before reaching the age of eighteen. Psychologists tell us that by the time a child is 9, many of the pillars of her faith have been established, and by the time she is 13, she has pretty much settled on the set of beliefs she will hold for the rest of her life. Therefore, pastors are starting to use the term “4-14 window” to describe the age range when people are most open to the gospel message. They advocate targeting efforts specifically at the most receptive age bracket.
A psychologist by the name of David Heller set out to investigate children’s perspectives on God a few years ago. He spoke to thousands of kids aged 4 to 12, having them draw pictures, write letters, and answer questions about God. I’ll admit that a few of them were out there. As with the 12-year-old who penned the following letter to the Almighty: “What is the weather like in heaven, please? What’s it like to have all the power?”
But he did discover a connection between them all. Try to see if you can understand it. A young boy of seven drew himself and God playing a board game on the floor. The youngster answered Heller’s question about the game without hesitating: “Life.” A young girl of nine years old remarked: “To express how much I adore God would be an impossible task. If I die and go to heaven, I hope to find him in a palace.” The kids got a little more sophisticated as they grew up, but they were always forthright. In his or her essay, a preteen boy or girl remarked “Exams were this week and I have no idea how I did. You can’t help me now that they’re finished, right? Send my greetings to Mary. Let’s chat again soon.”
The children’s responses varied from age to age and child to child, but one thing remained consistent: their eagerness to develop a personal relationship with God and incorporate him into their everyday lives. One 8-year-old boy’s response stood out to me: “I don’t know if this is what you’re asking, but I feel closest to God when I’m rounding second base after hitting a double.” What Jesus told us long ago is finally being uncovered by pollsters and strategists. Children have the highest chance of developing a relationship with God.
To be sure, Jesus didn’t simply say that kids had it easiest when it came to entering the kingdom. He predicted that they would be the most influential in his kingdom, that they would devote themselves fully to his cause, and that they would go on to achieve great success. Young people are eager to learn and serve, which means they are also eager to develop their faith. Moreover, recent research has shown that children make some of the best evangelists for the church. They are the most likely to invite their friends and family to church and to talk to them about their faith.
While Karen and I were in India, she was able to give a talk on the topic of friendship evangelism at one of the plenary sessions. In her talk, she explained how she had been raised in a religious household but had never developed a personal relationship with God despite her deep desire to do so. She met a sixth-grader who seemed to have a deep and personal relationship with God. The two became close friends, and over the course of two years, the other girl showed Karen her life and shared Christ with her, eventually inviting Karen to a Christian camp where she made the decision to accept Christ as her Savior.
The 11-year-old girl who freely followed Christ and shared her faith with a friend was the seed that grew into Karen, now a pastor’s wife, traveling halfway around the world to train leaders who will reach North India with the good news.
For this reason, children play an important role in God’s heavenly kingdom. That’s why God and we place a premium on young people: they have the greatest potential to not only accept Christ but to grow into fully devoted followers who impact the world around them.
The second is that if you let a kid in, you let Christ in.
Second, Jesus emphasizes the significance of children by saying, “And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me” (Matthew 18:5, NIV). What does Jesus mean by this? we ask once more. This expression raises a lot of questions. Does this imply that Jesus inhabits the lives of each kid? There’s no indication of that in the Bible, so I disagree.
The word “welcome” can mean “receive” as well. It’s a term used to describe someone who welcomes guests into their home, whether they know them or not. When we make room in our hearts for children, I believe Jesus is saying that we are making room for him as well because children are so close to his heart and so instrumental to his work in the world.
When you open the door to your dinner guest, do you ever find out that they brought a friend along? Kids are like that. When we welcome a child into our homes or churches, we are welcoming Jesus himself. With the arrival of the baby, he enters our lives, bringing with him the promise of joy and fulfillment.
It’s true for individuals, and it’s also true for churches. George Barna has spent more than twenty years researching churches to figure out what makes them successful. Even though he has studied the effectiveness of churches, he admits that it wasn’t until recently that he made the connection that the most effective churches he studied were also the most intentional about reaching and discipling children. It wasn’t just that taking care of kids is a surefire way to win over their parents. In my opinion, there is a spiritual principle at work here, and that is that when a church makes room for children, who are so important to God, that church is also making room for God to move in fresh and powerful ways.
My mind has returned to our time in India. Unfortunately, spreading the gospel in north India is one of the world’s most challenging missions fields. There is a lot of pushback against Christians from the more popular faiths. Most people’s families will disown them and they may face harassment and persecution if they publicly declare their faith in Christ. A lot of the mountain communities are inaccessible and wary of visitors. There has been very little forward movement. Good News for India has found that opening an English-speaking school in a rural area is a great way to make a lasting impact on the community there, as parents there are eager to provide their children with better opportunities than they had before. They provide basic education in the areas of literacy and numeracy, as well as a moral education course into which they can incorporate Bible stories and hymns.
To visit one of these institutions, we once spent two hours winding our way up into the mountains. One of the classrooms welcomed us in, and it was barely bigger than the foyers in some of our own houses. Children filled the room, their bright smiles brightening the otherwise windowless space as they stood and sang, “This is the day that the Lord has made.” At that moment, I understood that the children were the key to unlocking the doors to northern India.
When those kids get back to their homes after school every day, they spread God’s joy to their communities. Many will have decided to follow Christ and their faith will have been established by the time they graduate. They will take that faith with them when they move on to college or the workplace. Imagine how much simpler it will be to make disciples and develop leaders if the next generation is brought up knowing and loving Christ. The schools were established to reach the adults, but I believe that, through God’s providence, they will eventually become the primary means of spreading the gospel across the country. Simply by accepting the kids, they are accepting Christ into northern India.
My experience has taught me that a church’s commitment to evangelizing young people is a vital source of energy for the entire congregation. What’s the reason? Reaching children requires staying current with their interests; otherwise, they will quickly lose interest and move on. Kids can spot a fake from a mile away, so authenticity is essential if you want to connect with them. Kids are easily turned off, so you need to be approachable if you want to get through to them. Forget about the occasional furniture destruction and just chill out if you want to connect with kids.
When I was a teen, my friends and I were dying to play a game of street hockey, but the weather wouldn’t cooperate. We then sneaked into the church’s fellowship hall and got a pretty rowdy game of hockey going there. The Senior Pastor burst in the door. We thought for sure we were in hot water and he was going to throw us out. After requesting one of our sticks, he began practicing his wrist shots against the wall with a flurry of flips. It was revealed that our pastor, who is short, bald, and portly, spent the first two decades of his life in Canada, where he played hockey. He advised us, told us to enjoy ourselves, and then returned to his office.
Is it any surprise that the first few rows of seats in church on Sunday mornings are always occupied by families with young children? How could it be any surprise that this congregation was the healthiest and most numerous in all of the Hudson Valley? Is it any surprise that thirty years later I am urging the church I serve to put its emphasis on its youth and children? When we welcome children into the church, we welcome the transforming presence of Christ into our midst.
On the other hand, verse 6 contains a warning: “But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” One of the most terrifying things Jesus ever said. His voice has a hint of aggression to it. Those who make it more difficult for children to come to know and follow Christ are putting not only their children, but also themselves, in spiritual danger.
Surely the church should take this as a warning not to ignore its duty to help young people develop a strong faith. There’s a call to action for adults to look out for kids’ health, happiness, and development on all fronts. We fear that children are being pushed into adulthood too quickly in order to satisfy their parents’ unfulfilled expectations. It worries us that kids these days have to have the latest and greatest gadgets, like an iPod or an X-Box. We’re worried about media that caters to young viewers’ natural interest in graphic violence, gore, and sexual content. We worry that children’s mental health has suffered due to the breakdown of traditional families.
We’re worried about reports of a Lexington father being thrown in jail for the night because he wanted to know when his kindergartener was exposed to potentially inappropriate material. We worry about the muddled messages and inappropriate content that kids are exposed to on a daily basis at school and in their communities.
As Jesus points out, children are among the most defenseless members of society; when we fail to care for them, keep them safe, and point them toward God, we make a catastrophic mistake. The spiritual well-being of both them and us is in jeopardy. For this reason, the church should be a place where families feel comfortable bringing their kids.
Children are significant because they are the demographic most likely to become devout Christians, and because embracing children is a reflection of our embrace of Christ.
Third, God places a premium on finding and saving lost people of all ages.
Finally, Jesus wraps up this teaching with a parable, a short story he’s told before but with a new twist. It’s the tale of a shepherd who abandons 99 of his sheep to go in search of the one that got lost. The story shows that God cares deeply about those who don’t know him but are still willing to go to great lengths to find and save them, even if it means sending his own Son to do so at the expense of his own life.
That parable has been used for the past two decades as an impetus for churches all over the world to do whatever it takes to bring the Gospel to those who are far from God. The passage is often credited with starting the seeker-church movement.
However, Jesus changes the ending this time. Similarly, “your heavenly Father does not want any of these little ones to perish.” It is clear that Jesus has a strong desire to find and rescue all lost people, but he has a special place in his heart for lost children. Why? Maybe it’s because kids are the most defenseless members of society and are the most susceptible to abuse. Perhaps this is because children are the most open of all people to God’s love and guidance. Maybe it’s because God adores children. Whatever the case may be, the story suggests that the extent to which we care about reaching lost people is measured by the extent to which we care about reaching children.
Our VBS is coming up in a few months, and it will give hundreds of kids a chance to experience God’s unconditional love and begin a relationship with him. It’s a fantastic ministry and a fantastic opportunity to test the waters of children’s ministry to see if it’s where God is calling you. Imagine the massive effort, expense, and number of hours put in by volunteers required to pull off an event of that scale for an entire week.
Once upon a time, in a previous church, one of the elders asked me how many new families had joined the congregation as a direct result of Vacation Bible School. I lied and said it was only one or two during the summer months. Oh, that’s too bad,” he sighed, as if it were a failed endeavor. At last I understand what he was trying to say. It would be nice to have some new people in the church if all that work and money were to bear fruit. You know, actual human beings, fully grown human beings capable of giving, serving, and leading. That’s a perfectly reasonable way of thinking. But that’s not how God operates. He and I both needed to be reminded that we don’t host Vacation Bible School to attract new adults to our congregation. To bring more kids into the kingdom, we host Vacation Bible Schools.
Grace Chapel must have a heart for evangelism and the formation of young people into mature Christians if it is to fulfill its mission of bringing people back to God. In fact, that’s the whole point of this three-parter. We’d like to make a firm commitment to this. Because of this, we’ll be dedicating a large portion of the brand-new structure specifically to serving young people. Because of this, we will be reimagining our strategy for engaging and nurturing young people in the coming year. So much so that we’ve decided to dedicate three permanent positions to the care of our young ones in the ministry. In order to meet the needs of the children’s ministry, we are committed to training and equipping a large number of volunteers. That’s why we’re fostering settings where households can learn and worship together. Because God’s greatest desire is to save everyone, including children. Obviously, it has to be fantastic for us.
