Living Water Seeks Out Empty Places
Children's sermon
These verses follow the metaphor of living water flowing from our hearts into the world. The opening activity will work off of that image to show how water works. Water fills in all the empty places it can find. Even when we think there is no room, water can find the emptiness and fill it up.
What you will need:
A transparent jar or bowl
A couple of large rocks (or other large objects that will fit in your container)
Sand
Water
In your lesson say something like:
I have a bowl here and right now it is empty, but I want to fill it up. (put large rocks inside) That looks full to me, does it look full to you? Let’s try this (pour is sand and shake the bowl so it will settle into the open spaces). Wow there was a lot more room in there than I thought. I guess it wasn’t so full after all. Now it looks full, do you agree. What about this (pour in the water slowly, letting it seep into the sand). Wow that water found a lot of room in what we thought was a full bowl. Now I am very sure this bowl is full.
Our scripture today talks about living water. Living water is something God’s people have used to describe the refreshing, nourishing Spirit of God. This kind of water doesn’t come in a bottle or out of a tap. In fact we learn that it comes from our hearts!
Living water flows from our hearts when we help someone else. Can you think of a time you helped someone? Maybe you helped a friend with their homework, or you taught a new move to someone on your basketball team. Maybe you helped by writing a letter to someone who was feeling lonely, or you helped your parent with housework. This is how God’s living water flows from our hearts when we show love.
That water is just like the water in our bowl. It seeks out all the empty places and fills it up. Sometimes the emptiness is obvious like when someone is crying or asking for help buying food. Other times it can be harder to see the emptiness in people. God wants us to keep our eyes and ears open to seek out all the emptiness and fill it with our love.
Let’s say a prayer asking for help finding those empty places.
Loving God, thank you for filling us with your love. Help us pour that love into the world and fill all the empty places that do not have love yet. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
What you will need:
A transparent jar or bowl
A couple of large rocks (or other large objects that will fit in your container)
Sand
Water
In your lesson say something like:
I have a bowl here and right now it is empty, but I want to fill it up. (put large rocks inside) That looks full to me, does it look full to you? Let’s try this (pour is sand and shake the bowl so it will settle into the open spaces). Wow there was a lot more room in there than I thought. I guess it wasn’t so full after all. Now it looks full, do you agree. What about this (pour in the water slowly, letting it seep into the sand). Wow that water found a lot of room in what we thought was a full bowl. Now I am very sure this bowl is full.
Our scripture today talks about living water. Living water is something God’s people have used to describe the refreshing, nourishing Spirit of God. This kind of water doesn’t come in a bottle or out of a tap. In fact we learn that it comes from our hearts!
Living water flows from our hearts when we help someone else. Can you think of a time you helped someone? Maybe you helped a friend with their homework, or you taught a new move to someone on your basketball team. Maybe you helped by writing a letter to someone who was feeling lonely, or you helped your parent with housework. This is how God’s living water flows from our hearts when we show love.
That water is just like the water in our bowl. It seeks out all the empty places and fills it up. Sometimes the emptiness is obvious like when someone is crying or asking for help buying food. Other times it can be harder to see the emptiness in people. God wants us to keep our eyes and ears open to seek out all the emptiness and fill it with our love.
Let’s say a prayer asking for help finding those empty places.
Loving God, thank you for filling us with your love. Help us pour that love into the world and fill all the empty places that do not have love yet. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
