Childrens Sermon Service

Good morning, boys and girls. I brought a picture of a special kind of bird that I'm sure you've seen before. (Show the picture.) What kind of a bird is this? (Let them respond.) It's called a peacock. It has very beautifully colored feathers. If you visit a zoo you might see a peacock, but you might not see its beautiful feathers because the peacock only displays the beautiful feathers at special times. If I say the phrase "proud as a _________," what would you think goes in the blank? (Let them respond.) Some of you have heard of this phrase before, "proud as a peacock." When we think of being proud for doing something special or learning to do something we sometimes say, "I'm proud as a peacock!" There's a television network that has a peacock with many different color feathers as their special trademark. They show the picture of the brightly colored peacock whenever they advertise their television network. They're proud of their television programs.

Our lesson is about ministry. Ministry means helping other people. When we help other people and we do it well we can be very proud of ourselves. What do you think of when I say the word "minister?" (Let them respond.) You probably think of the minister of our church. Ministers want to help people and they go to a special school for a long time to learn the best ways to help people. Many of them go to a church and are an intern for a year. This means they learn "while they work." Then they go to another church and they become the church's minister. There are other ways to be a minister. There are ministers of music. There are ministers of Christian education. There are also ministers of visitation. These ministers do a lot of the visiting of sick people and people in nursing homes. Did you know that each one of us is a minister, too? (Let them respond.) Any time that you help someone, you are being a minister. To minister to someone means to help them. We can all be "proud as peacocks" to be God's helpers or God's "ministers." Our verse says to carry out our ministry fully. Think of all the many things you can do to help other people and spread those feathers fully and be proud because you are carrying out God's ministry every time you help someone.