Childrens Sermon Service

Object: Three stacking cups. You can use any plastic cups that can be turned upside down and stacked on top of each other. The idea for this activity is to put two cups upside down next to each other and stack the third cup on top of those two. I also suggest a card table to set the cups on in front of the children so everyone can see what is happening. This message itself is a bit shorter than usual, to give time for you to have all of the children try the activity.

* * *

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Excellent! Today’s story is about a time when Jesus said something that I thought was pretty strange. Let’s see what you think about it.

Jesus and his friends had gone to the temple and watched people come there to give their offerings and pray to God. A lot of the people did things to make sure everyone else saw what they were doing. Some of them dressed up in fancy clothes so everyone would notice them. And some people even blew loud horns so everyone would pay attention to them when they gave their offerings and prayed. Jesus told his friends that they should not try to show off like that to try and make people think they were so special. Instead, Jesus told them to keep their prayers more of a secret, just between them and God. And that’s when Jesus said the thing I thought was so strange. He said they should say their prayers they should not let their left hand know what their right hand was doing. Doesn’t that sound strange to you? (Let them respond.) What the heck do you think that means? (Let them respond.)

Well, I have something for us to do that I think will help us understand what Jesus was saying. (Put the cups on the table for the children to see.) Have you ever played with stacking cups before? (Let them respond, and show the children how to stack the cups as you continue.) There are a lot of ways to play with stacking cups, but all we need to do right now is turn two of the cups upside down like this and then stack the third cup upside down on top of them. Would someone like to try it? (Pick a volunteer and let them try it.) Nice job! That wasn’t too hard, was it? (Let them respond, and keep your volunteer at the table.) Before anyone else tries it, let’s see if we can use the cups to figure out what Jesus meant when he said we shouldn’t let our left hand know what our right hand is doing.

I want you to stack the cups up again, just like you did the first time. But when you stack them this time, I want you to turn around so your back is towards the table and you can’t see what your hand is doing. (Show them how to stand with their back to the table and have them try to stack the cups with their hands behind their back where they can’t see what they are doing.) That was different, wasn’t it? (Let them respond.) Would anyone else like to try it? (Let them respond and have as many others try the backward stacking as you want to.) It is harder to stack the cups when we can’t see what our hands are doing, isn’t it? (Let them respond.)

Let me ask you another quick question. It feels good when people pay attention to us and think we are special, doesn’t it? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we are like those people at the temple who did things to get people to notice them, aren’t we? (Let them respond.) It is pretty hard to not do things to try and get people to pay attention to us, isn’t it? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we even want to do things to try and make other people look bad, so we look better than they look, don’t we? (Let them respond.)

And that is why Jesus told his friends not to be like that. He wanted them to just say their prayers and be themselves and not do things to try and get attention from anyone else.  He told them that God loves everyone one of us exactly the same, so we can just keep our prayers a secret and not try to show off to make ourselves look more special.

So, as we say our prayer, let’s make sure our left-hand does not know what our right hand is doing. Let’s pray and ask God to remind us that Jesus loves every one of us and wants us to follow him and take care of each other the way God takes care of us.

Prayer
Dear God, thank you for reminding us how much you love us and for forgiving us when we forget that. And please help us remember that you love all of the people you have created and help us let the people around us know that we love them just like Jesus loves us. Amen.