God's Math
Children's sermon
Object: A blank piece of poster paper, markers, and the attached list of numbers. See the note on the list of numbers for more details. An option is to also have a few mustard seeds to show the children.
NOTE: As mentioned in the notes on the attached page, when you come to putting the numbers on paper for the children to see, you can adapt how you do that to best fit the age and attention span of your children.
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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) One day, Jesus was talking with some of his friends and they told him they were getting really nervous. Jesus had been telling all of them that he was going to be leaving them soon, and some of the people were afraid they wouldn’t be able to do what God wanted them to do if Jesus wasn’t right there with them.
Jesus told them to remember what God wanted them to do. Just like the scribes who wrote the books for people to read, their job was to tell people how things have changed, so they know what God wants them to do from now on.
He told them the old law was that everyone was supposed to love God, and that was still very important. But he said now there is a second law, just as important as the first one. Does anyone remember what that new law said? (Let them respond.) The second law said that we are supposed to love each other, too.
He asked them if they understood and they said, “Yes, but what if we just aren’t strong enough to make people do what God wants them to do?”
Jesus said they didn’t have to make people do anything at all. They didn’t need to argue or fight with anyone. All they needed to do was tell people what God wanted them to do. That’s all. He said they were like the tiny mustard seed. (Show the mustard seed if you have it.) It is one of the tiniest seeds and looks pretty useless, but it can grow into a big, strong tree.
And we are like the mustard seed, too, aren’t we? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we feel like we are pretty small and can’t do important things, don’t we? (Let them respond.) But even if we are as small as a mustard seed, we can still do some pretty powerful things. Let me show you something. (Get your big piece of paper and marker.)
I want to show you just how powerful you really are. Jesus said that God wants us to take care of each other, so let’s imagine something, okay? (Let them respond.) I want you to imagine that you are going to do something to help one person every day this week. It doesn’t have to be anything big and fancy. Maybe you help someone just by smiling at them and saying, “Hi!”. But this week, you are going to help one person each day. Can you imagine that for me? (Let them respond.) Great. Now let me show you something.
(Draw the first week’s boxes on the big paper, explaining what the boxes are as you draw. Then begin with today and explain that if they help one person today, the one and one adds up to two people. Then tomorrow, if both of those people help someone, four people help others. Go through the week until you come to next Sunday.)
If all you do is help one person each day, and then they help one person each day, look at what can happen! When we come back here next week, you will have helped and hundred and twenty-eight people. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it? (Let them respond.) And it doesn’t sound all that hard, does it? (Let them respond.)
But look at this. If we do it again next week, at the end of that week we will have helped 16,384 people. That’s a lot of people. And if we kept helping one person each day like that when we came back here in four weeks, do you know how many people we will have helped? At the end of three weeks, we will have helped more than four million people!
And do you know what is even cooler about that? (Let them respond.) Helping more than 4 million people is what happens if only one of us tries to help one person each day. How many of us are here today? (Let them respond.) What if every one of us here helped one person each day for the next three weeks? (Let them respond.) If we all did that, when we came back here in three weeks, we would have helped more than (multiply 4 times the number of children.)
Now THAT is cool!
We don’t have to be bigger, or stronger, to do what God wants us to do. Our job is to help take care of each other. Being a friend to someone who is lonely. Helping someone who is afraid. Feeding someone who has nothing to eat. Taking care of someone who is sick. Taking care of someone who has no home or place to live.
That is our job. Taking care of each other. Even just one person each day.
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.
Notes: Here are the numbers for today’s activity. After explaining the story of the power of the mustard seed, I begin with a blank piece of poster paper and recreate this list to show that no matter how small or powerless we may feel sometimes, if we just try to help one person each day, we can make a HUGE difference in the world. Depending on the ages of your group, you may use all or just some of these numbers. The big thing is to show that even if we just try to help one person each day, in three weeks over one million people might be helped. Wow!
NOTE: As mentioned in the notes on the attached page, when you come to putting the numbers on paper for the children to see, you can adapt how you do that to best fit the age and attention span of your children.
* * *
Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) One day, Jesus was talking with some of his friends and they told him they were getting really nervous. Jesus had been telling all of them that he was going to be leaving them soon, and some of the people were afraid they wouldn’t be able to do what God wanted them to do if Jesus wasn’t right there with them.
Jesus told them to remember what God wanted them to do. Just like the scribes who wrote the books for people to read, their job was to tell people how things have changed, so they know what God wants them to do from now on.
He told them the old law was that everyone was supposed to love God, and that was still very important. But he said now there is a second law, just as important as the first one. Does anyone remember what that new law said? (Let them respond.) The second law said that we are supposed to love each other, too.
He asked them if they understood and they said, “Yes, but what if we just aren’t strong enough to make people do what God wants them to do?”
Jesus said they didn’t have to make people do anything at all. They didn’t need to argue or fight with anyone. All they needed to do was tell people what God wanted them to do. That’s all. He said they were like the tiny mustard seed. (Show the mustard seed if you have it.) It is one of the tiniest seeds and looks pretty useless, but it can grow into a big, strong tree.
And we are like the mustard seed, too, aren’t we? (Let them respond.) Sometimes we feel like we are pretty small and can’t do important things, don’t we? (Let them respond.) But even if we are as small as a mustard seed, we can still do some pretty powerful things. Let me show you something. (Get your big piece of paper and marker.)
I want to show you just how powerful you really are. Jesus said that God wants us to take care of each other, so let’s imagine something, okay? (Let them respond.) I want you to imagine that you are going to do something to help one person every day this week. It doesn’t have to be anything big and fancy. Maybe you help someone just by smiling at them and saying, “Hi!”. But this week, you are going to help one person each day. Can you imagine that for me? (Let them respond.) Great. Now let me show you something.
(Draw the first week’s boxes on the big paper, explaining what the boxes are as you draw. Then begin with today and explain that if they help one person today, the one and one adds up to two people. Then tomorrow, if both of those people help someone, four people help others. Go through the week until you come to next Sunday.)
If all you do is help one person each day, and then they help one person each day, look at what can happen! When we come back here next week, you will have helped and hundred and twenty-eight people. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it? (Let them respond.) And it doesn’t sound all that hard, does it? (Let them respond.)
But look at this. If we do it again next week, at the end of that week we will have helped 16,384 people. That’s a lot of people. And if we kept helping one person each day like that when we came back here in four weeks, do you know how many people we will have helped? At the end of three weeks, we will have helped more than four million people!
And do you know what is even cooler about that? (Let them respond.) Helping more than 4 million people is what happens if only one of us tries to help one person each day. How many of us are here today? (Let them respond.) What if every one of us here helped one person each day for the next three weeks? (Let them respond.) If we all did that, when we came back here in three weeks, we would have helped more than (multiply 4 times the number of children.)
Now THAT is cool!
We don’t have to be bigger, or stronger, to do what God wants us to do. Our job is to help take care of each other. Being a friend to someone who is lonely. Helping someone who is afraid. Feeding someone who has nothing to eat. Taking care of someone who is sick. Taking care of someone who has no home or place to live.
That is our job. Taking care of each other. Even just one person each day.
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.
Notes: Here are the numbers for today’s activity. After explaining the story of the power of the mustard seed, I begin with a blank piece of poster paper and recreate this list to show that no matter how small or powerless we may feel sometimes, if we just try to help one person each day, we can make a HUGE difference in the world. Depending on the ages of your group, you may use all or just some of these numbers. The big thing is to show that even if we just try to help one person each day, in three weeks over one million people might be helped. Wow!
| WEEK 1 - 7/30 | Starting the day | New | Total |
| Sunday | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Monday | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Tuesday | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| Wednesday | 8 | 8 | 16 |
| Thursday | 16 | 16 | 32 |
| Friday | 32 | 32 | 64 |
| Saturday | 64 | 64 | 128 |
WEEK 2 – 8/6 | Starting the day | New | Total |
| Sunday | 128 | 128 | 256 |
| Monday | 256 | 256 | 512 |
| Tuesday | 512 | 512 | 1028 |
| Wednesday | 1028 | 1028 | 2048 |
| Thursday | 2048 | 2048 | 4096 |
| Friday | 4096 | 4096 | 8192 |
| Saturday | 8192 | 8192 | 16,384 |
| WEEK 3 – 8/13 | Starting the day | New | Total |
| Sunday | 16,384 | 16,384 | 32758 |
| Monday | 32758 | 32758 | 65536 |
| Tuesday | 65536 | 65536 | 131072 |
| Wednesday | 131072 | 131072 | 262144 |
| Thursday | 262144 | 262144 | 524288 |
| Friday | 524288 | 524288 | 1,048,576 |
| Saturday | 1,048,576 | 1,048,576 | 2,097,152 |
WEEK 4 – 8/20 | Starting the day | New | Total |
| Sunday | 2,097,152 | 2,097,152 | 4,194,304 |
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