Childrens Sermon Service

Hello, boys and girls. It's Good Friday today. It's always a sad day because we talk and read about Jesus dying today. Why do we call it "Good" Friday then? (let them answer) We call it Good Friday because God showed us all the love in the world because Jesus died and then was raised back to life. I brought a game piece to show you. (show the king piece) This is a king for a game called chess. Have any of you ever seen the game of chess? (wait for a show of hands) You play it on a chessboard or a checkerboard. Have you played checkers before? (let them respond) Some of you play checkers. What do you call two checkers on top of each other? (let them respond) You call it a king. When you move one of your checkers all the way to the other side you say, "King me!" Then you have two checkers together and it's called a king. What can kings do that regular checkers can't do? (let them answer) They can move backward and forward and regular checkers can only go forward. Kings are good to get in checkers.

Do we have a king in our country? (let them answer) No, we don't. Some countries still have a king or ruler. When Jesus was born, there were lots of countries that had kings. The Israelites long before Jesus had many kings. Do you remember Saul, David, and Solomon? (let them answer) They were all kings. But it had been a long time since the people had a king. Many of the people wanted Jesus to be their king. A king had more power and people would listen to a king.

But Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world. Where do you think his kingdom was? (let them answer) Jesus' kingdom didn't have lines on the land to show what was his. His kingdom was in our hearts. Jesus wanted God to be first in our hearts. That was his kingdom. It was a kingdom of love, not of land. Love is what joins all the people together into a kingdom of love with Jesus as the ruler. Love makes this a "Good Friday."