Familiarity breeds contempt
Children's sermon
Object:
newspaper article about a famous person
Good morning! Here is a newspaper article about
________________. This person is very famous. Have any of you
heard of this man/woman? (Let them answer.) Why is he/she famous?
What did he/she do? (Let them answer.) How would you feel if this
person came to our town tomorrow and you got to meet him/her in
person? Wouldn't that be neat? (Let them answer.) Yes, it surely
would be, but let me ask you something. This person has a family
just like you do and he/she has friends that have known him/her
for a long time. Do those people think it would be such a big
deal to meet him/her? (Let them answer.) No, they wouldn't. They
know the person so well, that they don't think about him/her the
way others do.
Once, Jesus visited his own hometown and he found that
people there were like that. He was famous in other places, but
the people in his own town didn't think he was something special.
They knew him and his family, and to them, he was just the guy
who had grown up in their town. We have to be careful that we
don't get to be like those folks. We hear so much about Jesus
that he is familiar to us, and we must not forget how wonderful
he really is. There's an old saying that "familiarity breeds
contempt." Do you know what that means? (Let them answer.) It
means that we can get so used to something or someone that we
take it for granted and forget how important it is to us. We
don't want to do that with Jesus, do we? (Let them answer.) No,
of course we don't. So let's ask Jesus to help us remember how
important he is to all of us.
Dear Jesus: We love you and we know that you love us. Help us
always to remember how much you love us and how much you have
done for us. Keep us ever mindful of how important you are to all
of us. Amen.
________________. This person is very famous. Have any of you
heard of this man/woman? (Let them answer.) Why is he/she famous?
What did he/she do? (Let them answer.) How would you feel if this
person came to our town tomorrow and you got to meet him/her in
person? Wouldn't that be neat? (Let them answer.) Yes, it surely
would be, but let me ask you something. This person has a family
just like you do and he/she has friends that have known him/her
for a long time. Do those people think it would be such a big
deal to meet him/her? (Let them answer.) No, they wouldn't. They
know the person so well, that they don't think about him/her the
way others do.
Once, Jesus visited his own hometown and he found that
people there were like that. He was famous in other places, but
the people in his own town didn't think he was something special.
They knew him and his family, and to them, he was just the guy
who had grown up in their town. We have to be careful that we
don't get to be like those folks. We hear so much about Jesus
that he is familiar to us, and we must not forget how wonderful
he really is. There's an old saying that "familiarity breeds
contempt." Do you know what that means? (Let them answer.) It
means that we can get so used to something or someone that we
take it for granted and forget how important it is to us. We
don't want to do that with Jesus, do we? (Let them answer.) No,
of course we don't. So let's ask Jesus to help us remember how
important he is to all of us.
Dear Jesus: We love you and we know that you love us. Help us
always to remember how much you love us and how much you have
done for us. Keep us ever mindful of how important you are to all
of us. Amen.
