All Things Work Together For Good
Children's sermon
Ping-Pong Words
And 30 More Children's Sermons
Object:
Scripture Reference
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.
-- Romans 8:28a
Materials Needed
Card stock printed with scripture reference and verse
Goldfish crackers or whale crackers (optional)
Telling The story
Do you know the story of Jonah? It's the story of a man who swallowed a whale. (Pause -- if the children agree, continue with the following.) I'm kidding! Jonah didn't swallow a whale! The whale swallowed Jonah, but actually, the Bible doesn't say it was a whale. It says that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish.
God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and to tell the people there that they needed to quit sinning and start following God, but Jonah didn't want to do it. So he got on a boat that sailed the opposite direction on the Mediterranean Sea. God knew where Jonah was, of course, and he sent a horrible storm. Everyone on board was afraid that the ship would sink. Jonah realized that the storm was sent because of him, so he asked the sailors to throw him overboard. Then God sent a great fish to swallow Jonah whole. The fish swam around for three days and then threw up on a beach. Poor Jonah was in the middle of it all! Then Jonah went to Nineveh, gave the people there God's message, and the people in Nineveh quit sinning!
Maybe you've seen people swallowed by whales in movies. In movies, the whale's insides usually look like a calm, giant cave. There's a cartoon that shows a man fishing inside a whale, and another shows a man being visited by a choir of angels who sang from the decks of several ships floating inside the whale. It was darkish and damp but not all that bad inside.
In real life, it probably wasn't so comfortable. It was probably pretty hot inside the great fish. And Jonah probably didn't have much room. In fact, it's possible that as he was swallowed, his arm was caught behind his head or his ankle was caught behind his knee. Try it with me. (Guide the children as they get into cramped positions.) Now imagine being stuck like that for three days!
You're hot, you don't have any room to move, your foot has gone to sleep, and things only get worse! Our stomachs are full of acids that help our bodies digest our foods. Fish have stomach acids, too. These acids probably stung Jonah's skin and eyes. After three days, they might have started bleaching his skin and may have made sores. It's possible that the acids in the fish's stomach had started digesting Jonah's clothes, leaving them full of holes.
That isn't the worst of it. Fish tend to smell like ... fish. It isn't a very pleasant smell, and if the fish had eaten recently, then Jonah was stuck in the middle of digesting food, which probably smelled even worse. In the movies, the inside of the whale was a very calm, level place, but in real life, fish swim around. Jonah's great fish might have gone up and down and diagonally, making Jonah a little dizzy.
So now imagine Jonah. He's stuck in a tight, cramped place, probably in an uncomfortable position. It's very warm and smelly, and the acids in the fish's stomach are irritating his skin. The fish is swimming around so much that Jonah feels like he's riding a roller coaster with swivel cars. After three days of this, Jonah probably felt sick at his stomach. And then, the ultimate insult -- the fish throws up, and Jonah is part of it. Yuck!
The whole thing sounds positively awful, but we have to remember what the Bible says. (Show the card stock printed with the scripture reference and verse.) The first part of Romans 8:28 says, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God."
"All things work together for good" ... can you imagine anything good coming out of all of this?
Do you know what an archaeologist is? An archaeologist is someone who studies other people by studying what they've left behind, and the things the people left behind are called artifacts. Some of the archaeologists who've studied Nineveh think that the people in Jonah's time worshiped a fake god that was based on a fish.
So imagine this: Jonah goes to Nineveh, where the people worship a fake god that resembles a fish. He smells like a fish. His skin is bleached and blotchy. He says he just spent three days inside a fish. It's possible that someone saw the fish throwing up on the shore. The Bible doesn't say, but maybe there were witnesses. And now, Jonah is saying that the God he worships made the fish swallow Jonah, bring him to Nineveh, and then throw up. Can you imagine what the Ninevites were thinking? They were probably thinking something like, "Jonah's God can tell our god what to do! Maybe we'd better listen!"
If Jonah had gone straight to Nineveh, the people would have listened to him. After all, God was in charge. But maybe after hearing about Jonah's experience with the fish, the people listened a little more.
Jonah didn't just make a mistake. He did something a lot worse. Jonah thought about it, and then he disobeyed God on purpose! He chose to do what he did. But God was able to use even that for good. He took Jonah's deliberate disobedience and turned it into a great sermon illustration for the people of Nineveh.
The key here was that Jonah loved God and was finally willing to obey him. And God can do that for you, too. Sometimes bad things happen to us. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes we disobey God on purpose. No matter what, God can take the worst of everything and use it for good. Sometimes we don't see the outcome right away like Jonah did, but ultimately, God will use everything for his plans. You just have to trust him.
Remember our Bible verse: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God."
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you for loving us so much. Thank you for watching Jonah and for taking even his worst behavior and using it for something good. Thank you for your willingness to do that for us, too. Please help us to be willing to obey you, and help us not to be discouraged when bad thing happen to us. Help us to remember that if we trust you, you will use all things for good.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Optional: Give each child some goldfish or whale crackers to remind them of the story of Jonah and the whale.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.
-- Romans 8:28a
Materials Needed
Card stock printed with scripture reference and verse
Goldfish crackers or whale crackers (optional)
Telling The story
Do you know the story of Jonah? It's the story of a man who swallowed a whale. (Pause -- if the children agree, continue with the following.) I'm kidding! Jonah didn't swallow a whale! The whale swallowed Jonah, but actually, the Bible doesn't say it was a whale. It says that Jonah was swallowed by a great fish.
God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and to tell the people there that they needed to quit sinning and start following God, but Jonah didn't want to do it. So he got on a boat that sailed the opposite direction on the Mediterranean Sea. God knew where Jonah was, of course, and he sent a horrible storm. Everyone on board was afraid that the ship would sink. Jonah realized that the storm was sent because of him, so he asked the sailors to throw him overboard. Then God sent a great fish to swallow Jonah whole. The fish swam around for three days and then threw up on a beach. Poor Jonah was in the middle of it all! Then Jonah went to Nineveh, gave the people there God's message, and the people in Nineveh quit sinning!
Maybe you've seen people swallowed by whales in movies. In movies, the whale's insides usually look like a calm, giant cave. There's a cartoon that shows a man fishing inside a whale, and another shows a man being visited by a choir of angels who sang from the decks of several ships floating inside the whale. It was darkish and damp but not all that bad inside.
In real life, it probably wasn't so comfortable. It was probably pretty hot inside the great fish. And Jonah probably didn't have much room. In fact, it's possible that as he was swallowed, his arm was caught behind his head or his ankle was caught behind his knee. Try it with me. (Guide the children as they get into cramped positions.) Now imagine being stuck like that for three days!
You're hot, you don't have any room to move, your foot has gone to sleep, and things only get worse! Our stomachs are full of acids that help our bodies digest our foods. Fish have stomach acids, too. These acids probably stung Jonah's skin and eyes. After three days, they might have started bleaching his skin and may have made sores. It's possible that the acids in the fish's stomach had started digesting Jonah's clothes, leaving them full of holes.
That isn't the worst of it. Fish tend to smell like ... fish. It isn't a very pleasant smell, and if the fish had eaten recently, then Jonah was stuck in the middle of digesting food, which probably smelled even worse. In the movies, the inside of the whale was a very calm, level place, but in real life, fish swim around. Jonah's great fish might have gone up and down and diagonally, making Jonah a little dizzy.
So now imagine Jonah. He's stuck in a tight, cramped place, probably in an uncomfortable position. It's very warm and smelly, and the acids in the fish's stomach are irritating his skin. The fish is swimming around so much that Jonah feels like he's riding a roller coaster with swivel cars. After three days of this, Jonah probably felt sick at his stomach. And then, the ultimate insult -- the fish throws up, and Jonah is part of it. Yuck!
The whole thing sounds positively awful, but we have to remember what the Bible says. (Show the card stock printed with the scripture reference and verse.) The first part of Romans 8:28 says, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God."
"All things work together for good" ... can you imagine anything good coming out of all of this?
Do you know what an archaeologist is? An archaeologist is someone who studies other people by studying what they've left behind, and the things the people left behind are called artifacts. Some of the archaeologists who've studied Nineveh think that the people in Jonah's time worshiped a fake god that was based on a fish.
So imagine this: Jonah goes to Nineveh, where the people worship a fake god that resembles a fish. He smells like a fish. His skin is bleached and blotchy. He says he just spent three days inside a fish. It's possible that someone saw the fish throwing up on the shore. The Bible doesn't say, but maybe there were witnesses. And now, Jonah is saying that the God he worships made the fish swallow Jonah, bring him to Nineveh, and then throw up. Can you imagine what the Ninevites were thinking? They were probably thinking something like, "Jonah's God can tell our god what to do! Maybe we'd better listen!"
If Jonah had gone straight to Nineveh, the people would have listened to him. After all, God was in charge. But maybe after hearing about Jonah's experience with the fish, the people listened a little more.
Jonah didn't just make a mistake. He did something a lot worse. Jonah thought about it, and then he disobeyed God on purpose! He chose to do what he did. But God was able to use even that for good. He took Jonah's deliberate disobedience and turned it into a great sermon illustration for the people of Nineveh.
The key here was that Jonah loved God and was finally willing to obey him. And God can do that for you, too. Sometimes bad things happen to us. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes we disobey God on purpose. No matter what, God can take the worst of everything and use it for good. Sometimes we don't see the outcome right away like Jonah did, but ultimately, God will use everything for his plans. You just have to trust him.
Remember our Bible verse: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God."
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you for loving us so much. Thank you for watching Jonah and for taking even his worst behavior and using it for something good. Thank you for your willingness to do that for us, too. Please help us to be willing to obey you, and help us not to be discouraged when bad thing happen to us. Help us to remember that if we trust you, you will use all things for good.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Optional: Give each child some goldfish or whale crackers to remind them of the story of Jonah and the whale.
