Children's talk: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock'

I don't know about you, but I find children's talks really hard to come up with.  I have a few favourites that I redo every few years, but I find it hard to think of new ones.

  

We actually call our children's talks 'family talks', because they are for the whole church family.

This talk is based on the famous text, 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone opens the door I will come in and eat with them and they with me' (Revelation 3:20).

You will need some chocolate and a door.

I have decided that Tony's Chocolonely should be the official chocolate of Limerick Baptist Church (LBC) as it is Fairtrade and has a policy of seeking the benefit of the communities it sources its cocoa from.

 

So our church has a door near the front.  I am going to have a person on the other side of the door with five pieces of Tony's chocolate.  Then I am going to ask for five volunteers.  Each person will stand on the church side of the door and the volunteer will knock.  They have the choice to let that person in our not.  If they do, they will receive a piece of chocolate.  It is simple as that.

Jesus comes and knocks at the doors of our hearts.  He offers to more than a piece of chocolate.  He offers forgiveness, friendship, family and purpose.  Yet some people refuse to open the door.  It doesn't make any sense.  Everyone I know who has opened the door to him says that it is the best thing they have every done.  It doesn't make life easy, and it may even cause some people to not like you.  But it is much better than chocolate. 

Don't be a fool.  Let him in.     

Chlldren's Talk: God tells us what to do because he loves us

Explanation:  I am aware that one of the purposes of God's commands is to expose the fact that we have disobeyed him, and so they cause us to look to him for mercy and grace.  However, recently I have been made aware of the fact that God also gives us commands because he is the perfect parent who wants what is good for us.  The commands of Jesus clearly demonstrate this.

Equipment: 
Box
toothbrush, carrot and DVD
sheets with the words 'love', 'truth', 'forgiveness' and 'Jesus'
a lemon, a stone and a drawing of a snake.

What to do: 
Put everything in the box. 
Call the children to the front. 
'In our house we have some rules.'  Take out toothbrush.  'What do you think the rule is about teeth?' (Wash your teeth in the morning and evening.)  Take out carrot.  'What do you think the rule is about vegetables?'  (Eat them with our dinner).  Take out DVD.  'What do you think our rule is about DVDs?'  (Don't spend all day in front of the TV and don't watch things that are not for your age).

'But here is the question?  Why would Caroline and I have such rules?  Is it because we don't want our kids to have fun?  Is it because we don't like them?  Of course not!  It is because we love them and we want what is best for them.  If they don't wash their teeth, their teeth will rot.  It they don't eat their veg, they will become unhealthy.  If they watch things that are scary, it will mess up their minds.  Caroline and I are very imperfect parents, but we know that good rules are good for our children.

'So what are some of the good rules that Jesus gave to his followers?'  (listen for answers). 

Let me show you three of his rules. 

Take out sign saying 'love'.  'You know what happens if you ignore this rule?'  Take out stone.  The Bible says that you become hard and uncaring. 
Take out sign that says ''forgiveness'.  'You know what happens if you refuse to forgive?'  Take out lemon.  The Bible says that you become bitter. 
Take out sign that reads, 'truth'?  'Do you know what happens is you speak lies?'  Take out picture of snake.  You become sneaky and deceitful.

So ask Jesus for the strength to obey his commands.  And you know what happens when you love, forgive and tell the truth?  Take out sign saying Jesus.  You end up becoming more like the person who gave us these wonderful commands.

Jesus tells us what to do because he knows what is best for us.

Children's talk: The new heart

For the first time ever Caroline gave me unreservedly positive feedback on my children's story.  So I thought I would blog it.

You need your full food waste bin, a separate bag full of fresh fruit and a cloth.

You begin by explaining that the food bin is you, but that there is a problem on the inside of you.  The waste inside the bin is your heart (which in the Bible means more than your blood-pump).  In our hearts we are not very good at loving difficult people or forgiving those who hurt us.

Get them to smell the contents of the bin.

Sometimes the lid is lifted and people can see what our heart is like.  For example, we lose our temper with our brothers and sisters or get mad with our friends.  So what do you do?

Well you could try to deal with the outside of the bin (wash it with the cloth), but the stink is still there on the inside.  We can smile at people and pretend that we like them, yet in our hearts we still hate them and refuse to forgive them.

No!  Something needs to happen on the inside.  We need a change of heart.  Only God can do that.  So we go to him and say, 'help!  I just can't do it!  I can't love this person!  I can't forgive them!'  And God promises to do something with our heart.

Now you switch the waste bag, and put in the one with fresh fruit.

Let them smell the bin again.  Take a piece of fresh fruit out of the bin and eat it.  Remind them that God promises to change us on the inside in a way that we can never change ourselves on our own.

Bible text: Ezekiel 36:26.

Children’s talks (1)

Children’s talks aren’t easy. It is hard to come up with something that conveys Biblical truth and relates well to kids. Here is one of my favourites.

Preparation: Take an envelope and put a blank piece of paper inside. Seal the envelope and then glue a second envelope to its back. You want to give the impression that you have only one open envelope, and that it is open.

Talk:  Ask the children to list off things that they should not do. Write them down on a piece of paper. Then put them into the open envelope and seal it. Talk for a while about forgiveness. Then go back to your double envelope. Open the first envelope and take out the blank piece of paper. The children should think that this is the paper on which they wrote the list of things they should not do. Ask for a volunteer to read the list. Of course they can’t because the page is blank. I tend to say ‘one other thing you shouldn’t do is cheat’, and explain how I switched the pieces of paper. You can then explain how God takes the wrong things we have done and removes them.  He really can make the list turn blank.

Useful texts:  Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 1:18.