Children’s Sermon

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Giving All

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1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Giving All

By Lois Parker Edstrom

Objects suggested: Picture of a hummingbird. A stick of gum. A small jellybean.

Pictures of hummingbirds and their nests available at:
http://fohn.net/hummingbird-pictures/

Many of you may never have seen a hummingbird. They live only in North and South America. Hummingbirds are so tiny that they seem almost magical. Most weigh about the same as a stick of gum. (Let the children feel the weight of a stick of gum and show picture of a hummingbird.)

They are called hummingbirds because they flap their wings so fast (about eighty times a second) that they make a humming sound.

Their nests are usually less that two inches across and the eggs are the size of small jellybeans. Hummingbirds use materials from plants to build their little cup-shaped nests. They may use moss, soft leaves or flower petals and they line the inside of the nest with down such as that from a thistle or a dandelion. The nest is held together with spider webs. Isn’t that fascinating?

These tiny birds work very hard to prepare a nest for their babies. I once watched a hummingbird build a nest and the little bird could not lift the last rose petal into the nest because she didn’t have enough strength or energy left to do it.

You may wonder what this has to do with our Bible lesson for today. The Apostle Paul went about telling others about God’s love. Like the hummingbird he worked very hard and did many things to let others know about the gospel – the good news of God’s love.

He tells us this: “Now I do this for the sake of the Good News…” (9:23) and we have the impression that Paul gave all he had to help others and tell them about the good news of God’s love.

He tells us that God’s love brings blessings to all of us. He says, “Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it (share in its blessings)” (9:23).

Work hard and share the blessings of God’s love.

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible

Copyright 2012, Richard Niell Donovan