Yesterday was my week for children's sermon and the topic was Committed, Serve and Go. (We are currently in the middle of our stewardship campaign.) The verses the pastor was speaking about listed the spiritual gifts. Now sometimes when I hear the verse and/or the title of a sermon, ideas and inspiration just hit. This week, not so much, so I turned to my trusty friend Google. After searching through ideas and others sermons for about 45 minutes, I drew some inspiration from this sermon about Spiritual Gifts and cake. Now I knew I wasn't going to be able to make the cakes (Ain't nobody got time for that!), so I took the easy way out and went to get some candy which tied in with Halloween coming up.
The night before I put each type of candy in a ziplock bag with a spiritual gift labeled on it. (Starburst - Administration, Whoppers - Faith, Dum Dums - Tongues, Smarties - Evangelism, Hershey Kisses - Compassion). Then put them in one big bag to carry them up to the front with me. This may or may not have been a Frozen bag that I had to borrow from my daughter.
The next morning I greeted the kiddos and asked them what holiday was coming up, and the response was a very excited "Halloween!" Then I asked what do they get on Halloween, and I got an even more excited "CANDY!" I then told them that I had brought some candy with me today b/c I told them that candy was like spiritual gifts. Now we have two services at our church, and at the second service I asked the kids if they knew how candy and spiritual gifts could be alike, and a very wise elementary schooler sitting beside be answered, "Because they are both meant to be given away," From the mouths of babes!! I told her thanks for doing the sermon, and we could all go home now! Don't ever discount those little ones. :)
I went on the tell them that just like the candy I had in my bags, there are many different spiritual gifts (20 recognized by the United Methodist Church), but while each gift is unique , they are all gifts from God, just as all the candy with the different shapes, flavors and sizes are still collectively candy.
I pulled out my Administration bag first with the Starburst in it, and I told the kids that like the night before I had snuck a couple pieces of Starburst while I was working on my sermon. I let them know that I like Starbust, but I was very disappointed when I opened my packed of candy only to find two LEMON. Ugh (because we all know that cherry and orange are the best). I explained to the kids that while I like some flavors of Starbursts, I do not enjoy all the flavors, just like I enjoy some parts of administration, but not all the parts. I passed that bag on to one of the kiddos to hold and told them that is not one of my gifts. I did a similar speech with Faith, Tongues, and Evangelism).
Then I got to my Compassion bag of Hershey Kisses. I told the kids that I felt like compassion was one of my gifts because when I heard of a someone who was in need of something that my mind won't stop thinking about it until I do something to help. I went on to tell the kids that chocolate was my favorite candy, so I would just keep it to myself after all. The kids were emphatic that I share it of course! I asked them what could happen if I kept all the chocolate and ate it myself, and one kiddo replied that I would get a belly ache. I told him yes I would!! I then added that if we keep our spiritual gifts to ourselves that we may not get a belly ache but it definitely doesn't feel good. If I hear of a friend who is hurting or in need of something, and I do nothing, it definitely bothers me! I am not fulfilling God's wish for my when he gave me this gift. We talked about how gifts like candy are meant to be shared. I asked the kids to remember this each time they saw a piece of candy this month. Then after prayer and much suspense each child got to take a piece of candy of their choice back with them.
Researching this sermon definitely got me thinking. We took a Disciple class a couple years ago, and at the end it had a spiritual gifts section where we were supposed to analyze and discuss each others gifts. Well, our class is a bit of a rabbit chasing class, so we never really got to do that in its true form. I discovered a spiritual gifts assessment online when I was looking up material last week, and I intend to take it today, so see what it says, so I can maybe look at new ways of serving and fulfilling God's plan. If you are interested in taking the assessment yourself, click on the link below.
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