Run Your Race #FortheLove

A few weeks ago I was checking out the scripture for the upcoming sermon, so I could prep for my children's sermon (when I mean prep, I mean read the scripture, think about it for a week, and still go up to the front of the church with a general idea and hope for lots of grace).  I read the title, Running to Win, and saw that it was based off of 1 Corinthians 9:19-27.

19 Although I’m free from all people, I make myself a slave to all people, to recruit more of them. 20 I act like a Jew to the Jews, so I can recruit Jews. I act like I’m under the Law to those under the Law, so I can recruit those who are under the Law (though I myself am not under the Law). 21 I act like I’m outside the Law to those who are outside the Law, so I can recruit those outside the Law (though I’m not outside the law of God but rather under the law of Christ).22 I act weak to the weak, so I can recruit the weak. I have become all things to all people, so I could save some by all possible means. 23 All the things I do are for the sake of the gospel, so I can be a partner with it.

24 Don’t you know that all the runners in the stadium run, but only one gets the prize? So run to win. 25 Everyone who competes practices self-discipline in everything. The runners do this to get a crown of leaves that shrivel up and die, but we do it to receive a crown that never dies. 26 So now this is how I run—not without a clear goal in sight. I fight like a boxer in the ring, not like someone who is shadowboxing. 27 Rather, I’m landing punches on my own body and subduing it like a slave. I do this to be sure that I myself won’t be disqualified after preaching to others.

When I read this verse it immediately took me to a chapter that I had recently read in Jen Hatmaker's upcoming book, For The Love (available Aug. 18th).  In the chapter Run Your Race, Jen discusses how we are each running our own race, and how we should not only feel encouraged for ourselves, but also cheer along other running beside us.  I decided that God had put that chapter in my life to preach to the kids at our church.

On Sunday I went up to the front of the church again with just the general idea.  Let's be real here,  You can right a script for a children's sermon, but inevitably one of the children is going to start chasing rabbits and throw you off your script, so I prefer to chase rabbits with them instead. :)

I asked them how many of them liked to run, and just about all of them raised their hands.  I told them that when I was a kid, I loved to run too, but now that I am an adult, my body is not quite the same, so I do not enjoy running as much.  I told them when I am asked to sign up for a race, I usually say no since I do not enjoy running.  Then I went on to say if I don't like running does that mean that I can never do races?  I asked them what other kind of races there are.  I got many answers (car, three-legged, bike, motorcycle, pie-eating - we will save that story for...NEVER!).

I told them that just because I don't like to run, doesn't mean that I can't compete in a race ever again.  It just means that I need to find MY race and join in.  I told them that this is kind of like how we serve God and our race to the finish line of life.  Some people are good at singing in the choir or the band, while others enjoy evangelizing.  Some of the them may like to go on mission trips, but some of them may prefer to serve at our church.  I told them that each one of those things is important in bringing people in and closer to Christ.

I asked them what they would do if a friend was in a running race and beating them.  I asked if they would reach their foot out to trip their friend, so they couldn't be ahead?  Many of them shook their head with a horrified look on their face while others giggled.  I said that they were right, we shouldn't do that.  Tripping their friend is going to make them run any faster, and it's only going to create bad feelings.  In that same way, when we see our friends doing well for God, we shouldn't be jealous.  We should be proud of them and cheer them on.  Their race is not our race.

 Plus the race to God is not about who finishes first.  It's about doing the best with the gifts and opportunities God has given you.  At the end, we don't want a 1st place medal.  We just want a seat in Heaven and to hear the words, "Well done." from our Heavenly Father.

My hope for each of you is that you find your gifts, realize your opportunities, and run your race.

#blessed

Last week I had to prepare a sermon on Blessings based off Matthew 5:1-15.  This was a tough one folks.  Despite the verse being filled with "Blessed are the..." the endings just don't make sense in our earthly minds.  How was I supposed to explain to a group of kiddos preschool and up that "Blessed are the poor," and "Blessed are the meek," when logically you are going, "Whaaa?" (Insert Despicable Me minion verse here).

Due to my lack of creativity and inspiration, I chose to go to the trusty Google to help me out.  I read through a variety of children's sermons on the topic, but I still wasn't finding quite what I wanted.  I was getting a little worried that this one was not going to work out, but silly me, God provides.  As we were driving home from our ski vacation on Friday, I was able to pull some up that I could take pieces from and work with with.  Giving credit where credit is due, here are the links:

What is a Blessing? - Sermons 4 Kids

The Beatitudes - Blessed are You!

The Sermon on the Mount - DLTK Bibles stories for children

The general idea I took from these is a blessing is not something that happens to you, it is receiving God's love and letting it work through you.  That way even in the hard times, you are still blessed b/c you always have God's love.  I spoke with the kids about this on Sunday morning, and explained that even when bad things happen (get sick, parent loses job, etc.) that we are still blessed if we allow ourselves to feel God's love and show it to others.

For our later group, I got a little more specific in the message and their mission behind it.  We talked about the #blessed that we often see on social media.  We talked again about the true meaning of a blessings and how it is gotten misconstrued.  As Jessica Bennet a writer for the New York times put it, "calling something “blessed” has become the go-to term for those who want to boast about an accomplishment while pretending to be humble, fish for a compliment, acknowledge a success (without sounding too conceited), or purposely elicit envy."

I am not trying to call anyone out here, but how often do we see the status posts such as:
"I am having an epic hair day! #blessed"
"We get to embarrass USC three times in one season. #blessed"
"I live the life I deserve. #blessed"
"Chipotle for lunch. #blessed"
"Returned to my apartment to find a new shower head...that actually provides water pressure. #GodisGood #blessed"
"I'm laying on a beach in the Dominican Republic with a pina colada in my hand and no worries #TheLife #Blessed"

These are actual statuses that I found on the internet from searching #blessed.  None of these are people that I know, and I did not include the names to protect the innocent.  I am not bashing on people who are thankful for the things in their life, so please know that.  We just need to start recognizing and differentiating being blessed and having good things or gifts that happen in our life.

"I am having an epic hair day. #blessed" - Well that means I go most days without being blessed, not to mention those that suffer from illness or medical treatments that cause their hair to fall out.

"We get to embarrass USC three times in one season. #blessed" - I never knew that one person's blessing meant another's failure.

"I live the life I deserve. #blessed" - Um, I know that people work hard and many get rewarded for this effort, but what about those who work hard with no reward.  What about those in Africa who are born into villages where they do no have the luxury of modern medicine.  Are they living the "blessed" life they deserve?  Don't even get me started on Jesus's life.  Basically homeless, persecuted, and eventually crucified.

"Chipotle for lunch. #blessed" - For those who cannot afford Chipotle or even some ramen noodles, I guess they are out of luck.

"Returned to my apartment to find a new shower head...that actually provides water pressure. "GodisGood #blessed" - It makes me wonder about those who do not even have clean water drink, much less bathrooms to shower in.

 "I'm laying on a beach in the Dominican Republic with a pina colada in my hand and no worries #TheLife #Blessed" - Folks if this is the requirement for being blessed, then I will never be!

I know I am being a little sarcastic here, but I hop you get my point.  Again I truly believe that these are all things to be thankful for, but calling them blessings may be inappropriate, as it leaves others out of the possibility of being "blessed" when truly every person can be.

I encouraged the kids in our program to help change the #blessed connotation.  I challenged them to show God's love somehow this week to someone else and have them put it out there on social media (if they had an account or ask their parents to put it on theirs) with the #blessed.

Maybe we can all do this, and other can realize that they do not have the rich, successful, beautiful by the world's standards, etc. to be #blessed.  God's blessings are for everyone.

Children's sermon - Free the Prisoner

Well last week was my turn to do children's sermon, and as I was looking over the verse and the sermon title for that Sunday, I couldn't think of anything.  The verse was Isaiah 61:1~

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,

    for the Lord has anointed me

    to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted

    and to proclaim that captives will be released

    and prisoners will be freed.

The title was "Setting Prisoners Free."  Sometimes when I look at the verse and/or the title of the upcoming sermon, I immediately start coming up with ideas and things to talk about.  This was not the case this time.  It's not that that verse isn't inspirational.  It totally is!  I love the message and the sentiment it conveys.  It's just relating that message to a group of kids from preschool up to 5th grade is not an easy task.  I went to my trusty Google to search other children's sermons on that verse and the topic of setting prisoners free to build some inspiration.  No luck.  Apparently not many children's sermons have been derived from this verse.  Finally I was able to find a sermon about Martin Luther King Jr. which gave me a little spark, especially since MLK Jr. day was the day after I was giving my sermon (sometimes it's just a God thing).  After that I started brainstorming different ways to convey what prison must feel like, and I thought about how we may not be prisoners in the sense that we have committed a crime and gone to jail, but in the way that we create our own prisons everyday.  I thought of how I feel when I create my own prison when I let the things of this world become more prominent that God.  Trapped.  How could I show this to the kids though?

Sunday morning, I ran up to the Sunday School supply closet (because it has EVERYTHING!) and grabbed my supplies.  I went back into the sanctuary and set them down where I would be speaking.  When it came time for children's sermon, I had my son sit in front of me, so I could use him for my demonstration.  I asked the kids about why they would be out of school the following day, and they excitedly told me about Martin Luther King day.  I asked why he was important, and they spoke about how he fought for civil rights.  I told them yes, that he like many others in this world fought for freedom for everyone, no matter what you look like.  I asked them if they knew about prison, then I asked them if they knew that you could be in prison without actually going to jail.  I had my son stand up and hold a piece of yarn that I had grabbed.  I asked the kids how we might create our own prisons, and they called out things like - lying, saying not nice words, being mean to your dog, hurting others, etc.  Everytime that they called something out, I would have my son spin around holding the yarn thus wrapping his body and arms up in the circles of yarn.  The pastors and I called out a few more things to help them out, like unforgiveness (who me?), fear (yep), and getting a bad case of the "I wants" (ouch).  AT the end I asked if he could get out, and he said "no."  We talked about how he was trapped in this "prison" and how he felt trapped.  I also tried to show that even if I tried to help him by pulling on the yarn, I couldn't set him free. Then I brought out my scissors, and I told the kids that the scissors represented Jesus.  As I easily cut through the yarn, I explained that Jesus is the only one who can set us free when we create these "prisons," and we need to turn to him for help when we are feeling trapped.  We finished up with a prayer thanking God for Jesus and all the others who fought for freedom.  

Not exactly something based on the scripture, but I felt it was a success.  Kids stayed interested and engaged, and I am pretty sure they got the point.  It also made me realize some of the prisons I have created for myself recently, and now that I am aware, I can begin to turn to Jesus to set me free.  :)

Spiritual Gifts + Candy = Best Children's Sermon ever!!

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.

UMC Spiritual Gifts Assessment