Children's Sermon - Judging

Look at this car boys and girls.  Isn’t this the coolest car you have ever seen?? Would you love to own this car?

For those that can’t see the car it’s a van with no hub caps, rust everywhere, a hole in the back door, and the back door is bungee corded closed. 

 

What?  You don’t like this car? !! Well boys and girls this is my car.  Do you know why I love this car so much? This car was the first car I rode in when I moved to Wisconsin 14 years ago.    This car has driven to CT 8 times,  Canada 10 times, Florida 4 times, Cleveland 12 times, Virginia once to see my son graduate, and has driven almost every inch of Wisconsin.  I saw the Mississippi River for the first time in this car.  This was the car that took me to the hospital when my sons were born and took me to the hospital every day for a month while they were still in the hospital.  This is the car that brought my babies home from the hospital.  This car was stolen and every single thing, even the seats were stolen out of it, and it was rear-ended on the highway. This car has seen a lot of tears, heard a lot of laughs, it’s been there as all 7 of our children have grown, and it will be there for our grandchildren.  It’s been through it all and yet with over 350,000 miles it still gets us where we need to go.  I think when you hear this cars story you’ll think it’s a pretty neat car.  

See boys and girls we judged this car because of how it looked and sometimes we do the same thing with people.  Instead of hearing all the wonderful stories a person has to tell and getting to know them, we judge them because they might look different, act different or dress different than we do.  The Bible warns us about judging.  Matthew 7:1 says “Judge not, that you be not judged.”  That means that if we don’t want other people to judge us, then we shouldn’t judge others. 

Can we pray?

Lord, we know judging others is wrong. Open our hearts to the stories that make them who you made them to be.  In your loving name we pray, Amen