God Will Reward Us for Our Sacrifices! Children's Sermon on Taking Up Our Cross

God Will Reward Us for Our Sacrifices!  

SCRIPTURE: Matthew 16:24-27 / Mark 8:34-36 / Luke 9:23-25

BIG IDEA: When God asks us to give something up, He always promises us a better reward. 

Supplies: Pieces of candy for each student, packs of cookies for each student (or two levels of prizes) 

Story

Give each student a piece of candy but tell them not to eat it yet. Then, show them the packs of cookies. If you give me back your piece of candy, I will give you a pack of cookies instead.

Re-collect the candy and give each student a pack of cookies.

I asked you to give up your piece of candy and told you that if you did, I would give you something even better. Do you know that God does the same thing?

God tells us to give up certain things in life. What would God want us to give up? Sin.

God tells us to give up our sins, and He promises that if we do, we will 1) have a better life here on earth, and 2) that we will go to Heaven to be with God forever when we die.

What happens if God tells us to give up our sins but we refuse? Where do we go when we die?

If God tells us to give up our sins but we don't do it, we won't go to Heaven when we die; we'll go to Hell and be punished forever. 

Some Christians even have to give up their lives for God. They might live in a country where it's against the law to be a Christian. Or someone might be angry and want to kill Christians.

If someone says that we're not allowed to believe in Jesus, or that they're going to kill us for believing in Jesus, what should we do?

We have to keep believing in Jesus, and saying that we believe in Jesus, no matter what. And if we give up our lives for God, God will reward us and take us to Heaven to live with Him forever.

If we stop believing in Jesus, or if we say we don't believe in Jesus because we don't want to get in trouble or we don't want to get killed, we won't go to Heaven and live forever when we die; we'll go to Hell and be punished forever.

Read one of the Scripture passages listed above. 

So, if God tells us to give something up, even if we have to give up our lives, we do it, because God will reward us and give us something better. 

 

Closing Prayer: Father God, we thank You for always rewarding Your people. Help us to give up any sins or anything that You ask us to. Help us to be strong for You even if someone threatens to kill us for believing in You. In Jesus' name, amen.