Chosen Children
Trust God – Choose Life • Life Sunday Children’s Message

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16).

I have here a bowl of miniature Snicker bars [or cookies or Jelly Beans or some irresistible tempting treat]. If I let you, how many of you would choose to have one of these? That’s what I thought. Almost everyone would want to choose to have a Snicker bar. But when it comes to sweet treats like this, I’m guessing there is someone you would have to ask before eating it. Who would that be? Yes, mom or dad. You are children of your mom and dad and even though you may really, really, really want to choose a Snicker bar right now and maybe a whole bunch for lunch and then some more for dinner too, we know that we just can’t always choose to have everything we want. When we are children, we must choose what mom and dad want us to choose because they love us and know what is best for us. And really, if you think about it, eating Snicker bars all day every day might be yummy, but it wouldn’t be very good for us!

The Bible says that we are not only children of our moms and dads, we are children of God. [Placing the treats behind you or somewhere out of sight as much as possible and picking up a Bible would be a wise move at this point!] We are His chosen children. He chose us in the waters of our baptism to be His children. It’s kind of like choosing teams in school or on the play ground. God chose each of you to be on His team, to be His child. So as God’s children, do we get to choose to do whatever we want? No, of course not. We are not supposed to choose to hit someone or tell a lie or be mean. As God’s children we choose what God wants us to do as He tells us in the Bible because we trust that He loves us and knows what is best for us. 

And we know that He loves us because of Jesus! God loved us so much He sent Jesus to suffer and die on the cross and then rise again from the dead. God punished Jesus for the bad things we do. That means when we choose to do something bad and then feel sorry for that and ask Jesus to forgive us, He will! And when someone loves us that much to forgive us when we do wrong, as chosen children we will try even harder to choose to do what is right. 

[Bring the treats back in view.] As children, do we get to eat whatever we want whenever we want? No, we choose to eat what mom and dad want us to eat because they love us and know what is best. [Holding up the Bible.] As children of God do we get to do whatever we want whenever we want? No, we choose to do what God wants us to do because He loves us in Jesus and knows what is best.

Let’s bow our heads and fold our hands for prayer. Father, thank You for choosing us in Jesus to be Your children. Give us Your Holy Spirit so that as chosen children we might choose to please You in all we do. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

[Distribute treats at your own risk or hand them out at the end of the service. If you have known diabetic children, have a suitable treat for them as well.]