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The Constitution Of Our Faith

Children's sermon
The Giant Book Of Children's Sermons
Matthew To Revelation
Object: a constitution (United States, state, or local government) and slips of paper for each child with Matthew 5:1-12 written on them


Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about something that you may have heard about a lot of times but perhaps you have never seen. How many of you have heard the word constitution? (let them answer) That's good. How many of you know what a constitution is? (let them answer) You have some good ideas. A constitution is something that people write for their organization to tell how it should be run and what they believe in. I have a copy of the United States Constitution that tells how our government should be set up and what we believe in as Americans. This is a great constitution, and it is something that we pay a lot of attention to every day of our lives. There are other constitutions such as the one for our state, and we have one for our church. I can show you the one that we have for our church. Constitutions are important and a lot of thinking and planning goes into every one. If you follow the constitution of your county, your church, or your club, then you will be a better citizen, church person, or club member.

Jesus gave the Christian church a kind of constitution one day when he was teaching his disciples and a lot of other people what it meant to be a follower of God. The words that he taught are thought to be some of the most important words that have ever been spoken by anyone to someone else. I cannot think of any words that are more important because these tell me exactly what a Christian is supposed to be like, according to Jesus. I am not going to read the words to you today, but I am going to tell you where you can find them in the Bible, and I hope your mother and father will sit down with you today and go over them.

Each of the words that Jesus used was carefully chosen, and it teaches us the importance of love and how we are to use the love that God gives to us. It tells us how to care for each other and how God cares for us. These verses are called the Beatitudes, but they could be called the Constitution of our Faith. I hope that you will spend some time today reading the Bible with your parents and listening to the words that Jesus taught us about how to live. How many of you will do that? (let them answer) That's good.
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