Use this children’s sermon about David and Bathsheba to teach children about confession, repentance, and forgiveness.
Scripture: 2 Samuel 11-12
Needed: a beach towel or blanket
Children’s Sermon
Ask children, what should you do when you do something wrong?
King David did something very wrong one time. It doesn’t matter exactly what it was right now. Just know that he did something wrong and then, he had to figure out what to do about it.
He knew that he was going to get into trouble. (Pretend as if you’re covering something up with your blanket or towel as you say this.) So, he tried to cover it up. He lied about it. He tried to trick people. He even had someone killed so that no one would find out what he did.
True freedom in Christ (John 8:36) — a complete Bible lesson with printable activities, free from the Sunday School Store.
(Point at the towel or blanket.) But God still knew what happened. God could see right through David’s cover-up, and God punished Him for it. (Pick up the towel or blanket.)
The thing is that David should have covered his sin, just not the way He did it. Instead of doing more wrong things to cover his sin, he only needed to do one right thing. It’s the same thing we all need to do when we sin against God.
When we sin, all we need to do is ask God to forgive us. Then, God’s forgiveness (Pretend to cover something up again.) covers our sin. As Christians, we believe that Jesus’ blood covers our sin so that we can be forgiven for whatever we did.
Jesus teaches about prayer (Matthew 6:5–9) — a complete, ready-to-teach lesson with printable activities, free from the Sunday School Store.
Instead of trying to cover up our sin as David did, we need to ask God to forgive us so that He can cover it.
Closing Prayer
Lord, we thank You that You are always ready to forgive us. Help us not to hide or cover up our sin but confess it to You and ask You to cover it with Your forgiveness. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
You can also find this children’s sermon for Kindle or in print in my book, Children’s Sermons about Samuel and David.