Purpose: Use this children’s sermon on Isaac to teach kids how to live at peace with others.
Scripture: Genesis 26:12-22
Needed: Three six-sided dice
Children’s Sermon
Call the students up front and ask for three volunteers from the congregation for a game of Bump. Have the volunteers line up in the center in front of you and the children. Give each of the three volunteers a die.
If the first one rolls a 1 or 2, they stand on the left side of the sanctuary. If they roll a 3 or 4, they stand in the middle. If they roll a 5 or 6, they stand on the right side of the sanctuary. They each continue rolling and moving to their new spot.
The trick is that you and the children can’t occupy the same space as one of the volunteers, so if one rolls to land on the position where you are, your group moves to an open space. If there is no open space, the volunteers win, and the game is over.
Once your volunteers crowd you out, thank them and then lead the kids back toward the middle to talk about what happened.
Say, Every time someone landed in our spot, we moved, didn’t we? We didn’t try to keep our spot. We simply let them have it.
That’s how Isaac behaved in our story today. He dug a well, and then his enemies said it was theirs. Instead of arguing with them, he moved to a different spot and dug another well. His enemies said it was theirs again. Isaac moved a second time and dug a well. His enemies claimed it was theirs. Isaac moved a third time, dug a well, and… guess what happened? His enemies said it was theirs.
So, Isaac moved a fourth time, dug a well, and… guess what happened? No one said it was theirs. He was able to keep the fourth well he dug.
What I like about this story is that Isaac didn’t fight with anyone, even though he was the one who dug the wells. He simply let his enemies have them.
It reminds me of how Jesus didn’t fight back when the soldiers arrested Him.
I think God likes it when we don’t fight with others, but simply move on. Keeping the peace is more important to God than fighting about who’s right and who’s wrong. So, let’s remember to be peaceful with others and do what we can to avoid getting into fights.
Closing Prayer
God, You gave us this story about Isaac and You gave us Your Son Jesus, to show us how to be peaceful. Help us not to fight with others when they do something wrong to us, but to simply move on like Isaac did. Amen.
You can also find this children’s sermon for Kindle or in print in my book, The People Build a Tower, but God Builds a Family