Purpose: Use this children’s sermon on the life of Moses to show kids how he points to Jesus.
Scripture: Exodus 1:22-2:10
Needed: two things that are the same but different sizes, such as two screwdrivers or wrenches, two pots, two glasses, etc.
Children’s Sermon
Show the children the smaller of your two objects. Tell them a story about how you were using the smaller object very successfully for one task, but it isn’t large enough for your next task. Maybe your small wrench is too small to fit around a large nut, or your small pot is too small to cook for a large group of people coming over.
Ask, What should I do if my _ is too small? (Listen to kids’ answers. When they say that you should get a larger item, pull out the larger version.)
That’s a great idea! With a larger _, I’ll be able to _.
That kind of reminds me of two people God used in the Bible to accomplish His tasks. He used one for a pretty big task, but then, God used the other one for something even greater.
The first person I’m talking about whom God used is Moses. How many of you have heard of Moses?
Moses was born in the land of Egypt, where his people were slaves to Pharaoh the king. But Pharaoh was afraid that Moses’ people, the Israelites, would grow up to break free of their slavery and take over the country.
So, – now, this is a very sad part, so get ready – Pharaoh said that any Israelite mothers who gave birth to baby boys had to drown their baby boys in the river. That’s horrible, isn’t it? God doesn’t want any babies to die.
So, when Moses was born, his mother hid him by the river instead of drowning him in the river. She put him in a little basket. And do you know what happened?
When Pharaoh the king’s daughter, the princess of Egypt, came to take a bath in the river, she saw baby Moses in the basket. And instead of drowning him, she took Moses to be her own son.
Later, when Moses grew up, God used him to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. When the people got to the edge of the land of Egypt, God used Moses to lead the people through the Red Sea by making the water of the sea split apart so that the Israelites could walk through it out of Egypt.
Moses was like the little _ I used. God used Moses to bring the Israelites out of slavery, but God’s next task was even bigger than that.
The person God used to accomplish this bigger task was Jesus. Like Moses, Jesus was born in a time when the people of Israel were being ruled over by a wicked king named Herod.
And when Herod heard that Jesus had been born, he told the people of Jesus’ town to kill all their baby boys. Herod was afraid that Jesus would grow up to be king instead of him, just like the Pharaoh was afraid the Israelites would take over his country.
But God told Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, to take the baby Jesus and run away. Later, when Jesus grew up, God used Him to free everyone not from the power of the wicked king, but from the power of being slaves to sin.
Did you know that we’re all slaves to sin? We all do wrong things sometimes. But Jesus came to free us from the power of sin. If we believe in Him, He can give us the power to do the right things and not do the wrong things.
God used Jesus to save us from our sins by letting Jesus die on the cross. Jesus was punished for all the wrongs that we do, so that God doesn’t have to punish us.
So, God saved Moses so that He could use Moses to save the Israelites from slavery. He saved Jesus so that Jesus could save us from being slaves to sin.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank You for saving the Israelites from slavery. But we thank You even more for saving us from being slaves to sin. When we think about Moses and the Exodus, help us to remember Jesus.
You can also find this children’s sermon for Kindle or in print in my book, Children’s Sermons about the Exodus