Use this free children’s sermon to teach about putting on Christ from Colossians 3:1-14 in your Sunday School or Kid Church. Download our teaching notes below, gather your object lesson supplies, and watch the demonstration video below as you prepare to teach.
Law/Gospel Theme: We know that we make mistakes and daily sin much. Our sinful and selfish desires pull us with temptation to do wrong. However, we are no longer slaves to evil. In Christ Jesus, we can become a new creation! We have the hope of casting off the negative tendencies and instead clothing ourselves with the grace of God. When we put Him first, we can trust that He will work in and through us to give us lives of renewed hope and meaning.
Object Lesson Materials: (Optional) Shirts with stains, or methods of making an old shirt dirty and stained; clean new shirts.
Bible Passage: Colossians 3:1-14
More Bible Teaching Activities
- Watch the video of this children’s sermon and related Sunday School craft ideas
- Compare our Colossians 3:16 Sunday School Lesson for Kids
- See all our children’s ministry lessons and activities from the book of Colossians
- Download the Put On – Put Off Coloring Page for this Bible passage
Message Note: As with most messages, the details of how you choose to communicate this are adaptable and should cater to timing as well as to your audience and student needs. This message can potentially be communicated using varied methods: you might have one of the students put on a large shirt (over their current outfit), and then purposely mess that up. Or you could be wearing a shirt that gets trashed. In the description here, the speaker is wearing a shirt that already has stains on it.
Colossians 3:1-14 Children’s Sermon: Put on the New Self
Greet children, and point out the messy state of your shirt…
Hello, children of God! Have you ever made a mess? I sure have. In fact, sometimes I tend to get quite messy. For instance, this shirt I’m wearing will show you how hard it is for me to keep things clean! (Show stains as you describe them.) See, this morning I was trying to have breakfast, and I wound up spilling juice over here, and then I got a blob of jam over here. I got it sort of wiped up, but I had to leave early and didn’t have time to change. Well, then I had a hot dog for lunch, and I got ketchup and mustard on my shirt over here! And then I was trying to work on some crafts, and I wound up spilling glue down on this area, and I got some glitter on top of that…and since I was having a rough day, I went to get ice cream, but then I got this caramel splotch all over the shirt here! And then, I tried to clean it up (attempt to wipe the stains, but spread them around more), and it just got even worse! What am I going to do? I’ll never get this shirt clean enough…you know, there’s really only one thing I can think of to solve the problem. I think I need a whole new shirt. Carefully take off the stained shirt—preferably this might be a large and easily removable button-down shirt, or a larger T-shirt with clothing underneath. Replace the soiled garment with a fresh clean shirt.
Wow, that’s much better, isn’t it? Phew. I couldn’t get those stains out on my own, but now I’ve got something clean and new. You know, believe it or not, this reminds me of what happens in our lives. We tend to mess things up on our own. We sin and make mistakes, and those sins can be like big, yucky stains. We might act greedy or selfish, or get angry and say mean things to other people. If we try to fix that by our own power, we usually wind up making things worse, or falling right back into those negative habits. It makes our lives pretty messy!
But thanks be to God, Jesus offers us new hope. The Bible says that we can rid ourselves of those old things, and “put on a new self.” We can give those sinful stains to Jesus, and instead accept the grace and forgiveness He offers! Jesus takes on our guilt and gives us new life. He trades us the messy things for beautiful ones and makes us a new creation. We can “clothe ourselves” with good things like compassion, humility, kindness, gentleness, and patience. That doesn’t happen just because we hope it will. It happens when we give ourselves to God and let Jesus live through us. When we pray, study God’s word, and trust in Him, we will leave the old messy things behind and instead be “clothed” with wonderful attributes!
Why don’t we pray to thank God for our new lives in Him?
Children’s Prayer:
(Have kids repeat each line)
Dear God,
Thank you for giving us new life in Jesus
And for taking away our sinful stains
Help us to trust in you
And live clothed in the good things!
Thank you for your love
We love you, God!
In Jesus name, Amen!
Bible Verses/story to Reference:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. -Colossians 3:1-14