Tiny Seeds
A Children's Sermon
Matthew 13:31-32
By Dave Redick
Text: Matthew 13:31-32
Props: A packet of tomato seeds and a paper or Styrofoam cup to collect them at the end. You can substitute any other small seeds if you change the wording of the lesson appropriately.
I’ve brought something along with me today that I want you all to see. It’s a packet of tomato seeds. (Open the packet and pour some of the seeds into your hand. If there aren’t too many children, let them each take one of the seeds from your hand.) I’d like each of you to take one seed from my hand. Be sure not to put it into your mouth or drop it because when we’re finished I’d like to have it back so I can plant it next spring.
I love to eat tomatoes and each of one these tiny seeds has the potential to produce one tomato plant. One tomato plant can produce many pounds of yummy tomatoes. It’s amazing to me to realize that if each of these seeds were planted, even a small packet like this could grow a truckload of bright red, juicy tomatoes.
A long time ago Jesus taught a lesson about tiny seeds and their potential. He didn’t use tomato seeds. Instead He used mustard seeds. I couldn’t find any Mustard seeds at the seed store but I’m told that they are even tinier than tomato seeds. Here is what Jesus said…
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches." (Matthew 13:31-32)
According to Jesus, something that is very, very small, in time, can become something that is very, very big and useful.
Now I’m going to pass around this cup and I’d like each of you to put your seed into it so I can have some seeds to plant next spring in case I want to start a tomato garden. (Collect all the seeds.)
Each one of you is much smaller than you will be one day when you are fully grown. Your life, though it is small right now, can grow into something that is big useful to God and to other people. Whether your influence will be good or not depends on what you do with your life between now and when you grow up. Here are a few things you can do to be sure you have a good influence when you get big:
 | Learn all you can about God and how to please Him. |
| Obey your parents and do all that they tell you to do. |
| Learn to do good deeds for God and others. |
And remember that though you might be small now, one day you will be big. Be sure that the influence you have when you grow up is good.
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.
All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.