Bible Lesson Stuff

Unique Object Lesson on Prayer Examines Thanksgiving, Adoration, Requests, and Repentance

There’s lots of debate on “prayer” out there. Does it work? Does it actually change anything? What’s the point? This object lesson on prayer looks at prayers of thanksgiving, adoration, requests, and repentance, and how each is similar but unique. A great way to start a discussion with your group on the power of prayer, and what God intends as the purpose of prayer.

Object Lesson on Prayer

Scriptures:

Ephesians 6:18 – Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

Psalm 145:18 – The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.

Matthew 6:9-13 – 9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today the food we need, 12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Philippians 4:6 – Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Colossians 4:2 – Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 – Never stop praying.

1 John 1:19 – But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Object Lesson on Prayer

Prayer Object Lesson - What You Need

What you need:

2 glasses
1 glass juice bottle (wider mouth)
1 glass juice bottle (narrower mouth)
small saucer/plate
Some coloured water (water + food colouring) in a small dish
1 candle (votive or tealight)
2 hardboiled eggs
1 inflated balloon
Matches

How to do the object lesson:

Check out this little video where I demonstrate the object lesson on prayer for you:

1. First, set up the object lesson before your group arrives.

Set up the four glass containers in a row in front of you.

Inflate the balloon.

Peel both hard-boiled eggs and sit them beside the two glass juice bottles.

Beside the last glass, place the saucer with the candle in the middle of it.

Beside the saucer, place the dish with the bit of coloured water in it.

2. Second, prompt the group in a discussion on prayer.

Ask your group: “What is prayer?”

It is our way of talking to God
It can include thanksgiving, adoration, requests/petitions, repentance, intercession
God might answer our requests with a yes, no, or maybe/wait
God can be persuaded to take a different action through prayer.
Prayer is a way of growing closer to God, of having a mind like His, of aligning our own will with the will of God.
It is not magic.
Prayer can heal sickness.

3. Third, show how prayers of thanksgiving and adoration can draw us closer in relationship to God.

The first object lesson on prayer I want to do for you is taking one glass, the balloon, and a match, and illustrating how a prayer of thanksgiving and adoration draws us closer to God.

The glass is upright. This glass represents our life, or our life situation. This match (light the match) represents our prayer. And this balloon represents our Heavenly Father.

Drop the match in the glass and place the balloon over the mouth of the glass. The match will burn for a short time, then it will go out. The bottom of the balloon will get “sucked into” the glass a little bit, as a vacuum is created inside the glass.

You see, our prayer of thanksgiving and adoration, it removes our own self-centeredness from our lives. It burns up that stuff from our minds, and allows our eyes instead to turn towards the will, the sovereignty, the beauty, and the love of God. And as we pray thanks and as we adore him, He comes closer to us, just as you saw the balloon draw inwards into the glass.

Now, lift up the balloon. The glass lifts with it.

This prayer of thanksgiving and adoration – it allows us to be so close to God, and so in tune with Him, that as He moves, we move with Him.

4. Fourth, show how requests/petitions can be presented to God, and how He can answer differently.

Another important way to pray is to present our requests or petitions to God. This second little object lesson on prayer will use two glass bottles, two eggs, and a couple of matches.

As before, let the glass bottles represent our lives, or our life situations. Let the matches represent our prayer requests. And let these eggs here, let them represent what we’re praying for in our lives. Maybe we’re asking for healing. Maybe we’re asking for safety. Whatever it is, let these eggs represent.

Light two matches and drop them in the bottles. Place an egg over the mouth of both bottles.

The egg over the wider mouth will get sucked into the glass bottle. The egg over the narrow mouth will stay sitting on top.

This is just like real life. God answers prayer in different ways. Sometimes, He answers with a yes. Sometimes, that request? It never comes into our lives, like this second egg still sitting on top. Prayer isn’t magic. And just because we received “no” or “wait” as an answer to our request, it doesn’t mean God isn’t listening, and it doesn’t mean we didn’t receive an answer. But sometimes, we don’t receive the answer we want.

5. Last, show how prayers of repentance allow sin to be replaced with the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

Let’s also just talk about how prayers of repentance are also extremely important.

We all have sin in our lives. Maybe it’s sin that’s been lingering and lingering in our lives. Maybe it’s something very small, and we’re just asking for forgiveness really quickly after having realized our sin. But the Bible says that we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God, and we all have sin in our lives.

Once again, in this third short object lesson on prayer, this glass will represent our life or life situation, and this match/candle/flame will represent our prayer of repentance.

This time, we’ll use this water here to represent the Holy Spirit, all around us (pour the water in the saucer around the candle).

Now, we’ll light the candle and place the glass over top of the candle, so that the rim of the glass rests in the coloured water in the saucer.

The flame will burn for a little bit, and then will go out as it uses up all the oxygen. The vacuum created in the glass will “suck up” all the coloured water from the saucer, and actually draw it into the glass surrounding the candle.

As our prayer of repentance burns up the sin in our lives, it creates more space for the Fruit of the Holy Spirit to instead fill us up. Repentance takes a lot of humility, as we admit our own weakness, failure, and wrongdoing. That’s never easy. But as we humble ourselves before God, it means His work in our lives can flourish! And He has the space and opportunity to use His Holy Spirit to fill us up, replacing the pride and sin.

You might also be interested in checking out an object lesson on pride, or this one on forgiveness, that also deal with the idea of repentance.

The Science behind the Object Lesson

All of these demonstrations are based on the principle of a flame inside of a glass creating a vacuum. When that happens, either the balloon, the egg, or the water gets “sucked” into the glass to fill the void. (read more of the science here)

Simple Forgiveness Object Lesson brings Prayer, the Cross, and the Holy Spirit to Life

What’s your typical response when someone sins against you? Revenge? Holding a grudge? Anger? This forgiveness object lesson illustrates the sin of anger that can take hold in our own hearts, and the power of the Holy Spirit and the cross in helping us forgive, even when we don’t want to…

Scriptures:

Ephesians 4:32 – Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Colossians 3:13 – Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Acts 2:38 – Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Matthew 6:12 – and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us

Mark 11:25 – And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.

Luke 6:45 – A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Forgiveness Object Lesson

What you need:

1 empty water bottle
A permanent marker
A bendy straw
Hot glue gun, Krazy glue or sticky tack
Balloon
Water
Food colouring x4 colours
5 clear plastic cups

How to do the Object Lesson:

Click to watch this video below, where I demonstrate this forgiveness object lesson.

1. First, setup your table.

To the side, have 4 small cups of coloured water (each cup a different colour).

Also, have a cross drawn on the 5th cup, and set it to the side.

2. Second, introduce the water bottle and the straw as “me” and “my mouth”.

Let’s pretend. Me and you? We’re like this bottle here. Draw a face on the top of the pop bottle. Now right here, where the mouth is? Let’s put a hole there, and insert this straw, long end inside the bottle and short end sticking outside the bottle. Seal the hole around the straw with either glue or sticky tack.

There’s a verse in the Bible that says “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45). And that’s what we’re going to talk a little bit about today, by doing a simple forgiveness object lesson. You see, this straw, it represents the connection between what’s deep inside of us, and what comes out of our mouths.

3. Third, discuss the sins done against us that fill our hearts with anger or resentment.

Right now, the bottle is empty.

But I want to ask you a question: What are some things that your friends, or even your family members, do to you that make you really upset or angry sometimes?

Your group can give you some examples, such as:

Not inviting you out to play sports with them on the weekend?
Making fun of you – maybe your grades, or your clothes, your hairstyle, or something else?
Your parents have some strict rules that seem to be unreasonable?
Maybe your brother or sister said something pretty nasty to you?

As the group gives each example, pretend that one of the cups of coloured water represents that example. As that scenario happens, it can put anger, resentment, a grudge, or even hatred inside of us. Pour the water into the bottle. Repeat this for four different examples. By the end, the water inside the bottle will be an ugly brown colour.

4. Fourth, show the gross colour now left inside of us – and discuss God’s command for us to forgive others.

There are all kinds of things that can tick us off at one point or another. And you can see that it leaves us with a pretty disgusting mess of brown icky anger inside of us (show the contents of the bottle).

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray: “forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us”. The thing is, when Jesus died on the cross, he paid the ultimate price for our sins – he died for us. When he did that, it says that he took on all the sins of the world, for all time, onto himself, and through his death and resurrection, God forgave those sins so that we could enjoy the ultimate forgiveness and be welcomed into His Kingdom.

And so Jesus commands us also – if God was able to forgive our sins, we’ve got to forgive the sins of others against us!

5. Fifth, introduce the “Holy Spirit” balloon and the “cross” cup.

So I want to introduce this here balloon. We’re going to let this balloon represent the Holy Spirit. I think it’s too hard to forgive people all on our own. Especially when the things they’ve done against us are really big or terrible. So the only way we can forgive others is to invite the Holy Spirit to fill us up with Himself, until we’re so full of Him, that we can’t hold any other anger.

Place the balloon over the top of the bottle (keep your fingers tight on the balloon so it doesn’t deflate yet).

And now take the cup with the cross drawn on it, which represents what Jesus did for us on the cross, and put it under the straw coming out of the bottle, our “mouth”.

6. Last, talk about prayer, forgiveness, and being filled with the Holy Spirit instead of anger.

When you pray, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you up. Let go of the balloon so it starts to deflate. As it deflates, it pushes the anger of our hearts out through our mouths as we pray. And Jesus just takes that prayer, and he’s already forgiven that sin of anger or resentment on the cross. So the anger just fills up that cup, and Jesus deals with it.

And look at the bottle, we’ve become clean again.

Forgiveness doesn’t come easily. Nor does it come naturally. But through prayer, what Jesus already did for us on the cross, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts – these things make it possible for us to forgive completely the things that others have done to hurt us. This forgiveness object lesson illustrates this very concept – that the Holy Spirit removes anger from our hearts and allows us to forgive.

The Science behind the Object Lesson

The only thing that’s happening here in the forgiveness object lesson is that air is replacing water in the bottle. The tension caused by the elasticity of the balloon creates pressure that pushes air into the bottle. This energy is greater than the energy it takes to move the water up the straw and out into the external cup. So the air fully replaces the water, if you’ve filled up your balloon with enough air.

Object Lesson on Faith – Can you imagine walking on water? | Matthew 14:22-32

Are you brave enough to step out of your boat, onto the surface of a stormy sea, and trust that Jesus will enable you to not only stand, but also to walk, on water? Today I want to share an object lesson on faith with you, inspired by Peter’s courage, faith, and spontaneity. If you are a Sunday School teacher, a father, a mother, a pastor, a youth leader – please share this with your children and youth! I love to use object lessons for youth in my teaching – it helps make big concepts really understandable!

Scripture: Matthew 14:22-32

Jesus Walks on Water

22 Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. 23 After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone.

24 Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. 25 About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!”

27 But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!”

28 Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”

29 “Yes, come,” Jesus said.So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.

31 Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”

32 When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. 33 Then the disciples worshiped him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed.

Object Lesson on Faith

I’m going to ask you a simple question: can you walk on water? Of course you can’t!

But sometimes, even things that are impossible to do, become possible with a little faith – so here we go, our object lesson on faith…

What you need:

A glass or bowl of water
A box of paper clips
Dish detergent

How to do this Object Lesson on Faith

Try floating a paper clip on the water. It doesn’t work. Paper clips sink. Nothing unusual there.

Next, bend one paper clip to make a “holder” for a second paper clip to rest on. Place the second paper clip flat on the paper-clip-holder, and gently submerge the paper clips into the water. This time, the unbent paper clip will actually float on the surface of the water.

Lesson: by ourselves, we can’t do “the impossible”. However, if we rest on Jesus, or have faith in Him (like the paper clip rests on the holder), He will enable us to do what we never thought we could.

But we also need to beware of “doubt”. Just like Peter in the story, once he took his eyes off Jesus, he let doubt and fear invade his mind, and he started to sink.

Place some dish detergent in the water around the floating paper clip. It will start to sink.

Lesson: Jesus promises that even with faith the size of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. But if doubt crowds out our faith, we’ll start to sink just like Peter did. We need to guard our hearts against doubting Jesus’ power.

This object lesson on faith demonstrates:

That we need to rest on Jesus in order to do whatever seems impossible to us (just like the paper clip holder was necessary).
That doubt will cause us to falter (just like the dish detergent causes the floating paper clips to sink).

The Science behind the Object Lesson

This object lesson on faith, or making bits of metal float on water, is all about surface tension of the water. The water molecules at the surface of water create really strong bonds with one another (stronger than the bonds between water molecules that aren’t at the surface). Water actually has the strongest surface tension of any liquid other than mercury! So if you lay the paper clip flat on the water, and don’t break the surface tension, the molecular cohesive bonds will actually support the weight of the coin!

Dish detergent breaks down the cohesive bonds between the water molecules, which is why the paper clip will then sink if you add the detergent to the water.

A few thoughts on the scripture passage…

Although that’s the end of the object lesson on faith, feel free to keep reading a few additional thoughts on this scripture…

The importance of prayer in solitude. Jesus started the night praying by himself up in the hills. Solitude. Prayer. Devotion. Meditation. This practice of quiet prayer and reflection is oh-so-important for instilling faith, for cultivating relationship with our Father. And I think critical to the rest of the story.
We’ll find ourselves in storms sometimes, at inconvenient times and will have to fight for our survival. Storms come up at the most inconvenient of times – 3am is a fairly terrible time to be fighting off the waves – but no matter when they arise, we’ve got to bravely face them whatever the time and place. We love to romanticize storms, don’t we? However, this is just a reminder that there is frequently nothing very “spiritual” about the storms of life…in the midst of them, we just need to fight to survive. To survive emotionally, to survive physically, to survive spiritually – to “not lose faith”.
Jesus will be there, perhaps just in unexpected ways. Jesus is there in the midst of our storms. But He may show up in unusual ways. The disciples thought he was a ghost!
Don’t fear. I’m not quite sure what fears Jesus is dispelling in this scripture – is he quieting the disciples’ fears of the storm? Or is he telling the disciples not to be afraid of “the ghost” (himself)? Both were probably creating fear in the disciples hearts. But Jesus commanded them to take courage.
Challenge God to require faith from you. I just love what happens next. Peter commands Jesus to call him out of the boat. In that moment, Peter was “all in” – his faith was absolute, like that of a child’s. There wasn’t a second thought about the ridiculousness, the impossibilities of walking on water. There was just his admiration for Jesus, and his own impetuousness that allowed him to jump out of that boat and walk on water toward his Rabbi. Are you childish enough to ask crazy things from God? Go for it…
Don’t take your eyes off Jesus. If you’ve been so fortunate to have Jesus allow you to miraculously walk on water, don’t start doubting when you see the wind and waves, as Peter did. But know that even in your moment of weakness, Jesus will reach out his hand. Keep your faith.
Jesus really is the Son of God. When Jesus climbed back in the boat, the storm died down. The disciples, earlier that day, had just seen Jesus feed 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and two small fish. And yet, it was here, in the middle of the night, in the midst of a storm, that walking on water and causing the wind to stop made them exclaim in amazement “You really are the Son of God!”

Youth Bible Lessons: “The Wedding Invitation” Matthew 22

Hi fellow youth leaders! What do the game of Carcassonne, water balloons, and Matthew 22 have in common? Glad you asked! Because, of course, they’re all part of our latest series of youth Bible lessons on the Parables of Jesus!

If you’re looking for full youth Bible lessons, or just a few ideas, keep reading! You can also download this lesson plan as a PDF here:

Preparation for Teaching your Youth Bible Lessons on Matthew 22

One of the absolute best things about teaching youth Bible lessons is that YOU get to learn an awful lot more about these amazing passages you’ve been reading your whole life! You might find it helpful to read through a couple of commentaries beforehand, so that you can learn some more about this passage before you teach it. One that I read through and found helpful is:

What is the meaning of the Parable of the Wedding Feast? by gotquestions.org

What to Bring to Teach the Lesson

- - Enough Bibles for everyone
  - Notes, especially for leading the discussion
  - Game pieces from Carcassonne (if using the Carcassonne illustration)
  - Water balloons – in pink, yellow, blue, red, green (one for each youth in the class)
  - Blank paper for Pictionary game (enough for 7 pieces of paper for each group)
  - Pens or markers for Pictionary game (enough for 1 for each group)
  - Words for the Pictionary game pre-written (you can also download them here, so you don’t have to re-write them!!)

Now…On to the Teaching!

1. Scripture Reading

First up, start with the scripture reading. This just sets the tone for the remainder of the activities. You can have one youth member read the whole thing, or split the reading into two – perhaps have one youth read 7 verses, and then another youth read the second set of verses.

Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

2. Warm-up Game

Move from the scripture right on into the warm-up game…which is….drumroll….Pictionary! It’s sooo important to play games whenever you’re teaching youth Bible lessons – they’re a bit old for many games and crafts out there – which means – we all have got to be super creative, don’t we!!

To make the Pictionary a little more exciting, a little faster paced, a little bit more fun – use this version:

Split your group into teams of 4-7 people each.
Put each group around a different table, and give each table 7 sheets of paper and a marker/pen.
Have one person from each group come up to you at the same time, and show them all the word they have to draw (all the words are from the scripture reading).
Let the “drawers” go back to their groups, and on the count of 3 begin to draw. The first team to guess the word gets the point.
Get everyone to stop drawing, and select a new “drawer” from each group, etc.

For this game of Pictionary, you can use the following words:

- - food (or feast),
  - servants,
  - king,
  - city,
  - street,
  - army,
  - wedding.

If you want to download a Word template to just quickly print these words off, here you go: (note, that we teach our youth Bible lessons to a bilingual class of English and Arabic speakers, so I’ve made the template bilingual – feel free to change the words, or to add your own language!)

3. Lesson Illustration….Using Carcassonne!

You might have Carcassonne at home, or maybe not. Maybe you have Lego, maybe you have another game that has similar pieces – be creative! We found that this illustration was really helpful in understanding the different characters in the parable – and who they represent apart from the parable. Once again, not only games are super important – when teaching youth Bible lessons – object lessons or lesson illustrations are also golden – for keeping their attention. AND for helping them remember what was discussed. AND for helping them interpret what’s actually being taught.

First, set up the game board pieces to look like this:

youth-lesson-carcassonne-board-setup — Youth Bible Lessons: Board Setup for The Wedding Invitation

Then use different colored characters to represent the different characters in the story:

Black – the king

Gray – the king’s son

Red – the servants and attendants

Yellow – the first people invited to the wedding

Blue – the army

Pink – the people on the streets invited to the wedding – in their normal clothes

Green – the people from the streets who came to the wedding – in their wedding clothes

Just read through the story again, a couple verses at a time, and have a different youth in charge of each colour of character. As the story goes along, have the youth place their characters on the board to “act out” the story.

An important element of the story to capture is that when the people from the streets (the pink people) actually go to the wedding, they change their clothes into wedding garments (and become green people)…except for one person who goes to the feast still in his pink clothes!

Here are a few photos of the game board throughout the parable:

4. Discussion Questions

Once you’ve “acted out” the story, your youth will probably start to have a better understanding of the characters. It’s crucial in any of the youth Bible lessons you teach that you not only tell your youth what the story is about, but that you ask them. Well…cuz it makes them actually think!

And what are they thinking about? – a parable uses a story to illustrate a truth about the Kingdom of Heaven. So…

Who do each of the characters represent?

- 1. Who does the king represent? (God?)
  2. Who does the king’s son represent? (Jesus?)
  3. Who do the servants represent? (disciples/followers/believers of Jesus and the King?)
  4. Who do the first people represent who were invited to the wedding? (Jews – God’s “chosen people”?)
  5. Who do the second group of people represent who were invited? (Gentiles – the good, the bad?)

Next, it’s really important to focus a bit on that one guy who came to the party in his normal clothes…

- 1. What does the wedding invitation represent? (the good news, the gospel)
  2. When the people who came to the wedding changed their clothes into wedding garments, what does that represent in real life? (we are to take on the righteousness of Jesus, we are to accept the good news, and we become a new creation. This takes humility. It takes acceptance of our sin. It takes acceptance that we are invited to a Kingdom that we don’t deserve to be in!)
  3. What about the guy who came into the wedding in his normal clothes – who does he represent? (you know, sometimes we try to enter the Kingdom by our own means, without accepting Jesus, without accepting our sinfulness, without accepting God’s good gift. This is pride, arrogance – and it means we won’t be allowed to stay in the kingdom!)

You might want to also touch on the characters that didn’t get to stay in the kingdom a bit further:

- 1. The final verse says “many are invited, but few are chosen” – what does that mean? (the first group of people who were invited never got to come to the party because they were more interested in their own lives, their own to-do lists; the guy who came to the party in his own clothes was too proud to accept the gift of the wedding garments – all these people never got to experience the fullness of life in the kingdom!)

And finally, end with some application…

- 1. So, who are we in this story? (we might be a combination of those people on the streets, or new believers – people who have changed their clothes and entered the party, or we might be the servants, inviting other people to come in. Or…we might be those who have rejected the invitation, or who have entered the Kingdom with our friends without accepting Christ.)
  2. Has anyone ever shared the gospel, or the invitation, with anyone before? How does it make you feel? (it’s exciting to share about Jesus, but it also is a bit scary. Also, you might not want to share it with “bad” people. But remember in the story that the “bad” people actually were some of the ones who got to enter the kingdom in new clothes, who accepted the invitation! This should be an encouragement.)

5. Prayer

When you’re ending any of your youth Bible lessons, it’s important to close off, or spend a bit of time, in prayer. It’s a great way to disciple your youth, to set an example, and to try to get them thinking about the application of the lesson to their lives, their world.

- 1. Place a bucket of pink, yellow, blue, red, and green water balloons in the middle of the class.
  2. Have each youth take a balloon.
  3. Explain that you’ll be doing a popcorn prayer – and that each youth can pray one sentence out loud.
  4. The colour of the balloon they’re holding represents who they can pray for (taken from the illustration):
    - Pink: pray for people who have never heard the gospel before
    - Yellow: pray for people who are “too busy” to listen to the gospel, that their hearts can be changed
    - Blue: pray for all the war going on in the world – pray for soldiers and victims – that God can bring an end to war, that he can protect the innocent
    - Red: pray for people such as missionaries, or people who are sharing the gospel with their friends
    - Green: pray for new believers – that they will be encouraged and continue to grow in their faith

What’s the purpose of the water balloons? Well – don’t let them burst the balloons in class – but as we’re in the middle of summer right now – let them have the balloons as a “takeaway” from the lesson – and you’re not responsible for how they end up using them 😉

6. Wrap-up – The “Point”…

So, what’s this parable and these youth Bible lessons on Matthew 22 all about really?

- 1. It’s about sharing the gospel
  2. And it’s about our own response to the good news!

Thank you!

Fellow youth workers – hope you enjoyed this lesson plan! If you want to try out more of our youth Bible lessons, you can try this one as well, on Facing Your Fears! If you tried any different versions of this lesson, or used these ideas with different passages, can you share with me? It’s great to share creativity with one another in sharing God’s word with youth!! And don’t forget – if you want to download this as a free PDF lesson plan, please click here:

Youth Bible Lesson: “Face Your Fears!” Psalm 34

Lesson Overview:

Steve and I decided this week to focus on “fear” with our youth group. Well!! There are so many amazing ways to teach your youth about fear and to get them to open up! Here’s a quick overview of our lesson plan:

45 minutes – Start with 4 “fear” games
15 minutes – Go into a discussion time by sharing Psalm 34 and asking 4 probing questions about fear
5 minutes – Wrap up with prayer
5 minutes – End with a funny video about overcoming fear

I’ve also prepared a free PDF download of this lesson, so you can print it off! Just click here to download:

Warm-up Games:

We ended up playing 4 games with them in the beginning. We had 12 youth in attendance, so we split them up into 3 teams of 4 people each, and I kept points throughout all the games to see who the winning team was.

Game 1: The Box of Fear!

Preparation:

Cut one side of a box out, so that all your youth can see what’s in the box
On the opposite side of the box, cut a hole into the cardboard, big enough for a hand to fit through.
Tape a plastic bag over the “hand-hole”, and make a horizontal and vertical slit in the plastic so that you can stick your hand through, but can’t see what’s inside the box.

How to play:

Send one person from each team out of the room. Place something disgusting inside the box so that the rest of the youth can see what it is.
Call the three players back into the room. Tell them they have to stick their hands through the hole and feel whatever is inside. They should think to themselves what it is, but don’t say what they think it is until all three players have had a chance to feel.
Once all three have felt the insides of the box, ask each of them what they think it is.
I gave points according to who got closest (for example, 1 full point if they got it right, 1/2 point if they got close) – I’m pretty lenient on points 🙂
Then we revealed what they’d been touching and I had them go wash their hands. I also made them use hand sanitizer after they washed!
We played three rounds of this game, each time sending a different 3 “feelers” out of the room.

What to make them feel in the box:

First, I used rotting compost from my kitchen…that was disgusting!! The viewers loved it!
Second, I made a quick “slime” by mixing water, flour, and green food colouring – that was super hard for the feelers to guess.
Third, a teddy bear. This was the funniest by far! They could barely keep their hands on it for a split second, before they were jumping back. Because they’d already watched the other things that we’d placed in the box, they thought they were touching a dead animal, and it seriously freaked them out!

Other options I had thought to use:

Olives in olive oil (slimy!)
A plant
A box of live crickets (from the pet store)
A live guinea pig (harmless, but would have been shocking to have it move when the kids stuck their hands in!)

Game 2: Egg Head!

Preparation:

Hard boil up to 10 eggs

How to play:

Depending on how many eggs, teams and players you have, have teams send up either 1 or multiple players to play this game.
Show them the bowl of eggs. Tell them they’re all hard boiled except for 1 raw egg.
Say on the count of 3 that they have to crack the egg on their forehead.
Watch to see who hesitates – the youth that don’t hesitate get a full point for their team! Whoever hesitates – no points!
The catch to this game is that all the eggs are cooked, so no one will get raw egg on their face. But it’s all about overcoming their fear! So we’re just basing points on cracking that egg on your face fearlessly!

Game 3: Blind Taste Test!

Preparation:

Take some different canned foods or baby food purees. Put a spoonful into small cups. Put a plastic spoon in each cup for “feeding” the taste testers later on.

How to play:

Have each team nominate someone from their team to be a taster
Get the tasters to blindfold themselves and sit down at a table.
Then have someone from each team be the “feeder” and sit down across the table from their teammate.
Put the first cup of food in front of the feeders, with a plastic spoon, and have them feed a bit of the food to the taster.
Once everyone’s tasted, have them guess what they just ate. Allocate points based on how close they were!

What to make them taste:

First, I used a bit of tuna in each cup.
Second, I gave them a spoonful of baked beans.
Third, a bit of cranberry sauce.

Some other ideas:

Baby food purees (this would be even better, because then they can’t use “texture” to help them figure out what they’re eating)
Sardines!

Game 4: Icy feet!

Preparation:

Have one bucket per team, half-filled with water
Just before the game starts, empty two bags of ice into each bucket of water
Place an equal amount of coins in each bucket (at least 20 per bucket)
Have at least 1 towel per bucket, spread out beside each bucket.
Place a small plastic bowl beside each bucket to collect coins.

How to play:

Get a volunteer from each team. They’ll see the buckets of ice, but they won’t know what they have to do. Tell them you need volunteers that are mentally strong and can endure pain!
Set a timer for 2 minutes.
Tell them they need to stand with both feet in the bucket. As long as they are standing in the bucket, they can reach down with one hand and pull one coin at a time out of the bottom of the bucket, and place the coins into their assigned bowl.
If their feet get cold, they can step out of the bucket temporarily onto the towel. However, they can’t reach into the bucket to collect coins when they’re standing on the towel, so it will slow them down!
See how many coins they can collect in 2 minutes.
This game is hilarious – we had four youth attempt this game – two of them only got 7 coins out in 2 minutes, one got 10 coins out, and one brave soul got 14 coins out!

Scripture:

After the games were done, we got our chairs into a circle and read Psalm 34 together.

Psalm 34 – A psalm of David, regarding the time he pretended to be insane in front of Abimelech, who sent him away.

1 I will praise the Lord at all times.

    I will constantly speak his praises.

2 I will boast only in the Lord;

    let all who are helpless take heart.

3 Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;

    let us exalt his name together.

4 I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.

    He freed me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy;

    no shadow of shame will darken their faces.

6 In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened;

    he saved me from all my troubles.

7 For the angel of the Lord is a guard;

    he surrounds and defends all who fear him.

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good.

    Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!

9 Fear the Lord, you his godly people,

    for those who fear him will have all they need.

10 Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry,

    but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.

11 Come, my children, and listen to me,

    and I will teach you to fear the Lord.

12 Does anyone want to live a life

    that is long and prosperous?

13 Then keep your tongue from speaking evil

    and your lips from telling lies!

14 Turn away from evil and do good.

    Search for peace, and work to maintain it.

15 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right;

    his ears are open to their cries for help.

16 But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil;

    he will erase their memory from the earth.

17 The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.

    He rescues them from all their troubles.

18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;

    he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

19 The righteous person faces many troubles,

    but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.

20 For the Lord protects the bones of the righteous;

    not one of them is broken!

21 Calamity will surely destroy the wicked,

    and those who hate the righteous will be punished.

22 But the Lord will redeem those who serve him.

    No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

Discussion Questions:

We explained that, today, we are focusing on fear, and discussing that.

So first question: What is fear?

Some possible thoughts that our youth group discussed:

Fear is thinking that possibly you won’t get what you want
Or it is thinking you will get something you don’t want
Fear could be knowing something bad is going to happen and not liking it
Fear is like in the game where you don’t know what you’re touching, but your mind makes it up

Psalm 34 offers some clues:

the feeling of fear makes us feel desperate (verse 6)
When we fear, we feel like we need help (verses 5, 17)
It could make us feel brokenhearted or like our spirits are crushed (verse 18)

What do you fear?

Some thoughts we discussed with our group:

Things going on at school (exams, marks)
Things/situations going on at home (family struggles, relationships)
Being short
Not knowing if the future would work out, especially in the case of refugee or immigrant families whose permission to be in a country is in jeopardy sometimes.
Security – wanting a good job, a nice home, enough money – and not knowing if it was possible

Psalm 34 offers some clues:

Look at the intro to this Psalm – this whole Psalm was written by David at a time when he was so scared, that he pretended to act insane!! Even great people in the Bible had crazy fears that made them do crazy things!

Is fear good or bad? Is it a sin? What should we fear?

Some thoughts from our class:

Fear is like a fire. It could burn your house down. Or it could cook a good steak. It isn’t good or bad in and of itself, but depending on how it’s used, it could be either

Fear could be good if it stops you from doing things like jumping out of a window, or stealing something (fear of getting caught)

But fear could also be bad if it stops you from doing something you should do, or something that God wants or calls you to do

Psalm 34 offers some clues:

It says we should fear the Lord (verse 9)

And then David goes on to explain what “fearing” the Lord actually means, and how we can do it
- We need to trust him (verse 10)
- Our speech: Don’t speak evil or tell lies (verse 13)
- Our actions: Do good, seek peace, and work to maintain peace (verse 14)
- And then verse 15 is a promise: God watches over those whose actions are right, and he listens to their voices!

Also, the Psalm says that when we fear the Lord, he can free us from all our other fears! (verse 4)

Prayer:

It’s really nice to be able to pray for fears, especially if some of your youth shared some of their fears with the group during the discussion.

Wrap-up & Main Takeaway:

Just before you end the group, show them this video (Killer Karaoke) – where the contestants have to keep singing, no matter what fears they face!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVXeLqNqc-A

The main takeaway after watching the video that we shared with our class was this: In the video, the contestant just had to keep singing no matter what happened to her. Isn’t this a great reminder that no matter what we face in life, Psalm 34:1 says:

I will praise the Lord at all times.

I will constantly speak his praises.

So no matter what happens, no matter what you fear, just keep praising and worshiping and praying to the Lord! He will “rescue you from all your trouble”! (verse 17)

4 Encouraging Short Devotions on “Generosity”

Devotional #1: You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion!

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 9: 6-11

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:

“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;

their righteousness endures forever.”

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Reflection Thoughts:

I have always been so encouraged by this verse. Do you know those people in your life that are just uber-generous? Like, every time you eat lunch or drink coffee together, they never let you pay. Or if you need some help with your lawn, they’re the first ones to show up with rake in hand. And always, always, jovial, with a smile on their faces? Like they just are the happiest when they can help out, when they get the chance to give away? I want to be like those people. I’m so far away from it, but they inspire me, spur me onwards. When I read these verses, it makes me think of these people. It also reminds me – that generosity multiplies, that generosity brings out happiness, and that generosity returns to you.

1. Whoever sows generously will also reap generously

First, generosity multiplies. The Bible loves to use lots of agricultural parables, and this one is no exception. Think of generosity like a seed. I’m fascinated by seeds and plant growth – stick one little seed in the ground, and out comes either a flower, or a tree, or a veggie plant that just seems to keep growing and growing and growing. I remember growing 4 tomato plants a few summers ago. I think I must have harvested about 20 tomatoes a week for a month! I couldn’t keep up with my tomato plants! That’s what this verse is all about – sow generously – plant lots of seeds. Give to lots of people, to your friends, to strangers, to your coworkers – whoever! And to whomever you give, give lots to them! Give them time, give them money, give them presents on their birthdays, write them cards of encouragement, smile and laugh with them lots – give them the best of yourself. Plant those seeds. You can’t control what happens once you plant those seeds, but with time, sunshine, and rain (good times and bad) – those seeds will break open, and little green shoots will start to appear in the lives of those you’ve loved. And those seeds will just spill over and the harvest will be plentiful! That generosity will multiply beyond your wildest dreams in the lives, hearts, and “soil” of the people you’ve blessed!

2. Give what you have decided in your heart to give, for God loves a cheerful giver

Second, generosity brings out happiness. Sometimes, we get so worried that if we give some money here, or volunteer time there, that I won’t have time or money for something else, or someone else. Well, yes, you’re right – by saying “yes” to one thing, then by definition in that very moment you are saying “no” to everything else. And that’s what this verse is encouraging you to embrace – it’s okay! Don’t be scared to say “yes” – don’t be scared of “missing out” of something else. God placed you in that moment in time, he presented you with that opportunity, he asked you to give in that very situation, and if it’s something that you feel called to – then enthusiastically say “yes”, and don’t look back! Be happy. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy the lighter pockets, the freedom of volunteering your time, the joy of being with people that need your love in that moment! Be a cheerful giver – and that giving will actually bring you even more cheer 🙂

3. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion

Third, generosity returns to you. Don’t be scared that once you “use” your time or money by giving it away that it will then be “gone”. No. Money comes and goes. Gave it away? You’ll have more some day. Time keeps coming. If you give away a minute, then another minute will follow right after that – and once again you can choose to give it away or spend it on something else. Not only that, but God promises that the more generous you are, the more you’ll be given so that you can keep on giving!! What?! That’s a crazy promise. He doesn’t promise that generosity will make you rich – nope – he just promises that if he can trust you as a generous steward of his gifts, he’ll just give you more gifts to steward for others!! Wow, don’t you just want to be used by Him like that? I sure do!

Application:

As you reflect on these three points from the scripture, would you ask yourself a couple questions?

Remember my tomato plant – 4 little seeds resulted in masses of tomatoes that summer. What tomato seeds can you “plant” in the lives of others?
Are you an enthusiastic person, or do you tend to be a little melancholy? See the glass half-empty, or half-full? God asks you to be a cheerful giver, to decide to give, and then just to follow it through without a second thought or a worry. When a thought just crosses your mind to give, do you have the courage to follow through? Why don’t you put a smile on your face and just go with the flow!!

Devotional #2: A good measure, running over, will be poured into your lap!

Scripture Reading: Luke 6:38

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Reflection Thoughts:

I woke up this morning to my alarm clock dinging on my mobile cell phone. Squinting my eyes open, I checked out the phone screen and saw a “Verse of the Day” had been delivered to my phone – and this was it – Luke 6:38. I opened up Luke 6 to figure out what the context was – just before this verse, Luke is saying “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” And then he writes “Give, and it will be given to you.”

There are so many ways in life to be generous, aren’t there? Be merciful and don’t judge too harshly – that’s generosity of your spirit! Do not condemn – that’s generosity of your love! Forgive – that’s generosity of your heart! It’s so easy to go through your life, to go through your day, and to think the worst of others in a difficult situation. It’s easy to look down on others for mistakes made, for sins committed. But you know what this reminds me of? That I am a pretty difficult person sometimes. That I screw up. That I make insensitive comments. That I do things I would definitely not approve of someone else doing. That I forget important occasions, that I am thoughtless, that I am selfish. And despite this, the verse is encouraging me – saying – okay, I know you suck sometimes. So go easy on others around you – don’t judge them, forgive them. Because you know what? If that’s what you do, then that’s what will be done to you!

What a blessing! I mean, all I’ve got to do is be merciful, and mercy will be shown to me?! That’s just exactly what God the Father and Jesus the Son have done for me on the cross – I’ve already been shown mercy. But that promise isn’t over – no, it’s still a promise for my everyday life. My mercy will also result in more mercy to me. What an amazing promise!

Application:

When I think of the last part of this verse – that the measure I use, if it is a good, or generous measure, will be given back to me. I want to think of this like an ice cream cone. Ice cream is pretty much at the top of my list of “Best foods ever”. So when I go to get an ice cream cone, I really have to use self restraint not to order the extra-large, triple-scoop size every time. You know what makes me really happy? When the guy or gal behind the counter just uses a reeeeaally big scoop on my single-scoop cone. It sends me over the moon. That’s what I want you to think of as you understand this verse – the measure you use for scooping out ice cream into the lives of others around you – use a big scoop – then press that ice cream down into the cone, and top it off so that the cone is overflowing with that goodness! If you can do that – today, this week – then that’s the measure that will be used when others, when Christ, is doling out ice cream into the cone of your life!

Devotional #3: If your spiritual gift is “giving”, then give generously!

Scripture Reading: Romans 12:6-8

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Reflection Thoughts:

Sometimes I feel guilty when I see other people around me that just seem to give so generously and so easily. My grandfather was one of those people – he just loved, loved, loved people. And would easily give the shirt off his back if asked – or maybe even if not asked. I so desperately want to be one of those people, even though I know I’ve got a long way to go. Romans 12:6-8 helps give me some perspective, though. “Giving” is a gift from the Holy Spirit. Wow!! It’s a spiritual gift – like prophecy, like teaching, like leading – giving is right up there!!

As Christians, we so easily exalt some gifts over others – the spiritual gift of preaching in Church – we lift it up on a pedestal, don’t we? But this verse reminds us – no! God hasn’t just made a few exalted spiritual gifts. He’s given each of us a gift. His church is made up of all kinds of different members with all kinds of different gifts. And we’re all crucial, critical, and important to His ministry, His work, and His purpose here on earth. To compare the “toe” to the “eye” isn’t fair, nor is it necessary. What this verse is saying is that – if you’re a toe – be the very best toe you can be. You don’t need to strive to be like an eye – that isn’t your purpose, isn’t your gifting, and that’s okay!! But it is your responsibility to be a really great toe.

Being the person with a gift of giving, it seems so attainable doesn’t it? Why not ask for the gift of giving? How amazing would that be, to be a giver? And yet, don’t down-play the gift of giving just because it seems so humanly attainable. This kind of giving has got to be spirit-led. It’s not just any type of giving, it’s generous, inspired, selfless, continuous giving. It’s jovial, cheerful, loving. It’s a beautiful gift that breathes life into every person it touches.

Application:

What is your spiritual gift? God promises to give good gifts to his children, and He bestows spiritual gifts on the members of his church. Has He blessed you with the gift of giving? Or would you love to be one of His faithful givers? Why not pray and ask for this gift? Take on the responsibility of giving in your church. Watch out for those that are struggling to make ends meet, watch out for those single parents who could use a homemade, pre-made meal delivered to them, watch out for those kids that need a mentor, watch out for the leader who needs a gift of thanks in a sometimes lonely job. Be the giver, the cheerful, generous giver, in your church community. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the gaps around you, gaps that can be filled by you and your giving. Those people are just my favourite, aren’t they yours?!

Devotional #4: Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you!

Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:1-4

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Reflection Thoughts:

The word “secret” is so alluring, isn’t it? If someone “has a secret” – your mind just zones in on it, trying to pry it from them, trying to figure it out. If you look at articles online, at marketing schemes – you’ll see a lot of people using the word “secret” to suck you in – it’s a magical word that makes us all pay attention.

However, when a marketer tells you they have a secret, they surely intend to tell you what it is once you just click on their headline or their call-to-action button. Not really much of a secret, let’s be honest.

What God is calling us to in these verses, to be secretly generous towards the needy, is real, honest-to-goodness, heavenly secrecy. He says not even to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing!

Oh, I am so bad at this. What about you? As soon as I do something nice, I get super excited about it. I fool myself, saying, well, if I tell other people that I did this nice thing, then they’ll be inspired to do it too, and then the niceness will multiply!! But that’s my human heart, yearning, striving, for some good ol’-fashioned human recognition. I know that. God already promises that the more generous you are, the more you will be given so that you can continue to be generous (2 Cor. 9:11). So you don’t need to worry about inspiring others with stories of your generosity. This verse tempers that desire, and lets us know – if you tell others – well, good – you’ve received your reward. You got warm fuzzies and a little bit of praise from your friends. Excellent. Debt repaid.

However, if you can keep it a secret, just you and Christ – your own heavenly secret – then oh, the reward that will be for you from the Almighty Creator! It will surpass any human praise that you could possibly get!

Application:

Take a look at the “false secrecy” of the world around you – the marketers promising to let you in on secrets if you click their website, the allure of a friend “letting you in on a secret” as a pretense for just sharing a bit of gossip – can I encourage you today to not let yourself be sucked in to this earthly secrecy?

Can I encourage you instead to know the true beauty of heavenly secrecy? Find a person so much in need that they can never repay you. Give to them so generously, and so anonymously, that you find absolutely no reward from any person. Let the Holy Spirit fill you. Smile, and keep your mouth shut. Let heavenly secrecy be your aim. Yes, sometimes you’ll fail. But God has got such good things in store for you, and he’ll give you more and more resources to generously give away the more you steward his gifts wisely. Be blessed!

Object Lesson: God’s Purpose for You

Object Lesson Summary: Put two bowls on the table, one with water and one without. Choose one person, and show him or her three utensils: a cup, a spoon, and a fork. Tell them that the goal is to move the water from one bowl to the other. They can choose whichever utensil they want to use. They most likely will first choose the cup. But then say, “Oh, actually, I need to use the cup for something else, I forgot.” And put it to the side. Then they’ll probably choose the spoon, but say, “Sorry, I just remembered I actually need the spoon for another thing.” So they end up with the fork. It is a little amusing to see them basically try to move water with a fork – a few drops of water make it from one bowl to another each try. After a few tries, stop their valiant efforts and move on to the “point”.

What you need: Two bowls, one with water in it. One fork, one cup, one spoon.

Time: This lesson takes about 3 minutes – it’s just meant as a very quick illustration!

The point: God made us all so different. Some of us are spoons, some of us are cups, and some of us are forks. Forks might be great for eating meat, or spaghetti. But we’re not all designed with the same purpose in mind. And forks just aren’t made for moving water! There are some tough questions we can ask about understanding God’s will and God’s purpose. But there are also really easy, simple ways to understand God’s will too – just look at who you are! How did God design you? What passions and interests and skills did He give you? He made you just the way you are to be able to perform His purpose in your life. So don’t be scared to follow Him!

Youth Group Games: The Icebreaker Game

Whenever we do a youth Sunday school lesson or other youth group event, we start off with an active game or activity that loosens people up, gets them working together (or competitively), and breaks the ice a little bit before we dig into deeper conversations. But here’s a game that allows you to literally break ice with your group!

Game Summary: Break your group up into teams (we’ve used groups of 5 people before, but it would work with groups of even 2 or 3 people each). Present them with a bowl of ice and a towel, and tell them that their goal is to make the ice disappear. There are no rules to the game, except that they can’t eat the ice. But they should make all the ice disappear by melting it. You can do this game indoors or outdoors. We did it indoors, so wished we’d brought a couple extra towels, as there was water everywhere after the game, so you might want to consider that for your class!

What you need: One bowl per team, bags of ice (we used a 1 kg bag of ice for each group of 5 teens), and one towel per group. Extra towels for clean-up if you’re playing inside.

Time: To melt the 1kg of ice on one team of 5 people, it took about 10-15 minutes. If you don’t have that much time, maybe just use 0.5kg of ice per group.

How it plays out: It is so amusing to watch this game get played. It was about 35 degrees Celsius in the room, so our group was thrilled to play with ice, but their hands started freezing as soon as they started playing. They got super creative – they blew on the ice, tried to suck on it and spit the water back into the bowl (gross, I know), tried sticking cubes of ice behind their knees, just tried rubbing the ice with their hands and the towel. Eventually, they put the ice on the floor and just started smashing it with their feet. One team definitely beat the other by a long shot – with a HUGE puddle of water left on the floor as a result. But…it’s just water and cleaned up quickly!

The point: We explained that God has His will, but we also have our own will. Ice is like our own will. It seems solid, like we have rock-solid plans for our life. But very easily, with a bit of friction and heat, what seemed like solid plans melt into water and then evaporate. Meanwhile, God’s will spans generations, centuries, and millennia. His plans, we can’t even see them sometimes, but His will is perfect, because it is part of the story of the whole world and all time. So we need to trust that He is working all things together for His good.

Youth Bible Lesson: “The Lord’s Will be Done.”

Hi! And welcome to another Sunday school lesson that Steve and I put together for our amazing youth group. We live in the Middle East, so a very familiar phrase to hear around here is “Inshallah”! (or, “God willing” in Arabic). But what is God’s will all about? Is it only for good? Or does he will evil?

As a group of teachers, we’re taking our class through a series on the book of Acts right now. It’s been amazing to dig deep into the many different stories of the early church, seeing how God used so many amazing individuals and groups of believers to ensure His good news reached beyond the Jewish community and spread to the Gentile world.

Today, we dug into Acts 21, where the prophet Agabus prophesied that Paul would be bound hand and foot in Jerusalem by Jewish leaders, and handed over to the Gentiles for…who knows what!? The believers around Paul begged him not to go. But Paul was like…”Come on guys! This is what my life is lived for! I’m willing to be bound, jailed, even killed, for the sake of Jesus Christ!” And finally, the response of the believers is simply “The Lord’s will be done.”

As we prepared today’s lesson, we asked ourselves – perhaps God can prevent Paul from being persecuted – or perhaps God’s will is that Paul is persecuted. But how can that be? Isn’t God good? Then how could His will involve the persecution of one of His beloved?

So let’s dig in…here’s the lesson plan that we used with our class:

1. The “Icebreaker” Game

We love starting off with a pretty active game or activity that loosens the youth up, gets them working together (or competitively), and breaks the ice a little bit before we dig into deeper conversations. But this week, we took it to the literal extreme of breaking ice!!

Game Summary: Break the group up into two teams (we had two teams of 5 people in our class). Present them with a bowl of ice and a towel, and tell them that their goal is to make the ice disappear. There are no rules to the game, except that they can’t eat the ice. But that they should make all the ice disappear by melting it.

What you need: Two bowls, two bags of ice (we used a 1 kg bag of ice for each group), and two towels. We were doing this game indoors, so wished we’d brought a couple extra towels, as there was water everywhere after the game, so you might want to consider that for your class!

Time: To melt the 1kg of ice on one team, it took about 15 minutes. If you don’t have that much time, maybe just use 0.5kg of ice.

How it plays out: It was so amusing to watch this game get played. It was about 35 degrees Celsius in the room, so they were thrilled to play with ice, but their hands started freezing as soon as they started playing. They got super creative – they blew on the ice, tried to suck on it and spit the water back into the bowl (gross, I know), tried sticking cubes of ice behind their knees, just tried rubbing the ice with their hands and the towel. Eventually, they put the ice on the floor and just started smashing it with their feet. One team definitely beat the other by a long shot – with a HUGE puddle of water left on the floor as a result. But…it’s just water and cleaned up quickly!

The point: We told them that we’d come back to them at the end of the lesson for the “point” of the game, as we hadn’t introduced the lesson yet…so keep reading!

2. The Bible Reading

We got the kids to help do the reading – they read 2-4 verses each, from Acts 21:1-14:

Acts 21 After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara. 2 We found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, went on board and set sail. 3 After sighting Cyprus and passing to the south of it, we sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. 4 We sought out the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.5 When it was time to leave, we left and continued on our way. All of them, including wives and children, accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray. 6 After saying goodbye to each other, we went aboard the ship, and they returned home.

7 We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for a day.8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabuscame down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”

12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

3. The Reflection/Lesson

We decided to focus on that last little phrase in the reading “The Lord’s will be done.” What is God’s will? Is it that Paul will be saved and not persecuted? Or is that God would let Paul be persecuted? If so, is that God’s will? Isn’t God good? If He’s good, why would he let someone he loved be tortured?

Trying to understand “God’s will” isn’t simple. As we prepared the lesson, we realized even we couldn’t grasp perfectly how a good, sovereign, omniscient, omnipotent, all-powerful God could allow evil, sin, or persecution to occur to His people. So we definitely wanted to provide lots of time and opportunity to reflect on this paradox with our youth.

To do this, we prepared 8 statements (some of them a little controversial). We warned them that today’s discussion might hurt their heads, but they seemed up for the challenge. We got different youth to pick a number between 1 and 8. Whatever number they called, we read that statement out loud and had them debate or discuss it. They certainly had lots to say! We made our way through all 8 statements in about half an hour.

Below, we’ve provided the statements as well as a few thoughts about each one to help you prepare for how you may want to guide your class through the discussions about them (but these are just our thoughts, feel free to add your own!)

Statement 1. There is no point in me trying to impact the world, when God’s will shall be done anyway.

Our thoughts: We can influence God – through prayer and relationship. God will know what he will do. But it doesn’t stop us from asking us to do something different.

Statement 2. In the last week, I feel like I carried out God’s will for my life

Our thoughts: I don’t think about it that much. 95% of our time, we’re just spontaneously living. That really just comes out of where our heart is at. Read Romans 12:2. It’s important that we are constantly renewing our mind so that our 95% spontaneous action, when we aren’t actively seeking God’s input into our decisions, is aligned with the will of the Holy Spirit.

Statement 3. Everything that happened so far on earth is the will of God

Our thoughts: God has allowed everything. But there is an opposition. There is a devil and evil, that creates sin. God does not will sin to happen. But has allowed it.

Statement 4. Nothing bad will happen to me if I carry it out God’s will

Our thoughts: No. Think of Paul and Jesus – they carried out God’s will. But bad things happened.

Statement 5. God governs and controls everything. He is sovereign. So therefore he must cause everything on earth. The good and the evil.

Our thoughts: God’s commands of will vs. God’s sovereignty. He knows everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen. He has allowed everything. But evil is not His design, not His plan. But because of sin, he allows it.

Statement 6. As a group of people, if we are all seeking God’s will then surely we must agree on everything?

Our thoughts: No. Obviously not from this text in Acts – different believers were prophesying from the Holy Spirit for Paul not to go to Jerusalem. But Paul felt called to go. So we don’t all agree, even when we’re all seeking God’s will.

Statement 7. There is a single path for your life which God has already planned – so do not fall of it, otherwise you are outside of God’s will.

Our thoughts: No. And I don’t think there is a single path for your life.

Statement 8. It’s easy to know the will of God

Our thoughts: General will vs. specific will. Some things are easy to know; his will for our general lives is clear from scripture. Some things are more difficult, especially when it comes to making big decisions in our own lives, things that aren’t laid out in the Scriptures.

4. The Wrap-up Activity

At the end of the reflection lesson, we had one more object lesson to share with them to illustrate God’s will.

Object Lesson Summary: I put two bowls on the table, one with water and one without. I chose one youth, and showed him three utensils: a cup, a spoon, and a fork. I told him I wanted him to move the water from one bowl to the other. He could choose which utensil to use. He first chose the spoon, but I said, “Oh, actually, I need to use the spoon for something else, I forgot.” And I put it to the side. Then he chose the cup, but I said, “Sorry, I just remembered I actually need the cup for another thing.” So he took the fork. It was a little amusing to see him basically try to move water with a fork – a few drops of water make it from one bowl to another each try. After a few tries, I stopped him and moved on to the “point”.

What you need: Two bowls, one with water in it. One fork, one cup, one spoon.

The point: God made us all so different. Some of us are spoons, some of us are cups, and some of us are forks. Forks might be great for eating meat, or spaghetti. But we’re not all designed with the same purpose in mind. And forks just aren’t made for moving water! So, yes, we looked at tough questions today about God’s will. But there are also really easy, simple ways to understand God’s will too – just look at who you are! How did God design you? What passions and interests and skills did He give you? He made you just the way you are to be able to perform His purpose in your life. So don’t be scared to follow Him!

5. Wrap-up and Prayer

Coming back to the point of the “Icebreaker” game, we explained that God has His will, but we also have our own will. Ice is like our own will. It seems solid, like we have rock-solid plans for our life. But very easily, with a bit of friction and heat, what seemed like solid plans melt into water and then evaporate. Meanwhile, God’s will spans generations, centuries, and millennia. His plans, we can’t even see them sometimes, but His will is perfect, because it is part of the story of the whole world and all time. So we need to trust that He is working all things together for His good.

We got one of the youth then to close in prayer.