Don't Step on the LEGOs
Did you know there is a scientific reason for why it hurts so much to step on LEGOs? According to one report:
As it turns out, a LEGO won’t squish under your foot unless you weigh 953 pounds. Each brick can take 4,240 Newtons of force.
And it doesn’t help that the bottom of your foot is one of the most sensitive areas on your body. Your feet have up to 200,000 exteroceptors, or nerves, that connect directly to your brain.
Careful stepping, America!
In an effort to illustrate allowing the light of the Lord to guide your path you can lead students to "feel" how it is to to walk in the light of the Lord vs.walking in darkness.
Ask for a volunteer (make it clear their participation may not be totally comfortable!). Then have them blindfolded.
PART 1:
Scatter a bunch of LEGO bricks in their path. Have them take off their shoes and socks, and then have them slowly walk toward you (over the path of the scattered LEGOs).
As they walk on the LEGO bricks they will begin to "feel" the pain of walking in the darkness. No doubt, the other kids will begin to giggle, watching their freind walk through this minefield of LEGOs!.
PART 2:
Now have them take off their blindfold and walk back toward you. They will "feel" how much more comfortable it is to walk that same path when they can see how to avoid those pesky LEGO bricks.
Take the students to Psalm 119:105. Expalin that the Lord wants to guide our paths through the light of His Word. Explain how the LEGO bricks illustrate various temptations in our lives. Giving in to these tempations can result in really painful or harmful consequences. Ask for some examples of bad experiences with sin and giving into temptation. Examples: Getting caught for cheating at school, and thus receiving a bad grade; trying drugs and having a bad reaction or getting addicted; stealing and having to go to jail; lying, and thus people not trusting you anymore.
Living with the consequences of giving in to temptation can lead to a really sad and painful life. By asking the Lord to guide our paths, we are able to avoid these painful temptations.
BONUS ILLUSTRATION for this verse can also include a slight variation of this exercise:
Have all the kids take off their shoes and socks and walk around on the LEGO bricks. Then explain that, over time, their feet would begin to toughen up and get used to the feel of the bricks, so they won't hurt so much.
When it comes to temptation and sin, this can be very dangerous. We may get numb to our sin, and no longer respond to the conviction of God's Word.
Ask the Lord to guide your path in life ("And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one," Matthew 6:13, NIV). Use the light of God's Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit to guide your decisions in life. Live in the light and not the darkness.
"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 199:105, ESV).
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7, ESV).
"For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!
For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them" (Ephesians 5:8-11, NLT).
Our Promises vs. God's Promises
Several years ago, I was a youth minister at a church in Kentucky. I was only on staff at that church about a year and a half, but I learned a ton about ministry and people during that short time. One of the things that I learned was to over communicate everything and make sure you understand what people mean by their promises.
Our youth group was growing. I think one of the best things we did with the youth was encourage them to memorize Scripture. One of the ways we encouraged them was through group incentives. When they memorized so many verses as a group, they could pick which incentive they earned. So they earned things like lock-ins, pizza parties, and one time, they earned a trip to an amusement park.
In fact, a parent of one of the youth offered to pay for the trip to the amusement park for all the youth. And my wife and I were like, “That’s awesome! That’s so generous of you! Thank you so much!” So we got all the youth excited about memorizing Scripture, and they were bringing their friends to church, and we had a huge group of kids that were ready to go to the amusement park!
But then when it came time to go, and we told the parent how many tickets to buy, she was shocked. I guess she didn’t realize how many youth and their friends had been coming to youth group on Wednesday nights, and she clarified that she meant that she only wanted to pay for the youth who have been coming regularly on Sunday mornings. I mean, that was still generous of her, but at that point we had to figure out how we were going to pay for the other half of the youth to go, because we had promised them all a free trip to the amusement park!
I learned from that incident to over-communicate. When we thought we could count on a huge, generous promise, when it was clarified, it wasn’t nearly as good as we had thought.
Now, that tends to happen with people. We make big promises, but sometimes we have to apologize and clarify what we meant by our promises.
But here’s the thing, God never needs to apologize. And when He clarifies His promises, they always get better rather than worse. So we can put all our hope in His promises, knowing that His promise will not disappoint.
In Genesis 3:15, God first promised that the "offspring of the woman" would bruise the head of the serpent. In Genesis 12:1-7, we learn that the offspring of Abraham would bless the whole world. And in Galatians 3:16, we learn that this "offspring" is Jesus. As per God's modus operandi, the promise just got better and better!
Elisha's Jars of Oil
2 Kings 4:1-7
1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.
4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.
6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”
But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.
7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
Preaching on this Scripture, I made a jar of water that I poured till water stopped running. I sat down and 2 minutes later I grabbed the empty jar and poured again, up to 8 times!
Find a jar that is not see thru, drill a hole near the top for air, like a gas can, then insert a water bottle with a hole drilled in the bottom side. I used hot glue to glue bottle inside jar. Then as you fill water bottle the water will flow out of bottom side hole into the jar and as you pour the water in the bottle will drain out. Then, when you set it down for at least 30 seconds, it will refill from the water in the jar so you can pour again while you preach.