Who's Your Banker?

"Your faith is only as good as the object in which you deposit it." - Pastor Mike

We talked to the kids tonight about faith and read from Acts 19:11-16. We discussed how it wasn't really Paul's handkerchiefs and aprons that healed the sick and demon-possessed, but God, and more importantly, faith in God. We talked about how the Jews who tried to drive out evil spirits in Jesus' name failed because they were merely using the name of Jesus and did not really believe in Him as the Son of God who could do what they were seeking.

We did a few faith exercises then. We filled a glass most of the way with water and put a piece of cardboard over the rim and turned it upside down. The cardboard seemed to hold the water in the glass (the air really). We asked the kids then to come and stand under the glass if they had enough faith that the cardboard would hold and they would not get wet. Then we asked one of the kids to stand under the glass while I poured its water from the glass into a cup...right over the head! This required faith as well, but faith in me and my ability to keep a steady hand, not faith in the proven laws of science. This was definitely more difficult. Of course I made sure that they knew that I drank too much caffeine for dinner and so my hands were a bit shaky!

Next, we showed two of the youth a 2x4 piece of wood. One at a time, and not in front of each other, we blindfolded them and asked them to walk across the wood while it was on the floor. No problem. We then placed the two ends of the wood on books to make it seem as though it was off the floor. We told the child about to cross the wood that it was about 6" from the floor and being held on each end by two other youth. Walking across the wood this time was a little harder. We gave them a hand to hold onto so they wouldn't be too scared of course. Lastly, we told the youth that they were going to cross the wood again, but this time, their friends would be holding it at about waist level, several feet off the floor! They weren't really, but the blindfolded child didn't know that. A few small shakes of the wood as they crossed it was enough to make them doubt their stability and lose faith in their balance and their friends' support!

We talked to the kids then about the application of our two demonstrations. What was their faith in when they stood under the glass of water held by the cardboard? What was their faith in when I was pouring the water just over their heads? And what about while they were walking across the wooden plank, and believing each time that it was at different heights? How did they feel....anxious, nervous, scared?

We talked then about the different things people tend to put their faith into. We talked about jobs, reputations, money, success, good grades, popularity, friends, actors and actresses, even family members. We discussed whether or not any of those people and/or things could truly give them peace of mind and security in a crisis. We asked the kids to get real and personal then and talk about who or what they put their faith in. We talked about what it means to say that your faith is only as good as the object in which you deposit it. We used the example of the two airplane passengers on a plane crashing into the Pacific Ocean. One chose the flotation device under his seat cushion to cling to on the way down. The other chose to hold onto his briefcase full of gold bars. What good was the faith of each of the men based on what they chose to cling to?

We then showed the kids a clip from the movie The Bucket List, in which two men are dying and on an adventure to do the things they've always dreamed of doing before they die. One of the men, Morgan Freeman, has faith in His God who created him and is at peace that He also appointed for him a time to die. Jack Nicholson, on the other hand, believes that we're here today and gone tomorrow and that's all there is to life. It was a great visual for the kids to see the two completely different views of two men in similar circumstances.

We ended our discussion with Hebrews 11:1-40, discussing some of the heroes of faith in Scripture and the choices they made to put their faith into a God they had never even seen before. Moses' parents didn't trust the basket they put Moses into on the river to protect their baby and keep him alive. They trusted God. Noah didn't put his faith in the ark he and his sons had built to save him from the flood. He trusted God. When asked to sacrifice his only son, Abraham put his faith in a God he knew could bring people back from the dead if He chose to...or provide a sacrifice to take his son's place. He trusted God. Moses, when he grew up, didn't place the faith for his future in the fact that he was raised by Pharaoh's daughter. He trusted God and placed his faith in being counted among God's chosen people. The Israelites did not put their faith in Moses and his staff to keep the Red Sea parted while they passed on dry ground. Their faith was in their God.

Similarly, we choose every single day who or what we are going to put our faith in...and it will only be as good as the object in which we deposit it. And "no one is good - except God alone." (Mark 10:18)

We've Got the Power!!!

Acts 1:8 - "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

We talked tonight about the power of God that is imparted to us when we receive the Holy Spirit....the power to love people, to obey God, to be joyful in all of our circumstances, to forgive others. As Christians, we have this power, yet we so often fail to use it. Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:15-18 for us to know and understand exactly who we are in Christ so that we realize our power through the Holy Spirit and use it! We also looked at Ephesians 1:19-23.

We talked about the things that usurp our power and dull us.....sin, Satan, and a lack of understanding of who Jesus is. We showed the kids a ping pong ball then and asked them if they thought it had the power to stay up in the air by itself. Of course it didn't, as we demonstrated for them. Then we showed them what happens when we add the power of a hair dryer to the ping pong ball. As they watched the ball levitate, we talked about how, with the Holy Spirit living inside of us, we have the power to do amazing things too, like the ones we talked about at the beginning of class.

Then we tried to slip a toilet paper tube over the floating ping pong ball and watched as the ball fell to the floor. We asked the kids what things in their lives are examples of what dulls their Christ-given power. We talked about all kinds of temptations and sins they are ensnared by on a daily basis and how best to avoid those things and stay "plugged in" to their main power source.