You Are What You Eat

Jeremiah 15:16 - When Your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear Your name, Lord God Almighty.

Psalm 34:8 - Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.

Tonight we talked with the kids about junk food vs. soul food.  We started with a silly skit where I told them I had to take care of something, left the room, and then came back dressed as a housekeeper and with a vacuum.  I pretended to clean the classroom and acted surprised that anyone was in it.  After wiping down a few counters, I pulled out my vacuum and began using it on the floor.  One problem though....I never plugged it in.  I remarked about how I needed a new vacuum cleaner until the kids pointed out my error and proceeded to show me how a vacuum works when it is plugged into an electrical outlet.  To my pretend amazement, the vacuum now sucked up all of the paper scraps that I had placed on the floor before class started.

After finishing my "cleaning" lesson, I exited the room and then came back in as myself, oblivious of course as to what had happened while I was gone. ;)  We told the kids we had a treat for them then and gave them each a small plate with baby food samples on it.  We had carrots, applesauce, ham, and peaches.  We asked the kids to use the tip of their fingers dipped into each one to taste it and see if they could tell what food it was.  This took some faith on their part!  Looks can be deceiving!  Afterwards, we discussed what they had to do to eat that baby food.  Did they have to chew?  Did they need a spoon or fork?  Did you need teeth to eat this food?  Did the food need to be cut up before they could eat it?  Did it require cooking beforehand?  Baby food is probably the simplest food to eat and digest...and for a good reason.  It's meant for babies!

Next, we gave the kids another plate, but this time with a real carrot, apple slice, peach slice, and piece of ham on it.  We gave the kids permission to eat them as well.  Again, we followed up with some questions.  Did they have to chew?  Did they need a spoon or fork?  Did the food need to be cut up before they could eat it?  Did you need teeth to eat this food?  Did it require cooking beforehand?  While what we gave the kids to eat, they could do so with their hands and it did not require cooking first, most foods do.  This food is also more difficult for us to digest.  Why?  Because this food is meant for more mature people!

As new Christians becoming mature in our faith, we need to feed more and more on God's Word and grow up spiritually speaking.

Tying back into the vacuum cleaner, we discussed with the kids about how, in order for us to grow, mature, "work" right, we need sustenance, food, energy.  Just like the vacuum cleaner needed electricity to work, we need the Holy Spirit in our lives and to feed ourselves daily with God's Word.  It sustains us, gives us energy, empowers us, helps us to "work" right.

We then talked about additives and preservatives.  Additives are added to food to make them prettier, sweeter, tastier, change their texture, etc...  They are also harmful when too much of them are eaten.  Natural foods like fruits and vegetables and grain-fed meats are more nutritious for us than candy bars, potato chips, and soda.  

Preservatives are added into foods to make them last longer and look better no matter their age.  They, like additives though, are very unhealthy for us if we eat too much of them.

We talked about how we would feel if we only ever ate foods infused with additives and preservatives and we never ate natural ingredient foods.  We would feel sluggish, run-down, tired, lazy, overweight, "blah".  Well, that's exactly how we feel if we rely on only Christian radio, going to church and youth group, and watching TV (even the wholesome shows) to feed us spiritually.  They are full of way too many additives and preservatives.  God's Word is all-natural, all-powerful, life-giving...nothing added!

Like babies who crave and cry for milk from their mom's when they are born, we should crave and seek nutritious food from God through reading and studying His Word everyday.

We ended by bringing our vacuum cleaner back into the room.  We opened it up and pulled out the pieces of paper it had sucked up when I used it earlier in the lesson.  Written on the pieces of paper were Scriptures and Scripture references.  In the end, what we put in, is what we put out.  Input = output.  If we put junk in, only junk will come out and be evident in our lives.  But if we put God's Word into our daily diet, the evidence will be overwhelming in what is exhibited in our lives.....love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, grace, mercy, etc...

Now that's a diet we should all WANT to be on!!

Hope

Hebrews 6:19 - We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

Merriam-Webster defines hope as to want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true.

The NIV Bible speaks of hope 174 times, 94 times in the Old Testament and 80 times in the New Testament. 

We talked about hope tonight and went around the room asking each of the youth to complete the sentence, "I hope __________________________."

Next, we talked about some examples of people in the Bible and what they hoped for.

• Abraham and Sarah hoped for a child of their own.
• Esther hoped that the King would see her and hear her when she approached him.  And that he would stop Naaman's evil plan to destroy all of the Jews.
• Daniel hoped that God would be glorified and rescue him while in the lions' den.
• Joseph and Mary hoped they would find a place to stay for the night.
• Martha hoped Jesus would tell her sister Mary to help her with the cooking and preparing for dinner.
• The woman who had been bleeding for twelve years hoped that she would be healed simply by touching Jesus' robes.

We could have gone on with examples of hope from the Bible all night!  But they got the picture!

Next, we showed the kids a clip from The Lorax.  The clip is where the Once-ler gives Ted the last remaining truffula tree seed as the only hope of bringing back the extinct trees to Thneed-Ville.  Then we watched a few clips later where Ted tries to convince the people of Thneed-Ville to plant the seed in the center of town as their last hope for going back to the way life was before bottled air and artificial trees.

We talked then about our hope as Christians.  We have hope in every promise found in Scripture....that God is a promise-keeper.  Our ultimate hope is in our eternal security and salvation because of what Jesus did on the cross for us when He took our sins upon Himself and died and then was raised back to life three days later.

Psalm 39:7 - "And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?  My only hope is in you."

There is no greater hope!  The kids made their own anchors tonight from cardboard and aluminum foil to remind them of this hope that is an anchor for their souls, firm and secure.

We ended with the music video "In Christ Alone" by Philips, Craig, and Dean.

God's Design in Trials

1 Peter 1:6-9 - 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Trials...we all face them, but it's how we handle them that sets us apart.  We talked tonight about how God uses trials in our lives is very similar to refining gold.  When gold is mined from the ground and rocks, it is full of impurities.  It needs to be melted down into a liquid state in order to be made pure.  The dross, or debris in the gold, rises to the surface and then can be skimmed off...leaving nothing but pure gold behind.  

Similarly, we have a lot of impurities in us.  We have attitudes.  We are selfish and proud and jealous and just plain ugly sometimes.  God often has to put us in the fire to get rid of those bad character qualities!  Our fire comes through difficult circumstances....trials.  Maybe that looks like an illness or a sick parent.  Maybe it is trouble at school, money problems for our family, a hurricane wipes out our house...who knows?!  

One thing is for sure.  When life's trials come our way, Satan tries to use them to bring out the worst in us.  But God allows them to come our way to bring out the best in us.  Satan hopes we will become uglier when difficult things come our way.  He wants us to throw temper tantrums and scream at God and have bad attitudes to those around us.  God wants us to trust Him more, to make us persevere, grow our patience, test our faith in Him.  And if we pass God's test, the reward is that we are more like Jesus than we were before God tested us.

We used popcorn and Ted Kennedy as our object lessons tonight.  Ted was an athletic kid, who looked forward to playing football in high school.  When he was 12, Ted had a pain in his leg that would not go away, so his mom took him to the doctor.  It turns out, Ted had bone cancer.  He had to have his leg amputated to save his life.

• We held up a popcorn kernel.

At that point in his life, Ted felt hard and utterly useless—like our kernel. But the surgery, his recovery, and the attitude of faith he had to develop to keep going did something to him.

• We added popcorn kernals to our hot-air popper and turned it on.  

When God wants us to become better people, more like Jesus, sometimes He will allow hardships or “heat” to accomplish His purposes.

Ted gave up football, but he started to walk on his artificial leg, and he started to ski on just one leg.  Then he started to water ski.  Eventually he tried snow boarding.  Ted’s dad was a famous senator, Edward Kennedy.  They went skiing in Colorado just months after Ted’s amputation, so the newspaper people all followed along and took pictures.  One reporter asked, “Don’t you help him with his skis, Senator?”  Senator Kennedy replied, “No, he usually helps me get mine on.”

Ted would never have chosen to lose his leg.  Obviously his pain and suffering is not the type of thing anyone looks forward to.  But because of it, he sort of “turned inside out” like the popcorn soon will in the hot-air popper.  And in just a few years, Ted was indeed a changed person because of his circumstances.

Ted may have gone on to play football in college.  Instead, he went on to try Xtreme sports with a prosthetic leg and not let anything stop him from trying the things he wanted to.  He gained national attention when he grew up because he became a lawyer and one of the nation’s foremost supporters for people
with disabilities.  He became a great encourager to other teenagers who had been diagnosed with cancer.

• Pop corn started popping.

Ted was turned inside out.  Now, we don't know whether or not Ted was a Christian.  Only God knows that.  But in John 12:2, Jesus said, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.”  And it’s like these popcorn kernels.  If they get heated enough, they will “pop” and grow into something better just like we will if we rely on Jesus to help us grow as people through difficult circumstances.  And it takes 356 degrees Fahrenheit for popcorn kernels to begin popping!  That's some serious heat!

So the next time we feel some heat, the next time we’re sick or we get bad news or something goes terribly wrong in our lives, we can look at it as, “God will use this situation to make me pop...to make me more like Jesus.”

Romans 8:28 says, “All things work together for the good of those who believe.”  Sickness, bad news, terrible circumstances – all of it will transform us from the inside out.

Indeed, what we see as a burden can be made into a bridge for our progress if we will allow it.  Just check out these ants!