You Can't Outgive God!

Tonight we talked about giving....or tithing, and what that means.  

First, we had the kids watch the French Fry Tax...a cute video explaining what tithes are and why it is important to give them.

Next, we discussed what things could be tithed or given back to serving God and for His glory.

• Our Time (missions trip, outreach events, helping someone in need with cleaning, driving someone to the store, visiting an elderly person, etc...)
• Our Talents (organizing or cleaning for someone, cooking someone a meal, babysitting, singing at a nursing home, etc...)
• Our Possessions (lending someone our car, giving some groceries to someone who needs them, passing along our gently used clothes to people who need them, donating our old eyeglasses to people who need them, etc...)
• Our Money (tithing, helping support a missionary, sponsoring a child, etc...)

Then we re-enacted the widow's offering from Mark 12:41-44, using a small tin pail and some change.  The noise that was made by dropping in a handful of coins was impressive compared to the noise made by dropping in two pennies, but God was more impressed with the widow's measly offering because she gave all that she had out of her poverty, whereas the others were giving some of what they had out of their wealth.

Using the same tin pail, we then demonstrated the truths found in this YouTube that teaches Proverbs 11:24 with a very powerful video object lesson.

To further drive home the point that you can't outgive God...but instead, when you are faithful to give back to Him what He already deserves of yours, He will bless you abundantly beyond what you could have ever imagined...I turned a $1 bill into a $20 bill.  Yep, I attempted magic, something I have long wanted to learn and incorporate into my science experiments and object lessons.  Let's just say I spent a long time at my computer watching, pausing, rewinding, and re-watching YouTubes on magic!  And then I practiced...a lot!  And while I am no Penn r Teller, I think the kids were quite impressed with my ability to pull the trick off.  I left more than a few of them scratching their heads wondering how I did it.  I'll never tell!  ;)

We gave the kids one more example of how, when we give to God, He will always bless us more than what our tithes, be they of our time, talents, possessions, or money could ever bless Him or others.  Sometimes we worry that, if we give what we have, we won't have enough for our needs, our necessities.  But God promises that, if we are faithful in this area of our Christian walk, He will provide for us all of our needs, even the ones we didn't know we had!  Here is the link to the way we demonstrated this for the kids.

Lastly, we asked the kids to put their money where their mouth is.  To challenge the kids to give sacrificially of themselves and in a very practical way, we introduced them to the eBay Offering Challenge. We asked each of the kids to bring in something of value (monetarily and of value to themselves personally) that they would consider a sacrifice to part with. It could be an electronic device, a collection, a doll, a video game, a collectible, ...whatever. We are then going to eBay each of these items and give the money as our gift to the TPCC food pantry.

It'll be interesting to see what the kids bring in for this challenge! We challenged them to try and outgive each other, but reminded them that they can NEVER outgive God!

God Opposes the Proud

1 Peter 5:5b-6 - All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

We started tonight by playing a game called "I am".  We went around the room and let each youth state something they are and are not good at, each statement beginning with, "I am".  Interestingly enough, for most of the kids, it was easier to state something they are good at than something they are not good at.

Then we played another game.  We divided the kids into two teams.  Each team had a bucket of water, a sample bar of soap, and a towel.  Kids on each team took turns going to the bucket and using the soap to wash their hands.  Then they dried their hands on the towel and went to the end of the line.  This relay went on for 5 minutes.  The team with the smallest bar of soap at the end of the relay won.

We also watched a clip from the movie Battleship where soccer player Alex Hopper insists on kicking the free kick that could send the game into overtime even though he is dazed and injured after being kicked in the face by a player on the opposing team.  We talked about where Alex went wrong in this scene and what negative character quality he displayed.

We told the kids then that tonight's lesson was all about pride.  We started with the definition of pride...a high opinion of oneself...looks, deeds, accomplishments, social status, possessions, etc...  We talked about how it's ok to be proud of yourself for a job well-done...winning a talent competition or sports event, getting good grades, etc...  

But their is a point when pride in ourselves can harden our hearts towards God.  We think so much of ourselves, that everything else around us looks so small, including God.  To demonstrate this, we gave the kids a magnifying glass and gave them each the opportunity to look through the wrong side of it at objects that now appeared super small compared to their original sizes.  This is the way we see things and others around us when we are filled with too much pride.  Pride is taking the glory that belongs to God alone and keeping it for ourselves.

So what does God think about pride?  Why is it that big of a deal?  

• When King Nebuchadnezzar took the credit for how great a city Babylon had become and became prideful, he was stripped of his status as King and spent the next seven years of his life eating grass in a field with his hair growing long all over him and his nails growing as long as a bird's claws.  He was insane.
• In Esther, Haman became angry when Mordecai wouldn't bow down to him because he thought he was all that.  Haman ended up hung on the very gallows he built to hang Mordecai on.

In reality, there are so many stories of pride and Scriptures relating to the topic that we could have talked all night about them!

The opposite of pride is humility.  It is a modest or low view of oneself.  Jesus demonstrated humility when he lowered Himself to that of a servant and took on the task of washing His disciples' feet in John 13.  Hence, our hand-washing, soap-shrinking game ;)!

We ended our lesson on pride talking about its consequences.  We demonstrated this by blowing soap bubbles.  The bubbles are filled with pride, making them rise to the top in their thoughts about themselves.  Eventually though, what comes up, must come down.  The loftier we think of ourselves, the lower God will humble us to regain the glory we have unrightfully stolen from Him.  After all, anything we are or have accomplished is all because of God anyway.  He created us and blesses us.  We cannot take the credit for any of it.

We demonstrated this with vinegar in the bottom of a 16 oz. water bottle as well.  We put a balloon with baking soda over the top of the water bottle's mouth.  When the baking soda made contact with the vinegar in the bottom of the bottle, the reaction between the two caused the balloon to blow up, seemingly by itself.  After a few minutes though, the balloon deflated back to its original size.

Pride can be a tough concept for kids, as the majority of them believe the world revolves around them and their existence.  But prayerfully, after tonight, they will look at pride...and themselves...a little differently.