Introduction
It’s not the clothes we wear, the house we live in, the cars we drive, or names and titles people give us that determine our identity or our value as a person. It’s what’s inside us that counts.

Description
We often identify things by labels. But are labels the best method for identification? Youth / children will learn that labels are not always correct.

Materials
Three similar sized canned food items but with different contents. Preferably, use two that youth or children would enjoy and another that they may not appreciate much (i.e. something like canned peaches, applesauce and dog food)

Preparation
Carefully remove the labels from the cans and swap the labels and glue them on. Trim the labels to fit if needed.

Demonstration
I brought something today I think you will enjoy – Do you like peaches? I love peaches! Is there anyone here who doesn’t like peaches? What happens if I don’t like peaches? Maybe I like applesauce instead. Take the applesauce label and put it onto the same can. Great! Now I can have applesauce. Anyone want some applesauce with me? What? You mean we can’t just change the label? Why not? It says applesauce. Oh, well… let’s have some peaches then…. anyone want some peaches. Open the can of dogfood. Oops… this is not peaches. This is dogfood…. Looks like sometimes labels can be wrong.

Discussion
It doesn’t matter what label we put on the can. It doesn’t change what is inside. It’s not the label that’s important, but what’s inside that counts.

Sometimes we think that if we wear certain clothes, live is a certain kind of house or go to school in a certain type of car that will change us into something that others like more. But its not the things on the outside that count.

Sometimes someone might label us as stupid, as a nerd, a loser or some other name. But those names don’t change our identity. We are still the same person on the inside.

I can use the can as a hammer, or a football, or as a paperweight. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is a can that was created with something unique inside.

In fact, to God, everyone of us is special. Everyone of us is beautiful. He loves everyone of us! It’s what’s in your heart that counts.

Closing Applications

• Do you call others names, give them labels? Do you judge others by what is on the outside or do you look at who they really are?
• Do you try to impress others with the clothes you wear, by the things you say, with the things you own? Instead of trying to impress others with things that are on the outside, why not impress them with what you are on the inside…. by being loving, kind, caring.
• A peach is a fruit, but for us as Christians, God identifies us by different fruits that we have in our heart…. these are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. Make a commitment to bless others this week with one of these fruits of the spirit.

Scripture Reference

• “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7)
• Galatians 5:22 (Fruits of the Spirit)

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
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Description
Use this Easter object lesson, to talk about death and the resurrection in simple terms.

Materials
Rubber Glove

Preparation
None

Demonstration

1. Put on the glove.
2. Demonstrate the incredible things that can be done by a “glove”. It can pick something up. It can squeeze a toy. It can scratch your head. Make a fist. Point a finger at someone. Wave a finger in warning. Cover your mouth. squeeze your nose. Tap on a desk. And do so many other things. Make sure that you explain through out that the “glove” is an incredible creation.
3. Take your hand out of the glove and then ask it to do the same things you just demonstrated. Look a little puzzled and confused when nothing happens. What’s the problem?

Discussion
The reality is, it is not the “glove” that does these things, but the hand inside. The glove is only a container for the hand. Without the hand the glove is lifeless. God created us also with two parts. There is a body and a spirit. The body is just the container. Your body has to have a spirit inside, or it wouldn’t be alive and able to interact with the physical world around us. When we die, the the spirit leaves the body and the body becomes lifeless. The person that was inside the body still exists, but they are now someplace else. But for Christians, God can put the body and the spirit back together again. That’s exactly what happened on Easter morning. Christ’s spirit was back in his body again. The most exciting thing is that God wants to do the same thing for us. When someone dies their body and the spirit are separated for a time. But some day God will raise us back up in a new body.

Closing Application
Just as Christ raised Christ from the dead and placed him in a resurrected body, God will one day raise us from the dead into a resurrected body to be with him forever.

Variation
Use two different gloves… an old, dirty, worn one and a nice new one. Replace the old glove with the new one explaining that in the resurrection we will have a new resurrected body that will last forever!

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
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A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose. Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word. The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl.

He pulled the eggs out and placed them a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her he asked. “Darling, what do you see?” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied. He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. She humbly asked. “What does it mean Father?”

He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. “Which are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

How about you? Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and adversity do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength? Are you the egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? Were you a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a divorce, or a layoff have you become hardened and stiff. Your shell looks the same, but are you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and heart? Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the thing that is bringing the pain, to its peak flavor as it reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When the water gets the hottest, it just tastes better. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and make things better around you.

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.
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Materials
Obtain a ball of string or yarn.

Description
In this creative learning activity, the string or yarn serves as an object lesson illustrating the relationships and friendships we have with each other.

Activity

1. Sit the group on the floor in a circle.
2. Holding firmly to the string, toss it to a person in the circle.
3. The person receiving the string must name a quality (of the person who tossed it to him/her) that makes them a good friend.
4. The person receiving the string, holds firmly onto the string and tosses the ball on to another person. The string should be held above the ground.
5. Continue until everyone has received the string at least once and said at least one quality of a friend that the person who tosses it to them possesses.
6. You will have a spiderweb representing our relationships.

Discussion
What makes a friend is the connections we make, the events and experiences we share, the discussions we share. Eventually, if we fail to share with each other or if we do things that “break” the relationship the friendship begins to fall apart.

• “What do you do to be a friend and to have friends?”
• What kinds of relationships do we make?
• Using a poster board or whiteboard, make a list of the qualities your group mentions.

Application
This list will probably include: time spent together; listening to each other’s problems, sharing joys and sorrows, and sticking together no matter what happens. Most things we include on “how to be a friend” can be an essential part of a developing relationship with Jesus Christ. He’s not just a band-aid for the rough times, but wants to be with us always.

For a variation of this activity see “Hold All Things Together”

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.
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Description
Use an etch-a-sketch as an object lesson or children’s sermon to teach youth or children about things that are temporary or about forgiveness.

Object
Etch A Sketch (http://www.etch-a-sketch.com)
or Magic Slate (wax and plastic sheet tablet that is a low tech version of the etch-a-sketch)

The Lesson

1. Draw a few simple pictures on an etch a sketch (or Magic Slate)
2. Demonstrate how an etch-a-sketch works by turning the knobs.
3. Explain the difficulty of getting the lines and drawing accurate to create a picture – its not easy!
4. In fact, most of the time you will make mistakes.
5. But the nice things about an etch-a-sketch is that all it takes is to turn it over and shake it a bit and you can start over with a clean slate.

Application

• Life is not easy. Traveling the straight and narrow way is very difficult. Things often do not turn out as we intended. We make lots of mistakes. Sometimes we get frustrated and want to give up.
• Fortunately, when we make such mistakes, God can erase them and give us a clean slate. All we need to do is recognize we have messed up (sinned) and confess it to God and ask for his forgiveness.
• Sometimes God has to shake up our lives and turn them upside down a little bit before we realize we need a fresh start.
• As we grow and mature in Christ, we make fewer mistakes and our lives begin to conform to the image of Christ.
• Actually, the key to the successful Christian life, is not to control its direction ourselves, but to let God take control and create the life that he has planned for each us.

Scripture
Colossians 2:14, Colossians 3:8-10

Variation
Show some photos of what the experts can do with an etch-a-sketch. Some examples can be found at:
http://www.gvetchedintime.com/set.html

A talented artist can spend hours creating his masterpiece on an etch-a-sketch, but all it takes is a little shake-up and everything is gone. Many people spend their lives creating the image of their perfect life and then something comes along and shakes things up and everything is gone (Job 34:20) Jesus tells us the only things that will not pass away are his words. (Matthew 24:25,35)

Copyright Sept 2006 by Ken Sapp

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.
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Description
Use this object lesson / children’s sermon as a lesson on how Jesus doesn’t just cover up our sin, but removes our sin.

Materials

• Lead or tin solder i.e. soft solder WITHOUT a resin core (can be bought from a hardware store)
• Coat hangers
• newsprint (old newspaper classifieds work best) or large sheets of paper
• Broad tip Marker
• red paper

Preparation
Using a typical metal coat hanger as a guide, carefully form one from the solder. The solder will be soft so you must be gentle to avoid distorting the shape prematurely. Add it to your stach of clothes hangers. You may wish to use a variety of clothes hangers just to hide the fact that one is different.

Demonstration

• Take the bunch of coat hangers out of a bag/briefcase and talk about how messy and troublesome they are.
• Explain: They are like sin in that they get tangled and are bulky. Drop a few to get the point across that they really mess things up.
• Ask: “What are some ways that people try to cover or remove their sin?”
• Hand the coat hangers out.
• Give the participants the newsprint and have them cover the coat hangers.
• As the group provides ways we cover sin you label each bundle. You’ll want ideas like: Go to church, Be good, Not hurt people, Prayer, Lie, Pretend it didn’t happen, do something good to make up for it, blame it on someone, give an excuse for it, etc. After you write on the clothes hanger, return it to the participant.
• Take out your “special” coat hanger made from solder, wrap it in red paper like you wrapped the others.
• Explain that the red paper represents Jesus’ atoning blood (older children). Note: The concept of blood sacrifice is difficult for young children to grasp but “Jesus’ forgiveness” is a suitable alternative.
• explain that even though the coat hangers are covered you can still *see* them, they are not gone.
• Have everyone feel their bundle and the coat hangers (sins) are still there.
• Squeeze your bundle up into a little ball….Jesus can make it go away (remove / forgive your sin.)

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.
Learn More…