Materials

• 2 clear glasses
• 1 blindfold
• salt, pepper, lemon juice, hot sauce, diced onions, food coloring, coke, prune juice, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, milk, soy sauce, BBQ sauce and anything else you can find to make he most disgusting concoction you can think of. Also have some sweet additions like honey, candy sprinkles, chocolate syrup, or sugar and some bottled water.

Scripture: Ephesians 2:8-10; 1 Corinthians 10:13, Romans 6:23, Matthew 5:6, Psalm 34:8

Description
Good works doesn’t get you into heaven. But good works are our response to salvation by faith. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works. You can use this as an object lesson or as a children’s sermon!

What to do

1. As the youth watch, mix the most disgusting concoction of ingredients you can (minus the sweet ingredients)
2. Ask if anyone wants to volunteer to drink the mixture. (You might have someone willing, if so, just tell them you don’t want to be responsible for them getting sick!)
3. Now add some of the “good” things to the mixture.
4. Ask, “Does adding the good things remove the bad things?” (Of course not, it might dilute them or make them a little less disgusting, but they are still there.) Sin is disgusting to God. Even though we can make excuses for ourselves, or do good things to try to make up for them, nothing we can do will ever remove the sin in our lives. Scripture says we are without excuse.
5. Sin is similar to a very deadly poison. Scripture tells us, even the smallest amount, leads to death. Some people believe that if we do enough good it will take away the bad things we do.
6. Ask, “Do you want to drink this mixture now that we added good things?” (No.)
7. We cannot do good things to take away the sin. ONLY trust in Jesus can take away our sin. We must believe and have faith in Christ. When we put our life into his hands, through belief, he cleanses us from all sin and unrighteousness.
8. Pour clean, fresh water into the second glass and explain that when we ask Jesus, he gives us what the Bible calls living water.
9. So faith in Christ is the anecdote to the sin that poisons our life and poisons our relationship with God. But what is faith?
10. Set both glasses in front of the youth and ask for a volunteer that trusts you. Explain, that you are going to blindfold the volunteer and give them a drink. Do they have enough faith in you that you will give them the glass of water rather than the glass with the disgusting contents?
11. Blindfold the volunteer. Hand him or her the cup of water. Ask if they really, really trust you. Encourage them to take a drink.
12. As you remove the blindfold, explain that God says those who are thirsty for righteousness will be happy (Matt 5:6). In this experiment, it didn’t matter how much faith they had in you as long as they were willing to act on that faith, to place their trust in you. What really mattered, is how faithful you were to them. The same is true for our faith in Christ. With whatever faith you have, give your life into his hands, and because he is eternally faithful, he will take care of you!

Finish by reading Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is Good!”

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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